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No End In Sight For Higher-Education Malinvestment

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Doug French via The Mises Institute,

Those of us leaning in the Austrian direction see bubbles and malinvestments around every corner and assume, wrongly as it turns out, the market will right these wrongs lickety-split. But, for the moment a rational market is no match for cheap money. “Any college that is thinking about capital expansion, now is a very good time,” Robert Murray, an economist at Dodge Data told the Wall Street Journal. “Several years down the road, the climate might not be as good.”

Now being a good time because stock market gains have pumped up endowments, “and low interest rates have created a favorable environment for colleges to build,” writes Constance Mitchell Ford. The campus building boom marches on.

In 2014 colleges and universities commenced construction on $11.4 billion worth of projects, a 13 percent increase from the previous year. It’s the largest dollar value of construction starts since the heady days of 2008.

Ms. Ford’s piece highlights a $2 billion project at Cornell and sixteen new buildings at Columbia worth $6 billion. But here in Auburn, Alabama the campus has been a construction zone since 2008 when I arrived. Multiple new dorms, a basketball arena, a fancy student center, and various new classroom buildings have been constructed at a time when funding from the state has been cut back. What’s now underway is the largest scoreboard in college football, with a plan to expand the stadium next.

Back in the 1985–86 school year, full time tuition at Auburn for a non-resident was $2,585. Thirty years later it is now $28,040. That’s a compounded annual growth rate of 8.27 percent.

According to Bloomberg, college tuition and fees have increased 1,120 percent since records began in 1978, and the rate of increase in college costs has been “four times faster than the increase in the consumer price index.”

Tuiton at state schools is rising even faster says Peter Cappelli, professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He told Becky Quick on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” the cost of an education has risen 50 percent faster at state schools versus private in roughly the last decade.

Cappelli said a critical question is whether students will graduate in the first place, noting that only 40 percent of full-time students earn a degree within four years, and 30 million — and perhaps as many as 35 million — young adults do not finish their studies.

Unfinished college is as useful as an unfinished building.

College degrees are similar to what Austrians call higher-order goods. It’s believed a student will gain knowledge and seasoning in college, making him or her more productive and a candidate for a high-paying career. The investment of time and money in knowledge are undertaken for the payoff of higher productivity and a high future income. Higher education is the higher-order means to a successful career.

The assumption is those high-pay jobs, (A) will require a college degree, and (B) they will be plentiful when the student graduates. Borrowing $100,000 to earn a law degree is a malinvestment if the student ends up writing briefs for $15 per hour. A recent graduate of the Charleston School of Law put fliers on cars announcing that he or she had borrowed $200,000 to attend school and is now working at Walmart for $35,000 a year.

A post on the “Above The Law” blog revealed, “As of the 2013–2014 academic year, the total cost of a three-year J.D. degree from Charlotte Law was $123,792.00, while the median loan debt per graduate was $159,208.00. Just 34 percent of the class of 2014 was employed in full-time, long-term jobs where bar passage was required. ...”

“More college graduates are working in second jobs that don’t require college degrees,” writes Hannah Seligson in the New York Times, “part of a phenomenon called ‘mal-employment.’ In short, many baby-sitters, sales clerks, telemarketers and bartenders are overqualified for their jobs.”

Ludwig von Mises wrote in Human Action,

The whole entrepreneurial class is, as it were, in the position of a master builder whose task it is to erect a building out of a limited supply of building materials. If this man overestimates the quantity of the available supply, he drafts a plan for the execution of which the means at his disposal are not sufficient. He oversizes the groundwork and the foundations and only discovers later in the progress of the construction that he lacks the material needed for the completion of the structure. It is obvious that our master builder’s fault was not overinvestment, but an inappropriate employment of the means at his disposal.

As it is now, parents and students still have the belief that college is the way to, if not riches, at least a well-paying career. In a 2011 piece for mises.org with what turned out to be the hasty title of “The Higher-Education Bubble Has Popped” I quoted PayPal founder and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel, who questioned the value of higher education. He told TechCrunch,

A true bubble is when something is overvalued and intensely believed. Education may be the only thing people still believe in in the United States. To question education is really dangerous. It is the absolute taboo. It’s like telling the world there’s no Santa Claus.

Like most bubbles this one is being fueled by debt. USA Today reports, 40 million borrowers owe $29,000 each, totaling $1.2 trillion outstanding. Student loan debt is easy to get, but hard to get rid of. It’s hard to pay back without a high salary, nor can it be bankrupted away. “Government either guarantees or owns most of the student loans and has the power to sue and to garnish wages, tax refunds, and federal benefits like Social Security when borrowers default,” Kelley Holland writes.

Defaults are plentiful. In the third quarter of last year, the three-year default rate was roughly 13.7 percent, with the average amount in default per borrower just over $14,000.

These debtors “are postponing marriage, childbearing and home purchases, and ... pretty evidently limiting the percentage of young people who start a business or try to do something entrepreneurial,” says Mitch Daniels, president of Purdue University

I administer funds for a small scholarship for graduating high school seniors in my old home town. This year, for the first time, an applicant wrote that he needed financial help for college because his father, a veterinarian, can’t help his children because he’s struggling to make payments on his own student debt.

The college boom is not just on campus. Student housing developers have been riding the college boom as well. Two years ago in a piece for The Freeman, I wrote about developers cashing in building dorms. These developers have even found Auburn, with its population of only 50,000. A project called 160 Ross has long-time residents in an uproar with its high density. But as much as locals don’t like it, students have snapped up units at $599 a bed.

That rack rate has large student housing developers coming to town and CV Ventures is ready to break ground for a six-story mixed-used project on just one acre featuring 456 beds, stumbling distance from the college bars, with a Waffle House across the street.

Meanwhile, everyday we hear about how online courses being the death knell for brick-and-mortar institutions. For the moment traditional colleges seem safe. “Because traditional campuses offer peer and teacher interaction,” writes Ron Kennedy, “as well as a plethora of other important benefits often sought by traditional, college-aged students, there will remain a need for traditional education.”

More importantly, Kennedy continues, “Research has shown that students who interact face-to-face with their instructors and other students tend to be more academically balanced than their online counterparts. This is one reason why most employers still prefer students who have attended traditional campuses.”

Trees don’t grow to the sky and neither will tuition. However, it’s doubtful young people will suddenly stay home with their parents and work toward degrees taking online classes. Parents who can afford it want to relive their college days vicariously through their kids.

The higher education bubble continues to inflate.

 

 

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Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:10 | 6256304 TeamDepends
TeamDepends's picture

Go to a good school, so you can get a good job raping people.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:11 | 6256307 OC Sure
OC Sure's picture

The fallacy of mal-investment is that the cause of the event is theft and not any investment at all whether it is esteemed as good or bad.

If the introduction of new currency into the economy of productive work is the cause for values, the resources of goods and services, to be removed from their natural place and replaced to somewhere else, then how can this theft be any investment at all?

You go to work in the morning. Your neighbors go to work too and their neighbors' neighbors as well. While your entire neighborhood is away,  a sophisticated group of neighborhood dismantlers come and take all that they can and rebuild a new neighborhood miles away with the value they took from your neighborhood. This new neighborhood is already accounted for and sold to very happy inhabitants. You and your neighbors return from your hard day's day to nothing. What just happened? Theft or investment?

The terms "money printing," "fiat money," "fictitious money," "unbacked money," "easy money," "cheap money," and so on, are contradiction in terms and therefore false. The new currency introduced into the existing pool of currency is not money no matter what adjective is attached to it. The purpose of its  introduction is so that those who do not produce anything of value which meets a voluntary demand can exchange this new currency for the things of value that others do produce. It is an exchange of no value for value. This "spending" of no value for value is theft, not investment. What the thieves then do with their spoils is not the event. The theft is the event.

http://genius.com/Oc-sure-theft-not-malinvestment-annotated

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:13 | 6256314 CaptainAmerika
CaptainAmerika's picture

there has to be an easier way to do online college....where we can do it while we are asleep or something

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:39 | 6256398 AlaricBalth
AlaricBalth's picture

"To question education is dangerous..."
No one is questioning education as a necessity throughout life. To question the mode in which an education is attained should be completely open for discussion. Many of the most educated people I know skipped college or dropped out. To learn is to obtain knowledge. You don't need to see ivory towers out of a classroom window to have a level of "gnosis" which will help guide you on life's journey.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:46 | 6256415 negative rates
negative rates's picture

Education in this country, SUCKS, and now it's been proved, all that is left is to pay the consequences bitches!

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:53 | 6256448 chumbawamba
chumbawamba's picture

It's a matter of questioning these colleges that are simply plantations that farm students for all their worth and then put them out to pasture with a degree.

I am Chumbawamba.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 21:07 | 6256498 boogerbently
boogerbently's picture

"Education".

What they promote.

And WHO promotes it, is ALL a sham.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 23:55 | 6256902 Thomas
Thomas's picture

This plot is a little more nuanced than the comment section is giving it credit. Plenty of guilt to go around but let's look at some of the issues being ignored:

(1) Kids in college are not exactly busting their asses. They are texting and emailing all day. In what used to be demanding freshman science courses the kids don't even take notes.

(2) There are majors that have always been offered but are not lucrative at all. Parents sending their kids off to college with no guidance whatsoever about the role of college--lay the foundation for a lucrative career--are themselves dropping the ball. 

(3) A huge proportion of education costs in private schools is subsidized by wealthy donors. The real cost of the college as it is currently offered is much higher. One third or more of faculty are professors whose salary does not come from tuition. We have buildings donated by founders of huge corporations, bankers, hedge fund managers. One guy dropped over a billion dollars (quietly). Everyone of these dollars is a dollar that does not come from tuition.

(4) The published stats are usually for the retail price tag of a college education. Strong schools collect less than 50 cents on the dollar. The average loans quoted are the average for those who have loans. They do not include those who do not: the $0 values are not being averaged in.

(5) You show me a kid who goes to a good school and works hard at computer science, chemistry, physics, molecular biology, etc etc I will show you a kid who can probably extinguish their loans with a highly satisfying career, easily justifying the cost. If you go off to Jerkwater College and major in chicken choking, you will choke chickens for a living.

Just some thoughts from 35 years of experience in the halls of academia.

 

Wed, 07/01/2015 - 02:28 | 6257139 kareninca
kareninca's picture

"You show me a kid who goes to a good school and works hard at computer science, chemistry, physics, molecular biology, etc etc I will show you a kid who can probably extinguish their loans with a highly satisfying career, easily justifying the cost."

It would be nice if that were true, but it isn't.  You are giving extremely bad advice.  People who worked hard and majored in a real area of science (or computer science) at a good school and can't get a decent job are a dime a dozen.  Also, the "highly satisfying career" path in this country is disappearing before our eyes.

Wed, 07/01/2015 - 02:40 | 6257150 pretty bird
pretty bird's picture

I ain't never been to no college.  And I truly feels that it didn't hurt me none.  I can reads and do my numbers with da best of dem.

Wed, 07/01/2015 - 08:37 | 6257612 iinthesky
iinthesky's picture

I aints been to no college either and i makes me a good ass livin' not on borrowed times nor borrowed monies!

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:56 | 6256454 SafelyGraze
SafelyGraze's picture

instead of "service to america", a more efficient strategy is to analyze the flow of funds for college loans

the loans primarily service the debt colleges incur to build new student unions and cafeterias and fitness centers and hoteldorms

also to pay salaries for the chancellor and the vice chancellor for nutrition and the vice chancellor for development and the vice chancellor for civility and the vice chancellor for community outreach and so forth

also to pay for food and beer and an automobile

so here's the proposition:

1. the federal reserve directly flows money to construction companies for their "shovel-ready" projects on campuses nationwide
2. the federal reserve directly flows money to the chancellors of all the higher-ed entities
3. the federal reserve directly flows money to "students" via an EBT card
4. the "students" spend ages 18-28 in direct servitude to the federal reserve or its designee
5. the "students" select an automobile from a pre-approved list 

sorted!

Wed, 07/01/2015 - 05:54 | 6257294 Canoe Driver
Canoe Driver's picture

Parents aren't exactly sending their kids to college to give them access to high-paying jobs. They read the news too. What parents are trying to do is to give their sons and daughters the same status-level as all or most of the other kids, which parents perceive as their minimum responsibility. Similarly, the perceived advantage of brick-and-mortar institutions over online courses is also status driven. They want it for their kids BECAUSE it costs more.  If all college students were forced to take online courses, and there were suddenly no brick-and-mortar schools, very, very few people would lament the loss of face-to-face interaction with instructors.

If we don't tell the truth about what the problem is, it is well-nigh impossible to solve it.

Thu, 07/02/2015 - 21:50 | 6264638 boogerbently
boogerbently's picture

I'm betting companies consider SCHOOLS better than on-line degrees.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:13 | 6256321 thamnosma
thamnosma's picture

If that concept were fully grasped, the working population would be really pissed.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 22:54 | 6256781 OC Sure
OC Sure's picture

That's what Henry Ford said about it too.

 

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:36 | 6256387 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

Hmmm.

Counterfeiting money is not nice...

Who would have guessed?

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 22:57 | 6256788 OC Sure
OC Sure's picture

But would you have guessed that the fractional reserve thieves are counterfeitng money and that the layman's notion of counterfeit is therefore the counterfeit of counterfeit?

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 21:08 | 6256503 Oknowwhat
Oknowwhat's picture

The schools just like the US prison system is getting their billions from the Federal Reserve.   That is why we have 5+ million people incarcerated and trillions spent on "education" or building new buildings on campus.  Its coming from thin air printed from thin air backed by air.  Many of those educated will spend time in prison under new laws they break.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 21:04 | 6256404 Oknowwhat
Oknowwhat's picture

Went to a state college.  Got a job part time selling nursing home insurance.  When I found out that the pay or commission  was equal to 1 full years premium, regardless of how much the buyer put upfront, I went back to school and quit immediately.  I was 20 years old and made $2600 for 45 minutes of work, and was paid THAT AFTERNOON in one check! 

School was telling me not to do that.  Not to take that "easy job" or way out.  Stay in school to advance your knowledge of trivia so that you can get a "better job" or have something to fall back on for a future employer.

Since that time I have found scams that would blow the insurance industry out of the water.  Like stagging terrorist attacks for never ending global war.  That is a Trillion dolllar a year industry and growing.

Advice......LEAVE SCHOOL IMMEDIATELY.....save the money and time....and start pillaging whatever industry you wish to live.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 21:12 | 6256517 Oknowwhat
Oknowwhat's picture

Bill Cosby did the commencement speach at my university back in the 90's.  Is raping a job that pays well?  Ask Mr. Cosby.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:12 | 6256310 thamnosma
thamnosma's picture

Only cost $140,000 for a BA in transgender studies.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:21 | 6256346 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

Taught by professor Caitlyn Jenner

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:42 | 6256406 KingGenius
KingGenius's picture

Hilarious,

They will have to forgive the student debt. People think if they do I have to pay for it via taxes. Considering we are in debt 18 trillion, it is basically the transfer of debt to the government who eventually I hope will just tell the banks to F off and the debt will be null and void. Or they could increase taxes across the board or possilby cut spending-which is laughable.

If they don't forgive student debt, students won't be able to get a loan for housing cars or anything else, which puts a wrench in the GDP machine and affects stocks. But fuck stocks. More boycott to all public traded companies.

The best option would be seize Federal Reserve and associated bank assets, give money to the people. IF they have debt, money must go to debt-to not pay the Fed, but the Treasury to pay for roads and infastructure rebuilding our nation. If they don't have tons of debt the remainder can be spend however you please. Economy realistically stimulated at that point. Job creation boom.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 21:26 | 6256558 thamnosma
thamnosma's picture

Stop making sense!

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:13 | 6256315 serotonindumptruck
serotonindumptruck's picture

So would this mean that "tenured professors" actually have to show up for work, or can they continue to work from home?

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:16 | 6256327 One And Only
One And Only's picture

Tenure should be eliminated. If you're a new teacher and better than old teacher that old teacher should be shown the door.

Wed, 07/01/2015 - 05:25 | 6257271 cynicalskeptic
cynicalskeptic's picture

Not that many tenured professors these days..... odds are you're going to get taught by a TA who's teaching as part of HIS aidd package or by an adjunct professor who's grossly underpaid (many work at a number of schools where they're paid per class - sort of like part time work with no benefits).  The top schools have an 'up or out' tenure path with many getting the 'out' after x years (though the Ivy rejects can usually find employment and tenure at 'lesser' schools.

It's a long road to becoming a professor - and an expensive one in time and $$$.    Lots of competition with an oversupply of qualified candidates.   Working for a doctorate in any field means years of school with not much in the way of paid compensation.  Even the top students who get stipends while pursuoing doctorates are making maybe $20 or 30,000 a year at TOP schools (while doing research for professors AND teaching AND taking classes).

My kids went to a summer G&T program - 3 weeks on a college campus taking a one semester course.  Pretty intensive.  Some great teachers - most were college professors - usually adjuncts scraping together a bunch of different positions at multiple schools  during the year AND working summers.  More than a few went to top colleges and most were very good - but the number of full time spots is limited.  Colleges are doing what Wal-Mart does - limiting hours and keeping most of the staff part time.   Meanwhile the senior administrators are grossly overpaid.  The head of my engineering school alma mater is pulling in over a million a year.  WTF?   Lots of the professors are making most of their money consulting part-time.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:14 | 6256319 One And Only
One And Only's picture
Colleges Increasing Spending on Sports Faster Than on Academics, Report Finds


Take away - Colleges with athletics programs spend on average $166,000 per athlete and $23,000 per student.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/07/education/colleges-increasing-spending...

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 21:10 | 6256508 Freddie
Freddie's picture

Funny to see white males paying full tuition cheering on trayvon thugs getting a free ride plus endless other benefits.  The alumni who support this are just as stupid.  F em.

Wed, 07/01/2015 - 00:30 | 6257002 TheMeatTrapper
TheMeatTrapper's picture

This fine, upstanding 8th grader already has 11 full ride scholarship offers to college

He's a black football player who, in the 8th grade already has 11 FULL RIDE college scholarship offers? The kids that are going to be doctors, scientists and engineers have to borrow money and spend their lives trying to pay it back.

And we think the Greeks are stupid fucks? 

 

 

Wed, 07/01/2015 - 05:27 | 6257273 cynicalskeptic
cynicalskeptic's picture

Ther highest paid employees in any number of state university systems are the football coaches...... says a lot about misplaced societal values.

 

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:15 | 6256323 Bighorn_100b
Bighorn_100b's picture

I never could understand why college sports need super stadiums, super coaches, crazy waste of money. Professors are over paid as well.

Go to college, graduate, get a job. Should be simple, right?

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 21:10 | 6256511 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

Because students only give once a semester but sports give big all season.

Bag those TV rights money and you're in high cotton. Grab a title and the Alumni money goes through the roof.

Everybody loves a winner.

Wed, 07/01/2015 - 13:02 | 6258678 PresidentCamacho
PresidentCamacho's picture

Because college sports bring in huge amounts of money to finance the schools.

 

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:19 | 6256338 blindman
blindman's picture

there is no substitute for education,
it is essential. but, it all depends on
what your definition of the word "education"
is, is, "is". there the rub

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:28 | 6256369 MATA HAIRY
MATA HAIRY's picture

mass immigration of cheap foreign labor has pushed white youth into white collar jobs, which require college....if the overclass would stop mass immigration, most of these american kids would not HAVE to go to college

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:53 | 6256447 KingGenius
KingGenius's picture

I mmigration is not where most the jobs are going but some, you are right. Especially agriculture and roofing. Though most jobs are outsourced overseas and imported. You know, Asian sweat shops.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:58 | 6256465 serotonindumptruck
serotonindumptruck's picture

Yeah, let's blame the "immigrants" for the lack of employment opportunities for the recent college graduates.

If we're gonna be overtly racist about it, let's just say that there are "too many chiefs and not enough Indians".

Or maybe...just maybe...those "white" kids lack the motivation and work ethic required to perform the same jobs that immigrants, illegal or otherwise, absolutely jump at the opportunity to accept.

The USSA is going DOWN, and I for one relish the concept.

Wed, 07/01/2015 - 00:32 | 6257007 TheMeatTrapper
TheMeatTrapper's picture

"The USSA is going DOWN, and I for one relish the concept."

Yes it is, but just remember - you're going down with the ship, and if you think those nice brown skinned boys are going to cut you some slack because you secretly rooted for them - you are in for one rude awakening. 

And I relish the concept. :) 

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 21:49 | 6256625 rejected
rejected's picture

They offshored the production and the jobs that went with it to countries that sold their citizens for a penny on the dollar. All the extra profits from the labor arbitrage has went to corporation management.

Most illegal immigrant labor works for far less than most americans will. They are employed, again by americans, pocketing the saved labor costs.The racial angle is just another divisional  tactic. Works pretty well.

In a normal economy, with real money, this couldn't work because the government would default rapidly due to loss of taxpayer base. In our circus economy with clown money it simply borrows the funds from the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve prints the clown money to loan to the government. This scam as with all other scams cannot last for long. They are aware of this and you can see them getting ready if you take the time to pay attention to what they're doing. 

I don't think there is much that can be done as most of the population has been pussyfied in one form or another. There are no real men willing to die for a cause,,, in fact doing so these days invokes laughter from most. The thinking is you are an idiot or a fool... or both.

Nope,,, it's pretty much baked in.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 23:16 | 6256836 LarryDavis
LarryDavis's picture

Elite explanation. +43,344,345,095,123,678

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:43 | 6256380 jimfcarroll
jimfcarroll's picture

Actually, I think you're wrong about the Austrian school suggesting malinvestments will be corrected "lickety-split" (EDIT: while the distortion remains). The Austrian school predicts that "artificially stimulated investments have a tendency to become malinvestments."

I'm not sure how they would be corrected prior to the distortions being removed.

Therefore "a rational market is no match for cheap money" is an Austrian conclusion.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:48 | 6256430 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

They don't correct. They eventually fail and are liquidated because they were not economically sustainable without artificial stimulus.

I suppose you could call the after effect a correction, but that metric shit-ton of value is destroyed.

Only an enterprise that creates more value than it consumes is a worthy investment.

Cheap money is the lifeblood of malinvestment.

 

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:50 | 6256441 jimfcarroll
jimfcarroll's picture

Makes sense. Thanks.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 23:08 | 6256814 OC Sure
OC Sure's picture

<-----Defender of the Fact: Introducing counterfeit is theft.

<-----Defender of the Faith: Introducing counterfeit is bad investment.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:35 | 6256383 brucekeller
brucekeller's picture

Jeez, it's almost like there should just mainly be trade schools.  I tell you what, since wikipedia has come along, I've gotten a whole hell of a lot more rounded education than I did in college. It IS almost like the internet is making college slowly obsolete.

Heck, you can figure one day a machine that tests and analyzes patient medical history and uses a large database of cases could replace most Doctors... I've certainly already "outsmarted" a Dr. or two from the sheer information out there that's available nowadays, not locked in some college library. It will be nice if one day someone gets all the anecdotal information out there and makes it "legit."

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:50 | 6256439 Oknowwhat
Oknowwhat's picture

Good point about outsmarting some of these professionals with simple internet.  A few years ago I was assaulted and ran down the persons and got there liscense plate number.  I begged for help.  None was coming.  I found a site that allows you to find peoples homes based solely on the plate numbers.  Went to the house called the police and said THAT is the guy that attacked me.  The police had NO IDEA that someone could find someone simply with a plate number and the internet.  5 officers stood around talking in disbelief.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 21:14 | 6256520 brucekeller
brucekeller's picture

The penny dropped for me on just how reliable professionals could be when a Vet I was going to years ago recommended something like Science Diet. Ridiculous. I started seeing most GPs as basically biotech cheerleaders from that moment.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 23:37 | 6256874 Cornfedbloodstool
Cornfedbloodstool's picture

Science Diet. I went to a Vet that recommened it but my pug would not eat that shit. That told me all I needed to know.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 20:56 | 6256460 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

Wait until someone figures out that some of the best runners aren't the thoroughbreds with the fancy stamped papers.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 21:15 | 6256522 insanelysane
insanelysane's picture

I still run into people with the "you can't put a price on education" mentality.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 21:18 | 6256532 Son of Loki
Son of Loki's picture

" We want moar free shit! "

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 21:24 | 6256550 q99x2
q99x2's picture

There is a plan to harvest graduate brains as human resources by Google. They need lots and lots of neuronal connections when they bring their new app online. In exchange for volunteers they intend to offer participation in a 2.7 billion person orgasm; to offer the fuck of a lifetime on the backs of taxpayers so to speak. Banksters are willing to invest now because the DHS and the FED will take care of the rest.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 21:25 | 6256554 Ginsengbull
Ginsengbull's picture

College education is what separates the deferred from the drafted.

Wed, 07/01/2015 - 09:37 | 6257788 Billy Sol Estes
Billy Sol Estes's picture

My potsmoking thesis advisor told me this exact statement.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 21:29 | 6256567 rejected
rejected's picture

Degrees are like any commodity,,, The more there are,,, the less their worth.

Most of these borrowers know there are few jobs,,, their just using this as a bridge.

Won't work though,,, because this bridge has no other side.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 23:53 | 6256911 silverer
silverer's picture

Degrees are for thermometers.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 21:29 | 6256570 serotonindumptruck
serotonindumptruck's picture

As a "white" man, I expect illegal immigrants to harvest my fruit and vegetables.

As a "white" man, that kind of work is beneath me.

/sarc

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 21:40 | 6256608 scatha
scatha's picture

Unfettered corporatism entered Academia to destroy it.

Corporate bosses tell scientists what to teach, what to research and what results of their research should be or else money is cut out.

Now professors are leasing their offices from Universities, paying for them month to month with corporate grant money. It is appalling.

The building boom at academic sites is a huge bubble, the only booming commercial construction in US after all other commercial/office real estate collapsed due to collapse of demand. I can get you Freedom Tower office in 5 minutes.

Its all fake fueled by Wall Street Ponzi and FED ZIRP aimed to loading up universities with tons of unpayable debts and collapse them. Just look around you.

In the same time we observe total collapse of quality of the education and its usefulness for society, where bad evaluation of professor by students often get him fired so they teach to the intellectual level of tweedy bird.

It's chaos but not if we realize what our educational system, is for in the first place. 

If you intend to commence your study soon I encourage you to read the below post about true purpose of education in US and elsewhere in historic context and only then make decision.

https://contrarianopinion.wordpress.com/2015/03/19/education-blessings-o...

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 21:58 | 6256652 bankonzhongguo
bankonzhongguo's picture

If you want to know what the current state of full-retard higher-ed bubble is look no further than the UC system's scheme to privately build-out 1,000,000 sqft of campus for UC Merced a la their "Project 2020."

Million feet of mixed used space to also be managed by the developer for 30+ years all guaranteed by UC bonds and other synthetic financing. With just a whiff of GS and JPM in the air.

Public-private partnership.

Also known as fascism.

All subsidized by first generation Hispanic goyim college debt serfs.

 

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 22:14 | 6256658 Fukushima Fricassee
Fukushima Fricassee's picture

I did not finish college but I damn sure got an education. Have been in the 6 figures for the last 10 years. Convert it all to gold and land after expense. Fuck the goverment cheese and the dark horse propaganda they road in on..

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 23:20 | 6256846 LarryDavis
LarryDavis's picture

rode

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 22:27 | 6256710 reader2010
reader2010's picture

The word "education" is misused today America.  It doesn't have the meaning in the root of the word. It's Newspeak for job-training. Thsts all. 

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 22:29 | 6256720 SMC
SMC's picture

You are not paid for what you know, you are paid for what you do.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 23:30 | 6256861 countryboy42
countryboy42's picture

At this point, I would kill ( the idiot who works with me) for a manual machinist. It is all CNC at this point, but most people do not know the basics. Can you cut a 1.072-16 tpi thread? Great. What if I told you that the action tap that I used was very used. Can you compensate?

Apprentiship. Why do we force young people to go through the education system other than to earn money for the state? ya, I know, I just answered my own question. By the time you reach 9th grade, you should have an idea if this shit is for you.

I tried collage, it sucked. I apprenticed under a master luthier for two years. Am I still building stringed instruments? No, but the knowledge I gained helped me in the here, and now.

Tell the banks who promise you a rose garden (all of them) to blow it out of thier collective asses. Find someone who knows what you are interested in doing, and ask them to help you on your way.

Wed, 07/01/2015 - 01:30 | 6257075 Buster Cherry
Buster Cherry's picture

I was a re-work engine lathe machinist in the late 70's early 80's till the oil glut of the time put me out of work.

If you're in the College Station, TX area,  I may be your guy.

I want out of Houston, not because its shitty, I just want to live in my weekend home all the time.

After the layoff from Dresser Atlas, there were no machinist jobs to be had, so I became a trim carpenter. When no more houses were being built, I became a roofer. I hated that, but had to pay rent and put a baby in diapers.

I then got an apprenticeship as a stationary enginer for office towers and have done that for 30 years now.

We have a hard time finding good people.

Tue, 06/30/2015 - 23:56 | 6256907 silverer
silverer's picture

It's my opinion, but I'd say if you averaged the money college grads are getting paid now, they are earning less (inflation corrected) than people did in the mid 1960's with just a high school education.

Wed, 07/01/2015 - 00:44 | 6257025 onmail
onmail's picture

The end is this:

The Cabal Bankster Shylocks want their pound of flesh.
They will force their puppets , US prez, & MPs to
send the college students to military
where they will be stationed in US bases all over the world
They will be ordered to loot various countries
and transport their gold back to US
also toppling their govts.
fight war in middle east
and with Russia & China
WW3 in offing.
These CabalBastards&TheirPuppetUSpoliticians
have a false belief that they are the ONLY
military superpower. When the war starts it will be
Nuclear war . People will vaporize , they will be blinded,
their skin will burn & peel off.
Those who come back, they will die from cancer.

HELL ON EARTH

Wed, 07/01/2015 - 03:35 | 6257204 Keyboard Kommando
Keyboard Kommando's picture

Thank God I only owe $50,000 on my BA in Gender Studies!

Wed, 07/01/2015 - 09:12 | 6257692 Billy Sol Estes
Billy Sol Estes's picture

Everytime my almae mater sends a letter with a business reply envelope asking for donations to such and such cause/new science building/class of 2020 initiative, I kindly reply with a shiny new Lincoln 1¢ piece in their envelope and mail it back.

My friend from the same institution sends a scanned copy of his student loan statement and "no thanks you have taken enough from me" written at the bottom.

 

Wed, 07/01/2015 - 10:54 | 6258151 juicy_bananas
juicy_bananas's picture

You are paid based on what technical and practical skills you bring to the table.

16th Century Lesbian Studies does not add any value to a company.

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