I'm sorry but European universities are financed by public money and I don't know why we European tax payers should now support the education of American students. We too are in debt and the American banks did a lot of work to put us in debt with their CDS.Americans wanted ultra-liberalism, now that you got it, take responsability.

@ClaymoreA single personal experience does not outweigh statistics. That is a logical fallacy I thought they would have taught you about in university. I learned about logical fallacies in a course called "Ethics 101" if you can believe that.There have been many super rich people that did not finish a degree in their chosen field ever, or not until after they were already rich. That does not constitute a good argument against going to school, because that would be a few individual stories.What constitutes a good argument for not going to school, is exactly what we have here in this article.In the US, going to US schools, you are VERY unlikely to get a good return on investment, unless you go on a scholarship for an in-demand degree.The problem at the base of this, is that a college degree in ANY subject you desire is touted as a free pass into a secure job making serious money.I work as a Technical Support Analyst Level 2 for around $32k a year + benefits. I have no college degree, so, that isn't too bad for me. Almost everyone that I work with has one or two degrees and are making about the same amount of money I am, meaning they got a horrible return on investment, and I got an awesome return on mine.My personal experience is turning into the "norm", and that is the problem.

Great post. Overall, a good look at the "education is necessary" religion that endures despite the accumulating evidence to the contrary. A couple of thoughts in addition, and a quibble: The benefit of the "education" is an assurance to large corps that the "educated" applicant is a capable passive instruction follower in the indicated field. This means (among other things) no actual work for HR departments as they could just point to the transcripts, and little chance of training future competitors with "outside the box" ideas. Now, as corporations downsize, wage arbirtrage, automate, and prefer workers from countries whose culture is more obedience oriented; most gainfull new employment in US will be in innovative startups that can swim against the tide of depression. Few of the "educated" are suited for this paradigm.Quibble:"Rather than realizing their errors many of these people figure that writing their problems on a piece of paper on the internet may help! Or, by chasing down rich Wall St. bankers (a symptom of the problem) with pitchforks while admonishing the government (the real problem) to play a bigger role in the economy."I mostly agree here also, but suggest that the bankers now effectively own the governments through unlimited and overwhelming campaign contributions to most major western political parties. They are a larger problem than their owned governments. Bankers are unlikely to permit change while they own the politicians, the media, and a good piece of academia to boot. I agree that the protestors do not adequately understand their problems, but they have somehow chosen the correct target.

Excellent article. I had a hard time coming to grips with the fraud of high education and I wanted to believe that it was the right path. Now I understand I was suckered into the propaganda and I'm glad the light bulb finally turned on. Thanks for telling it like it is!

After reading all the comments, I'm a bit shocked...Jeff talks mainly about the High-Education in the USA, but that does not mean the same applies anywhere in the world!I have a double degree (BSc + MSc - it's a 5 year course) in Computer Engineering and Telecommunications from the University of Aveiro (Portugal). If I hadn't take this double degree, i would probably be working at McDonalds or at a supermarket.Learning from the web is an utopian concept simply because not everything is available or if it is, it's expensive. I actually know about the MIT Open Course, because I used it before. Lessons are a bit dubious, not every courses from the MIT are available (so forget the basic thematics that are required to learn more advanced concepts) and there is also something that is quite important... making questions to the teachers!In Portugal, Public University tuition fees have a maximum value stipulated by law which is

I went to same school than many of my friends, paid for the same college education, and got lower grades than every one of them.Today, not even a year after my graduation, most of them are jobless and have gone back home to their parebts, while I have the highest paying job, which I use to buy gold and invest in business my paying one of my friend to work for me full time, all with my single, non-university diploma which cost me next to nothing if you don't count taxes (Cegep in Quebec, Canada is super cheap cause the gov pays for it, well, taxes do, so everyone pays for it once).How did I achieve this while having the lowest grades and failing lots of courses? I figured what I was learning was bullshit and spent my time learning things I thought would actually serve me better. The diploma I obtained for status, but mind you the Governement department which hired me didn't even bother to verify my studies. They hired me before I even got my final grades and before I was even sure to have my diploma because I was simply too good to miss on. At 22 with no University degree, I beat all of the other 30 applicants for the job by pure merit. Nothing I know and use at this job I learned from school. Except for primary skills like basic maths and read/writing, all of the rest I learned by myself. School is a broken system, this post simply explains why. Brilliant.