August 16, 2023
Source: Bigstock It’s August. Many youths head off to college.
This year, thankfully, less will go.
I say “fortunately” due to the fact that college is now an overpriced scam.
Overpriced, due to the fact that normal incentives to be frugal and make wise judgements about who ought to go to college were tossed out when the federal government took over granting trainee loans.
Why?
Because our federal government essentially vomits money at everyone who applies.
“Lots of shouldn’t even be going to college.”
If private lenders provided the loans, they ‘d take a look at whether they were most likely to be paid back. They ‘d ask concerns like: “What will you study? You actually think majoring in dance will result in a job that will pay you enough to permit you to pay us back?”
Government rarely asks these questions. Bureaucrats throw money at trainees. Lots of don’t benefit. Numerous shouldn’t even be going to college. Today, nearly half of the students offered loans do not finish even after six years.
Lots of seem like failures.
College benefits individuals who wish to be college professors or who major in fields like engineering and computer science that may cause good jobs. But that’s not many people. Federal government loans encourage everybody to go to college, even if they’re not really interested in academics.
Federal government’s handouts likewise invite colleges to keep raising tuition. Over the previous 50 years, college cost increased at 4 times the rate of inflation. 4 times!
Years ago, I reported how colleges were all of a sudden wasting money on high-ends like expensive gyms and even spa. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that it’s worsened: The University of Oklahoma purchased a monastery in Italy for research study abroad students! The University of Kentucky built a theater where trainees play video games.
“Why not raise tuition?” asks the common college president. “Uncle Sam pays the bill!”
When I went to Princeton, tuition was $2,000. Now its $60,000.
Colleges have little incentive to cut expenses or innovate. Princeton still “teaches” by having teachers lecture. Super boring. I slept through many.
Although today, I guess I ought to thank Princeton because its laborious lectures influenced me to search for much better ways to present details. That made me successful on television.
Today, student loan borrowers owe 10s of countless dollars. In 2015, the president revealed he would cancel as much as $20,000 of that debt per individual.
Indebted students enjoyed that! A group called the Student Debt Crisis Center called that “a significant win for lots of.”
However it would be a significant loss for much more! Canceling debt is unjust to the people who strive and pay off their financial obligations.
Fortunately, Biden’s strategy was overruled by the Supreme Court, which stated just Congress can cancel trainee debt. Congress didn’t.
Now Biden’s attempting again. The administration announced they will forgive debt for anyone who’s been making payments for more than twenty years. That’s much better, however still bad. Possibly courts will stop this handout, too.
University student take on loans and invest years in debt since they think they should get a degree to be hired. But that’s no longer real. IBM, Accenture, Dell, Bank of America, Google and other big companies, recognizing the uselessness of many undergraduate degrees, just recently dropped college-degree requirements. So have state governments in Maryland, Utah, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Alaska, North Carolina, New Jersey and Virginia.
Great jobs in the trades, like welding and plumbing, don’t need a college degree. Trade school programs often take less than 2 years and expense much less than college.
To have a good life or get a good job, you don’t need expensive dining halls, video game auditoriums or a college degree.
College has become a government-subsidized rip-off. It’s good that less people go.