Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for January 20, 2019

They would have been better off going into the service.

Somebody beat up Rat, please.

His writing sucks.

I wonder if Pastis has kids this age…?

But chances are that they wouldn’t qualify for the loans without their parents co-signing. Oops.

I frankly don’t see how graduates ever get out from under this. If you have $100,000 debt (which is not that much these days), and could pay $1,000 a month (and realistically, who can pay that and living expenses?), you would pay off the principal in eight years. Except there’s interest. So it looks more like a twenty year proposition. Unless you have a high-paying position right out of school.

Sucks to be you, kids!

I attended my varsity years as a working student . My every day life those years run from 3:00 AM until 11 PM ,It was hard butI did it and, if I did it , everyone can do . I know that here in Italy is easier because we have a good public educational system , cheaper and with a different organisation

And here I thought this was leading a comment on the national debt. (Just change the numbers.)

Alright, it’s time to get political!

If that was the Trump family, the parents would be giving the son millions of dollars so that he could start his own sham university,.

So learn a skilled trade. If one has some smarts and is willing to actually work hard & get dirty, not only is the work often interesting/rewarding and the pay typically very good to highly excellent, they’ll actually pay you to learn the trade. What’s more, the trades are unlikely to be off-shored or replaced by a computer or robot. The blind & self-justifying school guidance people almost never promote the idea to the “better” students because the guidance people didn’t go that route themselves, so they think college is “better.” Wrong, and if one is simply into “self-improvement,” one can take college courses as an adult at one’s convenience.

As another commenter said I worked my way through school….. Another point is college is not for everyone……

Just think what that debts going to be after their sophomore year.

Let your kids come to Germany or Scandinavia and study here. Studying at our public universities is virtually for free. OK, life itself isn’t, but that’s the case wverywhere in the world. And yes, we pay with our taxes for that, but that we consider as an investment in future.

I feel for the youth of the US on this. Here, Denmark, all students not only doesn’t pay to study they also get money from the government to study (I think it is like $800 or so). This not only means people that want does study, but also that this is regardless of the parents situation which means social mobility is much higher over here.

Here in Quebec, tuition is around $1500 per semester. Very easy to graduate with little or no debt.

I used to regret being a poor kid who couldn’t afford to go to college. Not so much these days. My hobbyist’s interest in computers was parlayed into a 25 year career in IT, where my highschool diploma earns me more than many of my degree-holding (and student loan owing) friends. It really looks like college has become just another scam for fleecing the rubes unless you’re well-to-do in the first place and can afford to pay for your degree up front.

Yeah, Pig!

The average student loan balance according to the Federal Reserve, of all places, is $32,731 as of 2016 (most recent stats I could find). If you owe $100,000+ in student loans, you made some very poor life decisions.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2017-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2016-education-debt-loans.htm

Regardless of whether the kids were wise to saddle themselves with that much debt, or whether the parents should have steered them in a different direction, Pig hits the nail on the head in the last panel. Get to work.

Many would do better in welding or HVAC making money fairly soon rather than spending years not making money and incurring debt going to college and then winding up in an “entry” level (read “management training”) job. Management Training = Entry level HS job.

Republicans will make you pay back your loan while they destroy your school system, have a nice day kids.

Where are the free market capitalists here? While technically NPOs every college and university exist to make money. All they are doing is Business 101.

Call Mike Rowe.

Go to a university that offers co-op degrees, then you work in between semesters and your student loan is vastly reduced or even eliminated. Or you you just go to a community college and get a good paying trade such as carpenter, plumber, electrician or mason. They are in high demand and get very well paid. Maybe not a 9,000 square foot home and a Lamborghini for each season but a good, fulfilling life without crippling debt.

When did college become this expensive? I went to a state university in the late ’70s/early ’80s. My student loans for four years totaled around $6500.

I believe student loans are only a problem for kids that do not graduate. The schools should make sure that the kid is capable of graduating. And that doesn’t appear to be a daunting task to me.

To answer Pig’s question, the reason the kids aren’t working is because the degrees they pursued were worthless liberal arts degrees like “Gender Studies”. About the only “job” you can get with a degree like that is to be a professional protester on George Soros’ payroll.

Of course back then we considered $40,000 a year to be a good salary.

Student loans, encouraged by the government, and offered to students and their families without serious regard for need, potential benefit, or ability to repay have been addictive to colleges. Costs have skyrocketed as students have had the ability to pay more and more as they nwisely mortgaged their future.

Peace Corps and the U.S. military has a “loan forgiveness” program. Each year of service knocks 25% off your debt. Four year’s service, and you’re done – and wondering why you didn’t sign up for ROTC in the first place.

And we ALL know the MOST important thing you have to learn with a Liberal Arts Degree, or a Degree in Art History, or Ancient Babylonian music…how to say “Do you want fries with that?” without sobbing…

Don’t laugh too hard, mom and dad. Your kids will be living with you for the next 40 years of their life until you die!

I think we need to realize that a lot of “students” go to college for the social experience.

Everyone should have a way to make a decent living, and society should provide decent jobs for everyone. But that’s not all of life. The point of a college education is to learn what people over the centuries in many different cultures have thought about important questions. One of those questions is “What is the good life?” Is the good life just having a job and making a living? I would say that’s part of the the good life, but there’s more. There is music, literature, art, there’s knowing as much as we can about how the world is but together, there’s knowing how various societies have solved, or have attempted to solve, the problems of social organization and power, and so on. Everyone, including people who make a living in some trade, can have an interest in some of these questions.

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 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 during a 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.

Borderline criminal

So, get a nice trade instead. My HVAC could use work.

Go to community college for two years, finish at a local university, live at home, don’t major in philosophy. You will have little or no debt.

And I know commercial air conditioning techs that make 6 figures, easy.

Would you like a scone with that latte?

And as if that isn’t bad enough, you also have crappy parents.

A college degree does not guarantee a well-paying job. That being said, we are wasting time and a sheet-load of resources by having 22/23 year olds still in high school. Most other countries make a decision by age 12/14 about which students go on to college and which go to trade schools.

And please don’t get me started on vast majority of resources wasted on special ed students.

Maybe the kids are sitting there because they have jobs with the Fed and are on furlough.

It’s especially fun when they were bragging about their STEM degrees a few years ago… and now they’re starting to realize that everyone else getting one meant that your bargaining power in getting a job is completely null and void. There will now always be someone poorer, more desperate, and just as educated as you.

or flippin’ go to a trade school instead – 2 years later and you could be making more than most of these college kids ever would, with your school loan/debt paid off and plenty of work to be found as there’s not enough workers in the trades anymore!

Remember, every cigarette you smoke is three minutes off your student loans.

$350,000.00 to be taught what to think, instead of how to think. The last frame is correct. In most cases today college is a mistake.

This is why I want to apply for a Pell Grant with That, you don’t pay anything back

Skip college, Mr. Pastis?

Graduate high school. Maybe attend community college. Start a business. Hire college graduates for $10 an hour.

Pig do you know how much starting pay is in most fields? Less than cost of living, not counting the debt payments.

The anti-intellectualism on display here is quite amazing. I have great respect for people who can make things, fix things, care for the sick, working people of all sorts, but I also believe that working people can be interested in art and ideas and history and science and thinking about things in general. There shouldn’t have to be a wall between working and thinking. Thinking people should work and working people should think.

Here are some ways to lower student debt. 1. Recognize right off the bat what you and your family can afford to spend for education. If you can get an academic or sports scholarship then try your best to do so. Consider getting into a work study program or plan to find some sort of part time job to help with expenses. Live in the dorm to save money or if you live off campus get several roommates. Finally, if your parents have saved for your college and you’ve amassed as many scholarships and grants as possible then look at that figure and know THAT IS ALL YOU HAVE TO SPEND. Live within your means and don’t go borrowing. If all you can afford is a state school or community college or a trade school then go there and choose a program that offers a skill that will earn a living. 2. Don’t continue your education with the idea you’ll stay on campus until you get a PhD if you don’t have the means (without a loan) to finance it. In the past people got their Bachelors and then went to work and paid all their debts for that before incurring more debt to get a Masters or PhD. These days students expect to get it all at once. 3. Study a program that will allow you to make a living! Far too many go for the classes that offer nothing in that arena. You can still take some fun and interesting courses just know that your main objective should be toward making enough money to support yourself and pay any debts you have incurred. 4. Don’t take 6 or 7 years to get a Bacheors degree! Do whatever it takes to get in and out in four years and then GO TO WORK. Too many young graduates come out expecting the perfect job with big bucks and lots of perks. They don’t want to do the entry level grunt work necessary to move up in a company.

Just a few suggestions from someone who actually did all of the above. My family could not afford to send me so I did borrow some money. I immediately went to work as a teacher and paid it all back on a reasonable payment plan.

I watched CBS Sunday morning. It said the cost of college has quadrupled. It also had a segment on homeless college students.

WORK Angelicaaa… ELIZAAA and peggy

A plethora of opinions here

As a scientist, I like to inject facts:

https://www.bls.gov/emp/chart-unemployment-earnings-education.htm

The median salary for a Bachelor’s degree is 1.65 times that of a high school degree.

Unemployment rate for high school only degree: 4.6%

Unemployment rate for college degree (Batchelor’s) 2.5%

Obviously these numbers do not address every issue, like debt. But the numbers do show that you are more likely to earn more with a college education.

The tables above are from a page with more general information as well.

https://www.bls.gov/emp/documentation/education-training-system.htm

One of those links says: Occupations that Need More Education for Entry are Projected to Grow Faster Than Average

https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/education-summary.htm

This one gives an idea of what a given occupation requires and what training might be given:

https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/education-and-training-by-occupation.htm

Too many of my friends have the vision that their kids have to go to the right school. Those schools are almost always private and very expensive. You can still make it through school debt free. I did it in the 70’s, and my kids did it in the last decade. Plan, work, save, focus on applying for scholarships, stay debt free. It can be done!

It is beyond my comprehension as to why someone would rack up that amount of debt. College is expensive, after 8 years of it I know but there is working while in school, grants and scholarships, and choosing a lower cost school and a major that is in demand and actually pays decent money. Yeah, it would have been nice to go to my dream school but not cost effective. A major in music (my passion) would have been nice but would not have paid the bills, especially after an accident left me to play for a while. Then there are trade schools offering two-year degrees in fields that also pay well, yeah I know the snob-appeal isn’t there but at least you could support yourself and your family. Common sense just isn’t so common anymore. Everyone thinks they are entitled to do and have what they want without paying the consequences for their choices.

Pig has plenty o’ attitude, but his “solution” is impractical. The kids are doomed. That’s as it should be. The world does not love you, kiddoes!

I believe this is the BEST strip Pastis has written! WOW!

In Michigan there is a fund that parents can put a minimal amount of money into to save for their children’s education. I know 2 families that paid for 2 kids tuition each with the fund. It’s parental negligence in many cases that has caused so many kids to be saddled with debt just to get an education.

You’ll be ok if you pick a major with a guaranteed career path to wealth like Gender Studies…

The anti-intellectualism in this thread is appalling but not surprising given the current political situation. College is not meant to be vocational; it’s about becoming a well-educated citizen who can think. The value of a college education is not limited to getting a higher-paying job. In fact, that is entirely beside the point.

College is also an aesthetic and horizon-widening experience. This experience is not accessible to people who work and attend classes or who live at home. You need to be living on a campus to get the full experience. College is an idyll of intellectual growth. Not everyone has the desire or capacity to benefit from college so trade schools are an option but the choice to attend college should be based purely on interest/aptitude, NOT determined by how rich your parents are. Those who say you should just go to a trade school or community college if you can’t afford a proper college are perpetuating a class system that is based on accident of birth, not intellectual merit.

Where I teach, in Ontario, tuition is about $7,700, Canadian dollars. Where I was an undergraduate, Cornell, tuition now is over $50,000. Now I assume most students don’t pay the full costs, still, the disparity is enormous.

This is modern-day peonage, and it’s the result of odious debt. Time for a jubilee.

This bugs me so much. Boomers and Gen X’s had it a lot easier than millennials, job wise, money wise, ect. However, they constantly scoff at millennials.