Our generation has been vitiated due to the debt everyone is accruing just from going to school. Plain and simple. I know many individuals who have racked up over $100,000 in debt while they are still no older than 22 in most cases. I believe it goes without dispute that educating the public is the paramount strategy to ensure a prosperous future where people are more inclined to make decisions that have the best positive outcome for society as a whole. However, the cost and strain that education places on students makes one think twice about getting a diploma.
Let's take recent history for an allegory. During this current recession one factor which influenced the events of the past year were the inability of individuals with mortgages for their homes to pay back these loans. Whether they should have received mortgages is a question that I am no expert to answer and does not pertain to my overall general argument. The inability of individuals to pay back their mortgages led to a downward spiral of financial institutions going bankrupt and people losing every asset they owned.
Now to parallel this with education. With such a massive amount of students in their early 20's gaining such titanic amounts of debt in hopes to establish a positive and fruitful future, one must take a step back and wonder can this many college graduates really pay back this debt. One advantage college graduates had in the past was the significantly lower number of individuals attending college and graduating. Therefore, the ones who graduated held much more cultural capital and had a stronger hold on bargaining for employment and their income. This falls in line with the facets of supply and demand. Generally, the reduced supply of a certain commodity or good (in this case college graduates), the greater the demand will be for said good, therein making the value of said good appreciate.
Can we as a college students be confident and assured enough that the investment we are placing upon our education and future will pay off? The banks which give out the money are fervent and unrelenting in pursuing the repayment of their loans, regardless of how successful or financial stable a student has become.
Society pressures us that going to college is the only vehicle to secure a prosperous future where you can contribute to the upbuilding of our communities. After continually maintaining a reflection eternal upon this system I'm beginning to think twice. It almost seems there is some clandestine plan which promotes students striving for an education and telling us education is the only way to secure a future, only to place a dollar value on our efforts to restrict individuals without the financial capital to educate themselves. Which in turn, only perpetuates stagnation in the social hierarchy and establishes a caste system that doesn't allow every individual to increase their status and cultural worth.
The Random House Dictionary's definition of education is thus; the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.
I previously stated that the larger amount of college graduates may decrease our worth and ability to procure financial stability. However, to place a dollar value on one's growth and evolution is futile and preposterous and only pushes individuals further away from education as a whole. Consequently, potentially ensnaring our social mobility and placing those in poor financial shape in shackles and chains. Education, in my opinion will lead to the enlightening of our generation and generations to come, due to the ills and imbalances of society we have seen in the past and present. We have no choice but to establish an approach that will allow us to nurture and develop new methods to allow every human to sustain their growth mentally, physically, spiritually, and economically through the rigors of socialization, regardless of one's culture, creed, or belief system.
Alas, we are already absorbed within the game that has subdued many of my colleagues and classmates, and there is not much we can do to change the past. However, with the knowledge and experience we have gained over the years of our schooling, and the growing ambiguity and unascertainable nature of the future, one thing for sure is certain. We stand in the 21st century with the cultural capital we have purchased, clutched by the throat and wallet, only to be manumit by the idiosyncrasies and double standards of universities,employers, and financial institutions.
As always, the one who attempts to align all ways as always.
 "Photo: Josh Zager/The Chronicle")
