Indentured Servitude at its finest

Part of 'Muerica's great history includes colonization and general slave labor conditions.  Most people, outside of the south, learn about slavery and treating people like an object and how wrong this is. Not often covered is the indentured servants from Europe before kidnapping Africans became a solution to the labor demand. Poor people with few skills and even less family would pay for passage to the New World by signing up for 7 years of hard labor when they reached land. Seems like a fair deal when the options in your home country are dim at best. The future in America sounded pretty nice and they couldn't see across the ocean at their future so people went for it.

Sweet, a fresh shipment of human capitol mine for the taking!

Sometimes the indentured servants would work their asses off for seven years and become a free person. More likely they would be physically abused, malnourished and fined for more years of service.   The rules could and did change at any time and the servant couldn't do a fucking thing about it. They were basically property, replaceable property at that. Life in the New World was not what they thought it would be like and the promise of a better future was simply a lie. Mail was strictly controlled so servants in the colonies couldn't write back to the few people they knew in Europe about the life they have found themselves in.

This is remarkably similar to the American college dream. We as a society tell young people to go to a good university, study hard, take out a few loans if needed because after you graduate life is going to be better. With a degree you can find a career, not just a job, that will use your skills and make you feel satisfied and important, you'll easily be able to pay off your loans with your high paying salaried position. College is worth the debt, we even tell ourselves that student loans are 'good debt'.

For $2,394 a semester you can call this home! Just take out a loan to cover this  necessary expense. 

Then students graduate with tens of thousands of dollars in debt and they realize finding a career that is fulfilling and rewarding and can cover basic needs in life is not possible. Graduates end up with loan repayments larger than a mortgage and a job that leaves them feeling drained and hopeless when they finally crawl into bed at night. Loans were not a good idea after all and there's no way out, graduates become trapped.

Don't make any sudden movements, like trying for a dream job, you need the security of a steady paycheck, bro.

Noam Chomsky, basically the most badass nerd I know of, explains this in even a darker way:

"Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about changing society. When you trap people in a system of debt, they can’t afford the time to think. Tuition fee increases are a “disciplinary technique,” and by the time students graduate, they are not only loaded with debt, but have also internalized the “disciplinarian culture.” This makes them efficient components of the consumer economy."

Every year tuition at most US schools is rising, rising far beyond inflation. There's a problem though, education isn't just a luxury; an educated society is vital for society to function. Yet we have created indebted servants again. There's a better future here, I swear, just take out 20k in loans for a few years and then you'll see. Then we look around and see graduates struggling and suffocating and our young people continue to go to college and gain debt because we just believe so highly in our own person. "I'm not like everybody else, I'll be fine after graduation" is in the head's of so very many college students.

Different varieties of Ramen will keep you sane since Kraft is not within your budget as a college graduate. 

People aren't unique and precious, college students today believe they are but they'll find out soon enough. We need a better structure for our people. We need lower tuition costs, lower loan rates and employers that see the value in educated employees and pay them accordingly.