The T Word (Boo! It's Tuition)

How do people expect kids to pay for upwards of $200,000 in tuition for their Bachelor's Degree? I certainly don't f*cking know how.

The pressing issue of student debt is way underrated, like, way too underrated. The average student loan debt is just a hair away from reaching $50,000 per student, and that's for the typical in-state student, what about out of state students? The tuition tends to increase dramatically once a student goes outside his/her state borders.

As of 2012 (three years is a long time, so consider this number small), the national student debt loads hit $956 billion, up $42 billion from the last quarter. Try imagining yourself sitting on top of all that money. JUST KIDDING, YOU CAN'T. You'd just be crushed by the incoming money that is constantly toppling onto your minuscule body.

From "The Mindy Project", ignore the virginity part of this clip, or don't

instagram.com / Via Instagram

Even OBGYN, Mindy Lahiri, hasn't paid her student loans... like every other graduate... under 50...

As a current senior in highschool, I am "poop-my-pants terrified", and not in a good way. Seeing this price tag makes my luscious dark brown hair, rapidly turn a dull grey.

Lady Liberty needs to check her before she wrecks herself, wait, she might be a little too late considering all this debt we/she has. Oops?

America currently ranks third in the world for biggest student loans (good?), BUT, unfortunately, we rank first for being the worst country to have "a low income and high debt. In no other country do repayments of students in this position exceed six percent of income, whereas in the US, the proportion can be as high as 15.3 percent."

Tuition Growth Vs. Wage Growth

Via businessinsider.com

YIKES! For those of you who cannot read graphs, (maybe because the tuition for college was too damn high, and therefore you did not properly learn to read a graph) it says that the wages of people with Bachelor's Degree has been decreasing steadily at a 1.6%, earning around $50-$70K per year. Okay, that's not so bad... wait... The tuition has been RAPIDLY increasing at a 5.6% and soaring to numbers about almost 4 times the amount you make per year, not including interest rates from your loans. Jeez.

Yes, there is a small beam of light at the end of this never-ending tunnel. So don't be discouraged and rage quit before this article is over.

What are countries in Europe doing to help this horrible curse? They're actually trying to fix the problem. What a great idea!

Via thinkprogress.org

As you can see here, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is taking a selfie with these gorgeous, blonde German boys. From their lack of grey hair, I can tell that they are not under any stress about paying their student loans. Good for you, as I sob in my cup of ramen noodles.

Germany A-freaking-BOLISHED college tuition fees. Do you need me to repeat? Okay, Germany A-freaking-BOLISHED college tuition fees!!

""We got rid of tuition fees because we do not want higher education which depends on the wealth of the parents," Gabrielle Heinen-Kjajic, the minister for science and culture in Lower Saxony, said in a statement."

Okay, now read that in Morgan Freeman's voice and cry twice as hard as you were before.

This feels like a warm blanket made of clouds and cotton candy. Basing a students ability to go to college is absolutely bogus. Education has been proven by hundreds of studies that it helps troubled children/neighborhoods bounce back onto their feet again. Instead of incarcerating children, which costs almost ten times as much as educating them, just make higher education cheaper for students!

"(High tuition prices) discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking up study. It is a core task of politics to ensure that young women and men can study with a high quality standard free of charge in Germany."

*Clap. Clap. Clap*

vine.co / Via vine.co

So...yeah. I'm 99.99999% sure that America isn't, and will never abolish college tuition. That'd be crazy (awesome).

BUT WAIT. (Br)Obama recently posted this Vine, telling Americans that he would make Community Colleges FREE! What? When? How? WHAAA? I know right, he was being so vague and mysterious it was almost a turn on.

Apparantly Obama has been planning FREE college tuition for a long-ass time, but decided to make his State of the Union that much better by dropping the big news during his speech.

"Forty percent of our college students choose community college," Mr. Obama said. "Some are young and starting out. Some are older and looking for a better job. Some are veterans and single parents trying to transition back into the job market. Whoever you are, this plan is your chance to graduate ready for the new economy, without a load of debt."

This would help so many people of all ages around America get more jobs, and in the possible near future, close the gaping wage gap.

So to conclude this rant of mine...

America is a WORK IN PROGRESS, and will forever be, but that's okay. We are taking baby steps towards a better, brighter future for the generations to come!

We certainly aren't on Germany's level, but who knows maybe one day we might be.

Don't get too bogged down in the depressing statistics, and seize the day! You pave the road to the next generation, so let's try to not f*ck it up too badly.