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Comment by 6stringmerc | Hacker News Reader

Methinks you vastly over-state the average person with a desire to fulfill a goal. I've got a recent example. Allow me to re-phrase a line from your last paragraph:

Everybody knows buying a house is expensive. It's not a mystery. The costs are laid out there. But it's also quite easy to develop alternative paths to completing a transaction in a specialized form of finance and not get into enormous debt.

This is a significant exaggeration of explanation of what happened to the housing bubble which led to the 2008 recession. However, it is very well known that Universities have been in an "arms race" and chargning more and more for less and less relevant skills. For-profit colleges prey upon the weak, and that's why we have a Student Loan Bubble brewing...you know, because it's not like there are predatory lenders or marketing materials which lead impressionable people down the wrong path...

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I don't want to live in a world where people aren't educated. One less desperate person in the world saves us all a lot of pain. And contributing people mean more societal benefits. Small but meaningful. People are a big mix of desires. College is a great place to learn where you can learn where to direct your energies and passions instead of being a fledgling heap of empty want susceptible to predators in every field.

You've equated "college" with "education". There should be many ways to be educated without going to college. As I wrote in my blog, I never said that the college experience was valueless.

But I did suggest that it could be done cheaper and faster. And I questioned the price.

You said "Dirty Secret: Most people shouldn't go" the obvious inference being "avoid it because it won't be worth it to you."

I'm not confusing college with education. Statistically, college works to big benefits for people when they complete it. Statistically they make more money, hopefully doing meaningful work. No reason to tell others not to go. Tell people TO go and then give them best direction. I want people to go to college for the experience and learning and to get jobs so they contribute to society. I think college could be fast tracked. But I also think that's not in everyone's or the majority's best interest to fast track everything. Because some steps need time and honestly after working with plenty of people in their early 20's. I'd prefer them to be more mature.

There's things about college that you can measure and things you can't. Both are valuable. That's it. you might spend some time looking at how lucky you have been, and how maybe your luck isn't scalable and therefore you shouldn't tell everyone to toss out a system that works.

You contradict yourself in the article.

You say that "Most people probably shouldn’t go to school" and that "you may just be better off not going to school", but when people call you out on that inane conclusion you tell them you're really just questioning the cost and length. OK, well, make up your mind then.

No doubt the education system should be more attuned to the trends in labor markets, and should be affordable to your average person. That's a far cry from "You probably shouldn't go to school".

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