In my last post I mentioned that most people at my company don’t have student debt.  I sat on this for awhile, wanting to come to my own conclusions without comments from Benito and the Peanut Gallery. I think I finally figured it out. Nobody wants to be a “Management Analyst” or a “Program Manager” when they grow up.

My first instinct was greed. I still think that’s a big part of it. People associate wealth with the Ivy League and top schools and doctored statistics or not the hazy promise of wealth does it for most people.

But let’s look at the heaviest student debtors – doctors and lawyers, well that’s almost too easy. Follow that with the hazier “captain of industry” or boss and you have another group due to that pesky MBA.

MBAs are funny. Take two people of equal talent, money and drive. One goes to work immediately and starts making money, contacts and gaining the specific experience he needs and the other starts late and in debt or divides his energy between work and a degree that will breed twice as much resentment as it will prestige and added value combined. Where I work BAs drive BMWs and MBAs drive Elantras (a middle of the road Hyundai made when Hyundai was where Kia was before they started putting Hamsters in their commercials.

Now if you’re smart you’re asking yourself “but what about the little boys who want to be police and firemen and the girls who want to be nurses and teachers?” First that’s sexist. Those jobs aren’t gender specific.  Second, the individuals who actively pursued those career paths believe it or not have substantially higher debt loads than people who just sort of fell into it. There are cops taking bribes, teachers who work at Baskin Robbins on the weekend and moonlighting nurses all of whom have SIX FIGURE debt, zero chance of a six figure salary and a high chance of layoff.

The takeaway lesson here folks isn’t not to have dreams. The lesson is instead of spending all your time trying to figure out how best to become something, spend a little time figuring out how NOT to do it.