L024: Spend Your College Tuition on Being Mentored and Starting a Company

I’ve been thinking about Peter Thiel’s position on higher education a lot since my wonderful wife and I welcomed our daughter to the world about 18 months ago.

Peter’s foundation: http://jc.is/kPkxRo

In the affluence bubble of Los Angeles’ West Side — the area that includes Brentwood, Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades — old people with too much money have kids much later in life. At my parent groups and social activities, I’m often among the youngest fathers.

I’m 40 years old.

Folks who have kids later in life generally have more money to spend on those children, and thus the education bubble grows.

The education bubble feels a lot like the housing bubble: it’s based on credit, it keeps growing and a lot of the folks participating don’t have the ability to pay back the money they are borrowing.

Anyway, back to the point. Preschool and primary education in this bubble is three to four times what I paid for college ($9K for Fordham University at Lincoln Center in the late 1980s-early 1990s). A year in school from ages 4 to 18 inside this insanity costs $30K to $40K a year.