Posted on 01/30/2016 7:31:23 PM PST by TigerClaws
Every once in a while, when I’m feeling overwhelmed, I watch college commencement ceremonies on YouTube.
These rituals remind me how perverse our higher-education system is—and of the empty idealism that colleges and universities sell us:
We are here today, donning our ceremonial robes and caps, to recite the traditional vacuous platitudes and wish you well in paying off high-interest student loans for which we are in no way held accountable.
Let us now further romanticize our fair institution by singing the alma mater and conveniently forget that tuition has gone up 1,120 percent since 1978. Good luck out there, kids!
I’m a consumer of those vacuous platitudes and a victim of this system. After finishing my master’s degree in 2008, I found out—as in, I didn’t already know—that I had $200,000 in student debt.
Some well-paying professions might make this amount manageable, but for a bioethicist like me, it’s been crushing. Many things had to go wrong for this to happen—or right, if you’re a school or a lender. Although the hefty amount I owe is unusual, my experience is not: Motivated by an idealistic view of education and career and vulnerable to predatory, disingenuous, or at least negligent institutions, young people and their families too often take on large amounts of student debt.
No matter how much they owe, the consequences of that debt can be outsized. These young people may have to abandon their educations early; pay back far more, after interest, than they took out; manage exceptionally exploitative loan terms; shoulder serious, chronic mental distress; delay important life decisions; and participate less in the economy than they otherwise would.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
To be fair to both sides on that issue, it did give the appearance that he would be teaching a class or two.
And to his defense, he probably just signed off on it as one of a million other deals.
The Ivory Tower goes around telling kids, “The private sector is treacherous —they’ll enlsave you, USE YOU...! They will take advantage of you, EXPLOIT you..!”
And then they whip around and they do EXACTLY that to these vulnerable, stupid young people.
The schools —who often partially own the collection agencies for these debts— KNOW these stupid degrees put them in holes the kids will never get out of.
There should NEVER be gummint-backed loans for Entertainment Degrees, or the student debt should be dischargeable via bankruptcy.
Demand for such degrees would dry up IN A BIG HURRY.
Increasingly the University system is a system of indoctrination and SLAVERY.
The students are stupid but there is something bigger, more evil at work, here and it should be stopped.
Mind blown.
Before the general election is over... when Trump is far ahead in the polls... the dem candidate will promise to absolve all student load debt.
It will happen.
Virtually always, some manner of death panel advocate.
Did he put it all on the 50 credit cards he had since freshman year?
Basically, it's somebody who gets to make life and death decisions for other people.....but he can't do math.
We are so screwed.
He graduated to late to be part of Obamas administration.
A bioethicist is a person who goes around telling biotechnologists that what they’re doing is wrong —like engineering crop strains that require less water, or that can endure pesticide levels.
And the funny thing is that the one job in which we really REALLY need bioethicists to speak up on —namely that we shouldn’t take innocent life as fodder for extension of others lives— there is HUGE pressure for them to SHUT THE HELL UP.
And by and large THEY DO.
They needed a Master’s degree to figure out their college debt was 200K??
That means if you do not support communism or Hillary then there must be something biologically wrong with you.
How did he, as an ethicist, not be able to figure out his debt levels?
Two shortcomings of the education system is the failure to teach personal responsibility and financial literacy.
It wasn't that long ago (1960’s) that pregnancy wasn't covered by insurance. Pregnant women made arrangements to pay their doctor and the hospital in monthly payments prior to the birth. It keep prices low.
Prices used to be kept low for college before the government meddled.
And you are spot on about the Trump business school. If I recall, the tuition for that was a fraction of what colleges charge for a traditional degree program and is probably much more useful for getting gainful employment.
When I got out of the military in 1985, I was debating a four-year college but ended up going to a 9-month technical (trade) school instead, as I wanted to get myself into the workforce in a skilled position as quickly as possible.
Turned out to be a very good decision. Not only did I have near zero student loans to pay off (I think it was only $2,000 and paid off in five years), but since graduating with an electronics certificate, I have never known a day of unemployment and now hold an executive position with my current company.
This person is like the drunk who runs a tab buying drinks for strangers because it's fun, and then complains that he has to pay off what he spent. If he's too stupid to add up the money he's borrowing, that is no excuse for making me pay for his extravagance. The most useful lesson this "bioethicist" could possibly learn, far better than anything in his undergraduate or Masters programs, is in the school of hard knocks. He will learn it by gradually paying off his legitimate debt and coming to understand that actions have consequences.
I’m so tired of hearing about these people.
All these stories keep coming out to get ready for the government to ‘forgive’ most of these loans that they never had any intention of paying back. Taxpayers are gonna get hosed again.
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