Cost Benefit of Education
November 09, 2010
– Comments (9)
Rosey has a post where he says young people are being hosed by higher education today. (http://roseysoutlook.blogspot.com/2010/11/social-unrest-alert-are-ca-students.html)
I couldn't possibly agree more. I'd have to say the cost benefit of education has been questionable in Vancouver for a generation already. I was in my mid 30s when I went back to school for education and it was full of mid 30s people. That is simply a lot of people who haven't found good jobs with their first degree.
I think Rosey is right on in saying it will cause a divide between young and old. I feel like I am in an age group that will take the brunt of that divide, It seems that those that "have excess" is grandfathered to stay as it was and those coming up behind get the cuts.
I am very fortunate in that I am in much better financial shape then my age group peers and that is probably because of the lack of pensions. If I had a belief that I would have a comparable income stream into retirement I am sure I would have spent more. But I figured that the cost of living had to be reduce in order to require a smaller income stream, hence that trying to pay down the mortgage. But that strategy is hardly working for younger people today. The debt load is too high so they hardly make a dent even when they are trying very hard. The other thing is that property taxes and maintenance or strata fees will likely be higher so the whole idea of reducing costs is not likely to be as much as expected.
Pensions came about out of how the economy had not been good and people had not been able to provide for themselves. Somewhere I read originally there was a means test, you only got it if you had low income. Pensions have morphed into this fiscally unsustainable burden. Now what we have is a generation that already is not likely to be able to provide all that well for their pension because of under employment and not being able to find high paying jobs. This group can't pay for all the demands and something has to give.