Jeff Stahler for August 20, 2013

Problem is, between the economy and Obamacare there are no majors out there that are guaranteed to pay the bills these days. []I’ve got an MBA and I’m still working my minimum-wage college job.

The average college graduate pays about $5800 more a year in federal taxes than the average high school graduate. Over 30 years, that totals about $172,000. If that’s divided by the 4 years it takes to get a college education, the government would break even if it paid every student $42,000 a year to attend school. This doesn’t even consider that with the degree, the person is less likely to ever need unemployment or welfare, that more students would complete high school if they could see a clear way to a really good job, and that they would be enriching the Social Security and Medicare funds. They would also be paying a larger amount in all other types of taxes. The best investment we could make to keep America strong is to not just forgive all student loans but to make all higher education, as long as the student is making decent grades, totally free, and increase the number of schools and teachers to make room for all who can profit from the education. We don’t, even at this time of high unemployment, have so much a lack of jobs as we have a lack of people who have the skills to perform the jobs that are available- in other words, a lack of education.

I know a lot of highly educated people, who make largeyearly incomes (mostly pushing paper around their desks)but when it comes time to re-roof their house, fix their auto,build a deck or remodel their house, whom do they call? Theycall the guy who has spent years learning his craft or tradeyet they want to pay him minimum wage…go figure

…if I can get the money to move.[]Due to a snafu with my financial aid, I spent an entire year having to pay 100% out-of-pocket. Said snafu caused me to blow through all of my savings, and it’s been slow going in trying to rebuild.