The Biggest Scam in America

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It was a good feeling — if only for a few seconds.

I grabbed my diploma, shook our president’s hand and smiled vaguely at the cameras. It was over, finally.

The rest of the communication school stood on that graduation stage like uniformed soldiers. Everyone beamed with elation. No more midterms or 20-page papers. No more bullshit work. We were onto the real world. Hooah!

Today was the best day of our lives.

And tomorrow was the worst.

Post-College Depression

When you first grab that diploma you’re on top of the world. The underclassmen look up to you, your family couldn’t be prouder, and society has dictated that this, this moment will forever change your life.

It’s a big fat lie.

The next day you’re back at the bottom.

You’re a barista at Starbucks, a panini maker at Panera Bread, a pornstar on Onlyfans, or welcoming more debt as you tackle your Master’s degree.

College teaches you how to be a corporate slave, not a critical thinker.

“Post-college depression” is the hidden cost of a college degree. It’s a mixture of uncertainty, debt, and a lack of skills that college should have provided.

The Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland once said this about progressing through life, “My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.”

Post-college depression, however, sets you miles back. And some aren’t ever able to recover.

Falling Down The Rabbit Hole

The American Psychological Association reports on average, millennials and young adults experience the highest level of stress than any other generation.

And that stress can be attributed to three primary factors perpetuated by college institutions: debt, social media obsession, and a lack of direction.

“It’s so easy to fall into a hole. College does nothing to prepare you for a 9 to 5, real-working life,” said 26-year-old and fellow Ramapo college alumnus Giancarlo Sepulveda. “You’re thrown into a world of paying bills, looking for jobs and you gain a newfound respect for adults who have been doing this for years.”

It’s funny Giancarlo said that. It reminded me of saying something when you’re older and sounding just like your parents.

Life is cyclical like that.

Student Loans, The Secret Few Know About

Giancarlo was a few years ahead of me, and warned me early on about finding a job in my Senior year. He told me that college debt is worse than I thought.

College debt is indentured servitude, he explained.

I found a Jordan Peterson lecture that expanded on this —

“It’s part of the reason that universities don’t make more demands on their students,” said Peterson. “Why the hell would you chase them out? They’re $100,000 or more. Let them do whatever they want.”

You cannot declare bankruptcy on your student loans, unlike most forms of debt. The process of halting payments on your student loans is much harder than if it was for your credit card debt, for instance.

It’s counterintuitive to lump massive amounts of debt onto your youngest population, but colleges don’t care.

The Stats

And in case you were wondering what the latest statistics on student loan debt are, here’s what Forbes recently published —

“The latest student loan debt statistics for 2021 show that there are 45 million borrowers who collectively owe nearly $1.7 trillion in student loan debt in the U.S.

Student loan debt is now the second-highest consumer debt category — second only to mortgage debt and higher than debt for both credit cards and auto loans.”

Smartphones Make Depression Worse

In 2019, more than 4 in 5 adults in the U.S. report that they constantly check their email, texts, and social media accounts, according to a recent APA report.

“How could you not?” Giancarlo told me years ago. “Job searching and networking is so overwhelming in the internet age, and there’s really no way to go about it without being locked into technology.”

Teaching responsibility and self-discipline are two skills sorely missed in college. Furthermore, these skills could easily be taught in Freshman courses. They are more important than ever as you attempt to stave off technologically-based influences like these—

➰Unhealthy foods which are advertised to you constantly.

➰Endless entertainment that is embedded into the very fabric of society.

➰Pornography and hypersexualized images which create a group of young adults who are addicted to masturbation and sex.

It’s like “Blade Runner” in real life. Except there’s no credit sequence. This horrifying dystopian hellscape is here to stay.

Satya Byock, a psychotherapist based in Portland, who primarily treats millennials, believes it’s inevitable that younger generations will experience a long period of confusion and uncertainty because of spending so much time engulfed in our tech worlds.

“Having external validation as our only validation is damaging. So I think it’s critical for all individuals, in particular, young adults to have time for introspection and self-love and self-knowledge.” — Satya Byock

Critical Race Theory

Did you know almost the entirety of all college professors are all politically left-leaning?

Years ago, hiding your bias as a college professor was a point of pride. Now the tables have turned. There’s only one narrative in college institutions, and professors announce it proudly.

They teach you the “correct ideology.” Now, where have I heard that before?

I had a class where we solely learned about the dangers of White Privilege. Being the only Black person in that classroom alienated me completely. My professor would ask what my point of view was as a Black man.

It was embarrassing, and easily the most racist thing I’ve ever experienced.

Learning about White Privilege didn’t equip me, or any of my classmates, with skills that we needed for life. It just set us up with subjective ideologies. Subjective ideologies and debt.

A lifetime of debt for an ideology. Seems fair.

White Privilege class — or Readings in the Humanities, as it was called — is not the only bullshit course offered in most universities.

The Power of Whiteness, Feminist Economics, Queering the Bible, Rednecks, Queers, and Country Music, and the fan-favorite Underwater Basket Weaving are all available at several American universities.

This isn’t to say any of these things aren’t interesting on your own time. Maybe they are.

But higher education is built towards landing you a job and making you a critical thinker capable of understanding all sides of important political issues; not saddling you with debt and a one-sided ideology.

Sorry, if you feel triggered now.

The Takeaway

College used to make you dangerous. An intellectual tour de force. As Jules Winfield from “Pulp Fiction” would say, a bad motherfucker.

It’s why Black intellectuals like W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington fought to attend university in the 19th-century. Du Bois and Washington were bad motherfuckers.

Conversely, college does still make you dangerous.

Dangerously stupid.

The sliver of relevant college majors like computer programming, UI/UX design, engineering, or finance can easily be learned online or at a Bootcamp for a fraction of the cost.

All that’s missing now is a reliable accreditation system for these autodidactic students. Although, some of these websites provide that too. And once Google starts handing out more online certificates it’s game over.

In summation, you reap what you sew. And colleges are in for a rude awakening after my generation has families of their own.

Maybe they’ll get it together before then. But I seriously doubt it.

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