

Why student loans are not like subprime mortgages - wallflower
http://www.slate.com/id/2293766/

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ihumanable
I think what a lot of people feel about higher education can be boiled down to
a fairly simple system:

1) The industrial base of the country, for better or worse, was moved overseas

2) Upward mobility became intertwined with Higher Education, as a child of the
90's the constant drum beat of "Go to college, go to college, go to college"
was deafening.

3) A lot of people who would not normally go to college or have no interest in
furthering their education go anyhow because of the promise of a better
future.

4) These people lack a certain passion for their education and field, they are
not there because of a love of their subject but because of a love of money
(which is nothing to be ashamed about, although I love computers and math I
also enjoy money and do whatever I can to maximize the amount of it that I
have, within reason).

5) These newly minted graduates that entered college without clear direction
and with little passion find themselves with a load of debt and with little
idea of what to do. They were promised "good jobs" but without some concrete
idea or drive they end up aimlessly trying to find anything that requires a
college degree.

TL;DR The road to prosperity got harder and a lot of people that had no real
desire to be on that road in the first place are upset about it.

Post Script:

Of course this doesn't mean to say that there aren't people legitimately
passionate about their field that are having troubles finding meaningful
employment.

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wccrawford
So to boil that down, it's not the same because you can't sell or trade a
diploma, and you can't go bankrupt to get out of the debt.

... Doesn't that just make it worse?

Oh wait, there was one more. He claims that a degree is a 'guarantor' of
better wages your whole life. That's obviously not true. On the average,
people with degrees get paid more. But there are plenty who have lesser jobs
than those without... And even some that have no job.

I personally went over a year jobless, and then half a year working as a stock
clerk, after I graduated from college. In the end, my degree did not get me
the job. My skills did. Skills that I had before I got the paper.

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noelchurchill
I don't think anyone believes there is actually a bubble in diplomas.
Obviously there aren't any DBS's (diploma backed securities), or diploma
flipping schemes.

However you might be able to make the case that there is a bubble related to
university costs, or the market for university grads. Tuition costs continue
to rise while wages remain stagnant and jobless rates remain high. If this
trend continues long enough, the demand for diplomas is bound to go down and
universities will be forced to lower their costs.

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vannevar
Finally a voice of reason amid the hysterical hyperbole. No, higher education
is not a bubble. It can't be, because there is no market for degrees. They can
be produced and they can be bought, but they cannot be resold. It amazes me
that so many otherwise intelligent people can't grasp this glaring difference
with the housing market.

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MarkPNeyer
Imagine having an eager young pupil who would watch you code and point out
simple mistakes (spelling errors) while you explained to her what you were
doing and why. The pupil would learn much faster about how code works and what
the 'work world' is like than they would in college, and you get valuable
programming help. They used to call this sort of thing an apprenticeship - why
don't we do that any more?

~~~
wccrawford
It's called pair programming and it's very much alive and well.

Personally, I think it works better between equals, but many say it works for
master and apprentice as well.

