[Sciencewoman]

If you want to read a book that spells out the whole frenzy, try, "What Colleges Don't Tell You and Other Parents Don't Want You to Know" by Elizabeth Wissner-Gross. She's a for-hire college counselor who will help "package" your kid throughout middle/high school for thousands of dollars a year. I read it when my daughter was about 13 and it scared the pants off me! It was a real eye-opener. However, it also had extremely helpful information for helping kids get into elite schools, which I would never have learned otherwise.

Michigan used to be a state where you could get a good-paying, life-long job with one of the Big 3 or one of their suppliers, and have a nice middle class life without a college education. No more. Those benefits are going away and it doesn't look like they're coming back...hence the increased push toward college.

A couple years ago I met a woman in Denmark who was extoling the virtues of their "birth to grave" system. They pay high taxes, but her health care, retirement, children's university educations, etc. are all paid for. No one's getting rich, but no one's poor either. She said she appreciates having the stress removed from her life. There seem to be a lot of Americans who are trying to realize the American Dream, but in reality they're swamped in debt, college loans, etc.