I’m a bit bitter. And on the topic of bitterness, let’s conjure up a fable of Aesop’s: The fox and the grapes
From Wikipedia: The narration is concise and subsequent retellings have often been equally so. The story concerns a fox that tries to eat grapes from a vine but cannot reach them. Rather than admit defeat, he states they are undesirable. The expression “sour grapes” originated from this fable.
Sometimes the reverse happens. Sometimes a fox with mad hops comes along and can get the grapes, and the grapes are indeed sour. But this fox goes around telling all the other forest critters how sweet these grapes are and reminding them that they don’t have mad hops and will never taste the grapes.
My story is that I’ve tasted bitter grapes.
I’m a college drop-out. As I’ve distanced myself from my old school, quite literally and figuratively, I’ve grown to dislike, dare I say even hate, more and more about it. I saw friends taking out loans to get degrees in “anything” just so they could eventually have the diploma.
Since the ’80s, the price of school has more than quadrupled. You can find fields of study in which the cost of a semester is increasing, while expected salaries are decreasing. Some fields have other blaring problems: an out-of-state veterinary student will pay more for a year of school than they’ll make in a year after graduating.
For some reason or other, people have forgotten two things: Higher education is optional, and it’s an investment. A lot of folks seem to believe that it’s some necessary hurdle every child-turning-adult has got to make despite the cost. Parents are pressuring their not-quite-yet-adult-children to take on debt, sometimes an enormous amount of debt.
Eighteen-year-olds are essentially borrowing money for a piece of paper. It’s the same with most financial instruments, but at least if those pieces of paper are worth less than you paid for them, you can still declare bankruptcy at least. Declaring bankruptcy will NOT get rid of student loan debt. I repeat: Declaring bankruptcy will NOT get rid of student loan debt.
Do you remember the financial meltdown that resulted from subprime lending in 2009? Do you remember how JPMorgan Chase exited mortgage lending before the meltdown in 2009? Get this. In 2013, Chase ended their student loans program. Chase was lending en masse so people could buy houses on credit, but the housing market was soaring, so taking out massive debt was worth it in the end. Until the bubble popped. But taking on a huge amount of debt and investing with borrowed money for the sake of our educations will pay off because it assures us higher starting salaries and more stable employment… Right? Until the bubble pops.
What can you do though? While I’m not an evangelical drop-out, I do think that option shouldn’t be discounted. Working a job will help you gain real experience. Four years of actual work experience will make you more employable than your peers who drank alcohol and occasionally did homework for four years. Part-time? Minimum-wage? That’s something at least, while most young adults are digging themselves into a financial hole.
I feel that university education may still be necessary, but costs must be cut to make it more affordable for more people. Somebody has to get laid-off, unfortunately, and the administrators sitting in their posh offices with minimal student interaction and starting salaries sometimes well above a quarter of a million dollars think that it’s the teachers getting paid too much.
Universities are tenuring less, and employing more part-time adjunct professors. Student-teacher ratios in universities have remained pretty much the same regardless of the price tag on a four-year degree. It’s the ever-decreasing student-administrator ratio that’s at least correlating with the rise in the price of “an education”. The highest-paid public employee in your state is likely a university’s coach. I think I see more than a few ways we can cut costs.
Not to mention, these institutions of learning are actively engaging in price discrimination. By offering need-based financial aid, they can effectively charge what you can pay — and maybe even more.
The grapes are bitter.
TL;DR:
-Higher education is optional, and it’s an investment.
-As of the publication date: Declaring bankruptcy will NOT get rid of student loan debt.
-Administrative bloat is one of the biggest reasons students are paying so much today, and the student-administrator ratio is a fucking joke.
-Without even touching the controversy of student sports and related matters: The highest-paid public employee in your state is likely a university’s coach.
And now it’s time for the ever rare, call to action. I know you’re supposed to end with a call to action, but I don’t often like doing what I’m supposed to, but this time is different: This one is for the people who like to think, and learn, for the sake of thinking and learning. The system of higher education is broken. If you’ve tasted the bitter grapes and agree with me, let’s be evangelical about our message. This shit sucks. If you’ve yet to take this step in life, I hope my thoughts steer you towards taking up the trades and becoming a welder. You’ll earn more, and if you want to learn more than the folks who went to college… well, you can get a university education for $1.50 in late fees at the public library. You might not (definitely shouldn’t) be able to become a doctor without going to university, but we can make it cheaper and more accessible for the people who need these sorts of institutions to exist.