Monday, October 22, 2007

Depressing Young People

College Costs Rising Rapidly

I'm always more than a little sad, and slightly alarmed, when I read about rising tuition costs.

Even though I'm not a student by profession anymore (does anyone ever really stop learning?), I really think education is one of the keys to getting ahead in today's world. Even though there are many successful people who do not have college educations, I feel those are the exceptions rather than the rule.

I paid for most of my college with student loans. Loans I'll be paying back for quite a while.

I think it's a sorry, miserable state we must live in when the only way to get ahead in the world is to entrap yourself into so much debt that it threatens your future economic prospects.

There are so many people I went to school with that I just know would go to college if they felt it was a little cheaper. These are young people who, with a little encouragement, could improve their lives, their earning power, and their psyches tremendously with a few classes. They could expand their world, and their horizons. They could dream big.

I have friends who disagree. They think that some people are supposed to be on the lower rungs of society. Even so, wouldn't it be great if you could go to Best Buy and the guy selling you the new digital camera actually KNEW something about electronics, and how they worked? Wouldn't it be great if the gal who sold you the double-bacon cheeseburger and fries knew something about service industries and the culinary arts?

I am, at the core of my soul, an idealist.

1 comment:

don said...

It's the ugly face of capitalism as one of my friends would say. When everything is for profit then there will be people who don't get chances at education health care and jobs. It's just that simple.

The divide between those who have and those who have not will get ever greater. From what I understand that divide is the greatest it has been since the turn of the last century.

When owners and share holders get a lion's share of the money, do little or nothing for it, de-value jobs by not even paying a living wage, or make the job something that people can't rely on, or just sell the company and lay people off for a profit, then at some point there will be a problem. Even highly educated people might be begging in the streets.