Not everyone needs to go to college.

Alright. I know it’s ironic that I’m writing this as a college student, but it’s true — not everyone needs to go to college. There are so many more options out there than just going to college for four years. You can go to vocational school, earn a two-year certificate, start your own business, join the military, or get a full-time job that doesn’t require a college degree. And most of these options give you the opportunity to do just as well as someone who has been to college! There are more jobs than ever that only require a high school degree to be successful. Additionally, many employers will cover the cost of vocational or two-year education for their employees. When you look at the current student debt crisis, this option becomes significantly more appealing.

I think this premise also begs the question, why do people go to college? Most people attend college with the end goal of getting a better job than they would have otherwise. In the end, hopefully, they make more money and ultimately make their lives better. This is not necessarily as true as it once was. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, back in the 1940s, roughly 5% of the U.S. population aged 25 and over had earned a bachelor’s degree. Today, that number has jumped to roughly 35% of the U.S. population aged 25 and over. It should also be noted that the U.S. population has more than doubled since the 1940s. This means the number of college-educated Americans has jumped from 6 million to over 110 million people.

While the U.S. economy is significantly larger than it was during the 1940s, it has not grown at the same rate as people entering the college system. Assuming my math is correct, the amount of people in college has increased 17 times versus the U.S. GDP increasing 13 times.

Colleges have also failed numerous students who don’t know what they want to do with their lives and/or have taken on so many loans that they are stuck in an endless cycle of debt. Surprisingly, telling an 18-year-old to take out thousands of dollars in loans every semester for a degree that has no jobs associated with it had negative repercussions. Who could’ve guessed that? Many students won’t even complete their four years and be stuck with the loan debt they accumulated during their time in school. Now there are clear exceptions to this rule for people who are responsible with their money and choice of college major, but this is not the case for a large portion of students.

I think it is also important to talk about why college should not be free. Many politicians on the left constantly promise free public college but do so without understanding its implications. First, making college free devalues the degree because the benefits of a college education become immediately accessible to anyone and everyone. While it is nice to live in a highly-educated society, this does not outweigh the cost of this idea. It’s simple supply and demand. Students who excel in academia will lose their competitive advantage in the marketplace. In order to regain the competitive advantage, people will be forced to pursue further education, which will likely still come at a cost.

Everyone has the right to do what they want to do in this country, but that doesn’t mean everything you do should be free or subsidized by the government. To demand that what you like to do or study be highly lucrative is nonsense. People will only pay for skills that are needed and are beneficial to society.