well not free exactly, but definately most economical. Look at education:
1) Pre-school education: the best education of 2-4years kids is under the supervision of the mother or relatives (free nanies). But people spend 40 thousand a year to get their schools in all the fancy playschools. I often wonder is it for the kids, or for the pride and ego of the parents. I even heard of a theory which said that parents are so much pissed of from changing diapers and constant nagging that they are more than happy to dump their kids. One thing is true these playschools always charge more fees than any decent highschool or college. Probably because 3 year old are being taught about future technologies and being imparted skills which no college graduate can even dream of!
2) School education: If you look at school with best board results, theie fees are always affordable. While the school which is the most expensive always has below average results ( and many of them do not even impart education beyond 5th class) These expensive private schools will take admission interviews of a 3year old and their parents. What is it for, what purpose does it serve? I have no idea. But I have never met a person who aced in the primary school as well as in life.(discounting people from places where there was no compitition)
3) College education. The most wonderful thing I discovered recently was that ISB school of business charges more tution fee per month than any of the ivory business school. Comparing 2.4lakh charged by IIM for a 2 year course with 17lakhs charged by ISB for a 1 year course make the whole structure ridiculous, but ISB charges more fees than Stanford, California, Berkley and MIT. Also the school is only 4-5 years old and is still establishing itself, I shouldnot comment on the quality. But probably who can pay so high fees, already have big offices and father’s businesses to run. So they already might be at the top positions.
Even in graduation, I found fees at IIT were 16thousand per semester, while most of the private engineering colleges were safely charging upto 80 thousand per semester (with much less faculty, and facilities). Then for those who could not afford even this 16thousand, there were more scholarships than applicants. So if you fell in the merit cum means criteria, you will get a full tution fee waiver and a monthly stipend. For the rest there were affordable student loans, which banks were more than happy to lend. So good schools and college always ensure that you do not pay through the nose for education, and no bright student is denied education because of economic reasons.
Inspired by this, I thought of checking US schools, before generalizing. The top 20 schools(engineering and comerce) always have many times more scholarships, research assistanceship, tution fee waivers then the rest of the schools. Also the highest fees is always getting charged by the mediocre colleges. Call it a price of mediocricity, but next time if someone cribs about the expensive education, you might be safe to assume that he is not very bright.
5 replies on “Some of the best things in life are free.”
nice post, except I disagree with the statement regarding grandparents/relatives being the best and free nannies. My experience and observation on this aspect has been..it just depends on the particular set of grandparents. While some are pretty enthused about the whole deal about taking care of the grandkid thing, most are pretty tired having taken care of many of their own children, and would rather not have to go through the diaper cleaning, playing with the baby routine. They pretty much do it out of societal pressures..because’log kyaa kahenge ki falaan-falaan ne aisa nahin kiya..’..most people in the world are rather shallow, and petty..this doesnt change overnight when the become grandparents..the ‘free’ part is also questionable because they are always guilttripping you to do all kinds of things for them..
sorry if this shocks you..i take it you dont have kids yet??
My gosh! You have exceptional mind-reading skills. I rarely talk about myself or my life. Yups, that is perfectly true that I do not have any kids, and I do not even plan to marry in the near future.
I agree that nothing in the world comes free, and there are some stresses when suddenly your nuclear family expands from 2 busy individuals to 3 generations. But then I believe when you compare with the joy of being a parent, it’s worth it.
yes, its absolutely true that nothing compares to the joy of being a parent..even though they drive you to your wits end everyday (LOL)!..all I can say is ‘Bache, life itni simple nahin hai’….it was clear from your simplistic views on this issue that you have no kids..afterall I had the same rosy image of grandparents not too long ago….:-)
Hey guys, this may really date me, but MOTHERS used to be the free day care provider. Remember all of those, if you had to pay for your laundry, etc etc, it would cost you MEGABUCKS, sort of statistics? Well, if you run down the numbers, there is more illusion in the need for a second income…
@Knott
statisticians, always want to keep their life simple. Hence economically they do not differentiate between an unemployed youth and a full time mother/housemaker. since the EVA (economic value added) by the mother to the society is intangible, they simplify their life by adding no value to it.
I wonder in a society like India if they start valuing the contribution of house wives, how much will our GDP jump.
Think of a case of a secluded villiage in a hillock, which does not trade with the rest of the state. All their produce is locally consumed. Since there is no trade, no flow of capital and goods…. by current measuring techniques their contribution to the GDP is ZERO, infact they are a drain to the society.