Education

Education and a Happy Life

I am an educator. I have been teaching for 10 years. This week, as I reach a huge milestone in my own continuing education, finishing my Master’s degree, the field of education is facing an existential crisis. K-12 schools are underfunded by state and local governments and have huge issues in inequality. College educations are increasingly necessary but wildly expensive. Covid-19 has magnified many of these problems and brought to our attention how vulnerable the system is. To use a finance metaphor, our society is in a period of price discovery for education. We cannot figure out what it is worth to us.

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Economics

These 3 Charts About Student Loans Should Scare Everyone

Rick Rieder, Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income at BlackRock, wrote a startling article on “the economic side effects of the student loan crisis.”

1. Homeownership is on the Decline

chart1-homeownership

2. More Student Loan Debt Among Older Age Groups

chart2-studentloan

3. College Education is Still Key to Employment and Earnings

chart3-earnings

So you have to have a college education to earn decent income and steady employment, but the cost of that degree makes it nearly impossible to purchase a home, save for retirement, etc.

Rieder offers some excellent perspective on why this is some seriously alarming data for the economy.