Reply #20: Large enough that it is distorting the upcoming generations' work and buying habits

[MadHound]

Numerous articles have been written about how fewer and fewer college grads are going into public service or other lower wage sectors simply because with all their debt they can't afford them. Numerous other articles about how college grads are putting off buying their first home for long periods of time due to the fact that they can't pay what is essentially two mortage payments.

It is utterly horrifying what higher education has become, a money making corporate machine all the way around. Many renowned departments are now merely becoming academic R&D arms of various corporations. College athletics is nothing but business, chewing up and spitting out people every single year. Meanwhile the price for tuition continues to skyrocket all out of proportion to the rate of inflation and the financial sector loves nothing better than this, now having a huge specialized area to hook people in while their young to receive their lifetime load of debt.

What the real kicker is now they are making people return back to college again and again for more and different education. Thought you had the bull by the horn back in the eighties when you got one of those cool early computer science degrees? Whoops, sorry, your job is now down in India, you need to go back to school. While you're in school getting that degree in graphic arts, well guess what, virtually every graphic arts job is now in India, better change your major and spend some more time in school. Oh, and if you want to become a teacher, you've got to go out and get more and higher education, quick now. A BS won't do, now it's mandated that you have a Masters, and even sometimes that won't do, especially if you're one of those teachers with a lifetime teaching certificate.

College has become, in many ways less about academia and more about being a money making racket. What's worse is that the product that they're turning out seems to be worse and worse every year.