Thread: Doubling-Down on Stupid...

Being in college right now, I have a lot of friends who are in this position. Their original major didn't work, so now they're going back for something else. It drives me nuts because I want to show them the right direction, but they don't want to see. I say "Dude, just read The 4-Hour Workweek or The Millionaire Fastlane!" and they say, "I would, but I don't have time because I need to study for my class." It's really depressing because most of these friends are very bright, but they just can't see an alternative to what they think life has to be.

My cousin was in the same position for 8 years. Lost his job, worked on and off and could not even get an interview for working in IT. He didn't even have a degree but he is amazing with anything technical, from building with wood to working on computers. He went back to college and got his computer engineering degree. I showed him some other stuff to try and do but he just kept looking for a job. He finally got one making about half of what he used to but at least he is working again and has benefits.

But now he will have to be paying off all his loans before he can ever make any forward progress.

It is complete cluster fuck. They can't find jobs, any jobs, even lousy jobs are full of over educated people these days and the pile of applications begging to replace them is ridiculous.

For years we have let our students flounder in math and science, math is hard(a repetitive process that requires work not an event!), so they mostly major in useless degrees like creative writing, english and history because they are easier...really what is an undergrad degree in that worth like $2/hr on elance these days? I have "creative writers" with PhDs and people with PhD's in math and instructional design working for us for $3-$4/hr through elance and odesk, these are Americans. Even their advanced degrees are about useless.

We are becoming increasingly efficient in business, the problems are structural. Think about it most of the businesses we talk about here on this forum need next to no employees to make a lot of money. This is the way of the future, I don't know what is going to happen, but I don't think it is going to be good. These people need to eat if nothing else, not to mention we are all the hook for a trillion in student loans they won't be paying back and they are being groomed to loathe the 1% more and more everyday.

Maybe the thing to do is too look at all the opportunity in this...50% more people looking for ways to make money and/or save money and more and more of us with businesses looking for asset protection/personal protection/escape planning stuff.

Sue

i think in my country this number is so much bigger!

I think that Western society is on a slow conveyor belt into a bottomless pit. At this point, the only way I can see our society surviving is through a volunteer society, but that's not going to happen because in order for that to happen, humans would have to be perfect beings and well, they're not. I'm just glad that I'll be out of here before it hits the fan.

I heard this statistic the other day (not sure I remember where), but out of our parents generation the "baby boomers" right now - only 15% went college.

Can this possibly be true? It seems that we are so inundated with it - seems like EVERYONE but me went to college. Although now that I think about it, only 50% of my high school class graduated...

Are the people not going to school better off because they climb their way up the ladder as people are going to school? Interesting debate!

When it comes to sales, college is in the Sales Hall Of Fame. Easy.

Originally Posted by BeingChewsie

and more of us with businesses looking for asset protection/personal protection/escape planning stuff.

Awww, you say the sweetest things...

Here's an interesting view... I joined the military at 18, instead of signing a bonus I signed for an extra $20k on my GI bill. Now, I go to a local community college for 2 hours a day 4 days a week- my school is paid for, and I get en extra $1500 in my pocket. I also make a living for myself online. Why wouldn't I go to school? I don't ever plan on pursuing a job with my degree in marketing, but if I'm going to get paid to learn a thing or two, why not? I look at it like a pretty good bullet on ways to market myself.

Originally Posted by cilaes

but if I'm going to get paid to learn a thing or two, why not?

My thoughts exactly. If you can go to school without having to pay for it, why not? I'm currently attending community college part-time for free.

- I get free Internet and a place to work.
- I can talk to a bunch of starving programming students who will do decent work for almost no pay
- I actually learn something once in a while

I have a useless degree in Finance. I always knew it was going to be a waste but everybody kept telling me I would learn important stuff once I got to my upper level classes. I will never forget, I was sitting in my Investments class trading options and credit spreads which I had done pretty successfully for a while (One day I made 1300 in my business law class with a 7k portfolio yelled when I saw the number everybody looked at me weird it was 8am). When the teacher asked the question does anybody know what an option is. The class was silent he then began to explain it in the most basic sense took over 1hr and then moved on. He never taught us how to use them to mitigate risk, add leverage, collect premium, or anything about how to use them to your financial benefit. Mean while I was sitting there making money realising that I know more about this then my teacher had more experience, and I learned it all for free.

I once had to write a 25 page business plan about a food truck that sold burritos in which I commented on how no banker in his right mind would bother to read 25+ pages for a 5k food truck business. At that moment I realised that he was teaching a class on entreprenuership and had no business experience. Okay Ill stop...unless you want to hear more?

The only thing the majority of degrees are useful for now is over educating more low wage worker drones and more professors who have no business teaching the class in the first place. Its a vicious circle of profitable hype.

Needs repeating:

Originally Posted by BeingChewsie

Maybe the thing to do is too look at all the opportunity in this...50% more people looking for ways to make money and/or save money and more and more of us with businesses looking for asset protection/personal protection/escape planning stuff.

Sue

At college I found everything to be a waste of time, teaching things of no real world use.

Then when I finally decided to change jobs completely and chose something that interested me at the age of 24, I did a building apprenticeship.

Whilst working as a builder may not pay very much, it does provide those that are motivated with enourmous opportunity.

I can now build a house, myself, for 1 third of the finished cost!!

In other words, I don't have to borrow 210,000 from the bank to build my house.

I borrow 70K and finish it in five months and have made a saving of 140K!!

I was also getting paid to do the apprenticeship. to me I would say that apprenticeship schemes can be more useful than learning things at college.

So what I'm seeing here is that I need to start a university . . .

Originally Posted by G-man422

So what I'm seeing here is that I need to start a university . . .

You know it although I do think it is a little late for that but who knows you might be able to pull it off. What alot of these for profit education companies did was buy small Nationally Accredited schools that had major financial problems. They would then scale them through the use of technology without having to deal with the expenses of a more traditional large University. Then add an over abundance of cheap money, mix in a little aggressive marketing, a dash of sometimes questionable sales tactics, and above average tuition with below average costs and you have BANK. Most people do not realise but the largest consumers of Government backed student loans are the for profit Colleges (think University of Pheonix). In fact there are a whole group of Entreprenuers that get rich off of government money.

Tons of Cheap money + People willing to give it to you= BANK. It is essentially the way the Real Estate bubble was created.

Originally Posted by Pete799p

You know it although I do think it is a little late for that but who knows you might be able to pull it off. What alot of these for profit education companies did was buy small Nationally Accredited schools that had major financial problems. They would then scale them through the use of technology without having to deal with the expenses of a more traditional large University. Then add an over abundance of cheap money, mix in a little aggressive marketing, a dash of sometimes questionable sales tactics, and above average tuition with below average costs and you have BANK. Most people do not realise but the largest consumers of Government backed student loans are the for profit Colleges (think University of Pheonix). In fact there are a whole group of Entreprenuers that get rich off of government money.

Tons of Cheap money + People willing to give it to you= BANK. It is essentially the way the Real Estate bubble was created.

You forgot the part about f-ing the U.S. economy even more and being a contributing factor to the downfall of our (once) great country. Not that its that bad, lots of people where I live are already doing it in the insurance biz..... maybe once I move to Australia or NZ haha but for now thanks but no thanks

Alty: I am sure the real estate market is much different where you are compared to the US but I was wondering if you are currently building homes. Is the price you listed just the price of construction or the building + the land. Just curious what kind of margins you are getting for new construction.