Early Retirement Extreme

Financial independence, frugality, self-sufficiency, ecology, capitalism, and voluntary simplicity

Who needs a college degree anyway?

Published in July 14th, 2008

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!I think that in many cases a college degree is a waste of money! I do believe that university educations should only be for a select few. In particular I do not believe that sending everybody to college will [...]

Are pro-bloggers like professors?

Published in June 30th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in blogging, education, rat race

No Comments

I see bloggers falling into three categories.

Pro-bloggers are like professors in that they are they bearers of the current culture. In particular they carry the knowledge that does not get written down in books and they try to impart both book knowledge and their experience on their students (here readers). Pro-bloggers often repeat themselves just [...]

Accident by construction - why technology and regulations increase risk

Published in May 28th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in culture, education, insurance, sub-prime

4 Comments

In retrospect it is amazing how subprime loans could go so wrong? Who in their right mind could believe that real estate always goes up? For that matter, what about the dot.com craze and the new era? What makes people appear so stupid in retrospect?
Here’s why.
Accidents does not happen by chance (by “accident”). They [...]

The value of hobbies

Published in March 18th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in education, entertainment, rat race

5 Comments

Coming from the mindset of an earlier post about passion, I am speaking of the values that optimizes the successful triad of health, wealth, and wisdom (all part of financial independence) rather than more typical choice of comfortable or exciting escapism (all part of the rat race?) which to me suggests a lack of fulfillment [...]

The secret of education

Published in February 17th, 2008

Posted by Jacob in consumerism, culture, economy, education

18 Comments

Warning: this is a contrarian post and as such it may question some deeply held beliefs. If you keep going you might not like what you read.
The education industry has successfully installed the meme that not going to college (buying their product) putatively leads to a life in poverty. A common selling point is [...]