Is Getting A College Education Just a Big Scam? (Video)

By Camron Wiltshire on May 15, 2011 in News 59

JoiquimCouteau

Yes, it is. Thank Odin for scholarships & grants.
Anonymous

Yes, it is. Thank Odin for scholarships & grants.
Joe Mama

I am 33 years old. Out of all of my family and friends from grade school and up who went to college, I am the only one who has zero debt (besides an affordable mortgage), a relatively large amount of money in the bank, and a household income of over $100k per year. I went to a 2 year tech school that I paid for out of my own pocket. Take a guess as to what the rest did.
Joe Mama

I am 33 years old. Out of all of my family and friends from grade school and up who went to college, I am the only one who has zero debt (besides an affordable mortgage), a relatively large amount of money in the bank, and a household income of over $100k per year. I went to a 2 year tech school that I paid for out of my own pocket. Take a guess as to what the rest did.
SF2K01

It didn’t used to be. It’s just been watered down into a business because everyone had to go and get it. They couldn’t turn down morons anymore, it would be costing them money, so people now can go and learn what they should have learned in High School.
- E.B. Wolf
  
  ..or grade school in many cases.
Anonymous

It didn’t used to be. It’s just been watered down into a business because everyone had to go and get it. They couldn’t turn down morons anymore, it would be costing them money, so people now can go and learn what they should have learned in High School.
Anonymous

It didn’t used to be. It’s just been watered down into a business because everyone had to go and get it. They couldn’t turn down morons anymore, it would be costing them money, so people now can go and learn what they should have learned in High School.
Hadrian999

i don’t think it’s a big scam but it isn’t a guarantee either, you get out what you put in. some fields are so over saturated it takes as miracle to get hired right away.
Hadrian999

i don’t think it’s a big scam but it isn’t a guarantee either, you get out what you put in. some fields are so over saturated it takes as miracle to get hired right away.
Robobagons

Welp, that’s why I joined the military. Let the government pay for that bullshit lol.
Robobagons

Welp, that’s why I joined the military. Let the government pay for that bullshit lol.
Simiantongue

I thought, oh great the video is an hour long, then I thought, hey give it a chance you might learn something new. I watched it. Turns out the first 55 minutes is bashing the education system and the financial system. The last few minutes is a sales pitch for online college courses and gold and silver. Fool me once shame on me.

Don’t get me wrong they had a few interesting points in the video. But by the end I was like “Awe shit, that was an hour long commercial”, it basically says- Here are a bunch of problems in society = free market will solve it.
Simiantongue

I thought, oh great the video is an hour long, then I thought, hey give it a chance you might learn something new. I watched it. Turns out the first 55 minutes is bashing the education system and the financial system. The last few minutes is a sales pitch for online college courses and gold and silver. Fool me once shame on me.

Don’t get me wrong they had a few interesting points in the video. But by the end I was like “Awe shit, that was an hour long commercial”, it basically says- Here are a bunch of problems in society = free market will solve it.
D^rail

My best friend has a masters degree in neuroscience and he can’t get a job that pays more than 8 bucks an hour. I dropped out of school when I was 15 and now I am semi retired at 24. I have no debts. I spend all my time fishing now.
- http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient
  
  I was in neuroscience, then early on i realized I did not want to be a professor teaching neuroscience… so i switched.
  
  Most people don’t understand that the standard higher degrees (as in not a law degree, engineers degree, medical degree etc.) are aimed directly towards becoming the next legacy of teaching that material and doing further research. The only other option is being an entrepreneur, which is great! if you can actually pull it off.
- Grooveboss
  
  <3
D^rail

My best friend has a masters degree in neuroscience and he can’t get a job that pays more than 8 bucks an hour. I dropped out of school when I was 15 and now I am semi retired at 24. I have no debts. I spend all my time fishing now.
justagirl

i hate to “show my true colors” here, but, i hope that one day, when i am forced to go back to the hospital to care for dying people… the one(s) that stood in the way of the career i so vigorously fought for for so many years will be in my care in their last days. they will see me for the person i really am and not want me to leave their side.
justagirl

i hate to “show my true colors” here, but, i hope that one day, when i am forced to go back to the hospital to care for dying people… the one(s) that stood in the way of the career i so vigorously fought for for so many years will be in my care in their last days. they will see me for the person i really am and not want me to leave their side.
Ask

What if people want to do things that require degrees?
Ask

What if people want to do things that require degrees?
http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

Only if you do it on ‘loans’ offered at terms that make the mafia blush and shrink away with horror. Otherwise…knowledge is power baby…but debt is just slavery.
http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

Only if you do it on ‘loans’ offered at terms that make the mafia blush and shrink away with horror. Otherwise…knowledge is power baby…but debt is just slavery.
emperorreagan

I think it’s a scam insofar as colleges have expanded to encompass a lot of programs that would be better handled with on-the-job training, apprenticeships, 2-year degrees, or other similar programs. There’s no reason, for example, that someone needs a 4 year college degree to manage the housewares department at Target or to be a manager at Enterprise. College degrees have just become a lazy way for employers to narrow the field of applicants in a variety of industries where a knowledge base isn’t actually required to perform a job’s duties.
emperorreagan

I think it’s a scam insofar as colleges have expanded to encompass a lot of programs that would be better handled with on-the-job training, apprenticeships, 2-year degrees, or other similar programs. There’s no reason, for example, that someone needs a 4 year college degree to manage the housewares department at Target or to be a manager at Enterprise. College degrees have just become a lazy way for employers to narrow the field of applicants in a variety of industries where a knowledge base isn’t actually required to perform a job’s duties.
E.B. Wolf

..or grade school in many cases.
Liam_McGonagle

The only scammy part about college is that employers feel totally comfortable in demanding degrees but utterly refuse to pay their fair share of tax in order to underwite state universities. Their behavior acknowledges that it’s a a core part of our social and economic infrastructure, but that they’re only interested in its administration to the extent that they can skim profits off it, through fly-by-night private colleges or loan outfits.

College is great. Everyone should have access to it, not only for professional/vocational purposes, but for any academic discipline the individual sees fit to pursue. Without support for blue sky research, we’re doomed to cultural stagnation (i.e., the last 40 years in the U.S.). A society myopically fixated on bullshit MBA’s to the exclusion of English or other arts majors is a society with its snout stuck in its own arsehole.
Liam_McGonagle

The only scammy part about college is that employers feel totally comfortable in demanding degrees but utterly refuse to pay their fair share of tax in order to underwite state universities. Their behavior acknowledges that it’s a a core part of our social and economic infrastructure, but that they’re only interested in its administration to the extent that they can skim profits off it, through fly-by-night private colleges or loan outfits.

College is great. Everyone should have access to it, not only for professional/vocational purposes, but for any academic discipline the individual sees fit to pursue. Without support for blue sky research, we’re doomed to cultural stagnation (i.e., the last 40 years in the U.S.). A society myopically fixated on bullshit MBA’s to the exclusion of English or other arts majors is a society with its snout stuck in its own arsehole.
Liam_McGonagle

The only scammy part about college is that employers feel totally comfortable in demanding degrees but utterly refuse to pay their fair share of tax in order to underwite state universities. Their behavior acknowledges that it’s a a core part of our social and economic infrastructure, but that they’re only interested in its administration to the extent that they can skim profits off it, through fly-by-night private colleges or loan outfits.

College is great. Everyone should have access to it, not only for professional/vocational purposes, but for any academic discipline the individual sees fit to pursue. Without support for blue sky research, we’re doomed to cultural stagnation (i.e., the last 40 years in the U.S.). A society myopically fixated on bullshit MBA’s to the exclusion of English or other arts majors is a society with its snout stuck in its own arsehole.
Anonymous

I know many College graduates who still can’t put sentences together. The problem is the money is coming first, not the education, no matter what we do the second we become greedy we ruin it almost immediately. I think it is hilarious that so many jobs require a College degree for employment, does that really mean these people are smart or more driven? I think not, how is having a Professor read a book to you any different than you buying the book and learning on your own? It’s not, College is a scam because greed and the human ego made it that way.
Anonymous

I know many College graduates who still can’t put sentences together. The problem is the money is coming first, not the education, no matter what we do the second we become greedy we ruin it almost immediately. I think it is hilarious that so many jobs require a College degree for employment, does that really mean these people are smart or more driven? I think not, how is having a Professor read a book to you any different than you buying the book and learning on your own? It’s not, College is a scam because greed and the human ego made it that way.
Mrtchops

O.K. i watched this in its entirety, to give it a chance… sorry guys, free market propaganda bullshit!
I’ve said this b4 in other posts, compare the US to other industrialised countries where education is essentially FREE (or very heavily subsidised). The free market would NOT have solved ANYTHING (as this vid contends). it just would have made higher education scarcer in the US. that’s not a solution, that’s just rationing to those who already have an economic/societal/status advantage.
The Germans shit all over your country in productivity and innovation and have free education for their own AND foreign students! The problem of the de-industrialisation of the US and elsewhere is a result of globalisation and the greed of the vampire squid that is Wall Street (thanks to Matt Taibbi for that one!). Hyper-inflation in the US will be a result of printing TRILLIONS of dollars to bail out the CRIMINAL WALL STREET CUNTS, not funding higher education. This vid does briefly make that point… but in a nutshell, education is GOOD, ignorance is BAD.
i learnt some useless bullshit in my university degree (thank you Australian government for subsidising it AND giving me a small but much-needed social security payment while i was studying!)… but i LEARNT. it exposed me to ideas that i wouldn’t have come up with alone. we are all standing on the shoulders of giants and need an educational foundation to even realise where the hell we are coming from. if you want a nation of under-educated citizens flipping burgers and waiting tables, sure, this vid shows the way to go. if you want to see a future (at least for your children and grandchildren) that is BETTER than what we have today, then we need to become more educated. human history is replete with examples of progress that went all the lines of “i found a better way to do things (agriculturally, industrially, scientifically), that idea spread and EVERYONE is better off because of it.
I will never find the cure for cancer, but someone else’s child will. so it is in MY interest to make sure EVERYONE gets the chance to achieve their full potential. we ALL win that way!
Mrtchops

O.K. i watched this in its entirety, to give it a chance… sorry guys, free market propaganda bullshit!
I’ve said this b4 in other posts, compare the US to other industrialised countries where education is essentially FREE (or very heavily subsidised). The free market would NOT have solved ANYTHING (as this vid contends). it just would have made higher education scarcer in the US. that’s not a solution, that’s just rationing to those who already have an economic/societal/status advantage.
The Germans shit all over your country in productivity and innovation and have free education for their own AND foreign students! The problem of the de-industrialisation of the US and elsewhere is a result of globalisation and the greed of the vampire squid that is Wall Street (thanks to Matt Taibbi for that one!). Hyper-inflation in the US will be a result of printing TRILLIONS of dollars to bail out the CRIMINAL WALL STREET CUNTS, not funding higher education. This vid does briefly make that point… but in a nutshell, education is GOOD, ignorance is BAD.
i learnt some useless bullshit in my university degree (thank you Australian government for subsidising it AND giving me a small but much-needed social security payment while i was studying!)… but i LEARNT. it exposed me to ideas that i wouldn’t have come up with alone. we are all standing on the shoulders of giants and need an educational foundation to even realise where the hell we are coming from. if you want a nation of under-educated citizens flipping burgers and waiting tables, sure, this vid shows the way to go. if you want to see a future (at least for your children and grandchildren) that is BETTER than what we have today, then we need to become more educated. human history is replete with examples of progress that went all the lines of “i found a better way to do things (agriculturally, industrially, scientifically), that idea spread and EVERYONE is better off because of it.
I will never find the cure for cancer, but someone else’s child will. so it is in MY interest to make sure EVERYONE gets the chance to achieve their full potential. we ALL win that way!
- Earbudcontender
  
  unsupported beliefs and lies. No one is going to flip burgers and people with higher education should be employers but just want a free ride after a small period of redundant mental work
  - Earbudcontender
    
    The word college means “to come together”. you are paying for the to strip you out of your personality. MIT puts their courses online. People can learn alone and even learn better. what kids are paying is the social networking fee
    - Earbudcontender
      
      MIT PUTS THEIR COURSE ONLINE FOR FREE
- Earbudcontender
  
  Things need to be cost effective and real. and college is not unless you are dumb and need someone to tell you what to do. Sounds to me like its similar to the army
Yea….

Yea. You can TOTALLY be a doctor without buying into the “system”…
Yea….

Yea. You can TOTALLY be a doctor without buying into the “system”…
Chrisrsherwood

this is bs
Chrisrsherwood

this is bs
Chrisrsherwood

this is bs
Camwal

invest in weed its 250 and ounce
http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient

I was in neuroscience, then early on i realized I did not want to be a professor teaching neuroscience… so i switched.

Most people don’t understand that the standard higher degrees (as in not a law degree, engineers degree, medical degree etc.) are aimed directly towards becoming the next legacy of teaching that material and doing further research. The only other option is being an entrepreneur, which is great! if you can actually pull it off.
Actuarial Student

Math around the 39 minute mark is flawed, you do not take forgone income into account, if you had a college education you’d know that. Average retirement age is 65 years. Present value of a one million dollar annuity over 43 years (assuming you enter the workforce at 22 years of age) at an interest rate of 5.15% is $264,257. This is the value assuming the additional $1M is made evenly over the span of a workforce lifetime. This number is greater than the calculated 10 year loan amount of $248,263 over a six year period. A casual observer may note that this difference is relatively marginal, however one should note that the later calculation is computed using biased numbers such as a six year period (when the statistic clearly states four), and a ten year loan. This also fails to take into account the fact that students very rarely pay the entire amount demanded by their college. At the very least they will get a large amount from student aid alone, and if not this is because they’re parents are more wealthy and will be able to assist their child with their educational fees. One should also note that the student without the college education has now had to work and support his/herself for an additional 6 years in this example, a value which is incorporated into the overall cost of a college education. However, we also assumed that the $1M is made evenly over the span of a persons time in the workforce. More than likely, a persons salary will increase with the amount of experience they have, adding more weight to the later cash flows. This increases the duration and hence the risk of these cash flows (aka their additional income) as well as lowers the present value. However, conclusively, I find the calculation flaws for the video’s claim to far outweigh this singular flaw aforementioned.
Actuarial Student

Math around the 39 minute mark is flawed, you do not take forgone income into account, if you had a college education you’d know that. Average retirement age is 65 years. Present value of a one million dollar annuity over 43 years (assuming you enter the workforce at 22 years of age) at an interest rate of 5.15% is $264,257. This is the value assuming the additional $1M is made evenly over the span of a workforce lifetime. This number is greater than the calculated 10 year loan amount of $248,263 over a six year period. A casual observer may note that this difference is relatively marginal, however one should note that the later calculation is computed using biased numbers such as a six year period (when the statistic clearly states four), and a ten year loan. This also fails to take into account the fact that students very rarely pay the entire amount demanded by their college. At the very least they will get a large amount from student aid alone, and if not this is because they’re parents are more wealthy and will be able to assist their child with their educational fees. One should also note that the student without the college education has now had to work and support his/herself for an additional 6 years in this example, a value which is incorporated into the overall cost of a college education. However, we also assumed that the $1M is made evenly over the span of a persons time in the workforce. More than likely, a persons salary will increase with the amount of experience they have, adding more weight to the later cash flows. This increases the duration and hence the risk of these cash flows (aka their additional income) as well as lowers the present value. However, conclusively, I find the calculation flaws for the video’s claim to far outweigh this singular flaw aforementioned.
oddchild1

Yes, college education is a scam, but not in the way this Randian think tank is saying; college doesn’t make you think, doesn’t make you logical, and it doesn’t make you innovative; it teaches you how to game the system, cheat and get away with it, and regurgitated useless crap that can be taken back to standardized testing companies and held up as truth.
oddchild1

Yes, college education is a scam, but not in the way this Randian think tank is saying; college doesn’t make you think, doesn’t make you logical, and it doesn’t make you innovative; it teaches you how to game the system, cheat and get away with it, and regurgitated useless crap that can be taken back to standardized testing companies and held up as truth.
let’sgetreal

Interesting ideas; however, most of this video is filled with circumstantial absolutes that it makes me want to rip my hair out.

“I don’t care if you have a degree… I care if you have a mind… I care if you have a passion…” blah blah blah. Oh, really? You don’t care if your spinal surgeon has a degree? As long as a high school dropout has a passion for cutting open your back with a scalpel, that’s all that matters to you? Ha! Idiot.
let’sgetreal

Interesting ideas; however, most of this video is filled with circumstantial absolutes that it makes me want to rip my hair out.

“I don’t care if you have a degree… I care if you have a mind… I care if you have a passion…” blah blah blah. Oh, really? You don’t care if your spinal surgeon has a degree? As long as a high school dropout has a passion for cutting open your back with a scalpel, that’s all that matters to you? Ha! Idiot.
let’sgetreal

Interesting ideas; however, most of this video is filled with circumstantial absolutes that it makes me want to rip my hair out.

“I don’t care if you have a degree… I care if you have a mind… I care if you have a passion…” blah blah blah. Oh, really? You don’t care if your spinal surgeon has a degree? As long as a high school dropout has a passion for cutting open your back with a scalpel, that’s all that matters to you? Ha! Idiot.
- Earbudcontender
  
  doctors have talent and passion the degree is secondary. there are many in the medical profession that have a degree but lack talent and passion. If you think a doctor is the only thing that can save you in a medical crisis you are in the wrong site posting to the wrong people
Grooveboss

<3
Earbudcontender

unsupported beliefs and lies. No one is going to flip burgers and people with higher education should be employers but just want a free ride after a small period of redundant mental work
Earbudcontender

The word college means “to come together”. you are paying for the to strip you out of your personality. MIT puts their courses online. People can learn alone and even learn better. what kids are paying is the social networking fee
Earbudcontender

MIT PUTS THEIR COURSE ONLINE FOR FREE
Earbudcontender

Things need to be cost effective and real. and college is not unless you are dumb and need someone to tell you what to do. Sounds to me like its similar to the army
Earbudcontender

doctors have talent and passion the degree is secondary. there are many in the medical profession that have a degree but lack talent and passion. If you think a doctor is the only thing that can save you in a medical crisis you are in the wrong site posting to the wrong people