8. College
College may be needed for certain professions in law, healthcare and whatever. For most it is increasingly superfluous. Many are finding that the risk of onerous perpetual student loan debt that they incur whether they finish a degree or not is not a good bet. The promises of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow turns out to be a pot of rocks. Nobody cares about their degrees or lack thereof.
It’s typical for student loans to exceed $100,000. A burden that should never be placed on a young adult starting out. Especially with the crazy cost of living. Worse if payments are not made or only partially, interest accrues so that the balance owed actually increases. Unlike all other debt student loans can’t be discharged by bankruptcy. Credit is ruined so that it is unlikely you will get car loans or mortgages. If you do you will face loanshark interest rates. Apartment rentals and jobs will be more difficult to get because they check your almighty credit report and label you a deadbeat. Some victims of this system have given up resigned to a marginal life on the fringes of society. Or they fantasize about escaping to some low-cost paradise overseas (not as easy as it sounds).
This debt forces career decisions to allow payments rather than to follow dreams. Crushed at the starting line. Lives sidetracked and wasted. Signing up for more debt is like buying a ticket on the (unsinkable) Titanic.
More and more people are wising up to this corrupt system. They seek ways to bypass the old path to success. No wasted years, money or debt pursuing a degree from an institution that doesn’t care about you and lives in the past. If you want to learn you have infinite resources online most of which are free. It is more common now for people to care about what you can do. Not some institutional certification that with DEI entitlements, quotas and grade inflation diminishing the value to being worthless.
Don’t go to college unless it’s paid for… never ever sign for student loans. As an example, my dentist joined the Navy and was paid to go to dental school. Most dentists are slaving to pay off million dollar student loans and setting up high cost practices with resulting high stress. Many hate their lives.
Student loans started out as helpful giving opportunity to those that otherwise could not afford to go. Colleges found that this allowed them to increase tuition to levels that would make mafia or cartels blush and turn green with envy. This massively state sanctioned scam was insidious soon corrupting the entire eduction industry. Administrative staff overhead climbed to 25% of the total. At least 1 admin paper-pushing wanker per 3 actual instructors. Bloated like a beached whale rotting in the hot tropical sun. The bankers made bank charging usurious interest rates while the government (taxpayers) took all the risk. And guess who was at the bottom of this food chain? Creative debt slaves are finding that living off the grid, eschewing credit altogether, means they can triage out student loans that are making make their already difficult lives impossible. They played their game and you can play yours.