And you wonder why my past comments have been almost nothing but ridicule? I read what you posted and can only shake my head. Most Americans are so utterly simple minded and clueless what else can you do? This entire system is going to HAVE to come crashing down to wake some (yeah, only SOME of them will) of these idiots up.

Sorry Tom but it’s looking that way. Believe me I wish this weren’t the case. Hope you are successful in smashing these people over the head with an intellectual sledgehammer. They just stare at you blankly as if you were speaking an alien language when you try to open their eyes. It’s almost like they’re in a trance or something. Bizarre as hell!

BTW, I don’t have the greatest job but at least I have ZERO debt.

Who knows what the college landscape will look like in 20 years, but if my kid were graduating this year, I would tell them to go to technical school and I would pay every last cent. Otherwise they are on their own.

I’m still in debt from school myself – though, thankfully, it isn’t a huge debt. It does sadden me (but doesn’t surprise me, however) that the vast majority of my debt is from one semester I spent in law school. After I realized that I wasn’t cut out to be a lawyer, I spent three years getting a Masters degree in history. Those three years combined cost me 25% LESS than the four months of law school.

If I’m ever blessed enough to have kids myself I’m sure not going to push college on them. If they want to go, fine, but I’ll make sure they know they’ll almost certainly be better off financially by learning some sort of trade.

But heaven forbid you point out that not everyone needs to go to college or that government-backed school loans should end, then you will be accused of wanting only “rich kids” to go to college.

I saw a typical poster on FB claiming that the “libertarian utopia” is only rich kids going to college.

What garbage!

College isn’t for everyone.

You can be a success without going to college. There are thousands of examples of that.

There are better, easier, and cheaper ways to pay for college then thru expensive school loans (go part time, work and study, don’t go to expensive private universities, etc).

Great post. Von Mises said (paraphrasing) that he thought he would be able to change the course of his country. But instead he became a “historian of the decline.”

I predict it will be no different for Lew, Tom, et al. But they do an essential and generous service by educating and connecting the remnant.

It’s not that hard to see why this happens. I grew up in a more well-off suburb where 95+% of my graduating highschool class went into some kind of college (or so they said at commencement). They assaulted me with an unceasing barrage of misleading propaganda right from the start, and fostered a culture where both students AND teachers mocked those who chose more affordable, “nontraditional” routes. I actually felt embarrassed when I was recognized for receiving a full scholarship, because they disclosed it was to a community college! Well, I went from that to get an engineering degree at a four-year school and now I make more than a lot of those people who made fun of me, and I have no debts.

I think things are beginning to change though. A few months ago I was listening to a program, on NPR of all places, where they had a guest arguing that college no longer makes sense for many graduating highschool seniors. His arguments were being taken seriously, but one couldn’t help but get the sense that the host was incredulous. In the end though, the only counter he could come up with were declarations of how valuable the “experience” is. I can’t help but chuckle at that, but to be fair, it does seem like some people enjoyed it more than I did. I’m just not sure it’s $200,000 worth of fun.

I have a relative who in his late 40′s quit a restaurant management job to go capture his lost youth by going to college to become a teacher. 6 years and $80,000 in debt later, he is waiting tables part time and unable to find a teaching job. He also managed to qualify for and live on unemployment till that ran out. In the process he enjoyed cruises, trips to Disney World, and all the trappings of the good life. Then, after a long stint back home with mom/dad he has found a woman to live with who now pays his bills for him. She is of course, a government employee who is about to quit her job so she can collect full retirement benefits in her 50′s. He has passed on his “value system” to his children, one of whom dropped out of HS and in his 20′s makes minimum wage and has zero plan other than that. The other moved in with and then broke up with a boyfriend right after HS even though she was also in college and her mother was supporting her.
But don’t expect much change, as even so-called “good families” have been corrupted by our system into thinking big brother will always be there for them.
Buy your gold and silver, move out of the suburbs/city if possible, and get ready for an interesting ride. Nothing is going to arrest the decline except a total collapse.