It especially pisses me off when right-wingers mock people struggling under college debt for getting "useless" degrees.

I heard one asshole refer to a degree in "aromatherapy candle-making."

Fuck these people. Fuck them for their cruelty and fuck them especially for spreading misinformation.

Typical Boomer career story:

"Even though there were plenty of well paying manufacturing jobs available right after high school, I decided to go to college. It only cost $3000 for all 4 years, so why not?"

"So after graduating, I saw a job ad in the local paper. They immediately asked if I could come in for an interview."

"At the interview, I didn't know anything about the work, but they told me, 'Hey as long as you have a degree!' I told them i didn't know anything about the field though. 'That's okay, we'll train you! When can you start?' "

"And so began 30 years of stable employment at the same company. I rose through the ranks as they did all their promotions and management hiring from within. Just 5 years into it, I went and bought a house for $30k."

"That brings us to now, when my pension will be kicking in around the same time as my 401k. The real challenge now is deciding WHICH area to invest all my surplus into!"

"But all these dreams shattered as soon as they invented avocado toast..."

Yes, but. One thing often missing from left-ish talk about college is how much the cost of it is driven by exploding administrative costs. State funding has been flat. Most of the increased cost of college tuition is driven by increasing administration costs.* Without strong external forces (the administrators aren't going to fire themselves) to change this, giving more money to colleges will just result in more administrative bloat.

*"administrative spending comprised just 26% of total educational spending by American colleges in 1980-1981, while instructional spending comprised 41%. Three decades later, the two categories were almost even: administrative spending made up 24% of schools’ total expenditures, while instructional spending made up 29%." https://tinyurl.com/5xnbn6e8