How To Know If You Should Take Out Student Loans

Last week, President Barak Obama announced a bill of rights for students who borrow for college, and promised that clarifications and increased repayment options were soon to follow. Reading between the lines, many see this is another step toward increased student loan forgiveness, a burden that will then be borne by the rest of us.

I find this deeply disturbing, as I have lived simply and avoided debt to make my own way life, first in the military, and later in the working world. I’ll be damned if I paid for my education with 5 years of enlistment while a student with an interdisciplinary degree in religious and gender studies sees any part of her $100k student loan bill forgiven.

The difficulty of escaping student loan debt

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As some of you readers know, currently it is nearly impossible to discharge college debt. It will follow you for a lifetime, and the servicers of that debt can garnish all forms of income to see it serviced. Many of those would like to see those policies change, including the 12% of student debt holders that are currently delinquent and the 44% of those loans that are currently being deferred; More than half of the trillion dollar plus college bill is not being paid back, making it one of the most epic bubbles of all time if the government begins charging those loans off.

Student loan debt is one of my deal breakers when dating. It’s a hell of a thing to meet a woman you like, see her for a few months, and then find out she has $100k (unemployed with a master’s degree in screenwriting) or even $140k (barista with a master’s degree in economics).

I’m not saying that debt is always bad. There is nothing wrong with a surgeon carrying a quarter million dollars in student loans or a school teacher with a debt load of $25k, but it is all about the proportions; excess debt in many ways could be thought of as economic obesity.

How to avoid it

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So how do you stay financially fit at determine whether you should enter the arena of student debt? Know the value of your degree. Value in this case is nothing more than the worth minus cost.

1. What is your degree worth?—What is the median wage of the profession this degree will qualify you for? What are the post-graduation placement rates? How safe is it from outsourcing and automation?

2. What is the cost?—How much will it take to get to get the skill set you want, including interest and all other associated costs? Can you cut costs by going to another school or living in a different situation? What are the opportunity costs?

After you take these two things into account, the choice becomes a simple cost benefit analysis. Either your goals make sense and you should proceed, or they don’t and it might be time to re-evaluate.

This simple choice can still be too complicated for some. Last weekend I was chatting with someone at my local hobby store about the vocational degree he was pursuing when a young woman joined our conversation. She made it known that she was also pursuing a vocational degree – in costume design.

A few simple questions made it clear she was absolutely oblivious to these sorts of factors: she was going to pay $80k for a degree that would lead to a job with a median wage of $12 per hour. It is worth nothing that is less than she is getting paid for her current job. Assuming optimal conditions, if she lands a good job in her field upon graduation, and pays 10% of her income each year to her loans, she can expect to pay off this life choice in a little over 30 years.

That’s a long time to spend paying off a dream.

Read More: How Hard Is It To Discharge Your Student Loans?

225 thoughts on “How To Know If You Should Take Out Student Loans”

  1. “I’ll be damned if I paid for my education with 5 years of enlistment while a student with an interdisciplinary degree in religious and gender studies sees any part of her $100k student loan bill forgiven.”
    What’s the difference?
    Either way taxpayers get screwed!

      1. Five years of a taxpayer-funded government job.
        And extra bonuses from taxpayers to pay for “education”.
        Why can’t actual taxpayers who work legitimate jobs get student loans forgiven?

        1. The GI bill offers them benefits like tuition assistance, which is why so many from the lower income brackets enlist. As a taxpayer myself I like to see my dollars go to them instead of the “Great Society” welfare programs that have created a permanent underclass. If I understand correctly you graduated college, are currently employed, and you don’t want to pay back your student loan. I don’t know your situation but when I paid mine back all it meant to me was that I never robbed a bank, which hardly makes me a saint, but it looked good on my credit report so I could buy real estate. Again, I don’t know how much debt you took on but to compare yourself to someone who served five years in the armed forces keeping his end of the agreement saddens me. I think you should take some time for self reconciliation and reconsider your assertions.

        2. Government jobs are government jobs.
          They are a drain on society. The military is nothing special or holy. It’s another welfare program.

    1. Whats the difference? The soldier paying into his Montgomerey GI bill might die tomorrow.

  2. How really to decide if you should incur education loans:
    Line 1: Do you need to take out a loan? If no, proceed to line 2. If yes, proceed to line 3.
    Line 2: Good, carry on.
    Line 3: DON’T TAKE OUT A STUDENT LOAN!

    1. Marc Cuban recently said something like that – “If you take out a loan to start a business, you’re a moron.” Ditto for most of the degrees people are financing.

      1. I’m actually a little more lenient in a business start-up loan situation.
        First, before the check is cut any smart lender will want to see some objective wherewithal to pay based on debt service ratios, and subjective likelihood of repayment as well, i.e., the borrower is not some scumbag leech.
        Second, assuming the business owner has first saved some capital sufficient to purchase tangible assets or has an intangible asset with some marketable value, there will be collateral to act as security in the event of default. Thus, the secured interest can be foreclosed and collateral sold. This allows the creditor to be repaid all or a portion of his investment, and the debtor owing less money, if any, which in turn makes it easier for him to rebound.
        Third and finally, it takes balls to start a serious business. And I won’t criticize someone for having the gumption to get out there and make something happen, even if they ended up being unsuccessful.

        1. Thanks, you just proved why Mark Cuban, a billionaire investor, is right, and you’re a moron.
          There is an entire industry out there of predatory lending, and idiots who think they are gonna strike it rich are some of the main clientele.
          Starting a business is inherently an extremely-high-risk investment. You don’t take out a high-interest loan to make an investment like that. That’s is just finance 101. You might as well just hand money to the bank or walk into a casino. The house always wins, and it’s no different here.
          If you can get a cheap (low interest) loan, then knock yourself out, but this requires either a lot of assets, a lot of market credibility (success in past businesses), or both. If it’s your first business and you have no money, you can’t get a loan like that. Unless you use your house as collateral, in which case good luck but I wouldn’t invest in you.

        2. Did you not read my post? I specifically mentioned having assets (and no, I don’t consider one’s primary residence an asset) or marketability before being allowed to or deciding to borrow money. Both of which would more likely than not lead to a lower interest rate.
          I know it’s a high-risk investment. I also know that the higher the risk, the higher the reward.
          I accept that you wouldn’t invest in me, an alleged moron. I only invest with winners anyway.

        3. Ray Kroc and Sam Walton both leveraged themselves personally to the hilt to get their businesses going. Were they morons too?

      2. How did he start Broadcom? Cash from his family and friends I assume>

  3. Does the 100k figure include the money paid on rent and such? Something in me thinks that it might not be!!
    Why whould you do a degree at any university and not find a better alternative such as Europe. It works out way cheaper and you’re qualified in 3 years not 4 like in the states. It’s £9000 a year in the UK making it 2x as cheap compared to anything in the US.
    Plenty of good unis here and a plethora of distance learning courses from the likes of Open University. Make sure you don’t study a country specific course such as law.

  4. Incentivizing and cheapening debt, thus casting the net wider for suckers to trap into the system.
    Once you’re a few tens of thousands in the red and barely into your twenties the leviathan has its claws hooked into you for the rest of your life. Trapped in debt so you are compelled to work to pay it off and suddenly the vast majority of options in life are suddenly closed to you.
    Next step is further burdening yourself with a mortgage because its a better alternative to renting. Now you’re just an interchangeable cog in a machine that doesn’t give a shit about you, but upon which you are completely reliant. You need that steady paycheck to service your enormous debts you signed up to when you were young and stupid, and now you’re older and wiser and realise the way the system works you can’t afford to speak out against it because your day to day existence relies on you not getting fired for speaking unpopular red pill truths.

    1. I am 35 years old, and have a fully paid, full-sized house in good condition. And I only earn 20 000 per year. I think I don’t have it that bad. Bankster scumbags don’t make a lot of money with me and I am happy about this. Hell, I borrowed 10 000$ from a person, not a bank. Anything to prevent these scumbag banksters to make money is good to me.

      1. Good for you. I wouldn’t recommend it for everybody. I think if people can go to university and gauge that it offers a good prospects for future earning potential against the debt incurred then they should still consider it. The West will always need certain professions for which a degree is a requirement. A generation of men who entirely reject further education would spell disaster for Western countries.

    2. > Incentivizing and cheapening debt, thus casting the net wider for suckers to trap into the system.
      Exactly. This is nothing but a huge incentive for people to take out student loans and give universities and lending institutions money. In other words, another huge sloppy blowjob from the Obama administration to big business.

  5. I am fortunate that in my country we get paid to go to school. One of the few redeeming qualities. Nonetheless I don’t fit into the school system. Or life in general. So here is what I’m doing.
    Get a boat, passive income from certain online investments, spend my time sailing around europe for basically nothing, going where and when I will. I’m free and unburdened.
    The way everyone expects that I SHOULD live is sick and makes people insane.

    1. The purpose of “free” government schools and colleges is that the elites expect that you SHOULD live a certain way.
      It does make people insane…and easy to control.

    2. “get a boat” or have you “gotten a boat”? If you are already doing this, I think it would make for a great article.

      1. It’s a recent project. The passive income part is half taken care of, saving for the boat now. Should have everything ready within a year at this rate.
        I’m not much of a writer, but I have thought about it. It’l be in the comments if nothing else.

  6. My old professor told me earlier this week that enrolments at York University are 30% down from a few years ago. Told me the trend has begun in other local universities as well.
    Bumped into him as he was just leaving a presentation he was giving to prospective future students. Perhaps young people are realizing that student debt might ruin their lives.

    1. Demographics will drop the number of 18 yr olds every year until the end of this decade. Debt fears will lower the numbers, too. In ’18, I send my oldest to university out of the US and to Europe.

      1. From my academic experience, specifically within my field, I can honestly say I was very impressed with the quality of research coming from Europe.

        1. I’m sure it depends on the field and what we mean by “ahead.”
          Countries like America or even Japan seem to have the most advancement technologically, but the research from Europe that I came across was very well done and answered questions without having to use overly complicated methods.
          My current boss is an American living in Canada and he told me just last week that he has noticed that Canadians have a less entrepreneurial and risk-taking mindset than his peers in the US. I think differences in mentality become noticeable in terms of research as well. The best US universities are private institutions so there is the capitalistic approach of becoming the best and producing. In Europe it seems there is a more relaxed approach, but that doesn’t mean Europeans are any less curious or forward thinking, just that it is less driven by industry.
          That is my take on it.

        2. Not just the quality of the research but the quality of instruction. I met a guy who moved to Italy from South Carolina, had a daughter there. She is graduating high school now and in the Italian schools all the exams are oral. Basically you must be able to convince, explain and argue rationally that you fully understand the subject matter. That’s hard to fake. The multiple choice bullshit tests in America can be easily gamed.
          The Buddhists also have a system of questioning and debate that gets to the heart of the matter.
          http://www.shambhala.com/a-course-in-buddhist-reasoning-and-debate.html
          All the researchers I know in the US are foreigners (dozen or so) who moved here to do research. So I think the US does quality research, but it’s mostly with foreigners (Europeans and Asians).

      2. Up until the late 70s/early 80s, you actually could work your way thru college. Tuition has gone up more than 300% in 35 years…

        1. Tuition has gone through the roof particularly since 98 when bankruptcy was changed to priority debt and thus unable to be wiped away in a bankruptcy.

  7. My take on it, as an economist.
    Most people going to college these days are women. They don’t pick their majors based on practical return on investment-only on what is fun tosl study and socially accepted. Frankly, why should they-being women the only major which HAS to pay is the guy’s.
    Which brings me to the next point. Not every girl who graduates with a dead end degree (read most of them) will find a mate with a higher paying degree . Hypergamy ensures shell just go it alone versus taking up with a plumber or blue collar man, so there will be a buttload of women with $150,000+ debt and zero credit .Guess what the politicians will do next??

    1. I worked multiple jobs straight through my undergraduate degree, lived minimally all throughout, paid off all debt within a year of graduating.
      I worked my fucking ass off.
      If the government decides to bail everybody out and raise taxes to pay for people who went to school to party and fuck around… I honestly don’t know how the fuck I will react.

      1. That’s unlikely. Student loans are just as collateralized as other financial instruments. A total ‘forgiveness’ would trigger a 2008 scale credit crisis.

        1. So what do you think will happen?
          Debt and interest will just be passed down for a generation or two?
          There aren’t enough white-knights out there to balance these women’s pocket books… Or are there… 0_o

        2. What’s the collateral on a student loan? With the housing market, the overpriced houses ostensibly formed the collateral behind the CDOs that were valued based on the underlying asset class, real estate. Here all we have is a bunch of worthless degrees which can’t be repossessed and Uncle Sam’s promise to guarantee them.

        3. Ah! Some terminology confusion is at work here.
          I mean collateralized in the sense that student loans are loan instruments on each bank’s balance sheet, and investment banks use student loan categories as investment instruments just like home mortgages were .Not ‘collateralized’ in the sense that they’re guaranteed by some physical asset.
          A forgiveness would be like the government invalidating private morgages-it would crush the banking system. In any event, we don’t have to worry about a literal ‘forgiveness’ as government does not have the authority legally to abrogate a private lending contract between the student and the lender. Even if Washington tried, it would be rendered moot by the courts in the inevitable lawsuit by the banks.

        4. if they don’t find their white knight, then the loans will be discharged at bankruptcy.

        5. Bank balance sheets are not collateral. The collateral in SLABs is the pledge of the actual cash flow from payments of interest and principle.
          I found that in 10 minutes with google. Shit.
          “government does not have the authority legally to abrogate a private lending contract between the student and the lender.”
          Really? Talk to the Chrysler and GM bondholders. Talk to everyone who was forced into an insurance contract for Obamacare.
          Modern government is no longer bound by the past old-fashioned dead white guy written constitutional restraints.
          Bend over

        6. I think the problem will be worse than that.
          From what I can tell, a percentage of these loans are going to end up in estates that will have nothing in them. i.e. The person who owed the money died from old age or is so elderly that they can’t work anymore. At that point it will be a loss to the government.
          There is also the start of a moment where some people are refusing to make any more payments on the loans.If enough people take this route, it would be like a revolt since if there are too many people not paying , the resources do not exist to be able to go after everyone for none payment.

        7. Realistically, postsecondary education will become another tax for those who attend (and the gov’t is making it where almost everyone must attend to work any job whatsoever). The payments for the debt will be stretched out on such a long time horizon that almost everyone can easily afford them, but that degree will end up costing hundreds of thousands with interest.
          Those who can pay, will pay low amounts spread over hundreds of payments. Those who cannot pay, will have their loans paid off by the government, but likely after they have already paid back at least the principle. Hence it becomes a de facto tax for education, but without all the fairness and transparency of direct taxation. After all, this is the model of fascism, the merging of state and corporate power.

        8. GSLs are never discharged by bankruptcy in the US.
          Which is why marrying someone with a huge student loan is dangerous.

        9. yeah, funny enough I actually talked about that in another post.
          basically I just assumed these chicks getting a MRS degree were sticking to undergrad, although I’m sure there are a few in the various grad schools

        10. Wrong. Student loans don’t come off in a bankruptcy. . FYI. I work in bankruptcy

        11. Yes. The man will always assume her student loans. I’ve talked to many attorneys in family law and the females attorney has three things on her mind and that is custody of the kid and the cs, keeping the house and making the man assume her student loans.

      2. I hear you. Some of us actually took time off from school, went overseas and literally got shot at to earn the money. After paying cash the last thing I want to listen to are incompetents with too much debt bellyaching about needing a bail out.

      3. Cynically, it doesn’t matter how your react, because the government knows there aren’t enough people like you to make a difference at the polls, and it knows free money is the most addictive drug known to man … or woman.

      4. I guess you will accept it in the end. It’s happening all the time, and we finally accept whatever policies are forced upon us.

    2. That is correct, and the reason they are able to do so is largely because the government massively subsidizes college.
      If the government did not send people to higher education for free, the only people in higher education would be those who either (a) got lucky with rich parents or some other deal or (b) are learning skills that are demanded in the marketplace and will pay off in the long run.
      Eliminating government subsidy of school would retain the good parts, but eliminate all the SJW, women’s studies, feminist and liberal majors that are so prevalent today.

  8. “Student loan debt is one of my deal breakers when dating.”
    Oh, how right you are. She might be fine for the bang, but if it turns into an LTR, you just bought a wife with a mortgage. Given the abundance of poon out there, it’s not worth it – move on.

    1. Likewise, and women don’t appreciate how much of a deal-breaker this is. It’s been elaborated on in other places, but I refuse to subsidize her partying years during school for a bullshit degree with no ROI. $20, 30, 50, 100k… soon you’re talking real money, and my money is the time I’ve spent busting my ass in one way or another. From a financial perspective, a woman with any significant loans without the means to repay (and I can do Excel to figure it out), is absolutely a nonstarter.

  9. When I went to higher education learning, I basically had no money at all, and never even had a job. But everyone just told me to get loans like it would solve everything. I never liked being in debt and in fact being poor is one of the reasons why I dropped out early. I never went to university.

  10. While not as good as most engineering degrees, a masters in economics is not the end of the world, assuming she taught herself some coding something like R or Matlab. However, if she decides that it’s “not her PAAASSIOOON!!” and writes poetry as a barista, yeah, that’s a problem.

  11. I love the idea of millions of “modern womyn” becoming financially screwed for life. Good!
    Even better is when PHD girl’s hypergamy boxes her in, limiting her to 1% of the men in the country. Then she is in debt and alone.
    Enjoy your “progress” ladies.

    1. While that idea may be an in your face thing, some beta chump will wife her up and pay off her debt.

      1. GOOD! Let the whiteknights, simps, manginas and “male feminists” suffer along with them.
        They might receive an orthomolecular dose of the red pill that way, battered, bruised, beaten and broken, they’ll either find us and see the light or go crawling back to the SJW overlords for more punishment.

        1. Disagree. It’s fucked up. Women get to be irresponsible and a man picks up the cheque? What kind of lesson does that teach them? It only perpetuates the same cycle that got us in this fucked up position.

        2. Lets look at it this way, a woman can only go as far as men allow her to.
          If she’s acting irresponsible financially,and a beta bitch chump comes along to bail her out, who’s fault is it really?
          Can you fault her for acting like a worthless piece of shit when every man around her gives the bitch a free pass to do so?
          It’s only when they(beta-males) get burned (as quite a lot of ROK’ers here have in their youth) that they’ll have the opportunity to reflect on their mistakes and see the error of their ways, and more importantly, LEARN from their past experiences.
          The free ride for worthless carousel riding feminist, SJW’s and their sympathizers will end when men stop supporting their stupid ass.
          “If it wasn’t for the hard way, most people wouldn’t learn shit!” – Al Burk A Durk Bin Jaheed Rahman Mullah Mullah Benghazi

        3. But that’s just the problem, many of these women don’t experience the “hard way.” They fuck up, get married, get saved, get divorced, get rich, then become cougars. The only stage in their lives where they learn the “hard way” is when they’re effectively out of the dating pool due to age or obesity. And that does no man no good.

      2. Unfortunately, way too many of these slutty cunts who fucked their way through an advanced degree program CAN in fact pay for quite literally anything princess so desires including their education. They stand as the golden template that all women aspire to. Far too many fucktoys are entering STEM/law/econ/med grad programs and are becoming empowered per se. This can’t legally or ethically continue. When the most intelligent women of the species aren’t being put in a position of servility where they have to procreate – the species devolves. Any woman legitimately garnering a degree which facilitates even a modicum of financial independence needed to have been shitting out babies since the age of 18 for our species to progress. It’s like the move idiocracy. Mouthy cunts need to be forced into a life of silent reproduction because they are no longer doing it willingly.

    2. Most females who go to college do so to find husbands and have no interest in academic studies. They are the ones who hang out in protests about everything from womyn’s rights to Save the Whales. They spend their college years blowing every black/rasta dude or white/rocker/bad boy types, claiming they’re bi and sleeping with other womyn and experiment with Eastern religions (of course, the sanitized Eat Prey Love versions only).
      Then, one day, the biological clock starts ticking. It’s final year so she heads down to the computer lab and finds some (white only) beta nerd who spent his time studying Unix and C++, gives him the best sex he ever had, and ends up marrying him. Then it’s off to some whites only gated community, driving an SUV, trapping him with the threat of divorce and popping out a litter of fetish kids.
      And the cycle repeats itself until America is broke.

      1. True, if they are attractive.
        However, I have known a couple of fat chicks with graduate degrees who are now 40-50 and alone. When I see that, I can’t help see it as a victory for men on some level.

        1. It’s because (at that point) they don’t think they “need a man”…or they’ve hit the wall hard and no men are putting up with their shit.
          Some of these educated women are the worst because they think they know every god damn thing plus they hate men at this point. Any statement that is made (that doesn’t echo this professional woman’s advice) is deemed as “stupid”. I’ve been around quite a few of them and I just laugh.
          Too smart for everyone but no one wants to be around them (the truth). They’re miserable people.

        2. Yes. Deep down I gain power from their misery. . It’s honestly the only way to enact change. Male suffering is invisible so we have to hurt females for them to take notice

        3. Funny story. I met a PhD woman who got it in women’s studies. . I pumped and dumped her. She got a PhD and had over 100k in student loans. She lived in a shitty apt and had a cat. She worked at a community college. She said men over 40 contacted her online and that they seemed to assume she was easy due to her being over 30. These women are clueless. They have no concept of how men see the world.

        4. I don’t see that as unhealthy at all. There is nothing wrong with acknowledging karma.
          Society sees nothing wrong when unscrupulous men receive retribution. Why should you or I feel sympathy when unscrupulous women get their payback?

      2. I think this is starting to be a pattern, hence the reason why most women should not be in college. Of course there are a few that should such as the ones majoring in STEM fields or something useful (not Liberal Arts, etc.) but there still aren’t a lot of women in those fields. In an average engineering class, the mass majority of students are male despite many efforts to recruit women to major in engineering.

        Why Women Shouldn’t Be Encouraged To Attend University

  12. It blows my mind that people still go to college today and still major in some bullshit low- or no-demand field. There are many jobs that require only a high school degree that pay $12+/hr…..skip college, work full time while living rent free with your parents, save and invest, and after 4 years you’ll come out so much further than these kids majoring in some bullshit where no one is even hiring for.

    1. I briefly dated a doctor, and she told me that financially I had the better career. Imagine being 35 before you start really earning any money. Do some time value of money equations and see how much money earned in the prime years of 18-35 is worth. I’ll be richer than a doctor at retirement.

        1. I work in real estate, and have socked away money in my IRA since I was 16. Real estate is not the best field, but it is something *everyone* must buy or use (think homes, grocery stores, offices they work in, places they shop). Before this I worked part time as an IT consultant, paid pretty well, flexible hours, paid by the job.
          To me the main advantage is setting your own hours, getting paid by the job / effort you put forth, not the hours you work, and getting to subtract lots of business expenses from your gross income. I think a decent mechanic, plumber, electrician, etc. would be just as good (also things everyone needs directly or indirectly). Just pursue whatever you were good at. I was good at math. This is slightly more ethical / rewarding than working for an investment firm.

        2. you might wanna reconsider the IRA thing- I was told you cannot cash it in for the full amount, they break off X percentage a year until the money is depleted.

        3. A Roth IRA is best. It is completely tax-neutral (the earnings are not taxed every year, and when you take the money at retirement, you can withdraw it tax free as well). Once you reach retirement age, you can take out as little or as much as you like. It’s just a basic bank account at that point. However, don’t expect the rules to stay the same from now through retirement, unless you are already close. I can see them fucking me for all the sacrifices I made beginning in my teen years when the gov’t really gets close to bankruptcy. I will flip out, but I can honestly see it coming.
          Besides, I wouldn’t wanna cash it out in full–that’s what I plan on living off of in some nice tropical destination…

    2. Well if you want to work overseas in most countries you NEED a degree. Doesn’t matter what degree, just a degree. Also if you want a promotion you pretty much NEED a degree.
      So for those reasons ONLY, yeah, it can be handy.
      But fuck all that. Many Chinese (for instance) are getting two degrees because one degree doesn’t make them stand out. In a couple of decades they’ll be getting three degrees because two doesn’t make them stand out.
      The ideal solution is to be your own boss. No degree required in most cases, except the obvious one’s e.g. Law, medicine…

      1. You need a degree and a sponsor (H1B), at least in the US. Gets me angry when these tech honchos say theres a dearth of talent, theres a dearth of talent willing to work long hours for shit wages. global wage arbitrage is a bitch lol

      2. I’d also say having a willingness to move to where there is opportunity is another important thing. Now that we live in a globalized economy this takes on a new meaning.
        For example, if teaching English in Asia will give you the financial and lifestyle position that you can use to start building on your skill-set that is a good investment in my opinion.
        If staying in your home-town means being surrounded by the same old drug-addicted losers and having to work at the local Starbucks because there is no other industry where you live, then its time to GTFO.

    3. Do you have any examples of jobs that paid well and don’t require to go to the college?

      1. I’m helping my brother find a job, he has no college education or any skill….I saw a posting on Craigslist seeking a powerwasher/painter. It pays $15/hr. That’s great for an 18 year old.
        That’s just one example. Yes it’s a labor job, but what’s better, working hard and making $15K/hr learning a skill, or wasting 4 years getting a worthless degree, going into $50K+debt, and end up working at Starbucks for $8/hr?

      2. Any trade that a young man (or any man) can get in on is valuable (even if only for personal use). I’ve learned quite a few trades just hiring on a whatever level (bottom or close to it) just to gain the knowledge of the trade (and the hands on).
        It, usually, led to another company with more money in that trade. Plus, I can use the skills around my property to fix (versus spending money to call a contractor).
        High schools do a shitty job at promoting these all important trade skills. They will gladly throw you at a college to “learn” and they will frown on these trades (anything having to do with physical labor). It was a joke (and I ignored all of the counselors). I wasn’t going to see those fuckers again…so fuck them…I did what I wanted).

  13. Hustle and grind. I repeat, hustle and grind.
    The college market is oversaturated. There are simply TOO MANY graduates in all fields including engineering, medicine and law. The notion that there is a low number of graduates in STEM, is a myth and a lie. Don’t believe it.
    The student loan crisis will continue to go on as long as the government continues to hand out more loans to people who will most likely, never be able to pay it back. Over $1 trillion dollars in student loan debt- has the world really turned that stupid?
    If I had the power, than I would shut down 99% of colleges. Lets be honest, the only people who get jobs nowadays from college are the ones with connections or graduated from MIT, Harvard or Stanford. So really, there is no point in allowing these scam schools open as they are a financial burden and parasite on the rest of the hard working citizens of the country.
    Forget the fact that the student loan crisis has exploded, but the value of a degree itself, has reduced significantly thanks to the oversaturation of the college market. In order to make money in this day and age, I repeat, you must hustle and grind but more importantly, think outside the box.
    While the opportunities are small, there are still ways to make money in this day and age. Just do the research, prepare to take a risk and never stop working hard.

    1. There are simply TOO MANY graduates in all fields including engineering, medicine and law.
      I did manage to find a degree in something that pays well but is virtually unknown, and did it mainly because I have never run a business and wouldn’t know the first thing about how to do so. My debt is now on the way to being wiped out. If you’re the academic type, sniff around for fields that do still have higher demand than supply. Law and engineering don’t qualify any more.

    2. don’t lump graduate loans with undergrad loans. they’re extremely different.
      I’m paying 7% interest with interest accruing immediately, while in a highly competitive graduate program. My loans are not dischargable in bankruptcy.
      Compare this to an undergrad pottery major at a liberal arts school who is getting a 40k/yr loan to get a degree in pottery. They’re paying roughly 4 % interest, and that interest does not start accruing until they graduate. Additionally, their loans are dischargable in bankruptcy.

      1. so is that the difference between under- and grad loans?? Interest starts accruing immediately? Its amazing bc I would automatically assume grad students are smarter as there are fewer slots open. And what does the system do? Award your superior intellect? no, they do you dirty…

        1. yeah and the interest rate is ~ 3 % different which is pretty significant in the long term and when you get some big principal factored in

    3. One University per state (with exceptions to all Ivy League schools). Problem solved.

    4. Student loans should only be given to people pursuing worthwhile degrees, just like mortgages are given out to people who have decent jobs
      Needs more privatization to weed out the garbage

      1. Mortgages are given out to people who have decent jobs?!? Yeah, maybe in the 1950s. Actually back then most people bought houses with cash.
        Back in 2007, people who were turned down to rent an apartment were routinely approved to buy houses with 2% down. The government has now increased the requirements slightly. I think you need 3%.

        1. Likewise banks only need to hold 10% of your money (or less, will double-check). It’s all fucked up, and who do we have to thank? Jews. It’s always the Jews. Fuck Jews.

        2. Oh yeah. I think it used to be 10%, but I’m pretty sure it’s way less now. That’s the only way banks are profitable in this sham of an economy. They literally couldn’t make money otherwise, things are so shitty right now. And it’s the only reason they pay 0.09% interest to you, and that people can get 4% mortgages. Seriously, would you willingly loan out your hard earned paycheck for 4% interest a year? The true price of lending is much higher, except that our fed distorts it in order to prop up the scam that would otherwise collapse.

        3. That was back in the sane, responsible days of lending which ended in the late 90s. No one has any true of idea of how bad it is. When Lehman Bros went bust, they were levered up to 45:1 (the formersafe limit was a max of 12:1).

        4. This is why I ignore all of these Fed meetings where they claim they are discussing an interest rate hike- they will never ever raise rates substantially bc they cant! Everything would melt down again…

        5. Learn the simple truths of our banking system and the whys and hows of world events come clearly into view.

        6. I already do. Studied finance… didn’t teach me shit, was just brainwashing… then years later saw this good little documentary “How Money Works” (I believe that’s the title). It’s a very amateurish production, crappy cartoons, but was beyond enlightening.
          The “Fuck me!” statement was just relating to the 45:1 stat.

        7. Actually, it was frequently 0% down and paying interest only (or even partial interest) in Cal, Las Vegas, and FL (and a few other places)

        8. 4% pooled, asset backed, and insured (PMI) isn’t bad in the current environment. Usually the loans are only 5-7 years despite the fact that they are 30 year fixed loans. Without the Fed, it’d probably be 6-8% right now.

        9. The requirements have definitely been lowered to get a mortgage but many people also knew what they could afford.
          The housing bubble was just greed by the banks and people borrowing who knew they couldn’t afford it. I blame both sides…the lenders for their “practices” and the borrowers because they knew better. I was working my first job and I knew what kind of car payment I could and could not afford….way back when.
          You can’t tell me that many of these people didn’t know that they couldn’t afford certain homes. Again, I blame both sides (banks got a little greedy).

      2. Every single person that attends college is not going to become a computer programmer or accountant. The problem is that a huge segment of the population has defaulted or will default and something needs to be done.

        1. The point is that granting loans only to STEMs incentivizes actual education while discouraging bullshit degrees
          In a perfect world loan grants could be distributed evenly, but given that something like 20-30% of courses in Western colleges churns out equalist ideologues with degrees in victimhood, I say the balance need to be tipped against them

    5. I think the problem is that most people go to college with no plan in mind for when they finish. Usually their parents push them when they’re too young to know what they want to do with their lives. Plus, most of their moms were yesterday’s feminists and so have no common sense.
      At 18, nobody knows what they want to do. Moms look at college and they can’t see the difference between engineering and womyn’s studies degrees. So junior takes womyn’s studies because it’s easier because mom is worried about him. It’s all about getting a degree just to get a degree, not because it will lead to anything.
      Read any New York Times article about college graduates who can’t find work. Then look what degrees they have and how puzzled they are because Wall Street doesn’t want Basket Weaving graduates, even with masters degrees. Then look at the stupid mothers who look perplexed when the kids move back in at 29 after years of unpaid internships and student loan debt.
      Meanwhile, companies can’t find enough graduates with advanced technical degrees that require actual work. Craftsmen/women of many trades are in big demand right now. I’m talking computer programmers and aeronautical engineers, not baristas and Etsy piss artists.

      1. Unpaid internships?
        If you see these advertised, run to the hills and don’t look back.

        1. Bit like volunteering on an organic farm. Lets the farmer fire all his illegal Mexicans and hire cheap labor with no worries about Immigraciones.
          Only difference, hipsters have no idea what hard work is. The Mexicans were a better investment.

        2. Unless you are guaranteed a job at the end of unpaid internship, then you honestly have to be a real sucker to believe that unpaid interships count for anything in the real world.
          All these hipsters, doing unpaid internships at “media” companies thinking work equates to knowing how to operate an imac. Jesus Christ…

      2. Hence the reason why most people shouldn’t go to college. It’s just too many stupid, useless degrees added with leftist professors. What the heck someone going to do with a Womyn’s Studies Degree anyways besides work at McDonalds, teach it, or become a dumb SJWtard?!

    6. and with that student loan debt we saw the rise of the “professional student”. Kids who continued in school, changed majors and continued to borrow money (because it grows on trees). Many didn’t want to enter the real world and start paying it back…times were (are) too good for them. It’s part of the reason why so many kids over a certain age should have moved out of their parent’s house by now.
      But, again, they like mom and dad’s nice things (house, car, etc…) so why move. Do your kids and favor and throw them into the deep end of the pool…you’ll be doing them a favor. Too many kids are coddled today and think that they can live in school and live with their parents (forever). Life is hard (no shit).

      1. She did say it. Im not sure. Saw two Hillary 2016 bumper stickers today. Felt like two kicks to the gut.

    1. What she means is they lost their Beta provider so they are ripe for her “It Takes a Village” bullshit government check husband/father/son replacement. Further proof that a man is nothing but a utility to the Feminazi.

      1. Bingo. And guess who wants to be the king of the village and not one of the busy little village workers whose back the whole village rests on.

    2. WTF! Women have been the primary victims of war??? Is she fucking retarded? What about the MEN that lost their lives or crippled from their wounds? How come no one called her out on this nonsense when she said this?

      1. she is just pandering to the female borg(i.e., You are ALWAYS the victim).

    3. Wait. Wut? Shouldn’t the husbands/fathers/sons be the primary victimes. I thought they are the ones getting their brains blown off… What a twisted logic, it must hurt getting your mind to do these acrobatics..

      1. …and people want her to be our next President. If it werent for the millions of angry Islamic criminals in our prisons, Id be all for America failing at this point. My Brothers lost their lives for this?

        1. What I am going to tell you now will sadden you profoundly: The cunt will be our next President. All you have to do is note the feminist hysteria out there and put the two together. The masses are eating this shit up and she will win. I am sure Oprah will be squirting all over this after she went race over gender first time around. She’ll now have it both ways.
          I am seriously starting to doubt we will have a white male President. Ever.

        2. Everybody gets their turn at the helm. Hillary will be next. Then someone gay, like Doogie Howser. Then a tranny is next, RuPaul if he is still alive in 20 years…it doesnt matter anyway, all are bought and paid for…

  14. This generation of men with student debts will be creamed the most. No state alimony/child support laws account for student debt, or Obamacare mandatory fees, when calculating the amounts men have to pay to ex-wives and their children’s mothers. By time these four mandatory court-ordered, pay-docking, SS payment-docking cost hit men, the numbers of men being wiped out, even jailed, will skyrocket.

  15. I have 7 years of university and went tens of thousands into debt. What got me my current job? A $500 TESL certificate. What might make me rich? A board game I developed while running my own business.
    .
    Seriously look at the cost-benefit of “higher” education.

    1. What country do you teach in? And can you guide me on your TESL certification? The ones I looked into were a few thousand dollars. After you got certified, what’s the process like to get a teaching position?

      1. Scorpio is in China. Your best bet for getting a teaching position is to be in the country. Get some of the cheapest, briefest certs that you can find so that your resume is just an alphabet soup of certs. Don’t worry, you only need one but if you can find some really abbreviated courses for cheap, just tack them on. Keep the certificates with you and bring them. No school in Asia is going to nitpick that much. If one does, fine. Just go to another. The key is to simply go to the country. Dress like an adult (blazer and tie) and you will blow away 95% of the vagabonds and millenial twits in ESL. Just go to China, Shanghai or Shenzhen and hustle. Learn as much as you can for your own benefit from Youtube. See if a youtube trainer get doctor up some agreement that you watch and like all their vids and they serve as a reference or even doctor up a cert. They’d probably like that.

        1. China is changing their visa requirements so you can’t simply convert your visitor visa to a work visa anymore. I actually had to fly back to Canada to get my work visa, and I have a legit employer.

      2. I have itoi tefl/tesol. China’s real hot right now. Back in the day you could come without experience or a certificate.

  16. Anyone who has a masters dergee in Economics and is working at a coffee house probably has a personal reason for it and does it on their own accord. Masters in economics is nothing like its undergraduate counterpart. CEO of Enron had a masters in econ. Just sayin..

      1. Completely irrelevant . The point is that people who earn masters in economics are smart people who are in demand to work within and run companies.

        1. I’m not convinced how much of a “science” economics is. Supply and demand is really just common sense. I think if one read a book like Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson one would have enough skills to run any business as well as an economist would (unless you are into the fake fraud day trading, hedge funding business like Enron, Goldman Sachs, etc. in which case you do need to learn all the dirty tricks)

        2. Based on your reply, you’ve clearly never taken an economics course. Ironically enough econ 101 is one of the most failed courses in the university system. Your reply is basically every newb’s reply
          ” durr economics is just supply and demand “. I’d say S&D is 1/5th of even the most basic econ framework.
          Undergrad economics is by all means a social science and only requires intermediate algebra to understand. However for a Masters, most students were math majors as undergrads.
          Also your comments about ” day trading, and hedging ” are laughable as there is nothing fraudulent about those activities.
          Could you even tell me what a ” hedge ” is , without having to google it first? Probably not.

        3. Can you explain to us how the commodities futures market now works?
          As I understand how it used to be, you couldnt speculate unless
          it was necessary to your business(eg, American Airlines could buy oil futures, Kellogg’s corn futures, etc.).
          I’d honestly like to know how the changing of the rules benefits an avg joe like me. Thanks. Genuinely curious.

        4. What do you mean? I speculate in the futures market every day.
          Oh, I think I read your post the wrong way… If you want to speculate, open a brokerage account and get on it. You can make a lot of money, you can lose a lot of money.

        5. Well unless your a farmer or in the agriculture business , the futures market doesn’t really affect you or the average joe.
          The futures market is in place to take away the risk of price inflation or deflation. So to the mitigate the risk of prices going up or down for corn, beef, ect because of things like inflation or deflation , both buying and selling parties agree here and now on a price that they will buy and sell for at the end of the future contract date.
          It’s really that simple .

        6. Personally I have taken 4 university economics classes. But what courses an anonymous stranger on the internet has taken or passed isn’t really important. What I noticed was they taught “classical economics” within the first couple of weeks, and then spent the rest of the semester on “Keynesian economics” which is the voodoo economics of debt and government manipulation that we have now. So that’s why I believe that one can learn the basics of econ quickly and simply–it’s really just variations on the theme of supply and demand being inverse, which is really common sense and can be observed in many places in daily life.
          Nothing fraudulent about day trading, high frequency trading, running hedge funds, etc.? I find it hard to believe that anyone considers those productive activities or legitimate ways of making a living, other than the bankster or government classes. Of course that is different than “hedging ones bets” which is simply taking action to offset a related risk, ie let’s say you buy Tesla stock in the hopes that the new electric car movement takes off but you also buy Exxon stock as a “hedge” in case your bet doesn’t play out, and people continue to use gasoline cars, you still make some money.
          The activity of hedging is different than someone like Wolf of Wall Street making millions off financial manipulation. For more on this topic, read up on “Long Term Capital Management” (there is a great Frontline episode about it). There is nothing masculine or legitimate about making money this way. But if you can do it, go for it. It’s just another form of casino gambling, and if you get lucky betting on red, bully for you. After WW2 this activity really took off. You can draw your own conclusions as to what happened and why.

      2. Enron went bankrupt because of intentional unethical actions that eventually caught up with them. Not because of non know how or incompetence related to the field of business.

  17. The american dream is one big lie to make you a beta slave to the bank and government.
    If you want to drink the koolaid, live the fake dream. Get some college debt, auto loan debt, marry your wifes debt, get some home ownership debt, and retire on you 401k which will be worth nothing due to inflation.
    Ever notice how if you skip school and learn a trade, your looked down upon?
    Ever notice that if you buy a used car and pay it off in 2 years your not as cool as the guy with the 30k car?
    If you marry a young woman instead of a debt ridden 32 year old reformed slut, your a misogynistic pig?
    Notice that if you buy a bad ass 60k condo that can later be payed off and rented out, your not as smart as the guy with the 200k debt on a home.
    Notice peoples reaction when you mention 401k is a losers plan???
    Dont buy into society’s plan called “the american dream”.

    1. Great points. I’ve been thinking this way for 20 years. It’s saved me a world of hurt. outside of truck loan ( I need a nice one for the trade that I am in) – debt free! Feels great

    2. Agree with all but the 401k. First, you usually get 3-4% company match which is usually a 50-100% immediate return (which for me means leaving 6-8k on the table). Second, It’s a huge tax deduction if you are high income (like me) and can be converted to a traditional IRA when you leave the company. Also, you can control your withdrawals to keep your marginal taxes as low as possible. Third, earnings grow tax free even if you sell investments. Fourth, there really isn’t a disadvantage compared to saving outside a 401k except while you are in the 401k your options may be limited to 15-25 different mutual funds (so you may underperform the market a bit). However, once you convert to an IRA (leave the company every 5 years or so), you can invest in pretty much anything you want. I’m estimating I will have 3-4 million saved by 59.5 in either 401k directly or rollovers to IRAs, which is ~140k in annuity (100k in today’s money) assuming 6.5% average annual returns over the next 25 years. (Should have an equal amount outside of IRAs/401ks as well)

      1. I agree with everything you are saying. For high income guys like you it is a great set up and it should be taken advantage of. Most people are not kicking ass like you though.
        Most people work their lives for $300,000 in 401k and no savings by the time they retire then they slow withdrawal. Even if the average 30 year old retires with 1 million in 401k at retirement age, it will be worth shit due to inflation. They need to realize 401k was never designed as a retirement plan. It was designed as a perk for employers to offer employees. I listen to men in their 30s that earn 50k a year, who dont even max out their contributions, talk like their 401k will save them in the end and it wont. The brainwashing they recieve on a day to day basis is too strong. Instead of that 200k home they started paying for in their early 30s, they would have been better off buying 3 or 4 good condos they could rent out. Build real assets that puts money in their pockets. Build a real cash flow. Use those assets and their 401k to retire.
        Sounds like your kicking ass. Good job doing it right man!

    3. Hear hear. Take loans/banks out of the equation and prices must drop to a level that people can afford. This applies to all consumer credit: home, cars, tuition.
      The only form of credit that makes sense is commercial credit: giving loans to people looking to expand a thriving business.
      If people only understood this very basic economic concept we wouldn’t be in the economic mess we’re collectively in now.

      1. Americans wouldn’t be in that mess right now if their women were not feeling as so entitled as they do and were capable of grasping the concept of delayed gratification.

        1. The problem is that trillions of dollars is being wasted on educating and over-educating women. We pay to send them to school of 10 years to get a worthless PhD they will never use. Instead they have 3 kids and want to be a stay at home mom. There is a reason that sane societies, throughout the course of recorded history, have never wasted scarce resources educating women. It has absolutely no payback.

    4. Yes. The American Dream was that….at one time. Time changes and things change with it (you have to adapt).
      Instead of school, many young men can often learn a worthwhile trade but starting at the bottom (a helper or assistant) and learning it from the ground up. It’s still out there but you may have to put in a little grunt work until you start to learn the trade (everyone has to start somewhere). If anything, it helps build a solid work foundation.
      At one time, I learned to professionally paint (inside/outside of houses) because I started as a helper (clean up guy) with a crew. Over time, I moved up to prepping (sanding, etc..) and then learned how to paint (the professional way). I can, now, paint the inside and the outside of my house like a professional.
      I’ve done this several times to learn much needed life skills (and trades). I recommend any young men out there to do the same.

    5. If you skip school to learn a trade you are an idiot. That is why you are looked down upon, the trades people were wiped out a generation ago, which is where they stay in school mantra came from.
      The “Cool” car is just marketing. Lots of rich people don’t drive fancy cars and do so only on weekends. Who wants to take their buggati to a mechanic.
      If you marry a 32 year slut you;re an idiot plain and simple. Women are morons, and someone who marries a moron can’t fall far from the tree.
      A 401k is better than nothing, which is what alot of people would have without it.
      The American dream has long been a nightmare, and this is the first generation of white people to experience it. The natives, japanese, blacks, jews, chinese, mexicans, and so on have been experiencing this for hundreds of years at the hands of the white man. Once segregation ended in this country everything went down hill. The whites raided the black companies making former prosperous zones dead zones. Then they ran out of minority businesses to raid so turned on the white man. The whites have now turn on each other because there are no more minorities to turn on and with no more white preferential treatment in law, whites have to compete on merit world wide. Something they never had to do since the pre-colonial period. The white countries will fall. The asian countries and high iq african states like nigeria will rise. A nigerian kid has a no money in his pocket and is 16 and is having an American loser send him 100,000 usd thinking he is some beautiful woman, or some handsome man off her dreams. A kid in China is using JiJings and “jungle juice” and getting standardize test scores 3 weeks before the test is out and chinese are flooding the GMAT test with phony scores that not even a 135 iq kid can get a decent score anymore.
      Is it any surprise that Nigeria and China will pass America?

    6. That’s not the American dream. The American dream is the idea that you can make it on your own which ironically is what you just planned out right here.

  18. Can I put you down as being NOT in favor of Elizabeth Warren’s student loan forgiveness plan?

  19. ALL loans are a fraud and illegal. Did the banker disclose to you how fractional reserve banking works? Did he even sign your agreement, making it a legal contract? I can guarantee you he didn’t. Both are requirements for a valid contract. Nobody in America has one, nor are they obligated to pay it back.
    http://www.1215.org
    http://www.getoutofdebtfree.org

  20. Let’s not forget who the main culprit is here: universities charging insane amounts of money for education, without any sane reason. University has become a racket and one that is best avoided. If you can’t work to support yourself during your studies, best to just write the whole thing off.

  21. Amusingly enough, I only have 25-30 years to pay off my student loans
    after I graduate. The reason behind which is that after that time any
    amount owed is (theoretically) declared void. The Obama administration
    considered this a good policy.
    Yet to compensate for potential loss
    loan companies have made payments so they will get at the principle plus
    interest within the time frame. Even if my understanding of the reason behind this is wrong, I’ll end up paying about $500
    a month for the next three decades, all for professors who
    provide little more than intellectual masturbation.
    At least their lack of teaching has helped me realize what I want to learn, and learn it.

      1. Have a legally binding contract to pay the payments for “parent plus loans”. 3 years at one school at about 20k a year plus another 2 years at 15k each. So… maybe 80-90k? I’ll know exactly how much when the companies start whining this May.
        It was worth it to become the self-actualized man I am now.

        1. What did you major in? An undergrad degree is not worth 90K…how much salary are you expecting? And from that you’ll be paying 500/month for 30 years? That would depress me! I had to pay $130/month for 10 years, and I’ll say my education was definitely not worth that.
          You could have become a self actualized man for much much less.

        2. I (unfortunately) major in “studio art”, minoring in “business administration”, the art professors not particularly liking me as I prefer to do work that actually requires talent.
          For a salary, I am unsure. A lot of the work in my field is entrepreneurial, preparing proposal packets for graphic novels, planning for digital distribution of other works (youtube?), logo design, possibly even a little voice-acting.
          I know that I have made some mistakes, putting myself into quite a hole as a result of my late maturity. But I am going to do all I can to be successful.

  22. All consumer debt is bad. Student loans are the worst example of this. In a free market, a college could only charge whatever students could afford to pay. Under the current system, they can charge whatever amount students are allowed to borrow and these poor students wind up in indentured servitude to the fucking banks.
    Frankly, these loans should be dischargeable in bankruptcy. If any lender is stupid enough to give an 18 year old a $50,000+ loan so they can get a degree in women’s studies they deserve to be out of business.

    1. My local college has bumped up rates 40% since like 2010 or so. Every semester the same class load would slowly bump up in price. I finished my degree, but was taking a class here and there for fun. Well, no more, that’s the end of that.
      Good thing inflation is only 2% (hahahaha right?)

      1. No, there is actually deflation, which is bad. BAD BAD BAD! You can get an ipad air 2 which is twice the power of an ipad air for the same price.

        1. Where is this deflation of which you speak? If the consumer price index still tracked food and energy costs, inflation would be through the roof…

        2. You are right; for prices to remain stable an average PC should cost 100,000 USD.

      1. Yeah. Banks taking a hit for making stupid loans is very un-American, it seems. They need to be bailed out with our tax money . . . for our own good. 🙁

  23. Off topic, but I had to post this because this made me rage….I’m reading this article in TIME magazine about these camps for “gender-variant children”, children that don’t conform to gender roles. They’re basically raising young boys to be trannies and fags

    1. I heard a radio interview about a 2 year old tranny on NPR last week. My mouth dropped open. I honestly thought it was comedy, it was too shocking to be real. I have a 2 year old niece and she doesn’t even talk. She won’t be sexual for another decade. How in the hell could it know it wants a sex change? Simply amazing.

      1. I finally gave a listen to NPR- every segment on every topic is super short for the ADD crowd. They play light jazz in the background too. It really seems like a bunch of 18 yr college kids are at the helm.
        Some 2 yr olds arent even potty trained, yet can know it is transsexual??

        1. Well, there are some good in depth shows, which is what I enjoy. This American Life, Radiolab, etc. will explore a topic for an hour. I think these are broadcast on weekends but are also free podcasts.
          But yeah, my local affiliate barely even plays classical music anymore, which to me is what defines a public radio station. I think they’ve really had to dumb it down for the new generation. Also a lot more females at the mic. It all started going downhill when they fired Bob Edwards a few years back.. man that guy was the best interviewer. He went to XM, not sure if he’s still there.

    2. you notice all the families that buy into the “gender neutral” fad are white
      i can’t imagine a black family or any other non-whites pulling this shit, not even very liberal, Democrat-voting types

      1. What city are you in? So are the jobs really that easy to get? Just get certified and then fly to China? What about getting the work visa to stay long term?

        1. I’m in Korea now but I was in Shenzhen. Work visas are very tricky these days. You can work in Shenzhen and do tourist visa runs to HK easily. Plus it’s nice to get over to HK. They border each other so it’s basically a train ride. Thailand would be cool too. Turkey. Visit eslcafe(dot)com and you can learn all about this. China’s fun but you will get pissed off and frustrated so don’t ratchet up your expectations too much.

        1. South Korea. I was in Shenzhen before and didn’t need a work visa. I took trips to HK once a month.

        2. It depends on the city. Seoul is very cool. Private, mature people who do things right. It’s sophisticated and decent. Pusan is obnoxious, loud and the people are generally low class. They’re more friendly in Pusan though. Ha ha. Overall Koreans are very much into their own race. It’s not nearly as much fun as China but there is a lot less general shit in Korea. One thing I couldn’t stand about China is all the people blasting their horns. E-bikes on sidewalks. But for nightlife, forget it. China is waaayyyy more fun. You’re older though yeah? Me too. But Korea is not a very fun place for middle aged dudes. I mean compared to the rest of Asia, of course. It’s still a lot more fun than being back home. Seoul is a good place but I don’t think you’ll have any kind of super fun time here. Just comfortable for work.

    3. These are just the same people who became priests and nuns in the old days. Back in the day if you didn’t like the opposite sex, the church was where you hid out and you could molest all the kids you wanted to. (Not just the Catholic church either – every religion from Protestants to Buddhists has the same problem).
      This needs to stop. Feminism was bad enough. Once people start messing around with their gender, it’s a slippery slope down to pedophilia and bestiality. Wait until it becomes mainstream.

  24. If you need an expensive college degree, ask your parents to pay for it. Don’t ever take out college debt. Don’t take out any debt, really, unless you want to buy a house. Even then, it only pays off if you stay in it over 5 years.

  25. Nothing I love more than meeting a new women with a bunch of student debt, then making her fall in love with me, then I spend $500 on the first date, and convince her I spear no expense on the love of my life. Then I spend $1000 on the next meet. I buy them the $600 purse and matchign accessories, fancy restaurant and all red carpet roll out, charming and everything. Yes they caught a real fool. Now by the third date, they don’t hesitate to hand over their credit card and sign a loan and let me run up $45,000 in debt on them. Then I throw my sim card in the garbage and enjoy the money without the bitch.

  26. I was fortunate in that we bought the scholarship plan, tuition and books, in 92 when my daughter was 3 at divorce time (wife wasn’t HAAAAPY). Fast forward to 2007, dorm fees and meal tickets cost what college altogether cost in 92. So she still had to incur 20K in debt, and fortunately she picked a computer science discipline and is quite gainfully employed with one of the monsters of insurance.
    Accountability. The Universities are so greedy, professors, facilities, all so gold-plated and overpaid that it’s the most profitable industry in the world, routinely jacking up tuition and fees 15% every year and with the banks and government lining the path with easy loans, the kids don’t see the folly and the colleges go merrily on, increasing and pocketing the extra in spite of endowments in the billions.
    Accountability, can we have some of that? College is the new high school. With everyone holding a degree, no one is all that special anymore. A 4 year degree means nothing, it has to be a Masters, or a Doctorate, but in worthless categories, THEY mean nothing. Millions of worthless degrees of every level and “pursuit” and trillions tied up in them on loans. And women tying up billions in loan obligations is silly anyway, given that they simply don’t work the decades that men do. In other words, we do not profit as a society. The shortage of doctors is solely based on the fact that having educated them by the millions over the years, female doctors simply do not work the hours and decades our system needs them to work being doctors. So that education is wasted. Aside from the medical profession, women don’t even bother with the STEM pursuits.
    Accountability. There ought to have been a system in place from the start that gauged the requirements of our labor markets and made student loans contingent upon that and of course, a student’s aptitude for that needed field. If a student didn’t fit the guidelines and didn’t have the dough from their parents, they would have to work their way through. That would also mean the university system’s avarice would have been curbed somewhat because without all that dough from easy student loans flowing through their mitts, they couldn’t have jacked up the “education-inflation”.
    And now, 40 years of this nonsense later, our President wants to forgive and forget, eat the bubble, and compound EVERYTHING by sending everyone to community college? All that does is once again, inflate the documentation, expand the education “industry” interest (conveniently Democrat and feminist) and of course, extend adolescence even more.
    Unless there is a ruthless winnowing of the academically unfit, there ought not be any further public sector sponsoring of college loans. Accountability should come into play, quite like the entrance requirements of the military (which only considers 17% of today’s youth eligible for any kind of military service). They recruit only those categories of talent and education as befits the “needs of the service” based on the aptitude of the recruit. High time we award tuition loans with the same requirements consistent with “needs of the economy”.
    Of course, that would do in most of Liberal Arts, communications, psycho/sexual/racial studies. With only a smattering of pursuits geared toward education of teachers and accounting/business, all of Higher Learning would be dedicated to STEM pursuits, Medicine and most of the education system could be thrown out on it’s ear. Never happen, but it’s the only salvation. You’re only entitled to an education if your folks are rich or your aptitudes and talents warrant.
    I should have submitted this post for an article. Roosh!

  27. Great article. I also encourage guys to look at a woman’s debt as well before any type of commitment (why would you want to?). Because guess who the burden will fall upon? You. If she can make the payments, you will be subsidizing her lifestyle or you will be making her payments for her. I personally have a career which came with some heavy student loans, luckily I can pay them off ( my costly divorce forced me to go into forbearance for 5 years, basically trading a criminal debt alimony for interest on a non bankruptable debt SL). I will tell you this, if YOU have SL and she doesn’t, don’t commit until you’ve paid them off. Trying to pay them off after the cost of a wedding, kids, house, is far more difficult. I agree with the author, live simple and yeah, why should I pay for someone else’s poor pick of career choices.

  28. Lee nailed it. You can save yourself a lot of debt and stagnation by not taking whatever Next Logical Step they say you should take and throwing out the script altgether.
    I’d advise young adults to avoid college as much as possible and only pursue a field after doing a lot of analysis beforehand. I lived at home and spent over a decade paying off tuition bills for two-and-a-half years of college that got me nowhere. People like electricians will almost always be able to find work, and it’s not really something that can be outsourced.

    1. I have a friend who is an electrician.
      At 28 he was driving a black BMW and owned his own house, while some friends with degrees were waiting tables and working in call centres living with their mums.

      1. Most of the trade jobs are unionized. I hate Unions, but I am also aware it’s good for the people in them.

  29. This obscene college debt is something unique to America.
    I once dated an American girl. Just after we had the discussion to make our relationship official she unloaded on me that she had 250k of college debt for a fine arts degree she didn’t finish, and used to be s stripper.
    Needless to say, the relationship was called off. I also never dated an American girl again.

      1. Notice the insane amount of deception involved too.
        She decided to tell me this only AFTER she thought she had me. That in itself was a big red flag.

    1. The worst part is ZERO shame about it. If there was at least one iota of guilt, you could, at the very least, muster some empathy for them. But their complete absence of responsibility just shows that there is more negligence on the horizon – but at your expense the next time.

    2. She was a stripper and had 250K in college loan debt. Two red flags and two very good reasons to let her off of your bus.
      She’ll probably be an attention whore until the end of time.
      Bravo.

  30. Government should not be in the education loan business. This is the only reason a stupid degree can get up to 100K..

  31. Make student loans dischargable again and you’d see private student loans drop 80%. I’d also make it so that at least 60% of students must graduate within 5 years at x income or higher in order to be eligible to receive federal student loan payments. Colleges have no skin in the game right (get paid 100% of private or federal loans regardless) and neither do bankers (private student loans are non-dischargeable). Fix those two issues and the cost of college would plummet and only people getting worthwhile degrees from worthwhile schools would actually get them.

    1. Havent private banks exited the student loan racket completely?

      1. No, they never did. All the Obama administration did was get rid of private banks from doing FEDERALLY backed student loans (stafford loans), which should have been done years ago. It was one of the things Obama admin was criticized for that he shouldn’t have been. We were basically paying the banks to take on risk free loans since the US gov was back stopping them. Just took out the middle man.
        But there are hundreds of places you can get private student loans in nearly unlimited amounts
        https://www.salliemae.com/student-loans/
        https://www.wellsfargo.com/student/
        https://www.discover.com/student-loans/private-student-loans.html
        To just list the first 3 off google.

  32. I had my employer pay 80% of my education cost while making good money off them in the process.The 20% that was on me was paid off in several years minimum payment (about 50 bux/month). This was a STEM degree, so I honestly encourage people to go that way. It pays every which way.. Many employers have this as one of the benefits, but it’s all in CS, STEM etc..

  33. When a multinational corporation makes bad choices and declares bankrupcty its spun as “strategic default” and seen as a good thing. But when someone cant pay off the ridiculous cost of attending Directional State U after everyone their entires lives told them they would fail if they didnt go to college then all the personal reaponsibility boomers come out to screech. The real problem is that the cost of ALL education is out of control, and our wages have not kept up with this dramatic increase.

    1. Not necessarily. If you don’t plan on staying in the country after you graduate take on as much student debt as you like. Fuck em.

  34. while we may save more money with time by exchanging our labor and time for a certain wage that our fellows seem to put a price tag on based on our abilitties, and that this may make us feel successful in the short term…
    counting the months, and the years, and making our little financial goals come true in decades
    yes, this is good and all, but the main problem with this equation is that we are exchanging TIME for money, while we get more money we lose time
    Time we’ll NEVER get back, not unless we take a serious interest in the development of real anti-aging solutions and the technology, it is time people start valuing their TIME
    when this happens, the funding for longevity technology will happen
    Do you want to slowly age? to lose everything you worked for? TO look in the mirror with wrinkles knowing all the hard work you put into building up your life only to witness your health decline?
    every year that goes by your time is just as depleted, money is NO replacement for abundance of time, this is why after you meet a certain financial goal, your happiness does not increase, you realize that all a long your time was worth more

  35. Good read. I’d add that if the typical salary for a job in one’s possible degree is too low to make the loans worth it, then pursuit of a skilled trade should be considered instead.
    Those jobs, plumbers, electricians, and other kinds of trades, are much harder to outsource.

  36. And an even worse thing than student loans is consolidating one’s loans. In exchange for a slightly lower monthly payment, you drag out the loan term for 30 years instead of 10 and ned up paying far far more than you would have initially.

  37. Ways to get a degree on the cheaper side:
    1. Get as many credit hours as possible at the local community college. Transfer to the best school you can that will take accept those credit (usually your state flagship public school). Get the remaining credits necessary to earn your degree as quickly as possible.
    2. Get a job at your local college campus (without a degree it will probably be unskilled labor). As a benefit you will get either highly discounted tuition or free tuition. Work on your degree as quickly as you can while banking the money you make. It will take many years, but you will get out of it with a college degree and money in the bank.
    3. If you are a minority then great. Find a school with a high percentage of white people and apply there. if you are not a minority pretend to be one. Do the same. If you ever get “caught” tell them that is the race you self identify with and that race is a social construct. If the college threatens to take away your scholarship money or discipline you tell you will take your story to the right wing press which will publish it broadly and embarrass the college as being a bunch of liberal wackos that don’t believe in what they preach.
    4. If you are moderately intelligent seek out as many local/regional scholarships that you can. Most of these are applied to by complete idiots. A semi intelligible essay can get you thousands of dollars for your entire college career.
    5. Take the maximum amount of credit you can bear per semester. If you have to pay a surcharge to go over a certain amount do it. The sum of money will be cheaper then going an extra semester. If you do this you can easily get out in three years.
    6. Get a job in a college town for a few years. Hang out and get to know the college culture. Purchase a fake transcript and degree from an online fraud shop. Pretend you went there for four years and actually took classes. You will know the college culture since you lived in the town for years and presumably hung out with college students. if you are ever found out so what. Unless you lied on government forms or perjured yourself in court the worst that will happen is you lose your job. If that happens take your story public and talk about how you would have liked to get an actual degree but couldn’t afford it since college was too expensive. Use the publicity to start your own business.
    If you can avoid college altogether though do it. The modern college campus exists for nothing more then to make you a brainwashed left wing Beta. Instead, learn a trade like how to fix cars, construction, plumbing, or anything similar. A man working with his hands is about as Alpha as you can get. Plus, the work might ebb and flow a bit but these things are always going to need to be done. Until a car that doesn’t need to ever be fixed or inspected is invented you will have work for the rest of your life.

  38. The student loan situation will only get worse if the government continues to hand out more loans to people who will most likely, never be able to pay it back. More people are getting a helping hand however, especially young female students, who turning to sugar dating and using websites like tempted.com and hooking up with wealthy, generous men.

  39. Check this out.
    Do the army. Get gi bill. College is paid for right? So I go to do the paperwork and they tell me the gi bill is separate from financial aid. I have to jump through hoops and work with their va to get it.
    I withdraw from some classes but my GPA is 3.7. So I’m doing well actually. BEHOLD! My gi bill is suddenly the same as financial aid and they decline it and say I must pay a debt.
    How? I ask. How is my gI bill delegate from financial aid when it comes to getting it, but suddenly a student loan when it comes to taking it away? So they said I had to pay my classes, any debt incurred that semester and that is on top of paying back the va since I must pay them back directly if I don’t finish a class.
    College is a damn scam.


  40. 8 days ago
    Stupid. I would suggest taking as many loans as you can and just keep studying at Uni.
    I
    guess that you didn’t hear Obama a week ago talking about loans and
    this is just the beginning. I predict that if enough people can’t pay
    back loans that there will eventually be an amnesty of perhaps just
    paying back 10 cents on the dollar. And all of you boys who are afraid
    of student loans and debt will be kicking yourselves in the arse for
    being so stupid.

  41. Hey kid, do you actually believe that this is a legitimate or accurate comparison? Working in some dry cleaning store or as a seamstress are either after school jobs that teens have and learn on the job; or hobbies like seamstress they do because they like it and btw a seamstress earns triple that amount.
    The degree would be from some school like FIT. By graduation you would have taken about 40 courses ranging from economics, marketing, art, design,costume design and every other thing a student needs to learn. If you wanted a job as a buyer in men’s wear at Saks or some other store for example you may begin as an associate for about $70k and where you could work yourself up to head buyer in your dept. and perhaps earn $300k.
    The students who get a Master from FIT do even better. Here are the costs.
    http://www.fitnyc.edu/2928.asp
    ‘she was going to pay $80k for a degree that would lead to a job with a median wage of $12 per hour’
    Ridiculous lol

  42. Student loans are a massive scam. You go to college for a better life only to have a fifty fifty chance at best for a middle class job. Boomers got great jobs with a God or hs diploma. Now people slave and go into debt to have no jobs there and the ones exist pay shit. Payday loans and title loans are predatory but at least them come off as unsecured debt in bankruptcy. . Student loans stay and are only deferred in a bankruptcy. These people are psychopaths. . Living off gen x and gen y by sucking the future away. Fuck these boomers and their greed. They spent two to three generations of wealth. . They are gonna be shocked when we pull the plug on them in the retirement homes. Payback for feminism, outsourcing, and no fault divorce. . Burn baby burn.

  43. True, any student should try to avoid taking loans in the first place. However, sometimes it is the only option. If student is not rich yet hardworking, he will not have problems returning it. It is like an investment in your future. Of course, if you plan to slack in college, maybe it is better to find a job instead? After all you can study online and find information for undergrads that will help you complete your assignments. A degree alone does not mean your future will be bright. You need knowledge, skills and experience to achieve your career goals.

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