"Education"

I read this article about professionals that had spent nearly a decade of their lives foregoing income in order to get an advanced education so that they could make more money... only to, for one reason or another, be forced to do something for a living that they could have done right out of high school. (And I get it the whole enrichment thing... but we are talking money and finances here... something that can actually be measured.)

The writer explores the issue reasonably well... but without examining the most fundamental issues: Were these people financially "harmed" (please! let's forget intellectual "enrichment") by the educational decisions they made?

Education is often mis-credited as the source future wealth... but if that were true, why are the majority of student loans in default or deferment? The answer is simple and unavoidable... speaking in the aggregate for most "educational investors", otherwise known as students, the cost/benefit analysis is financially negative. While education CAN be a path to wealth - Surgeons and Trial Lawyers seem to do pretty well - it does not always work out that way... and while I have done no scientific study... we all know that with the human lifespan being what it is that there is a point of diminishing returns in paying to stay in school rather than getting paid to work.

In fact, judging by the nearly $1 Trillion in U.S. student debt... it would appear, that with the exception of Social Security and Medicare, that the university educational system is the greatest transfer of wealth -from the future earnings of today's students to the present day university faculty and administrators - in the history of such heists.

I remember when I went looking for work in the securities business... people would ask me where I went to business school... I replied "I don't have an MBA"... "then how are you going to work on Wall Street?"... I had already run a successful business that I started out of my 1 room apartment (after working for a few years in order to save some dough... I had all manner of sh#! jobs, and one good one) that had a couple million in revenue and a very acceptable bottom line before within 5 years... wasn't that good enough? As it turns out, the people hiring did not come from that type of background (working class, self-educated, and self made), so it was a pain in the a$$ catching on, but as it happens, luck was with me. I caught on at one of the top investment banks, and proceeded to tear into Graham & Dodd's "Securities Analysis" until I could quote the passages complete with page numbers... it is amazing what you can learn with a $2 library card or a $29.99 investment at Barnes & Noble... and in spite of my lack of "education", I was the number one producer of new business at the next 3 firms, firms that were populated with all manner of "credentialed" (the question should really be "Credentialed by WHOM"?) folk, I worked for before starting my own shop... Imagine that? Relying on your own wits. Who'd a thunk it? Certainly not the university/industrial complex... after all, one can't possibly think without their training... I have a 2 word comment for these folks... and it ain't "Thank you".

The point is this: there are all manner of opportunities in a market economy... the university/industrial complex has done an incredible job of convincing young people that their only hope of future success is through their choke hold... and the university/industrial complex will not let go of that choke hold (of course, the Web is going to disrupt them terribly... but notice that in this case the continued choke hold attempt of withholding the CREDENTIAL but not the education... Bizarre... ) until you are so deep in debt that you can never get out... this, despite the unassailable empirical evidence that the source of most millionaire's (not talking Billionaires here) wealth is their small business, savings, and home. So why are the dreams of the young people mentioned in this article being scaled back? Because somebody is trying to scare the sh#! out of them for their own self-interests, not the interests of these young adults. The bottom line is this: If it is financial security/wealth you seek open a business of some sort, buy a home, and have a family. If not, feel free to go into a lot of student debt, consider yourself more educated than the millionaire next door, complain relentless about the unfairness of the system, divorce, have no children/one child... sound familiar? I don't have to label them here... we all know who they are...

Young people: Don't you believe a word of this horse sh#! Go to work, save money, have a family, open a business, fail, try again, succeed, save, buy a modest home, buy modest cars, save, invest, work some more, and in between enjoy yourselves... you'll get there... and you will be far better off getting there and starving these M***** F*****'s while your'e getting there. You need enough money... but you won't get there by going into massive debt unless you come out the other side with a barrier-to-entry professional license that the market actually needs (think dentist, not accupuncture.. or as I call it inaccuratepuncture... and why, exactly, do dental schools require undergrad degrees in humanities? Do you walk to school or do you bring your lunch?).

I don't know how these f*&&^%!er's in the university/industrial complex live with themselves.