The National Inflation Association recently released an excellent documentary on the crisis in college education. Students are taking out enormous loans with the belief that the benefits of possessing a degree outweigh the costs and burden of debt. I would be interested to hear the thoughts of anyone willing to watch this documentary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpZtX32sKVE&feature=player_embeddedNote : I did not put this in the political forum because I believe it is a purely financial discussion. I would really hope to exclude politics so as to keep this thread in the public fora.
I watched it today...it seems to be making the rounds. Although I live in Canada and my situation is not quite as bad as American students; as a recent graduate I strongly agree with the message. At the same time, I feel that the film missed it's mark on some of the things it said. University, in my estimation, should not be a job-making factory. This documentary only took issue with the fact that university graduates were being misled, the standards were being lowered, costs were increasing as a result of gov't interference etc. All points that need to be made and should be discussed. What was not addressed is the actual point of university--it is assumed that a person is in university to get a job (this was mentioned in the documentary intro). After recently completing my undergrad degree, I am left cold. Society wants me to essentially buy into the money-making, "wage slave," buy a house in the suburbs, etc ideal. Heck, these people sound like they want me to do that. The only difference is how they want me to do it.
400 years ago, in medieval Europe, the degree I hold would place me amongst the elite of the elite. Nowadays, it is next to useless because it can not be directly translated into a money-making career.
