Why you should Never go to College

~ "We collectively have Doctorates in Astrophysics,  Biochemestry, Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies-- now we sell Lady Gaga & Justin Bieber CDs.. Yay!"

Perhaps we should have called this posting "Why you should never go to college if you have to take out student loans to afford it" but you can see, that's quite a lengthy headliner.

There's many reasons for this claim- for instance, in most fields, you're obtaining a degree in worthlessness that won't translate into jobs and careers, yet you lost 4 years of your life and tens of thousands of dollars (or more) to acquire it.  But here's the dirty secret that few openly talk about (though A&G have written 3 postings in past year on this issue):

When you take on a student loan, its for LIFE.

This is most important: Student loan debt can almost never be discharged in a bankruptcy.  According to the most recent data from the Education Credit Management Corporation, of the 72,000 federal student loan borrowers who filed for bankruptcy in 2008, just 29 succeeded in getting part or all of that debt discharged

And if you can't pay?

1) The federal government can garnish up to 15% of the borrower's or cosigner's wages (that's you mom and dad) until the debt is paid off; private lenders can take up to 25%.

2)  For federal loans, the government can also intercept income tax refunds, future lottery winnings and up to 15% of Social Security benefits.   This means when you're a Very old man or woman, you're still playing that 50 year old college loan.

3) Many private lenders, with the exception of Sallie Mae, Wells Fargo and the New York Higher Education Loan Program, can go after a borrower's estate upon his death.   This means your university loans get satisfied before your next of kin sees his/her first dime.

~ Sure sounds like being a Slave to the system-- all in the hopes of being some doctor or lawyer, of which we have a billion of each in the world.  A lifetime slave to working; endless 6am mornings wake-ups, long commutes, and being crapped upon by bosses-- all to repay a debt to acquire a 2 cent piece of paper called a 'diploma'.

It is immoral for a young person to be saddled with tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of debt before he/she turns 21. Equally immoral, that the structure is set up that the only chance a young person has to make it in life is by following that path to debt slavery.  Truth is, without the doe-eyed hopes and dreams of the youth, and the deep naivete of parents, this system would collapse on itself.  But ultimately that's what the modernized world is, both economically and morally--  Bankrupt.