Let me explain my situation. I'm 18 years old and about to start college in a few days. I've spent this entire summer, as well as the past two years, devouring everything on economics I could find. I'm lucky; I discovered the Austrian School early in my life, and have just finished "Man, Economy and State". Judging from how terrible - even nonexistent - the fundamentals of our economy are and have been for many decades in the past (after all, it seems to me like we haven't had any real, non-inflationary, sustained economic growth in almost a century since the founding of the Federal Reserve and the subsequent takeover of Keynesianism, which only exacerbated an already unfavorable situation); judging from how mainstream pundits are now saying we are in a "double-dip recession" - though the first recession from late 2007 never really ended and was only papered over - literally - by artificial credit expansion a la Ben Bernanke; judging from recent stories I've heard of people in California (I'm from New York, though) opening up restaurants in their own houses, cultivating urban gardens and turning to selling marijuana just to have some food and income coming in in the face of staggeringly high unemployment rates; judging also form the fact that government spending only goes up amid all of this, that bailout after bailout of wasted and diverted money is pumped into stilborn sectors of the economy that should be allowed to wither away and die for the sake of long-term economic health - judging from all of this, things don't look good. It's obvious the government won't curb their spending and creating of increasingly severe business cycles - after all no one wants their precious benefits to evaporate, even though, considering the country is bankrupt, they kind of already have. Plus, to make things worse, many, like Marc Faber and Jim Rogers, are predicting hyperinflation in the US in the coming 10 years - a scary, though justifiable, and dare I say it, likely true, prediction. Frankly, it just doesn't seem like college is worth it anymore, and were it not for the stupid and wrongheaded antics of our foolish government, I'd be much more confident about the prospect of starting up a business and growing prosperous than I am. I know I'd be smart enough to do it, (Not to sound arrogant, but I KNOW I've got a good head on my shoulders; I was able to get through and understand "Human Action" with all my previous economic knowledge coming from "Economics in One Lesson.") but with an inherently inflationary banking system and a criminal, blatantly fraudulent central bank like ours at the helm of it all, as well as innumerable other problems of government involvement, what's an aspiring young wanna-be entrepreneur to do? I know everyone has been clammoring about investing in precious metals - particualrly silver, whose price is being artificially depressed by a JP Morgan naked short manipulation - but that's long-term investment advice, not an idea for a business. The only thing I've been able to think of is that going into agriculture would be a great idea - that is, assuming our economic Cassandras - Schiff, Faber and the rest of them - are right and we'll have hyperinflation, and therefore increased need for food and basic staples, in the US in the upcoming years. I've also thought about China, but Jim Chanos seems to think there's a bubble there, and that that country is headed for recession. I'll be honest: I'd love to do the Bill Gates thing, drop out of college and go on to become rich, and with a good idea, I think I'd be able to. But with this uncertain climate, making predictions and forecasting what legislation the government will pass to clean up the mess made by their last bill - thus creating a whole new mess - is especially difficult to do. I'm very sorry for how long this was, but I'd appreciate every suggestion and bit of advice that everyone has to offer. THANKS!!