Prophesy, Economics & Education

Want success? Want to "get ahead" in todays world? These are questions routinely asked of todays youth and the answer is always the same: stay in school, get an education. Yes the promises that a college degree held were limitless. Yet todays college grads are finding these promises largely unfulfilled. Not only will they be paying off student loans for years to come, but thanks to unscrupulous credit card companies literally throwing their product at students today, many if not most will be paying off their education and youthly indiscretions until well into their 40's. Some are having to put their "life" on hold, postponing such important decisions as marriage, starting a family, & buying a house until they've lowered their "debt to income ratio" to a more manageable level. To add insult to injury, real earnings for college graduates (without an advanced degree) have now fallen for four consecutive years.
As if that wasn't bad enough, tuition and other costs have increased dramatically as well over the last 15 years : 63% at public schools and 47% at private institutions translating to a 66.5% increase in the median student debt over the last 12 years. The average credit-card debt alone among 25-to-34-year-olds was $5,200 in 2004, almost double that of 12 years ago.
We live in an I, me, mine country whose belief system is one of entitlement. Beware the pot of gold at the end of your rainbow. It may be tarnished and empty. Read of some real decisions made by real college students in the real world.


What I prophesied myself, as a youth, has and still is coming true today. I believed that a college degree in the future would be worth no more than a high school degree back when I was young. I also remember when "unleaded" gasoline and diesel was the cheapest product sold in gas stations. Then as they started making cars that required unleaded fuel, I also predicted then that even though it was cheaper now, and cheaper to produce, the future would reverse that trend. Sure enough the cheapest products to produce for running your car are today the most expensive. Diesel, which require the least refinement is now even more expensive than "super unleaded". Sometimes being right isn't so much fun.