Borrowed Future

You graduates are coming of ageat an amazing time.

As Americans, we enjoy more freedoms

and opportunities and citizens than any other nation on earth.

So my American dream is pretty simple.

My American dream is not living paycheck to paycheck.

We have the chance to get an education and work hard,

and give our children a better life.

You don't go to college, you don't get a job.

That's the only way you could make a living for yourself.

The challenge for our generation

is to create a world where has a sense of purpose.

From a pretty early age I knew I wanted

to be an Orthodontist.

What has always been certain is the ability

to shape that destiny.

My mom was a teacher, I just

ended up falling in love with history

and went down that trek.

You will be happy.

You will be successful and you will make a

difference in the world.

Congratulations on your graduation!

A college

degree is a signal.

Attend the best possible university you can get into.

You'd be wrong to forgo a college education.

The return on a college education

had never been greater.

What it is a signal of, is: I'm able

to speak a certain way, and understand a certain

set of cultural tropes and, this group of people,

maybe not so much.

Finance is very tough for many Americans.

Tuition has gone through the roof.

Post-secondary education

is now the largest source of consumer borrowing

behinds mortgage loans.

So many families are borrowing to the teeth.

And the thing that we say to these kids is:

Do this schtick in high school, and it will

get you into college.

And then we say, now do it again, and it

will get you a job.

They fall into a trap our society

has created for them.

Student loan debt has been steadily increasing,

affecting approximately 44 million Americans.

The cost of getting a college education

is having a lasting effect on graduates.

It's just so natural, like everyone knows it.

This is good debt.

$13,000 can turn into $25,000 easily.

There's a good return on investment.

I'm paying all these bills and I have nothing.

You did this to chase the American dream

that we all cherish.

People are alive but not living.

This is not the way the American dream was set up.

You know, I'm 36, I have a million

dollars in student loans.

Every piece in the system did what

it was supposed to do.

And the victims are 17 years old.

The story has all come down to one thing.

"How has this happen to me when I did everything correct?"

I remember man, when I was, you know 17.

Guy walked in from a local college there in

the city of Fayetteville and said, "Hey,

if you haven't started thinking about college

education, you are late...

and if you really want to be successful,

you have to go to college.

Because if you do not go to college, you will

not be successful."

I didn't know how to process it.

My entire young life, I was never taught

the proper education of what I needed to be

successful. I was just told "Go to college.

You will be successful, and if you have to take out

student loans, that's okay.

Everyone is doing it."

And I became, like everyone.

The culture in the last three

or four decades has dramatically shifted.

It used to be that we said education is important.

Study something, so that you can further your career.

It moved from that to where education was

permission to play.

You weren't gonna be valid in the economy

unless you had a four year, or more, degree.

Not only is it necessary, but it's like a guarantee --

That you're guaranteed to be more successful.

And so, you have to have this, cause a degree is the answer.

Society has rules.

And the first rule is, you gotta go to college.

You want to have a happy and successful life?

You go to college.

If you want to be somebody, you go to college.

If you want to fit in, you go to college!

Is a four year college degree

still a good investment.

I mean, not surprisingly,

we at the Princeton Review think it's a good investment

for a couple of reasons.

One, a student is gonna earn a million dollars more

over their lifetime career opposed if they didn't have

a college degree.

They're more nimble.

They have lower rates of unemployment.

Even Robert Wood Johnson says, they're going to live longer

because they're likely gonna better insurance.

Okay.

We set the table in such a way that we doomed

millions of parents and kids to take the bait.

When we elevated the pursuit of a four year degree to here,

we inversely relegated a two year degree,

or a community college, or an apprenticeship

program, or all those other things down here.

Higher education became a thing.

Everything else became an alternative.

There was some studies that came out and said,

if you have a college degree, you will make this much more

in your lifetime.

That became the marketing slogan for higher ed.

Which is if you come do this, you make more money.

The shift of a public good, turned into a private good.

I'm getting my degree so I can make more money for me.

Then the markets got involved.

And this thing was not something all invested in, like roads,

or police or fire departments.

It became a way for me to get rich.

The cost of college had grown faster

than the cost of energy and the cost of real estate,

the cost of healthcare.

All of it.

Some how we got in our heads that it's priceless.

And we've told an entire generation of kids,

if they don't borrow whatever it takes,

then they're going to enter into this crazy rat race

hopelessly disadvantaged.

So you got a 17 or 18 year old kid,

being told to sign on the dotted line, or else.

His parents aren't cautioning him not to do that.

Guidance councilors aren't saying "Hey, take a breath,

be careful."

Nobody is.

I think where this really becomes a crisis

is millions of people who faithfully

pay their student loan bill every month,

where that debt is having an enormous

implication on their lives, and their communities.

Things like the ability to buy a house, save for retirement,

what career you choose, even if you're gonna start a family.

It's this unintentional consequence

of just living in society and being surrounded by everything

that says spend and have a certain lifestyle,

and it's okay to borrow and to go into debt.

And just make sure you can afford the payments.

They're just following on a path.

Normal ended me in the back of my car.

Because I didn't have no where to sleep.

Normal ended me in the YMCA washing myself,

because I didn't have a home to go to and take a shower.

Before I even turned 19, I'm $35,000 in debt.

I was that young kid thinking about committing suicide.

I was that young kid wondering how I'm gonna eat.

And it was during that season of my life,

that I just decided I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.

I'm tired of not being able to have the options.

What can I eat, what can I do, where can I go?

And so, I got myself out of debt.

Learned a lot about money.

Learned a lot about life.

Alright, Anthony, we're ready for ya.

Had to lose some friends. Had to better myself.

And I said, when I get out of this,

I want to be in front of young people

and help them go after their dreams but make sure

that their dreams do not become nightmares.

And when I look at this table, I see dreams,

but if it's going down the wrong path,

I also see future nightmares.

And so, I'm excited to be here with you all tonight.

It's to have a conversation about your life,

and what you are experiencing.

You all are about to step into the real world.

What is one thing that you're feeling about graduation?

So, once I get outta high school,

I gotta make sure I get the right steps to make sure

that whatever I do going forward can put my kids

in a better situation than I am.

Does that make you fearful though?

Are you nervous about that? Why?

Yeah, cause I'm a teenager!

So, you know, I make bone-head decisions.

So like, my

small decision can play a big role in my future.

Aye, but you know what?

At least you admit that, bruh!

My man said, "I'ma teenager.