College Conspiracy

College Conspiracy

2011, Society  -   159 Comments
6.88
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Ratings: 6.88/10 from 78 users.

College ConspiracyCollege Conspiracy debunks many myths, including the belief that Americans with college degrees earn $1 million more in lifetime income compared to high school graduates without a college degree.

The most important basic fact that most Americans don't understand about 4-year colleges is that most Americans spend 6 years attending them before graduating. With U.S. tuition inflation for private colleges averaging 5.15% over the past half a decade, assuming this same rate of tuition inflation continues, a college with tuition of $30,000 today will have tuition of $38,563 in the sixth year a student attends it.

In College Conspiracy, NIA analyzes the total cost to attend college by factoring in not just rapidly rising tuition expenses, but also the interest payments on student loans, and the lost income that college students would have earned if they worked at an average entry-level job that doesn't require a college degree.

NIA's investigation has determined that the organizations that helped create and promote the $1 million in additional income myth, included General Equivalency Diploma (GED) recipients as being high school graduates.

The truth is, GED recipients are not real high school graduates and they are being used to unfairly skew down the average income of high school graduates without a college degree.

This has the effect of artificially inflating the amount of additional lifetime income that college graduates earn over high school graduates. College Conspiracy shows the real numbers that never get discussed in the mainstream media.

The college-industrial complex has created not only myths, but outright hoaxes, in order to scam American students into becoming indentured servants for life. Three years ago when 15 new pharmacist schools were about to open in the U.S., the college cartel bribed economists to come out with phony research reports showing that the U.S. was experiencing a huge shortage of pharmacists.

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Mike Ehrmantraut
Mike Ehrmantraut
2 years ago

I'm really eager to see how all these Gender Studies, Ethnic Civilization, Feminist Theory, and Queer Musicology do in the job market... because A.) we WILL NOT hire snowflakes with so-called education like this, but we will charge the hell out of them for an AC call. (In the desert, you know)

ophelia jadefeldt
ophelia jadefeldt
2 years ago

The American dream.....LOL!!!...yeah, you can be murdered by a cop, die on the street homeless, not afford basic drugs, be black or a POC or Indigenous. This dream exist only for whites with privilege.

Andre
Andre
3 years ago

He missed the biggest point, if it costs you $460k for the education, you lose the $4M that would become if invested during the next 40 years. The promise of $1M some day is such crap compared to what they want you to put in. Only value of college is for inner city folks who need to go and live with wealthy white kids to know what's possible and what's real. They need to see be involved in the weekend helicopter trips home and to Vail every year. That will awaken their inner desires. Aside from that college is worthless. It's a lot of beer and ghb and taking young girls upstairs half asleep like Bill Cosby and then bragging the next day in the Frat house.

jake
jake
9 years ago

If you didnt go to college or went there with the intention to not learn then you shouldnt talk about college being pointless as you simply dont understand the benefits it provides for someone actually interested in learning. As far as tuition, no one is making you go to private schools, im attending a university in the top 1% of universitys in the world and pay less then 10k with no funding or scholarship

Melissa
Melissa
9 years ago

Unless our daughter is accepted to a top university in the US, she will go to college in Europe - were we live and plan to stay. Colleges here at excellent and much, much more affordable than in the US!

Matt Beaudoin
Matt Beaudoin
10 years ago

Good documentary, up until the last 10 minutes. Mike Rowe and other media stars have realized that the growth careers are in manufacturing, plumbing, electrician, HVAC and other blue collar jobs. This documentary focuses on the problems of being too narrowly focused on one career path. In the 'real world,' we need a a few collegiate types, but we need more people that keep things running. Those guys are getting old and need to find apprentices.

dvj
dvj
10 years ago

The documentary has a "dooms day tone" that I believe to be extreme on the matter of inflation. However, I agree that a cost of an education is increasing above the rate of inflation ( based on the major tuition increases at public schools in my state over the past 10 years). This requires every US citizen to ask themselves is the value of this major investment truly worth it? How do we as a society make a college education more affordable and as result a more sound investment for those who will attend college in the coming years?

Nisnocsiw
Nisnocsiw
10 years ago

I have long thought that the 1% club has wanted to return to a system of indentured servitude...This crapumentory makes me wonder no more. Just like in slavery, you can't retain slaves if they are educated! When the "YES MEN" documentary came out, they had commented on just this scenario- This documentary only proves that they knew what they were talking about! What an evil endeavor...setting people up for a life of poverty. I am a Business Relations Specialist, and talk on a daily basis with employers to see what they need now and in the future. I KNOW FOR A FACT that most jobs that allow someone to support themselves REQUIRE that the individual has a Degree of some kind even to be considered for hire. Even in manufacturing, everything that can be done by machines and computers will be. Physical labor that once paid well in the past, now provide flat, or declining wages, and the Service Industry barely pays minimum wage. Because I also provide employment re-training as part of what I do, it is only the individuals with specialized and advanced training and education that are being hired for jobs that allow them to support their families.

Matt Ng
Matt Ng
10 years ago

Where is the research, the website for this video, anything that can substantiate this? Are you really expecting me to just buy into this? Remember the zeitgeist project or the venus project. What a load of shit!

Adam Plager
Adam Plager
11 years ago

This documentary doesn't state the problem clearly enough. We have far too many people going to school to earn degrees with absolutely no commercial value. If you're going to go to school, study something that you can get a job after graduation like Engineering, Medicine, Applied Math, etc. If, however, you study degrees such as political science, psychology, social sciences, don't be surprised when you graduate without a hope of a job. What do you expect for the American Economy to do with you when you studied political science for four to six years?

Max Nafa
Max Nafa
11 years ago

p. s. pretty bs documentary. make education sound like useless thing. the point is that it DOES open larger scope of OPPORTUNITY to get specialized job. good luck having your house planed by guy from high school or your medicine mixed by college drop out. Do they advocate for uneducated society or abolishing tuition fees all together?

Max Nafa
Max Nafa
11 years ago

You guys need a doze of socialism. Cuba: free education up to Phd,. the most educated country in the world. poor Cuba can afford it but mighty U.S. of A. cannot? some a--holes steel from u big time... enjoy capitalism...

Evelyn Gordon
Evelyn Gordon
11 years ago

This is the most bull**** propoganda that I've ever seen,this ends up as a commercial fo buying silver and gold. Shame on you.

skyandclouds
skyandclouds
11 years ago

The system may not be perfect, but education will always be important for our society. I get the feeling that this documentary is trying to persuade people not to go to college, and I feel it's not a good message. Bring down the tuition fee, incorporate more practical material in the curriculum, don't abuse loans, etc... but GO TO COLLEGE!

cal545
cal545
12 years ago

NIA is a pump and dump operation. They make videos like this pretending to be hard currency advocates. Then they get you to sign up for emails. They buy junk stocks and then advocate that you buy them along with hundreds of thousands of others. They then dump their stock and the price plummets, leaving their followers to hold the bag. Peter Schiff has advocated against them for a long time and reported them to the SEC but no action has been taken. DO NOT BUY ANY STOCKS THE NIA ADVOCATE! IT IS A SCAM!

sknb
sknb
12 years ago

Education is not all about making money. I don't think it should be.

1Superstudent
1Superstudent
12 years ago

If these college kids were intelligent and were like the college
students in the 60's, they would literaly shut down in protest
every single college and university in the entire country and
force the government to write off the entire debt...

Ask yourself what kind of a country doesn't invest in it's human
capital, a real BULLSHIT one indeed...

I made the wisest choice when I graduated High School in '76,
I drove taxi and made more money than any college graduate
and accrued the equivelent of numerous fields of academia...

I did attend a communinty college for 2 years at middle age
but they barely scratched the surface of the true reality, they
never teach you that The Federal Reserve bank is no more
part of our goverment than Federal Express is...

And i'm now 15k in debt, and to think they could garnish my Social Security and SSi someday since there are no jobs,
no opportunity and thanks to laws, regulations and fee's
and poor business, driving a taxi again is no longer a viable
dependable occupation...

And these college grads can barely communicate and
articulate a sentence when you try talk to them about
most everything...more proof that a college degree in
a BIG waste of time and money...

These kids need to use their brains to figure out ways to
survive and thrive what will happen someday when our financial
sysyems house of cards fall...

dhiestand
dhiestand
12 years ago

This information is valid and the documentation is real. Unlike the propaganda that is regularly circulating to control our minds and mislead us to think that getting a college education will being a great investment. I know because I fell into to the trap of believing if I were better educated I would get a better job and live a better life. Instead, I have the two of the highest degrees in my field, after countless applications, no interviews, jobs or anyway to pay the cost of my education . It is disceptive mind control, a type of occult, brainwashing us with lies and false hopes. Optimism is being replaced by pessimism with debt that exceeds the promises of wealth.

deliaruhe
deliaruhe
12 years ago

This could have been a useful doc, but the exaggerations and the silly prognostications, among other things, give it minimal credibility. The filmmaker knows next to nothing about the financial system and its monopoly of the student loan industry -- including its buying of the politicians who passed the bankruptcy law stipulating that neither student loans nor credit card debt are forgiven.

The only unquestionably true statement in the film is that student loan debt is probably the next bubble that's going to burst -- student load debt is now at one trillion dollars.

John August Gronau
John August Gronau
12 years ago

Fallacy filled. Also, the documentary is presented from the point of view of entrepreneurial, free-market, wealth generators. They hold the same underlaying philosophies (economic liberalism, objectivism etc) whose practical application brought about our financial collapse. Who to believe? Use your own capacity to reason. How do you learn to reason? Pick up a philosophy book. You know, from those worthless philosophy courses that you took in University.

maia
maia
12 years ago

This documentary is just horribly made; just all around bad. I resent some of the underlying messages. My college degree is not a "worthless piece of paper". This documentary does not educate or inform, it does not offer alternatives or solutions. It simply relentlessly bashes higher education.

Demi Reilly
Demi Reilly
12 years ago

okay, soo online learning is great for a lot of reasons.... but that doesn't exactly solve the problem that college degrees and such are "worthless". no matter how you get that little piece of paper- in a classroom, or online- that doesn't change the ultimate problem. theres still gonna be a ton of people getting degrees in all the same areas (law, doctors, etc.) and no jobs? and u if u really wanna take this even farther, we cant live in this money based, consumerism society forever anyways. humankind is going to have to change the way they live dramatically. the school system will ultimately end no matter what.

Jankyjay
Jankyjay
12 years ago

The entire time I watched this film I kept asking myself "So what's the alternative?". They bash higher education relentlessly, but only offer investing in silver or learning to farm as secondary options? I agree with the bulk of the film's message, and think it's important for people to consider before blindly going to college because "that's what you're supposed to do", but let's be honest - most people are far better off taking a chunk of debt onto their shoulders to work jobs they ENJOY and paying it off over time. Some people enjoy jobs that require NO education outside of a trade skill. Some people are content to work retail for life. The way the system is structured, if you want to be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer - there is simply no way around an education. Sure, there's free open course ware online. Good luck getting to pass the bar or MCATs by telling the exam proctors you've completed the courses online, though.

This O
This O
12 years ago

SO what am I suppose to do with this BSN in nursing??? Knowing that Beyonce (a millionaire) is now getting her G.E.D.....I'm so sad about all the time I wasted in school.

Manny Gonzalez
Manny Gonzalez
12 years ago

You want a label? Go to college. You want money? Graduate!

djimajica
djimajica
12 years ago

higher education is the cornerstone of any civilised society, the problem with the U.S. is that they promise prosperity in a country that is imploding. All jobs have been moved offshore, and any jobs in the U.S. have shitty rates of pay. I hear people on this forum talk about 50 grand a year as if it is something special. In Australia this is seen as a shitty wage. A decent wage is seen as 100 grand +
Student loans in the U.S. are designed to keep the population slaves to the economic system, a person working three shitty paying jobs, struggling to pay down debt is less likely to voice their opinions politically.
However, with over 40 million americans under the poverty line i believe violent civil unrest to be imminent.

djimajica
djimajica
12 years ago

higher education is the cornerstone of any civilised society, the problem with the U.S. is that they promise prosperity in a country that is imploding. All jobs have been moved offshore, and any jobs in the U.S. have shitty rates of pay. I hear people on this forum talk about 50 grand a year as if it is something special. In Australia this is seen as a shitty wage. A decent wage is seen as 100 grand +
Student loans in the U.S. are designed to keep the population slaves to the economic system, a person working three shitty paying jobs, struggling to pay down debt is less likely to voice their opinions politically.
However, with over 40 million americans under the poverty line i believe violent civil unrest to be imminent.

manfruss
manfruss
12 years ago

Education is good. Just don't go to collage or university to "get a job". You do that yourself in the work place. Higher education serves one purpose, self improvement. I think it's very sad, that we place all our emphasis on the sciences and maths, and don't give equal energy to arts. There is something wrong with this picture. All aspects are important to a healthy and balanced society. Self education is as valid, if not more so than one given my some institution. Think for yourselves, learn how to learn and be critical thinkers. All our socioeconomic systems will blow up in our faces soon. From markets to education, to community, employment. Everything we know about our way of life is threatened on some level by guess what ... our way of life. Infinite growth on a finite world doesn't work. Consume, consume, consume = an empty and meaningless way of life. When ET visits us, we wont' be impressing him with our technology and maths, our art however, will be uniquely human. Get an education for yourself, not for what "society" thinks you should be getting it for.

Mark Hutchinson
Mark Hutchinson
12 years ago

I really thought there was a group of folks to pounce on the status quo and show us a better way. Then, the sales pitch came in. After a few attempts to appeal to the political scientists and economists, join now for "free".
Research before clicking the bright red shiny candylike button!

Theresa Campbell
Theresa Campbell
12 years ago

So many people go straight to college out of high school with no idea of what they REALLY want to do, so they end up getting a degree in a subject they have no real interest in and only after the fact and finances do they realize what a mistake they made. I worked straight out of high school and raised a family. I got my Bachelors of Science in Music at the age of 40. It was the best move I made. It's the connections you make in college that are so valuable. Especially if you go to a good school. I am my own boss and I have worked with some major artists and companies. It ALL depends on who you are and what YOU want out of life. To say college is conspiracy, hell I thought that about school period. Before I started reaping the benefits of those seeds. Everything is a seed you can either be fruitFULL or fruitLESS. Either way you are going to reap.

wt1776
wt1776
12 years ago

You will get out of college what you put into it; if you go there to party, then guess what you will get. Likewise, study something that will give you a better chance for a job. Don't study the easy subjects just because you don't like math or science or care to work; don't waste you time with what may be nonsense....have a plan based on reality. This was one of the most biased, nonsense documentaries I have ever watched. If college is of no value, why is the rest of the world coming here to become educated? As the saying goes, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

she
she
12 years ago

Personally, if I had to do it all over again, I would not have gone to college. I spent 4 years getting a degree that was paid for thank god because I was so low income. But I was told "you just need a degree. People will look at that." What a bunch of shit. I got it in history. So then I went back to school and got a Master's in teaching. 60,000 bucks. My "loser" sister who my mom was upset was never going to go to college. Yeah, she spent 3,000 buck and went to truck driving school and had the loan wiped out when she worked for them for 2 years. Oh, and she makes as much as I do and has no debt and goes to Japan once a year on all the money she saves up. My best friend makes 50 grand a year as an IT person. She was self taught, and learned under others. She's never been to school. The funny part is, she makes that 50 grand at a University helping students. Most of whom will never make as much her. I'll become a farmer at this point. I hate the job I do have and can't leave because of the crisis of debt.

AustralianGuy
AustralianGuy
12 years ago

Also what were you studying? sure you have a debt loan but you had the opportunity to go to uni. If money was a problem shouldn't you have combined work with uni like most of my friends do and pay off the loan slowly rather than leaving it all to the end? where's the common sense.

AustralianGuy
AustralianGuy
12 years ago

????????????? these guys are just selfish idiots. Of course debt is hard, but its just a symptom. I'd prefer a house with sustainable debt and job prospects due to accommodation rather than being homeless, low job prospects and no debt.

AustralianGuy
AustralianGuy
12 years ago

???? these guys know nothing of debt. would you prefer somewhere to live and in debt working it off or would you prefer to live on the streets with no house then no job prospects but a good credit rating????

AustralianGuy
AustralianGuy
12 years ago

I'm confused, the guy is basically enforcing an argument that a degree isn't properly training the students for the workforce and that it may not be worth it, but at the same time jobs in America is in decline. With a greater labour force, hence competition wouldn't a degree serve better to get into a job than without one?

James
James
12 years ago

This documentary is a complete hoax.
It is full of right-wing lies & propaganda.
Turn off Fox News and dont bother watching this pack of lies and right-wing propaganda.

amenace4422
amenace4422
12 years ago

What engbro said, they say all that to say "buy silver because its worth what we say its worth in USD" but in the same breath state the USD will collapse making even millionaires broke (and it will collapse I'm not paying debt back!they've already been paid by the fed) watch zeitgeist:addendum documentary for a possible plan once every ones broke. Everyone should know/learn how to farm/survive off the land its the only reason civilization exist!

engbro
engbro
12 years ago

This all makes perfect sense.

Rather then learning a trade, understanding technology and science, learning to communicate using our newest and admittedly prosperous resource the internet! We want you, to buy silver! We want you to take all of your money and push it into this useless resource that only has value that we impart on it! No not copper, zinc, rare earths, or fossil fuels, we want you to buy silver! That way you can push our commodities bubble even higher, then we can pull out, and cash!

No, don't educate yourself being indoctrinated by books and professors in the system! Let us tell you what to do! Start a farm!

It doesn't matter that today we have more food then we can use, and that starvation is a symptom of infrastructure not supply.

It doesn't matter that we completely rip into higher learning, then say how the future of higher learning is being indoctrinated online, which is equal to being in an auditorium but free for us! No of course the universities won't just keep charging the same amount while offering you less!

This film is the biggest cr*ck of **** I've ever seen. If's an extremely long infomercial to buy silver, and be suckered into their pyramid scheme.

These people are whats wrong with the world, oh, and they condemn lawyers and investors, but what the do these *** holes do?

Anjee
Anjee
12 years ago

This documentary is not based on facts. There are plenty of issues with our higher education system, but you are not touching on most of them.

Joshua
Joshua
13 years ago

These people are destroying people's motivation to have successful careers and accumulate precious metals with higher salaries. My parents require all 4 of us (their sons and daughter) to go to college and work our way up. We are intelligent students with GPA's bigger than 3.0! If we're unable to find a job with 22% unemployment rate (78% employment), the government will bail us out with entitlements until we find our career somewhere.

Guest
Guest
13 years ago

A bit zealous but explicit and true. Being in pure applied science but 57 Y/O, I do remember that cost of ~$2,000 for my last year, before getting on the market. And my Gov. (Quite a bit of the same as the USA) passed the same law as in the UISA that a graduate cannot file for bankruptcy a few years after I got on the market. We didn't need that in those days.
There was plenty of trainee jobs, assistants...
You'd dumpt one and another one is waiting...

And on top of this, I have the clear feeling that as pure science grows bigger, more complex, the youngsters would need more years of instruction in technology. Once they graduated from technology, they''re simply "Washed Out", with a sense of learning by heart some principles that they forget not long after the exam because they ought to fill their brain for other new concepts!

Then, you ask the individual for some basic day to day tool: -They forgot!

Bwarff! I'll be out of this, wont be so long!

Pierre.

Samantha
Samantha
13 years ago

College isn't worth the money it costs to attend anymore. That much is certainly true. I'm already 10,000 dollars in debt for one semester at a state school. One semester! However, they're blaming all the wrong people, and you can tell that the people in this doc are kind of grasping at straws.

Maxine
Maxine
13 years ago

Whats up with the Zionist and Elitist/Illuminati symbolism in the NIA logo? That requires closer investigation.....

Lola San
Lola San
13 years ago

Aren't they supposed to ENCOURAGE people to graduate from College?? I swear, I think they're running out of ideas to broadcast. Hey I have one they could use. Why not make a documentary about why idiots NEED to commit suicide? That'll become popular in no time... unless of course, their audience suddenly dies off. T__T"

iedm
iedm
13 years ago

This documentary makes some good points but slowly drifts into a bunch of bullshit. I think it is an attempt at targeting people of my (college age) demographic to take out a college loan to buy a bunch of silver at inflated prices, thinking that it will be a good investment if you have a zero interest loan. If you go to the website they wont shut up about in this film you will quickly see that it is fake and designed to convince you to buy their product. silver is just as intrinsically worthless as paper money. A good education is priceless, wherever you may get it from. The internet is proving to be one of the best places to do so. However I know that nothing beats getting taught by an actual persons who can answer your questions. Make sure to ask yourself a few questions about the motivations behind this film.

Shaun Poore
Shaun Poore
13 years ago

wow, this doc is a shameless plug for the creators organization. While I agree with the basic premise that college has become a bad investment in a lot of situations this is a little extreme and clearly meant as something to drive the creators website rather than educate anybody on the topic...

Jonathan
Jonathan
13 years ago

This documentary was incredibly biased and felt like an extended NIA commercial, but they did mention some valid points. However, I don't agree with some of the solutions they've proposed and I don't think using scare tactics to persuade folks to avoid higher education is very helpful. I like the idea of promoting online education, but in fields where hands-on learning is essential it can become complicated. If you want to be a doctor, I'd feel a lot more comfortable with you having had hands-on training in med-school than just taking online classes or not going to medical school altogether. Some form of legitimate education IS needed for specialized fields. One of the major reasons why folks with degrees can't find jobs (other than the economy) is because everyone wants do to the same thing (doctor, lawyer, business), so I don't agree with the NIA's claims that people with college degrees don't make money (but there is more competition). I think that claim is greatly exaggerated. Folks who live in inter-city communities and struggle with two jobs just to make ends meet could certainly use the benefit of having a college education. I do agree that something needs to be done about rising tuition costs and college debt. I feel that we as a country need to reevaluate our current education system/educational loan policies, consider more successful foreign education policies, and encourage more skills-based training/vocational schools. Why don't we look at more successful college education models like those used in France, Germany and Japan. Alongside traditional 4-year colleges, they also have successful skills-based vocational colleges - such as agricultural colleges that teach students on large farms the real-world science and techniques required for farming in the 21st century. These countries have some of the most highly educated professionals in the world, and France pays for 100% of their people's college education which is paid for through taxes. Granted, we may disagree on socializing college as France has done, but it is a major precedent for that educational model's success. The French are happy with it and do not mind paying a little extra so that everyone can be a bit smarter. We also need to appreciate our vocational schools more and encourage students to attend them. Their generally much more affordable than 4-year schools and provide valuable job skills that will serve graduates well in their chosen fields. Perhaps looking at the way others do education and reevaluating what we already do well may help us to find an appropriate solution that works for us all.

alkimia1
alkimia1
13 years ago

One thing is having a college degree and other is being smart enough to practice it.
Of course they say don't go to college, they need people to make their dirty jobs.

Jake Mc Nally
Jake Mc Nally
13 years ago

This is such a biassed documentary, i wanted it to convince me and after 20 minutes iv completely given up on what it has to say! How a documentary can try and say that we have no need for an education il never understand? dont watch it...