James Fenimore Cooper once said: "All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than that which he partakes in common with all around him, will never have any other than an existence of mediocrity." In my mind, this brings up an interesting question: how do we learn to be different so that we don't live in mediocrity?

Thinking is man's distinctive characteristic. It is within our own nature as a species, and it brings us the sovereignty of our race and our land. For humans, it is critical thinking that allows us to thrive.

Since the beginning of human existence, man has attempted to share cultural values, knowledge, new formulas, and inventions in order to learn new abilities for his survival and enjoyment. The development of writing and reading was used as a tool to pass along this knowledge and, as a result, many schools were built. So, the sole purpose of education can be summarized in a simple statement: learning to live and prosper.

But, if we look at the current state of education, it seems that it no longer serves that purpose. Kids don't know how to achieve in the most basic areas, such as reading, writing, and arithmetic. To prevent themselves from shame, schools cheat and lower their proficiency standards. Nowadays, it seems the only purpose of schools is preparing children to go to college - a place where they won't develop enough skills to find a job, even in the most requested areas. Additionally, for most students, the price of college is unaffordable (unless you're willing to sell an organ).

Despite this, 70% of high school graduates enroll in college, while two-thirds of college students are graduating with an average of $24,000 in debt. So, it doesn't seem like a very wise decision to enroll in college: you're effectively camouflaging yourself into the crowd, not learning how to think critically, and spending years not developing skills enough to get a job that will payoff your debt. Interestingly enough, student loans are the easiest loan to receive in the US, as the state seems to give them to everyone regardless of reason (e.g., grades, job prospects). This is one of the reasons tuition prices continue to go so high. And when students can't payoff their loans, there are certain circumstances where your loans can be paid for by the government (which really means that taxpayers pay for them through higher taxes). In the video, they predict that taxpayers eventually will pay for all tuition loans for these worthless educations.

Americans really need to start rethinking the purpose of college education. With the unemployment level in America actually around 22%, the best it seems many college graduates can do is find jobs in places where a degree isn't required (if they can find jobs at all). We would be better-off remembering that education is about learning to live and prosper. I don't know about you but, for me, I enjoy living more when I have a job and am not in debt.

What do you think the purpose of education is nowadays? If you went to college, how did you pay for it and solve your economic problems after graduating? What do you think about the consequences of the government providing easy loans for college? What do you think are better alternatives than going to college?

"You have to have a certain kind of brain to understand the dead language that they write in textbooks. But they brainwash you from a little kid up, so that you buy into the system; and you get good grades, and you study hard, and then you become a member of the total system. No freedom. You don't know how to think, because they told you how to think their way." (Gerald Celente)

...Over just a two-year period, from December of 2007 through December of 2009, 8,363,000 jobs in America were lost, or 6.1% of total jobs. One year later, in December of 2010, thanks to the Federal Reserve and the US government spending $4.6 trillion on ballots, stimulus programs, and other government spending, 1,124,000 jobs in America or 0.9% of total jobs have been recovered. That is over $4,000,000 spent for each job created.

...College students borrowed $106 billion in total student loans for the 2009-2010 for school year, up from $96 billion in 2008-2009, $94 billion in 2007-2008, $87 billion in 2006-2007, and $83 Billion in 2005-2006. Total student loan debt in the US currently stands at $830 billion and now exceeds credit card debt...

Today, two-thirds of students are graduating college with an average student loan debt of $24,000 and the government is now making the situation many times worse by completely taking over the student loan business... Now, all students will receive their loans directly from the government at artificially low interest rates...

With all the modern technological advances the world has been experiencing in recent years, the cost of a quality education in America should be getting cheaper. It is now cheaper to purchase a plasma television or laptop computer than years ago because the government doesn't subsidize purchases of these products. If there was a true, free market in college education, colleges would be figuring out more cost efficient ways to educate students using modern technology in order to bring tuitions down, and compete against each other for the enrollment of students.

By guaranteeing student loans and providing too much aid to students, the US government destroyed the free market in college education. One NIA member who is 50% owner of a private vocational school tells us that he is legally forced to raise tuitions every time the government raises financial aid to students. The government's 90/10 rule mandates that at least 10% of a private for-profit college's income comes from non-federal government sources. Therefore, private for-profit colleges must keep raising tuitions in order to stay within the 90/10 rule. The government needs to get out of the education business completely, and allow private banks to re-enter the market and compete against each other in order to offer loans at reasonable interest rates to students who have the best ability to pay them back...

"If we were doing such a wonderful job and producing such geniuses coming out of universities, do you think we'd be in the problems that we're in now? Do you think that we would be among the most unhealthy nation of people in developed nations? Do you think that we would be gobbling down junk food? Do you think that we would be prescription drug addicts as a society? Do you think that we would be in the greatest recession, that's heading toward the greatest depression? Do you think we would be in Iraq and wasting trillions of dollars fighting losing wars in Afghanistan, and now in Pakistan? Do you think that we would have presidents and senators, congressmen and legislators, of such low mentality that we have now? ...Look what American universities have produced." (Gerald Celente)"

DISCUSS!

Original posting by Gala on Aug 10, 2011 at http://www.braincrave.com/viewblog.php?id=618