A typical college student graduates with $22,900 in loans...I say this is AWESOME!! Read why here...

The graph below shows the average student debt load over time a student accumulates when they graduate from college---$22,900.  Yes, this is quite a bit of money, but NOT alot.  The income the average college graduate earns over the course of their working life will pay this back and MUCH MORE.  You are more likely to stay employed over time and if not, then more likely to find work sooner.  You are more likely to work in a job you actually like and have a passion for.  This is not to say people without degrees don't experience these things too, but the ODDS are much less then with a degree.  Is this piece of mind worth alittle (alot)?  What else could you spend/invest $22,900 on that will earn you a rate of return that amounts to several multiples of that $22,900.  It is the price of a moderately price car that will last you less than 10 years.   

While I agree that the price of college tuition is too high (whole other discussion), I am not sure so much hand-wringing should surround the level of debt. You get what you pay for, so don't go to school just to get a degree. Go to school to get an education (yes, there IS a difference) that will repay you not only in dollars, but in quality of life and piece of mind.  Where am I going wrong???? Take your shots.

Source: Real Time Economics

""In the long run, the investment is probably worth it. Education is a much better reason to borrow money than buying cars or McMansions, and it endows people with economic advantages that the recession and slow recovery have only accentuated. As of 2009, the annual pre-tax income of households headed by people with at least a college degree exceeded that of less-educated households by 101%, up from 91% in 2006. As of April, the unemployment rate among college graduates stood at 4.5%, compared to 9.7% for those with only a high-school diploma and 14.6% for those who never finished high school.""

Caution: Awkward blog posting ahead---"Honey Buns are a form of currency in prison". Insert your own pun...You can't make this stuff up...

Below is a story about how "Honey Buns", a snack food, is used in many  prisons across the country as a form of currency.  Money as we know it ($$) is called Fiat money---US currency is made by the govt and it is the official currency of record because the govt. "says so".  In absence of a fiat currency, money be in the form of a commodity, or a tangible item.  Anything that people generally accept as a medium of exchange can be considered money.  Just as I might pay $1.00 for a bottle of water, I could also exchange one honey bun for the same bottle of water, as long as the person receiving the snack believes he/she can use it to exchange for something else. The honey bun also serves as a unit of account--one honey bun might buy one bottle of water, but it may take two to buy a soft drink. Buyers and sellers can measure the relative value of it against something else. As for a store of value, well, not so much perhaps---it is very perishable, especially in my hands. 

Honey buns sweeten life for Florida prisoners

""The honey buns enter lockup the same way anyone else does: bound, escorted through halls and sally ports, and secluded in small boxes solely opened from the outside. From there the honey buns languish for days, maybe longer, until they're gone.


They are a lowly, sturdy food designed for desperate cravings and vending machine convenience. They can endure weeks of neglect and even a mild mashing in a coat pocket or backpack. They are, it should come as no surprise, especially beloved by a similarly hardy but disrespected population: Florida's prison inmates.
Inmates in the Florida prison system buy 270,000 honey buns a month. Across the state, they sell more than tobacco, envelopes and cans of Coke. And they're just as popular among Tampa Bay's county jails. In Pasco's Land O'Lakes Detention Center, they're outsold only by freeze-dried coffee and ramen noodles.


Not only that, these honey buns — so puffy! — have taken on lives of their own among the criminal class: as currency for trades, as bribes for favors, as relievers for stress and substitutes for addiction. They've become birthday cakes, hooch wines, last meals — even ingredients in a massive tax fraud.

How ironic---the Zimbabwean currency is worth more as a collectors item than as an actual legal currency...Sad but true...

How ironic---the Zimbabwean currency is worth more as a collectors item than it did as an actual legal currency...Sad but true...

""Western visitors to Zimbabwe are looking for zeros. They're snapping up old, defunct Zimbabwe bank notes, most notably the one hundred trillion Zimbabwe dollar bill, as an economic souvenir.
The one hundred trillion Zimbabwe dollar bill, which at 100 followed by 12 zeros is the highest denomination, now sells for $5, depending on its condition. That bill and others -- among them millions, billions and trillions, were abandoned nearly two years ago, when the American dollar became legal tender in the hopes of killing off the record inflation that caused all those zeros.
"I had to have one," said Janice Waas on a visit to the northwestern resort town of Victoria Falls. "The numbers are mind bending." She got her so-called "Zimdollar" in pristine condition, from a street vendor who usually sells African carvings.""

Source: Yahoo News
 

Getting medical care for peanuts. No, really, getting medical care for peanuts..It is a sign of the times...

This is what happens in the extreme when people and institutions lose faith in the currency.  Zimbabweans have essentially abandoned their currency and are using various commodities for exchange purposes.  Local heathcare providers have established a price list  that gives a commodity-to-US Dollar "exchange rate"...See photo below...

NYTIMES: Zimbabwe Health Care, Paid With Peanuts

""People lined up on the veranda of the American mission hospital here from miles around to barter for doctor visits and medicines, clutching scrawny chickens, squirming goats and buckets of maize. But mostly, they arrived with sacks of peanuts on their heads....""



NYTIMES