The True Cost of Education

With the swift and dynamic changes to society, here in north america over the past thirty or so years we have seen an increased importance placed on developing youth to attend university and attain higher levels of education. The perceived importance of this phenomenon has not gone unnoticed by the financial industries of our nations.  And if there is one thing that all universities across north America have in common it is that they are an expensive institution to attend.

    The concurrency of development of these two realms of society has provided the opportunity for a mass manipulation of our socio-economic system and has allowed certain government institutions to take advantage of almost an entire generation. Now more than ever more students are attending university, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However when so many of these students are at schools on credit or loans they become forced into working menial jobs in low level positions  in order to pay of loans with high interest rates. Never mind that in many cases these new employees end up working jobs that have no relation to their degree.  Over the course of the year, the American student loan system is set to earn over 51 billion dollars and has surpassed Exxon and apple as America’s most profitable institution. And this number will only rise as the number of students able to pay this money back promptly is so minuscule that that with interest alone you are sure to see at least a 25% increase of that estimate.  In Canada under the best circumstances over the duration undergraduate degree a student may incur approximately 30,000 in debt. With the best possible payment plan you would be looking at close to 17,000 in interest alone. Which leaves your total repayment close to 50,000. This may not seem extraordinary but when coupled with the fact that to get a job which uses your university education one will probably need a masters of arts it becomes quiet an endeavor.

    I guess what I am trying to what I am trying to convey with all this is really a question. In the grand scheme of things is the cost of your education really worth the returns?