lmao.

You in debt yet Freighters?

One of my fav digs fron this era..."Penis free and proud" ROFL

I'm on my way to a meeting with a bankruptcy attorney at 9:30 this morning. Yeah, I'm not doing well financially at the moment.

Going to college was the ****ing worst decision I've ever ****ing made. I should have gone to a trade school of some sort. When you are (well, when many of us are) 18 years old, you don't realize how important these things are without an elaborate future plan previously mapped out. Back then, my focus was more geared towards chicks and wrestling. I figured merely attaining a BA would automatically result in being "fine." And if I got into a financial pickle, "future rico" would be able to handle it.. Well, "future rico" is now "present rico" and "present rico" would give anything to be given the chance to go back and smack "past rico" upside the head. Problem is...even if that were possible, "present rico" doesn't have anything to give.

Stupid...stupid....STUPID!!!!

Theres a lot of us in that club.

So remember this when talking to your kids.

HELP them lay out a plan. Don't just throw them into the wild at 18. 18 year olds are generally NOT capable of making sound life altering decisions.

THIS...THIS...THIS. They are going to be so annoyed with me in terms of how involved I am with their future planning, for I will be crazy about it. I don't care though...it'll be for their own good.

I'm really, really sorry to hear that.

Don't get me started on the economics of college. I will rant on forever.

Not quite the same thing, of course, but I have personally dissuaded three people I know from going to law school, and couldn't be more proud of it. People think "law degree = big bucks" but they are VERY, VERY wrong.

The American middle class obsession with obtaining a college education is ****ing over generations of young people.

Good luck Rico

Unfortunately, one of the things his bankruptcy attorney will tell him is that it is very, very hard to discharge student loans in bankruptcy. Not impossible, but not easy and certainly not guaranteed.

The problem is that we seem to operate on a 25ish year window for knowledge and collective wisdom. 25 years ago, going to college was relatively inexpensive, and having a college degree was just about a guarantee that you could find a job that paid a reasonable wage.

Now, the cost of college has skyrocketed, and I know people with Ph.D.'s who are working for $30k/year. It's criminal.

What has happened, in part, is that the value of college degrees has significantly lessened due to a vast, vast, increase in supply. Second, the costs of a college education have exploded due to:

1. federal grants/loans

2. demand for a college education due to changing societal norms. No longer is it geared to get you a job or profession, but now it's basically a minimum reqiurement for "polite society".

3. absolutely NO risk by colleges or banks in giving loans to students to go.


There is no longer any rational relationship between the cost of a college education, and the degree you get.

WHY THE **** IS THE U.S. GOVERNMENT LOANING ANY ****ING FOOL WHO WANTS ONE THE MONEY TO GO GET A GODDAMN ENGLISH OR HISTORY DEGREE?

Why the **** is the cost of an English degree the same as the cost of an engineering degree?

The cost of college has outpaced EVERYTHING else over the last 30 years. Even ****ing healthcare. The system is entirely broken and needs a complete overhaul.

Damn near nothing's impossible in law, but it's easier to get out of a murder rap than it is to discharge student loan debt.

And yeah, the bubble burst on law school about 6-7 years ago.

Honestly, I'm not sure what I'll tell my kid in 15 years. As you've noted, college degrees are expensive as hell for no good reason but if you want to get into the work force, you damn near have to have one. And as for find a steady route to a lucrative career....there just damn near isn't one anymore. Medicine? Yeah, engineering if you manage to get your foot in the door.

The future economy is just so far beyond my understanding that I wouldn't know where to start. It wouldn't surprise me at all if 20 years from now we're approaching an era where more people are freelancing than aren't. The idea of a stable, long-term employer seems to be less and less doable.

I'm just hopeful that the workforce finds a way to deal with changing technologies in the future and when it does, it stabilizes. Right now you're just in such a prisoner's dilemma with college and the employment market that I wouldn't know where to start.

Agreed. It's a problem.

I just heard about a fascinating program that a friend's niece is going to do. It's a college that started out as a culinary school but has now expanded and is obviously much more "market-oriented" in terms of providing degrees with real life skills.

They are currently starting a new program for a degree in -- basically -- computer security. All about how to protect networks from hacks and all that stuff.

NOW THAT IS A ****ING CAREER PATH FOR THE NEW MILLENIA.

It's a small college in Rhode Island that I never heard of, but it was honestly the best plan for a career path I've heard in a long while from someone of HS or college age.

This is it. Johnson and Wales Unviersity. Sounds like a hand cream, but whatever.

Cyber Threat Intelligence and Defense program.



http://catalog.jwu.edu/programsofstu...ce-defense-bs/

I'm sorry to hear that, rico. Best of luck.