I know that I sometimes come across here on the blog as a pompous, egotistical, asshole.
Right?
It's not like I consciously try to be a public asshole/curmudgeon. Nor do I attempt to suppress the fact that I could be a closet asshole...an opinion that someone who knows me in real life might hold (hint...and some if not many in real life hold similar opinions)...but...
In my efforts to write for public consumption on a regular basis--virtually every day on the calendar--it's been an interesting journey to learn to mix and match words in the English language together to form a cohesive "voice" and consistent "style" to my writing.
I think I've found that "voice"--asshole or not--and although it may never be commercially successful i.e. generate any substantial income, it is my voice none the less and I'm happy with it at the moment.
AT LEAST I DON'T WRITE MOST OF THE TIME IN ALL CAPITOL LETTERS, WHICH IS THE LITERARY EQUIVALENT OF YELLING, and which in reality more accurately reflects the content of whats going on in my neurons and synapses in my head most of the time.
Any way, getting back to this morning's topic...
Or more accurately (as stated in my title), government induced Education cost inflation.
And as the primary exhibit in defense of my theory/thesis this morning, I give you this New York Times Story about a 26 year old girl that owes nearly ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS in loans and interest after spending part of the past nine years studying for
...ready?
an "interdisciplinary degree in religious and women's studies."
WTF?
Somebody tell me, what the heck do you expect to be able to do with a "degree" in "religious and women's studies"?
I thought that only men did things like "women's studies" (unless you add the lesbian, gay, transgendered angle to the story,) and some forms of "studying women" is against the law if you happen to get too close to said woman and she objects to your proximity...
but I digress...
Here's the bottom line people.
Colleges are prone to offer the opportunity for you to spend money studying CRAP that might be interesting to you, might sound cool on the "Jeopardy" TV show when you mention you're willing to
these same so-called "degrees" will at the same time do nothing when it comes to getting you out of the business of flipping hamburgers or selling used cars for a living.
As an example, since "graduation" the NY Times' woman with the $100,000 degree in "religious and women's studies" has managed to:
She recently received a raise and now makes $22 an hour working for a photographer. It's the highest salary she's earned since graduating with an interdisciplinary degree in religious and women's studies. After taxes, she takes home about $2,300 a month. Rent runs $750, and the full monthly payments on her student loans would be about $700 if they weren't being deferred, which would not leave a lot left over.
And no, don't start bashing me because my subject is a woman. It could just as easily be some dude with a six figure loan balance that partied his way to a degree in Philosophy or Middle Eastern History or Political Science.
Nothing WRONG with those subjects mind you, but unless you're independently wealthy or good enough to get a job as a college researcher/professor your life is pretty much going to consist of holding down a couple of part time bartender/waiter jobs while mailing over half your income to the bank holding the student loan(s.)
And you know what I believe is the most damning thing about our current rush--culturally and politically--to make it easy for everyone to attend college?
Tuition inflation.
Think about it for a minute.
It's happening.
And it's gotten worse since the 1970's--in the time frame that government has started low interest loan programs with Sally Mae and even as a result of college State lottery funded scholarship programs in states like Georgia and Tennessee.
The reality is, when everyone has a college degree, a college degree will mean little or nothing.
Chew on that concept for a minute.
Further, with everyone competing for a seat in classrooms on a college campus, with a wallet full of government guaranteed cheap tuition money, what incentive is left for colleges to compete with each other and keep education costs down?
Heck, schools like Georgia Tech--places that historically maintained slow annual growth in enrollment and was only about 11,000 undergrads in the late 1970's and early 1980's, are EXPLODING as they see the infusion of "HOPE Scholarship" money (Lottery Dollars.)
They can't buy land and tear down old buildings fast enough. Last time I drove though campus last winter they had closed half the streets and were building parking decks on the campus perimeter and filling in the old parking lots with new buildings.
It's just that simple, ladies and gentlemen.
As long as the government throws money at college in one form or the other, a college education is going to become less and less valuable because everyone will have a sheepskin, but by default possessing a degree won't magically transform any given individual into a "rocket scientist" or even a good employee with good work skills and attendance habits.
And what pisses me off is that Obama and the Obamamaniacs are in the process of passing legislation to make YOU, and more importantly ME, pay for these bimbos to study important crap like "women's studies."
And then when things don't work out and $100K is ill spent, they want the government--the same government which made the ill conceived loans possible--to step forward and "bail them out" of their situation...
She may finally be earning enough to barely scrape by while still making the payments for the first time since she graduated, at least until interest rates rise and the payments on her loans with variable rates spiral up. And while her job requires her to work nights and weekends sometimes, she probably should find a flexible second job to try to bring in a few extra hundred dollars a month.
Ms. Munna understands this tough love, buck up, buckle-down advice. But she also badly wants to call a do-over on the last decade. "I don't want to spend the rest of my life slaving away to pay for an education I got for four years and would happily give back," she said. "It feels wrong to me."
Yeah...RIGHT...feels wrong to me also, "Ms." Munna.
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