Granted, much more could and should be done to offset the high cost of post-secondary education. It is no secret that having a good education can enhance all aspects of one’s life – from jobs, to health and family – all can benefit. Unfortunately, the inverse is also true. Nothing can do more damage to a community than its inhabitants not having access to the best education possible.

There is a direct correlation between education and incarceration in the United States. Over 75% of all inmates have no post-secondary education and 68% never finished high school. These are numbers that cannot be ignored. Only 26% of inmates who have not finished high school go on to earn their GED while incarcerated. One can ascertain from this that the problem of education must be tackled before people enter into the revolving door penal system; as 53% of men and 39% of women end up back in prison.

The population in the American prison system has exploded since the 1980s. Over the last three decades, the number of inmates has risen from 500,000 to 2.3 million and it is expected to get much worse before it gets better. The reason for this is that the 70 billion dollars a year that it costs to keep people incarcerated comes out of funding for social programs – most notably, education. It is very easy to draw a correlation between the two and realize that it is a snowballing effect that continues to take more and more funds out of education (the one thing that can reduce the incarceration rate). The irony of the situation is staggering.

Besides the quantifiable cost of incarceration, the societal cost resulting from a lack of funding for education must also be taken into account. The main problem here is how does one put a price on the human suffering that comes from a high crime rate. Economist, David Anderson, has estimated that crime in the USA costs $1.7 trillion dollars a year. That is 24 times the amount of what it costs to incarcerate people every year in the USA. Imagine if that money was freed to support social programs and education.

Over the course of my career, I gave up on reading books on my commute. I found that I wasn’t able to enjoy a good read anywhere near as much as if I was sat in peace at home. This was until someone convinced me to try and download ebooks on to my iPhone. At first I thought it would be a complete waste of time, as reading off my screen just didn’t appeal to me. However, having never been one to pass up trying something new, I gave it a go and have to say, I was impressed.

Being somewhat of a life adventurer, my first download was the Eat, Pray, Love ebook.It’s an inspiring story following a young woman travelling across the world, trying to find herself.She goes from town to town discovering new pleasures and habits, in an effort to value every second of every day.

It’s one of those books which make you look at your own life, and question whether the same routine every day is worth the social and financial benefits you gain from it? Or would you appreciate and value your own life even more if you could just drop everything and seek adventure?

It’s a great read, where you get to work out each character, and what their true motives are. I can’t wait for the film version which is due out later this year.

Running with the theme of questioning perceptions, I have just downloaded The Kite Runner ebook by KhaledHosseini. I have heard great things about this. Apparently it is a blast of realism, set in Soviet occupied Afghanistan. I imagine it would be written in a way that gives insight into how occupied Afghanis think, feel and interact, and can look at the current situation in that country at similarities and contrasts.

With the books saved on my iPhone, I now set challenges for myself to read in the most obscure places, so long as it doesn’t affect my enjoyment of the book. I honestly found myself reading whilst being waited to be served at a bar last week, I just wanted to finish that chapter!