Counter-Culture: Why I Quit College and Never Looked Back (pt.1)

Greetings everyone, and welcome back for those long-term followers. Today I'd like to talk about something near and dear to all of our hearts, college. Now I recently came across an article (brilliant or not you be the judge) describing what Mark Cuban considers an impending implosion in the college market place. I for one, tend to be over-analytical of such hypotheses but, in this case I could see the principle behind the claims. "Approximately 38 percent of financial aid dollars awarded to undergraduates are in the form of federal loans," and with a average mounting debt for graduates at "$28,400 per borrower,(2013)" it would seem that our culture is breeding children to grow into adults with debt. Don't believe me? Let's break down the math then. A $28,400 loan that is Unsubsidized (roughly 6.8% per year in interest) over a 10 year time frame would equal to 397.60 A MONTH in repayment. For ease of mind I will present the equation I used to come to this conclusion
28,400(.068)(*10)+24,800/120=397.6.

Now that is madness if you consider that the median average of pay for a student who graduated with the lowest paying bachelor's degree makes $32,200 (child development), versus the highest paid (Petroleum engineering) netting in 102,300. If one adds the two together and divides for the average we end up at $67,250 which after an gentle approximation of taxes (.25-.3) we end up around 50,437-47075/year. Now at first this is quite the livable rate but the thing is, how many kids growing up had parents who told them that the would simply be able to live with a college degree? How disheartening would that be?

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Father/Mother- "Timmy when you grow up, I want you to graduate from college so you can purely live in this society we have created."

Timmy- "But, what if I want to succeed, thrive, or be whatever I want to be?"

Timmy's question is the one that haunts my mind. I don't want to simply live off a degree, I want to know that there is not a glass ceiling waiting to crush me if I attempt to reach too high. I want to know I can provide for not only myself but any future children I may have, and in this, I know I'm not alone. Let's jump back up to our equation for a moment ( I promise the math will stop), So, if two adults in the 21st century somehow aren't disenchanted by the venture of marriage (a much different article for another day) and decide to bring a child into this world let's see if they can live in it if one considers, "...A middle-income family in 2013 can expect to spend about 245,340 (304,480 adjusted for projected inflation)."  So if we divide by a non-inflated price, as we do not know the inflation of income in the jobs we come up with (245,340/18)= 13,630 per child/per year. With $4,800 a year in student loans per parent one can see how that bachelor earned money slowly dwindles to a meek amount of profit.

Now I'd like to get away from the money side of things and more so talk about the way colleges have stepped away from acting as an institution that services learning and in turn, have yielded to an institution that spits out graduates who can simply regurgitate information without adding any depth to what they are saying. Why would they do that you may ask? For that sweet, sweet "Uncle Sam" money. So, please join me next time on Counter Culture where we PUT DOWN OUR CALCULATOR and examine more of the philosophical differences in the institution that rule our wallets.

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