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I’m honestly torn on this topic. I disagree that this stuff can’t be predicted. Don’t blame this on the economy. MANY students are taking out massive loans fo

I’m honestly torn on this topic. I disagree that this stuff can’t be predicted. Don’t blame this on the economy. MANY students are taking out massive loans for majors that have dreary job prospects. They do this because there is a culture of viewing college as an “experience”, chasing “what you love”, and also because kids are naive. You know what i love? Not being hungry. Having my own place. Money for fun activities. It’s a failure of high school really. By the time kids graduate high school they should at least have an understanding of basics like: - is college right for me? - how to research the job prospects for major X in city/region Y? - long term risks to career X? (automation, offshoring, etc) - how long will it take to get my degree? is the total cost worth it? what’s the break even point? Obviously i’m generalizing here, but don’t tell me my friends from college who took out $100k in loans to be a political science major picked a low risk path. Don’t even get me started on the art majors. They had a shocked pikachu face after graduation. I did not. As a thought exercise, what if (moving forward) the government categorized majors by risk (job prospect risks). Imagine if student loans were offered with varying interest rates, based on the risk taken on by the student. For example, a student wants to take a big loan in a risky major like art? Fine - but they should pay more interest on that loan and be forced to sign a form agreeing that it’s a high risk choice. What would be the pros/cons of such a system? To be 100% transparent - my opinion is that some people have bad luck. I feel for those people 100%. However some people don’t have teachers/friends/family in their lives to teach them how to think and make decisions. And the govt subsidizes those poor choices on a massive scale. The incentives are backwards.

krapp 3y ago
My personal opinion is that if government won't entirely subsidize the cost of education for most trade colleges (which I think it should, and yes I'd be willing to pay more taxes for it) then federal student loans shouldn't have interest rates at all. I don't believe education should be a capitalist market but if it must be then I definitely don't think the government's priority should be preserving that market's profitability and taking a cut.
- lurking_swe 3y ago
  I can agree with that. I don’t work in the trades but i have a lot of respect for those that do, and it’s low risk in terms of job prospects.
lusus_naturae 3y ago
Most college students seem to actually be making pragmatic choices w.r.t their colleges majors, i.e. most are business majors: https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=37 https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=37 That makes sense given that for decades finance, health, or administration etc. hire the most, 1) https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2021/article/field-of-degree-and-careers.htm https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2021/article/field-of-degr... 2) https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2000/apr/wk1/art01.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2000/apr/wk1/art01.htm I think giving the example of the impractical, dreamy college graduate is akin to Reagan's (or whoever's) welfare queens example.

krapp 3y ago

My personal opinion is that if government won't entirely subsidize the cost of education for most trade colleges (which I think it should, and yes I'd be willing to pay more taxes for it) then federal student loans shouldn't have interest rates at all. I don't believe education should be a capitalist market but if it must be then I definitely don't think the government's priority should be preserving that market's profitability and taking a cut.

lurking_swe 3y ago
I can agree with that. I don’t work in the trades but i have a lot of respect for those that do, and it’s low risk in terms of job prospects.

lusus_naturae 3y ago

Most college students seem to actually be making pragmatic choices w.r.t their colleges majors, i.e. most are business majors: https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=37 https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=37 That makes sense given that for decades finance, health, or administration etc. hire the most, 1) https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2021/article/field-of-degree-and-careers.htm https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2021/article/field-of-degr... 2) https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2000/apr/wk1/art01.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2000/apr/wk1/art01.htm I think giving the example of the impractical, dreamy college graduate is akin to Reagan's (or whoever's) welfare queens example.