Due to the fact that the institutions are largely government-funded, higher education has become an overpriced failure full of left-leaning political cronies. Bloated colleges with tenured professors who seek to indoctrinate students, rather than educate them, diminish our country. Kids leave college under-educated and frustrated, espousing illogical social beliefs that cause them to be humorless and angry. If being perpetually offended were a job, they would be able to pay off their massive student loans. These same folks show up to a Confederate statue protest in a Volkswagen, shouting, “Resist the Nazi extremists!” — and don’t see the irony.
The gig is up.
The fraud of higher education is built on student loan debt. Since any 18-year-old who can fog a mirror can now get a huge student loan, our nation has more student loan debt than credit card debt ($1.3 trillion, with 6 million debtors in default). Millennials who do not feel they are adults until age 26 dutifully take out student loans for inane degrees that land them bitter, broke and working at Starbucks. At 18, most of these kids would finance a tattoo; it’s almost loan-sharking to make them sign away their futures at that age. But government does it, so it must be OK—right?
Parents’ basements are full of millennials with tons of debt. And employers, even in a much-improved job market, are unwilling to hire knuckleheads. If the tenets of free market economics were applied to education, kids would not be residents in their parents’ basements, rent free. The arrogance of some of these kids — they walk around their parents’ basements like they own the place!
Millennials are so misled in college that real life can depress them. They turn to opioids. But they would never snort cocaine, because the powder on the mirror would obscure their view of themselves. Uber has caused these kids’ drunk driving acumen to atrophy. Smart phones available at their thumbs’ reckoning weaken them. In my day, if you lost someone at the mall, he or she was just gone.
A USA Today poll showed that 26% of college grads move back home. Upon hearing the poll news, their parents did something special for their snowflakes because they were so proud of them for completing that three-question survey.
Trump saw something missing in this racket of a government-funded education system: He wasn’t getting a cut. He tried to get into the business, doing a better job at it for a lower price than most universities. The students, including the lead plaintiff in the politically motivated case against his Trump University, gave him positive reviews.
Partisan prosecutors in NYC blasted Trump University as a scam. But say what you will, a degree from Trump U. was worth more than a Gender Studies degree from Wellesley.
What the media are not telling you about is how the Clintons, smelling money, shook down the “higher education” system with the grift teamwork for which they are so well known. While Hillary tried to paint Trump as a greedy businessman, the Clintons wet their beaks in the higher education scam.
The Daily Caller (and a few other organizations still willing to practice journalism) offered a detailed report on how Bill Clinton was paid $16.5 million from a company that runs for-profit colleges. It is further purported that Hillary Clinton’s State Department funneled $55 million in tax dollars to that company. All of this is detailed in Peter Schweizer’s book “Clinton Cash.”
“Charities” fit liberals perfectly. It’s like being a Democrat: You act like you are giving to others, when in fact you are taking from others to benefit yourself. The Clinton Family Foundation was no more than a shakedown vehicle to launder money for funding the Clinton lifestyle. Uranium One is the real “Russian collusion.”
The education game is easy. Like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae’s government-backed loans, which caused the great recession and the housing meltdown, easy federal money fuels the disaster. You just get regulators (government cronies) to approve your school. The feds then feed loan money to any stoner whom the college can talk into enrolling. There is no accountability as to your outcome. You keep the money, and the student and government (i.e., taxpayers) take the loan risk.
Many universities seem like such shams that their commencement speaker should be Bernie Madoff.
For most expensive colleges, especially the one with which the Clintons were involved, the school mascot should be a pigeon.
A libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author, Ron is a frequent guest on CNN. He can be contacted at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.