Photo of the day: college degrees and ponzi schemes

An email from a student, "R," had the subject line "university ponzi scheme."  In the email, "R" writes "Did you read this one? Are you Dr X in this article?" ....

Hey, I have been loud and open on this--like here--and don't have to hide behind any "Dr. X" :)

Thanks to R for the link to this latest piece on the worthlessness of the college degree ... and it is in this piece that you will find the image below ...

Excerpt:

if college is neither a luxury good nor an investment, what is it? For Thiel, the commodity college most closely resembles is the humble insurance policy. Americans have become terrified, he says, of what will happen to their children if they don’t send them to college. The recession, widening income inequality, growing job insecurity, the uncertain future of the welfare state, the increasing costs of health care—all have deepened the anxieties that made college such an attractive option for a rising middle class in the first place. “I think that’s the way probably a lot of parents think about it. It’s a way for their kids to be safe, to be protected from the chaos. You’re paying for college because it’s an insurance policy against falling out of the middle class.” The larger question this raises, he says, is, “Why are we spending ten times as much for insurance as we were 30 years ago? And does that tell us something has gone really badly wrong with our country?”

Of course, I have blogged before about Peter Thiel's views on education.  I suppose while we might arrive at the same conclusions about the deplorable state of higher education, our reasons and objectives are not the same.