The temperature has changed drastically for February. It's not spring yet, but sure feels like it outside. I had to use an ATM today to get some money and was shocked by the surcharge. Most of the time I use my ATM card for FREE, but this was an instance where I needed cash. The surcharge was $2.95 for $20, that's 15% interest that the bank is making, and that's only from one end of the ATM. I wonder how much the banks eventually make off of that one transaction. I feel like I got robbed.
I'm going to start my own bank, with my own ATMs. What a lucrative business...banking. It's no wonder that most college graduates have "business" degrees. Engineering is for nerds who don't know anything about money...like me.
The one course that I took in college was too theoretical (a calculus based macroeconomics class). From that point on, I changed my major from business to engineering. When you are 17 years old, money is not as interesting as distilling gasoline or designing control systems. Engineering was a major that appealed to my sensibilities. As I get older, money appeals to my sensibilities and engineering seems like a hobby.
Reading the book "The Earth is Flat" has shown me that while other countries are concerned about engineering and technology, the United States is honing management & business skills. If only I had known 20 years ago that the United States would become a "distribution center" for everything. The world has become a place where anyone with a computer is now an engineering, design, computer and technological expert. America has reinvented itself as a "service sector" oriented society that only points customers in the right direction to the self-checkout. Unfortunately, the United States has designed themselves out of any job that requires skills. Granted, communication, leadership and management are skills, but not everyone can implement them simultaneously for every job. Such is America's future.
==> My children's education through college will consist of the following courses:
College Algebra - for adding & subtracting their checkbook.
Speech Communication - for effective speaking to teams.
English - for effective writing of emails.
Business Management - for being the boss.
Business Law - for effective understanding of the workplace.
Introduction to Computers - for everything else in the universe.
Sociology - for understanding different people.
That's it....that will be their major....7 courses for life. It's the shortened version of the college experience. And of course, the fraternity or sorority for getting their first job.
I'm not cynical, just realistic.
