Beginning or returning to college is just around the corner for most high school graduates. I say most, because many are skipping college and jumping directly into the work force. Be it employment back home on the ranch or chasing the big money in the energy fields, sidestepping college and earning a check runs contrary to the conventional wisdom a post high school degree is the ticket to success. Interestingly, this rule contradicts one you learned as a child about never taking candy from strangers; a prohibition which trumps the college degree adage. This truth is obvious once you follow the logic.

In 2010, President Obama nationalized the student loan program so the federal government now holds the debt for your education. They own you. Just last week, Congress passed regulations holding student loan interest rates at 3.9 percent. “Everyone is entitled to a college degree,” claim politicians offering nearly limitless dollars to high school graduates. Simply scribble your name and eight years and 100,000 dollars later you can graduate with a bachelor’s in high demand fields such as philosophy or transgender studies. This launches your career and like the record 21 million other young Americans currently living in their parent’s basements, each day you can step into the public spotlight and announce “would you like fries with that?” Thanks to Obamacare, the 30 hour workweek will become the new normal keeping new graduates broke and on food stamps, but with plenty of free time to protest and demand the minimum wage become a livable wage. “Jobs for people; not for profit” smoothly flows off their tongues as if each graduate had practiced the chant during all eight years at their respective universities. They did. This brings me back to life’s first rule about not taking candy from strangers. Student loans are the candy and there is no one stranger than a politician—do not take it. It is a trap.

Once you learn to read, an ability you should have garnered in grade, middle and high school, everything man has learned since the beginning of time is at your disposal. With dedication and self-discipline any subject can be mastered, so your horizons are limitless. A driven and unrestrained population thrives in a free-market economy, yet progressives want everyone in college before entering the work force. Make no mistake about it, your term in the university is not about education, it is about indoctrination because an 18-year-old’s mind is highly moldable. Shape them before they earn a living and they will glorify big government as their god for the rest of their lives. For proof, look no further than the voting patterns of any university town.

I will put down my broad brush and paint the details. There are certain degrees which give you a leg up, but indoctrination infects in those fields as well. When Tyler, my youngest, was earning his engineering ticket he was required to watch Al Gore’s undocumented documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.” During a casual discussion, he asked his instructor to comment on the contradiction between Al Gore’s global warming crisis and the government sponsored alarms of the 1970s blaming evil capitalism for global cooling and an impending ice-age. His 36-year-old teacher had never heard of such a discrepancy so Tyler pulled a 1970s edition of National Geographic from a collection adorning the shelves of the faculty lounge and tossed it to his instructor. He was speechless. Apparently, he had been indoctrinated to believe time began in the 1990s and the earth had never been colder, warmer, wetter or drier than it was at that very moment and this brings me to my point.

Because the borrower is always slave to the lender, avoid debt regardless the sugarplum and lollipop sales pitch of the terms. Excessive college debt in senseless fields of study coupled with indoctrination creates dependency which is the true goal of the ruling class. Never take candy from strangers.