Paperbackreiter

Bad Education

The Project On Student Debt estimates that the average college senior in 2009 graduated with $24,000 in outstanding loans. Last August, student loans surpassed credit cards as the nation’s largest single largest source of debt, edging ever closer to $1 trillion. Yet for all the moralizing about American consumer debt by both parties, no one dares call higher education a bad investment. The nearly axiomatic good of a university degree in American society has allowed a higher education bubble to expand to the point of bursting.

Since 1978, the price of tuition at US colleges has increased over 900 percent, 650 points above inflation. To put that in number in perspective, housing prices, the bubble that nearly burst the US economy, then the global one, increased only fifty points above the Consumer Price Index during those years. But while college applicants’ faith in the value of higher education has only increased, employers’ has declined. According to Richard Rothstein at The Economic Policy Institute, wages for college-educated workers outside of the inflated finance industry have stagnated or diminished. Unemployment has hit recent graduates especially hard, nearly doubling in the post-2007 recession. The result is that the most indebted generation in history is without the dependable jobs it needs to escape debt.

Lovely. - Paperbackreiter

(via the-feature)

1. delhmangchristophem reblogged this from s33
2. delhmangchristophem likes this
3. sansastone likes this
4. chellbelle reblogged this from canisfamiliaris
5. stopfrog reblogged this from the-feature and added:

   This makes me wonder again how much a college degree will help me get and stay employed. :/

6. veinofstars likes this
7. paperbackreiter reblogged this from the-feature
8. elgranviaje reblogged this from brooklynskillshare
9. rewoundcassettes reblogged this from the-feature
10. mj reblogged this from the-feature
11. frojanketh reblogged this from the-feature and added:

    This is irritating/truthful/scary. It used to be that college was a necessary evil. You spend four years acquiring debt,...

12. pleasegoaway reblogged this from noinstantreplay
13. noinstantreplay reblogged this from the-feature
14. noinstantreplay likes this
15. iamonlyagypsy reblogged this from meganpicturetaker
16. knightandday reblogged this from brooklynskillshare and added:

    GPOYW

17. perfectlykarol likes this
18. icelandicbutterflies likes this
19. randomjawns reblogged this from brooklynskillshare
20. brooklynskillshare reblogged this from wordbk
21. molybdenim reblogged this from the-feature and added:

    Living the dream

22. jamesberkowitz likes this
23. universewithinyou likes this
24. justmeandthetoaster reblogged this from the-feature
25. masonthegrey reblogged this from molybdenim
26. sageese reblogged this from the-feature
27. sageese likes this
28. exmathlete likes this
29. terrifyme reblogged this from the-feature
30. nostalgicwiththestateofmind likes this
31. writingoutloud reblogged this from wordbk
32. newdeezy likes this
33. blakelingad reblogged this from the-feature and added:

    Well that’s not good. But then there’s this:...But wait, there’s more:

34. spicy-ginger likes this
35. beezbuzz reblogged this from the-feature
36. thatbeautifulday reblogged this from the-feature
37. lavvocato reblogged this from wordbk
38. laurenrheaume reblogged this from the-feature
39. alwaysprofessional reblogged this from molybdenim and added:

    teehee, and everybody just ignores the outrage prices universities will set

40. jamesbknight likes this
41. wordbk reblogged this from the-feature
42. This was featured in #Education
43. the-feature posted this