Deflating the Higher Education Bubble

[Geee]

American Thinker:

It's been refreshing to see higher education given some real scrutiny and focus lately. For my wife and me, something like "focus" happened when we met with a financial advisor before we had our first child, Evan. Or was it blind panic? I don't remember. The conversation was something along the lines that college will cost us about $500,000 per kid, we'd be working till we die, and we should increase our savings by approximately 673% (assuming an annual ROR of about 8.5%). Or just jump into the housing market, and then cash out those stupendous, easy money gains as needed, which was part of Plan A.

Since then we've adjusted a bit, and now the plan is, more or less, to hope really hard that the projections are all wrong, or that my kids' impossibly cute mugs get noticed by Gerber, or they pick up a bassoon scholarship, invent The Face Book, or whatever.

I'm just kidding, kids. Your mother and I have a real plan, but for posterity's sake, here are a few meandering thoughts about why I don't think we really need to have $500,000 in the bank (per kid and net of a few retirement nickels) by the year 2024 (although a few prayers to Saint Jude for good measure may be worthwhile).

First, now that everyone thinks everyone has a God-given right to a college degree, and many folks not fit for higher education are nonetheless taking home college degrees, a lot of these degrees are worthless. (Forget basic knowledge; that's not the point. If it were, we would just fix basic public education. Let's be practical!) Sure, that French Literature degree from Colgate may come with a side of panache, and I understand it cost your parents a pretty dime and a hell of a lot of late nights at the office, but does the Front Desk Attendant position at the Westchester Marriott really call for your skills? Does anyone care that you spent a semester studying Comparative Guitar in Florence?