#AUStriches getting some “student debt relief” thanks to the money printer.
So glad I went out of my way to pay off my HECS so I could be debt free, only to pay for everybody else’s degrees via inflation so Labor can buy some votes. 
Discussion
I'm never repaying my shit
Ever
Yeah I’ve paid off mine too mainly because I got screwed over by the whole system when an employer wasn’t taking it out of my pay correctly and I ended up with a big bill… was easier just to pay off the lot.
Personally I think the whole HECS and University system needs to be fixed.. Too many people ending up with huge amounts of debt for a degree that is pretty much worthless and they will never be able to pay the debt off.
I reckon the whole University system needs to be torched, not just the funding model, but the way it’s used to import cheap labour and provide pathways for rich Chinese to get citizenship, whilst exacerbating the housing Ponzi and making rent unaffordable for young people.
The nonsense degrees is just a byproduct of wanting as many students through the door as possible and Unis having zero accountability for student outcomes beyond graduation.
It’s particularly acute in Victoria, “The Education State”.
THE SMOOTHIE STATE
Agreed, the issues definitely go beyond just HECS funding, and the overemphasis on churning out international students with degrees is a problem. I think there is still a place for some sort of University-like formal higher education, at least in some subject areas, but it needs to operate very differently to the way it does now.
I actually do sometimes wonder whether I really got any value out of my own degree or if my career path would have been pretty much the same without it. I didn’t start my career through a graduate program and none of the jobs I’ve had specifically needed a degree so maybe I could have been further ahead without it. On the other hand I probably did pick up some useful skills and knowledge from it that have helped me..
Personally I learned absolutely nothing from my major, but I had mandatory units in law and accounting which I thought annoying at the time but have proved extremely helpful in my later career.
I’ve done some mentoring of Uni students in recent times and it seems they’re even less prepared for the workplace than I was on graduating - they’re not learning anything that will be useful and they’ve not had practical experiences to give them a grounding that employers would expect.
It’s a shame that it’s gone this way because we do actually need to educate people in some really complex things nowadays but the system is so captured and broken as to be largely useless in this form.
Side note: they're as good as admitting CPI numbers are fake and have no credibility. Interesting...
CPI doesn't measure the biggest expense 🏤🏢for most people. It is fairly useless.
When it comes to food and fuel, there's always room to use less and DIY.
Whatever discussion I see is weird cause people focus on the indicator quantity without thinking what it actually tracks.
Stealing from future generations to appease the current deadbeat one.
What could possibly go wrong?
To reiterate what has already been said here. The education system is a joke. Designed to put bums in seats making the unemployment figures look better
When I went thru school those that ultimately went to uni were the very bright ones doing degrees we needed. Doctors nuclear physist engineers nurses etc
Now we have Everyman and his dog getting a degree in basket weaving.
Has anyone needed to get a tradesperson of late. These guys are in extremely short supply. So many kids with the aptitude for trades end up at uni as they were led that way by the highschool system. My son was one of those. Left his engineering degree and entered an electrical apprenticeship. Sparkys in Perth can earn more than a doctor.
The government needs to be throwing money at the trade sector ASAP. example my son had to wait six months to get into his first tafe classes as there are a severe lack of instructors. It’s going to hit Australia like a ton of bricks in the next decade. All the boomers are retiring
It’s not just Oz either. I see the same thing in USA. The trade jobs were presented as a job for stupid people years ago to drive the education industrial complex
it’s an utter disgrace