14 Shocking Facts About the Student Loan Debt Bubble and the Great College Education Scam

(The Economic Collapse Blog)—More than 18 million students are enrolled at over 5,800 colleges and universities in the United States.  On average, it costs more than $100,000 to attend a college or a university in the U.S. for four years.  It has been estimated that a college eduction is now over 400 percent more expensive than it was 40 years ago.  But even though our institutions of higher learning are sucking so much money out of our young people, it never seems to be enough, and so they are constantly begging for more money from the federal government.  If you can believe it, the U.S. government has been providing more than 170 billion dollars a year to postsecondary education programs.  Much of this funding comes in the form of research grants, student aid, and government contracts.  But what are we getting for all of this money?  The truth is that we are getting an entire generation that has had their heads filled with leftist propaganda.

We tell our kids over and over again that a “higher education” is the key to getting a good job and living the American Dream.  They have been told not to worry about how much it costs and that there is plenty of financial aid (mostly made up of loans) available.  Now our economy is facing the biggest student loan debt bubble in the history of the world, and when our new college graduates enter the “real world” they are finding out that the good jobs they were promised are very few and far between.

The system relies on the fact that most of us are going to believe that a college education is the key to a good future and that there is plenty of “financial aid” out there for everyone that wants to go to college.

Unfortunately, high school students are never told that not even bankruptcy can get you out of student loan debt.  It will stay with you forever until you finally pay it off.

Today, each new crop of optimistic college graduates quickly discovers that there are simply not nearly enough jobs for all of them.  Thousands upon thousands of them end up waiting tables or stocking the shelves at retail stores.  Many of them end up deeply bitter as they find themselves barely able to survive and yet saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt that nobody ever warned them about.

Sadly, the quality of the education that most of these college students is receiving is a complete and total joke.

Take it from someone that has graduated from a couple of very highly respected institutions.  I have an undergraduate degree, a law degree and another degree on top of that, so I know what I am talking about.  Higher education in America has become so dumbed-down that the family dog could literally pass most college courses.

It is an absolute joke.  The vast majority of college students in America spend two to four hours a day in the classroom and maybe an hour or two outside the classroom studying.  The remainder of the time, these “students” are out drinking beer, partying, chasing after sex partners, going to sporting events, playing video games, hanging out with friends, chatting on Facebook or getting into trouble.  It has been said that college is the most fun that most people will ever have in their entire lives, and that is no exaggeration.  It is basically one huge party.

Of the little “education” that actually does go on, much of it is so saturated with leftist propaganda that it makes the whole process virtually worthless.  Most parents would be absolutely shocked if they could actually see the kind of indoctrination that goes on inside U.S. college classrooms today.

A college education can be worth it for those in fields that are highly technical or highly specialized, but for nearly everyone else it is just one giant money-making scam.

Oh, but you parents please keep breaking your backs to put money into the college funds of your children so that they can be spoon-fed leftist propaganda all day and party like wild animals all night for four years.

It really is a huge scam.  I was there.  I saw it with my own eyes.

But if you will not believe me, perhaps you will believe some cold, hard statistics.  The following are 14 shocking facts about the student loan debt bubble and the great college education scam…

1. One out of every four Americans under the age of 40 has outstanding student loan debt.
2. Americans now owe 1.773 trillion dollars on their student loans, which is more than the total amount that Americans owe on their credit cards.
3. The average federal student loan debt balance has now risen to $38,375.
4. 4.86 percent of all federal student loan dollars were in default as of the fourth quarter of 2024.
5. A typical high school student spends about 30 hours in the classroom each week, but a typical college student spends between 12 and 16 hours in the classroom each week.
6. One study found that 35 percent of U.S. college students spend 5 hours or less studying outside of the classroom each week.
7. That same study found that 50 percent of U.S. college students have never taken a class that required them to write more than 20 pages, and 32 percent of U.S. college students have never taken a class that required them to read more than 40 pages in a week.
8. Only 49 percent of full-time college students receive a bachelor’s degree within four years.
9. In May 2024, the unemployment rate for bachelor’s degree recipients between the ages of 20 to 29 was over 12 percent.
10. The median starting salary for a college graduate is approximately $52,000 a year.
11. The average starting salary for an electrician is approximately $54,000 a year.
12. Today, a whopping 42.7 million Americans have outstanding student loan debt.
13. Just 29 percent of all young college graduates in the U.S. that have outstanding student loans say that they are living comfortably.
14. #Nearly a third of all college graduates end up moving back home with their parents once their educations have been completed.

What in the world has happened to our system of higher education?

At this stage, it is a complete and utter disaster. Much of the “real learning” that is taking place on college campuses actually occurs in graduate programs. Sadly, many of these graduate programs are now dominated by foreigners.

In fact, it has been estimated that about half of all the graduate science students enrolled at colleges and universities in the United States are now foreigners. Something is very, very wrong.

But should we be surprised that the quality of education at our colleges and universities has gone down so much when the quality of education at every level leading up to college has also been declining?

In some areas of the country, large numbers of students that can barely read are being allowed to graduate from high school.

A population that does not read is much easier for the elite to control.  According to a survey that was conducted in 2023, 46 percent of Americans had not even read a single book within the past year.

If you want to be an educated person, get in the habit of reading books.  If you don’t know where to get started, I would recommend checking out my latest offering.

Our society spends more on education than any other society in the history of the world has. But our population is certainly not getting any smarter.

Our system of higher education is all about making as much money as possible, and countless lives are being wrecked in the process.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.