When I went to college in 1974, the vast majority of my classmates took out loans to pay the tuition. It was a private college too. I was lucky as my parents gave me no choice, "We don't care what you do but you're going to college and we'll pay for it." Pay they did as I went on to med school after graduation. Paid for that too. I know, I'm lucky but they were proud of me. Had a long medical career.

Most of my classmates went on to professional, law school, graduate or teaching professions. All of them paid off their student debt as they had good marketable positions. The ridiculously low interest rate of the time meant that some of them took their time to pay off the loans but they did pay them off.

Get a "basket weaving" major in college and no one is going to employ that type of graduate. It's best for a teenager to take a personal inventory of what they like to do and look at the marketplace to see what job/profession to shoot for in college then study their "arse" off.

And by golly the trades are a good thing too for one who wants to work with their hands. Humankind will always need plumbers, carpenters, electricians, mechanics, etc. These folks and more take care of the "professionals".

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Huhhh? What kind of liberalistic bull crap is this? Teachers, B.S., M.S. and Phd is low enough as it is.

Yeah if a Phd has an idea, they might be able to go outside of a university system to make money off a patent but most likely their idea would be tied by contract to the university they work for. It's the upper level prof's who get compensated better and by gosh they should be! If students hate the hell out of them, don't want to take their classes, an institution would likely fire or retire them. The tenure thing might enter in here but if a prof is so hated (by the grapevine) and nobody wants to take their classes, they'll fail.

Plus there is the "publish or perish" issue on research stuff that likely didn't apply to the humanities that was in place in the late 70's when I was in school and might still be valid today. I have to let an "involved" academic comment on this though.

For the most part, I equate a PHD as being similar to an MBA. An MBA suggests a person knows how to run a business. But in reality they know nothing about the business or what it takes to make the light bulb burn. It was once said: "Those who can do, do. Those who cannot do, teach.".

When the braves get too old to hunt, they teach classes in how to read buffalo piles. But their teaching is based upon the experience of having been a hunter, and not theory! Most college professors have no real world experience just academia, sort of like most politicians whose whole career is based upon the swamp!

When I went to college in 1974, the vast majority of my classmates took out loans to pay the tuition. It was a private college too. I was lucky as my parents gave me no choice, "We don't care what you do but you're going to college and we'll pay for it." Pay they did as I went on to med school after graduation. Paid for that too. I know, I'm lucky but they were proud of me. Had a long medical career.

Most of my classmates went on to professional, law school, graduate or teaching professions. All of them paid off their student debt as they had good marketable positions. The ridiculously low interest rate of the time meant that some of them took their time to pay off the loans but they did pay them off.

Get a "basket weaving" major in college and no one is going to employ that type of graduate. It's best for a teenager to take a personal inventory of what they like to do and look at the marketplace to see what job/profession to shoot for in college then study their "arse" off.

And by golly the trades are a good thing too for one who wants to work with their hands. Humankind will always need plumbers, carpenters, electricians, mechanics, etc. These folks and more take care of the "professionals".

For the most part, I equate a PHD as being similar to an MBA. An MBA suggests a person knows how to run a business. But in reality they know nothing about the business or what it takes to make the light bulb burn. It was once said: "Those who can do, do. Those who cannot do, teach.".

When the braves get too old to hunt, they teach classes in how to read buffalo piles. But their teaching is based upon the experience of having been a hunter, and not theory! Most college professors have no real world experience just academia, sort of like most politicians whose whole career is based upon the swamp!