A disturbing trend where some of my clients' parents are forcing them to go to college under threat of disownership, pulling support, and other forms of punishment that are nothing short of abuse...and a sure fire way to make sure you never get visited in the nursing home.
(language warning)
Remember, both Worthless and Bachelor Pad Economics are available on Amazon.
My sister and brother in law are like that. They are both high school teachers and they made both their sons go to university. They both graduated. The older one has a job in insurance, (which probably didn't need the education to get). The younger took four years to graduate, has spend two years unemployed and is now going back to college to learn something that will get him a job. At least mom and dad paid the bill.
ReplyDeleteI had a student like that a few years ago. She was planning on majoring in Chemical Engineering, and when I asked why she told me that it was either that or her wealthy father was going to stop paying her tuition and kick her out of the house. She was 17 years old at the time. I told her that she was killing herself to get a degree that she didn't want, and would probably never use.
ReplyDeleteShe cracked under the pressure and changed her major a year later. The sad thing is, she was pretty cute and could have been married by now (she's 21). Instead, she got fat and bitchy. Her best years are behind her physically, and she spent them stressed out and studying.
I hope Daddy doesn't expect grandchildren...
College is a damn sad necessity if you went to college-prep school, though. It's like a rehab program for your soul. Yes, it's actually a step up closer to the real world, if you had a Dead Poets Society childhood.
ReplyDeleteMaking a kid go to college is almost like apologizing to him for the awkwardness inducing upbringing. He doesn't even know it yet. It's just a consolation prize for bourgeois yuppies, in the end.
It's becoming obvious, though, that using school as a "merit" substitute for ethnic networking is a failure of a life strategy. The WASP's were wrong. Reform is going to happen within a generation, because Western demographics are exposing a lot of systemic flaws.
(Anonymous2)
What's wrong with trade school ? What's wrong with being a welder, a plumber, a carpenter, a technician ?
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with travelling throughout the country to automate production lines, work 60+ hours a week and make a good living ?
In fact, what's wrong with starting as a worker, saving and investing money and later on go to college with your savings rather than getting in debt ?
This is the type of behavior that is seen at the end of a civilization. I gurantee most of these clients parents are overweight, sedentary, and have severe hormonal disruptions.
ReplyDeleteThese factors combine to create this type of abusive behavior. Their brains can literally not handle anything outside of the cultural narrative that they have been spoon fed by their Telescreens.
Im sure some some of these clients could have been child prodigies, but now they will have to undue years of abusive behavior. Thats why you rarely see any young male geniuses anymore. If anyone deviates from the standard narrtive, behaviors caused by the aformentioned factors put them back in line.
Actually, in most cases you don't have to pay any money to get into a trade like air conditioning, electrical or plumbing. If you know what a few hand tools do and can show up on time for a month as an apprentice, the air conditioning company/ electrical company will PAY YOU by the hour to sit in classes after work to learn the rest. I know from personal experience.
ReplyDeleteI think this video is dead on. I don't think most parents are like this, hopefully very few. I made it possible for my kids to go, but it wasn't a requirement. I also mentioned engineering as a degree that meant guaranteed employment. I now have three employed engineers as offspring.
ReplyDeleteGreat post cappy.
The primary motivating factor for parents who do this to their children is self-centered arrogance. It's another form of living vicariously through your kid, the need to preserve a certain UMC status marker, formed by a fear that not doing so is a negative reflection on you, the parent.
ReplyDeleteI do think too that many parents just refuse to recognize the reality that is the modern American economy (i.e., an economy in its death throes). I'm led to wonder if there was an equivalent form of denial in Fifth Century Rome.
Hey, if they're willing to pay, I'm saying "THANKS GUYS". Only difference would be working some crappy job part time (where the parents pay the rent) instead of full time.
ReplyDeleteCollege is easy, I'd gladly spend my late teens to early 20's at it again (of course, I wouldn't be such a lazy ass, but besides that).
This is the sort of advice I'll be giving my children (when I have them and they're in their late teens). College is not a requirement for a successful life. I have a BS in chemistry. My wife has a BA. They've collectively been worth 2 pieces of paper and about $100,000 in debt. I luckily landed a job as an actuary after a year and a half of unemployment. Does that have anything to do with chemistry? No. Making $50k/year and paying on debt more than double that is very tough, and I'm one of the lucky ones that got a good-paying job (and two raises in about 9 months after that). Meanwhile, a friend of mine, who's the same age as me, never went to college and is making nearly the same salary as me working as a mechanic in the Air Force. He's a single father and still in far better financial shape than I. Who made the better decisions after high school? Right now, it looks like he did.
ReplyDeleteLots of young college grads these days won't ever see 50k. How are they supposed to even pay for the loans caused by their degrees, let alone see a positive return from them? Forget it!
Anyway, great video, and this is a message I intend to spread.