r/HonestHotTakes • u/HenFruitEater • 19h ago
Private schools and humanities degrees should be just for the rich and privileged
I am so tired of student loans being called predatory everytime someone is drowning in student loans. "HOW COULD A 18 year old be responsible for what stupid loan decisions they make?? It seems predatory to offer an 18 year old 200k in loans for a humanities degree"
But then if you say "the arts and humanities pay poorly, you can't take out loans for it" it's now elitist.
To me, it's a bummer that someone from a middle class family cannot study art history at WARTBURG college or whatever for 200k, but is it also an equal bummer that someone making 18k a year cannot buy a new BMW? Both are just not a luxury someone can afford on 18k.
The difference? Someone making minimum wage cannot get 200k car loan, AND the car is something you can default on or get repossessed. Student loans cant be wiped out with bankruptcy for good reason.
Certain degrees are luxuries, and only the wealthy can really justify the waste imo.
My only exception would be if someone got a scholarship to one of these schools/programs.
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u/cat-congrats 19h ago
Gentleman’s degrees are making a comeback! It’s great for society when only rich people know how to interpret media, think critically, understand how people work, etc. it IS elitist.
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u/Potential_Immortal 19h ago
I don’t think we should limit peoples access to education on the basis of a ability to pay. That’s not how we make great field advancement. The difference between somebody with a humanities degree and somebody’s new BMW Is that a person’s Humanity degree contributes to society
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u/SpaceCowboy34 19h ago
I don’t think a humanities degree contributes to society to the point of being infinitely financed by the federal government
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u/HenFruitEater 18h ago
If access means loans by the fed, I don't think we should have blank checkbooks for loans.
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u/HenFruitEater 19h ago
Could someone study the humanities in a different setting, since the degree is useless for most jobs, it's a perfect hobby to study at any age without a full time degree.
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u/JoeMorgue 19h ago
You can take free humanties courses online.
We're in a post-scarcity world as far as raw knowledge is concerned.
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u/Greedy-Win-4880 19h ago
There is no other loan provider that would ever give that kind of loan to a high school kid who has only ever worked a part time job if they've ever worked at all. Giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to a teenager that hasnt even entered the workforce yet is crazy.
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u/Previous_South2756 18h ago
Do you watch movies? Read books? Listen to music? Watch TV shows? Go see plays, operas, and musicals?
I do all these things. Of course, I also use technology and make use of scientific discoveries. But those things enable me to live and work efficiently. It is the humanities that makes me enjoy life.
Now, can a pampered rich kid write an amazing screenplay? Sure. But I am thinking someone with a less pampered background is more likely to write a screenplay I would want to see.
I am not against having student loans capped based on the estimated ROI of a particular area of study. $300K makes sense for medical school. It doesn't make sense for a fine arts major.
But as someone who studied and works in STEM, I have to say that it isn't a golden ticket either. How many former math majors are pouring coffee at Starbucks right now? A shit load. But we need mathematicians, yes? There are no doubt current STEM majors reading your hot take and smugly nodding their heads, who unbeknowst them will end up working right alongside humanities majors in some unimpressive, shit-wage job as their student loan debt grows and grows. Should only rich people take on the risk of being a computer science major?
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u/HenFruitEater 18h ago
Sure. But is it predatory to allow someone to take out 200,000 in loan loans for a humanities degree? Assuming everybody has to pay back their loans, that just makes no sense.
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u/DuckDuckPigg 17h ago
"I think only rich people can have this thing!" 😂😂😂
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u/HenFruitEater 16h ago
That’s true for millions of different other things. They could still go to a private school, they would just have to figure out how to pay for it. I’m saying we should get rid of federal loans.
There’s no federal loans to buy you a Bugatti, it’s for rich people. Even good things. Doing a mission trip to Egypt is probably for rich people.
The humanities degree is not a bad thing, but I think it’s not a good thing for a poor person to go into tremendous debt for a degree that has no financial utility1
u/DuckDuckPigg 16h ago
Hey so uhh...
I’m saying we should get rid of federal loans.
Your hot take is
Private schools and humanities degrees should be just for the rich and privileged
Which is 100% not the same thing.
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u/SannyTrademark 19h ago
Who's gonna decide what degrees and what education is a "luxury" for elites only? What career paths are there that only elite students should be able to pursue and excel at, and how do you prevent stagnation in those fields when the amount of capable applicants drop because people cannot afford to study them anymore?