Posted On: Tuesday - April 12th 2022 7:29PM MST
In Topics: University Humor The Future Educational Stupidity Inflation
This one is pretty funny, funny cause it's true. Parents have been encouraging, or at least permitting, their college-age children to go to the University for a degree in anything, thinking this is 1985, and that always gets you a decent job, "even if not in your major of Philosophy" It's NOT 1985 though. It's almost 4 decades later. Even 10 years ago, parents should have known better.
Worse yet is that college costs have gone up just as much, if not more, than everything else over the last few decades. In our very early on post University Bubble 101 we didn't really get into the inflation of tuition - I'm sure the data is out there all over - rather than just a quick anecdote about the price of London Broil at the local restaurant that we have enjoyed being around since forever, since closed for good due to the Kung Flu PanicFest. (We tend to drop the ball sometimes.)
From my own local knowledge, I'm gonna give a number based on tuition and fees only (fees are a big deal now, and I don't think there even WAS such a thing then), without any time-line and absolute numbers, but just the the calculated compounded inflation rate. (This is dictated by anonymity.) This is for a State school in a reasonable area, mind you. I get just under 5%, over a very long stretch. I haven't done calculations on the increase in the price of dorm rooms, as, for one thing, hedonics* would be involved, what with the very fancy living quarters as opposed to those of years ago.
If it's not gonna be Computer Science, Engineering, a hard science, or you all have the cash, and he simply really, really wants to learn some particular Humanities subject or Math, then be very wary of sending your young man to college. For your daughter, maybe the MRS degree will be well worth it - I haven't done the math on that. That higher math is hell...
* That post has one of my favorite titles "Hooked on Hedonics". There is also Hedonics - Pleasure from Products and Services and Hedonics in the Current Era of Cheap China-made Crap from about 3 years back, when I was getting into this stuff.
Comments:
MBlanc46
Thursday - April 14th 2022 9:31AM MST
PS As the philosophy major here, I guess that I ought to stand up for philosophy majors. I worked some and my folks managed to scrape up the first three years of undergrad (I ultimately paid back their contribution), and I got scholarship money for the fourth year. I’d thought that I’d never borrowed anything for grad school, but when I was going through some old papers from an old safe deposit box, I found a note for $346 for the spring quarter of my first year. Apparently my fellowship didn’t quite cover the full tuition. I wound up teaching for a year at a commuter college, but then fell off the academic track. Probably not a bad thing, given what academia was becoming. I hippied around for about ten years, and, when I decided that it was time to get a real job, my philosophy degree was not a handicap to getting a job in publishing, where I’ve worked ever since. I’ve been a freelancer for 30+ years, 25+ years full time. Philosophy, at least in the English-speaking world, is very analytical. Any task requiring conceptual analysis would be suitable for a philosophy grad. They tend to do very well in law school. I was also an undergrad math major, which certainly didn’t hurt my employment chances, but, as Whitehead and Russell showed, most mathematics is really just logic in a different guise, and logic is what philosophy students learn. I’m all for guys who aren’t academic learning a manual trade. That will very likely be more remunerative than any academic degree except the hard mathematics, the hard sciences, or engineering. Young people should do what they really want to do. If it doesn’t work out, then they can fall back on Plan B. If they don’t give what they really want to do a shot, they’re likely to always regret it. That said, the current totally pozzed state of academia does put young men of an academic bent in a rather tight place.
Ganderson
Thursday - April 14th 2022 9:20AM MST
PSI am now 100% in favor of student loan forgiveness. Since the govt spends huge piles of cash to positively detrimental societal effect, indeed, we’re all hosed anyway, I want a program that benefits ME, or my offspring.
Fairness schmairness.
Fairness schmairness.
Dieter Kief
Wednesday - April 13th 2022 11:16AM MST
PS
re: Alexandra Ocasio Cortez sniff'n' the glue in college: Aha - that did the trick. - Not for everybody in the same way though. She is mighty eloquent and - present in that video, Adam. Thx for posting it. This is a document that might survive the test of time. Impressive. Outstanding. - Beautiful teeth - and gums 'n' eyelashes*** too - see vid near the end ca.
***...she fluttered her false eyelashes and whispered in his ear... / Lilly, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts - Blood on the Tracks, Boob**** Dylan
****Bob Dylan during his boob-fixation-phase, which is supposed to have been fun while it lasted (it did somewhat expire at one moment in time, our secret sources*** assume).
***he did do a Victoria's Secret bra-commercial, before he went all in for GM, as all our secret sources continue to - deliver more whispers from (the) underground.
re: Alexandra Ocasio Cortez sniff'n' the glue in college: Aha - that did the trick. - Not for everybody in the same way though. She is mighty eloquent and - present in that video, Adam. Thx for posting it. This is a document that might survive the test of time. Impressive. Outstanding. - Beautiful teeth - and gums 'n' eyelashes*** too - see vid near the end ca.
***...she fluttered her false eyelashes and whispered in his ear... / Lilly, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts - Blood on the Tracks, Boob**** Dylan
****Bob Dylan during his boob-fixation-phase, which is supposed to have been fun while it lasted (it did somewhat expire at one moment in time, our secret sources*** assume).
***he did do a Victoria's Secret bra-commercial, before he went all in for GM, as all our secret sources continue to - deliver more whispers from (the) underground.
Adam Smith
Wednesday - April 13th 2022 8:24AM MST
PS: Good morning y'all,
Not going to college was one of the best financial decisions I've ever made. If I had followed my parent's advice I likely would have ended up with a worthless degree and a six figure college loan debt (that will never be repaid) just like my two cousins.
College today is more expensive than it was in the mid 90's and even more worthless, for most people. I knew a girl who went to the local university here in town. She was nice, but not too bright. This girl literally didn't know how to change a light bulb. She was majoring in ballroom dancing. Hopefully her parents paid for that useless degree instead of saddling her with debt.
I also agree with M. Most of the inflation has gone to the administration, the diversity sinecures and the water parks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/opinion/trustees-tuition-lazy-rivers.html
https://genesiustimes.com/poll-cancelling-student-debt-popular-among-people-with-absolutely-worthless-degrees/
Here's a video of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proving that she was sniffing glue while she studied economics at Boston University...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQHRNb4iKEQ
☮
Not going to college was one of the best financial decisions I've ever made. If I had followed my parent's advice I likely would have ended up with a worthless degree and a six figure college loan debt (that will never be repaid) just like my two cousins.
College today is more expensive than it was in the mid 90's and even more worthless, for most people. I knew a girl who went to the local university here in town. She was nice, but not too bright. This girl literally didn't know how to change a light bulb. She was majoring in ballroom dancing. Hopefully her parents paid for that useless degree instead of saddling her with debt.
I also agree with M. Most of the inflation has gone to the administration, the diversity sinecures and the water parks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/opinion/trustees-tuition-lazy-rivers.html
https://genesiustimes.com/poll-cancelling-student-debt-popular-among-people-with-absolutely-worthless-degrees/
Here's a video of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proving that she was sniffing glue while she studied economics at Boston University...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQHRNb4iKEQ
☮
Moderator
Wednesday - April 13th 2022 5:00AM MST
PS: I'm not so sure that Brandon won't come up with some loan forgiveness plan, C-PP. It would have the effect of destroying things anyway, as the last vestiges of responsibility will be knocked out of those who tried to save money and not go into big debt. Forgiveness makes the D's look to be the nice guys.
I agree with M that the creation of more Admin positions and the salaries there used this newfound Feral-Gov't-guaranteed money. Yes, and the fancier dorms and gyms ... Near me, the U has doubled the size of campus in one direction since the late 1990s. it's all gonna come crashing down. This PanicFest may have nudged it in that direction.
Alarmist, there's got to be some benefit to your nephew's being a White guy who speaks English. I don't get much work done by anyone else, but I did make an effort to look for a White roofing crew when I had the roof done a few years ago.
Perhaps his sales pitch could include a few points about "not having to come back to fix the shoddy work by the foreigners" and "True, you save a good bit using those guys, but when you've got water dripping out from the walls in a couple of years ..." The monstrosity of a house near me that a builder had built with Hispanic labor needed easily $75,000 worth or re-work and repairs after he got a buyer and they had an inspection done.
I agree with M that the creation of more Admin positions and the salaries there used this newfound Feral-Gov't-guaranteed money. Yes, and the fancier dorms and gyms ... Near me, the U has doubled the size of campus in one direction since the late 1990s. it's all gonna come crashing down. This PanicFest may have nudged it in that direction.
Alarmist, there's got to be some benefit to your nephew's being a White guy who speaks English. I don't get much work done by anyone else, but I did make an effort to look for a White roofing crew when I had the roof done a few years ago.
Perhaps his sales pitch could include a few points about "not having to come back to fix the shoddy work by the foreigners" and "True, you save a good bit using those guys, but when you've got water dripping out from the walls in a couple of years ..." The monstrosity of a house near me that a builder had built with Hispanic labor needed easily $75,000 worth or re-work and repairs after he got a buyer and they had an inspection done.
M
Wednesday - April 13th 2022 3:33AM MST
PS I think the inflation has not gone to professors so much as to administration, i.e. the diversity hires, the athletic facilities (and more hires), the better dorms, etc.
The Alarmist
Wednesday - April 13th 2022 2:23AM MST
PS
I told my nephew, who was determined to start Uni last year, that his time would be better apent learning a trade like electrician or plumber. My brother, who has been doing construction for a few decades and dealing with an onslaught of competition from cheap illegal alien labour, told me that those trades were increasingly dominated by foreign labourers, so I said, “Fine, learn Spanish and plumbing and supervise a bunch of cheap foreign plumbers.”
Alas, he’s off to Uni and piling up the debt while learning economics.
I told my nephew, who was determined to start Uni last year, that his time would be better apent learning a trade like electrician or plumber. My brother, who has been doing construction for a few decades and dealing with an onslaught of competition from cheap illegal alien labour, told me that those trades were increasingly dominated by foreign labourers, so I said, “Fine, learn Spanish and plumbing and supervise a bunch of cheap foreign plumbers.”
Alas, he’s off to Uni and piling up the debt while learning economics.
Cloward-Piven Plan
Wednesday - April 13th 2022 12:49AM MST
PS Jo Jo Brandon won't forgive the loan debts for worthless degrees because it would wipe out what is left of the economy.
Oh wait, burning it all down better is the plan for the Long Marching CPUSA or democrats.
Expensive isolation from reality is what Thomas Sowell said about camping out at Marxist U. indoctrination centers.
The cost has went up in order to pay the salaries of the let's destroy Western Civ just for the laughs tenured professors and other quisling traitors.
Oh wait, burning it all down better is the plan for the Long Marching CPUSA or democrats.
Expensive isolation from reality is what Thomas Sowell said about camping out at Marxist U. indoctrination centers.
The cost has went up in order to pay the salaries of the let's destroy Western Civ just for the laughs tenured professors and other quisling traitors.