A College Degree and Student Debt
For decades youth have been indoctrinated to believe to get a good job, you need a good education. No argument with the statement. My college graduate belief is you can self educate yourself, for most positions, on the job.
I love my Bachelor's Degree. Out of more than a dozen radio positions throughout my glorious career, a whopping one employer asked if i had a degree. One! I've worked with superb on-air talent that only walked through a college door for their children or to hear a speech.
Student loans have the dubious distinction of being our nation's the #1 consumer debt. Add another numero uno to student debt, $1.2 T. [In simple numeric terms, that's 1200 billion dollars!] Ouch. Individually, we have young adults saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in student loans, because many of these college kids listened to teachers, parents and television state: you need a good education to land a good job.
So, I made a list. No, I didn't check it twice. A list of positions where many employers' advertisements claim college degree required. Think hard. How many of these jobs really require a college degree to do the work?
- Administrative Assistant
- Bank Teller
- Book Keeper/Accountant
- Car Salesperson
- Customer Service Phone Rep.
- Data Entry
- EMT
- Entrepreneur
- Events Planner
- Firefighter
- Government Aide
- Hospital Lab Technician
- Hotel Executive
- Internet Marketer
- Manufacturer Representative
- Medical Sales Representative
- Musician
- News Anchor/Reporter
- Nurse
- Officer Manager
- Paralegal
- Police Officer
- Politician
- Postal worker
- Radio/television personality
- Real Estate Agent
- Restaurant Manager/Owner
- Social Media Consultant
- Social worker
- Solar Electric investor/installer
- Stock broker
- Symphony Conductor
- Teacher
- Teacher's Assistant
- Travel Agent
- Tour Guide
Thirty-six employable positions. I could've added more. Most of us would feel comfortable knowing that the professional occupying one of the above positions has a college degree. Chances are you know someone in at least one of these career paths, that does not have a Bachelors degree. What does that tell you.
FYI: The numbers speak volumes. Home-school teachers, mostly a mom or dad does not need a Bachelors degree. Amazingly their children fair well on SAT's and other testing. Check the Home School Legal Defense Association records.
Imagine all the college graduates from 2005-2020. Incorporate all their student loans. With decent paying manufacturing jobs floating overseas, and immigrants migrating here, how many good paying jobs will there be to pay-off the $1.2 trillion in student loans? [Remember too, the hundreds of billions of dollars spent for the entire educational system Pre-K-College.] How many of these available positions definitively require a Bachelors degree?
It's time to rethink our entire educational system. The people orchestrating and the folks running education, from top to bottom dollar, are the ones making out like bandits! Where does that leave our future?