Posted on 04/22/2014 9:11:31 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Every time a new study comes out regarding the “payoff” from college, I wonder: Will this finally be the one that takes note of widespread underemployment among recent grads and comprehends the impact of credential inflation?
In February, Pew Research released a study on the effects of college but the instant I saw the title, I was sure that this would not be one that broke out of the usual “college is a great investment” model. That study, “The Rising Cost of Not Going to College,” actually moves further in the wrong direction by telling people that those who don’t go to college are penalizing themselves.
The many “college is a great investment” papers present statistics showing that, on average, individuals who have college educations earn more than do people without them. They left the conclusion, “If you aren’t planning on college, you really should,” implicit.
Pew, however, makes that explicit. “If you don’t go to college, you’ll lose out big time” is the message it sends.
What makes that message particularly distressing is the fact that more and more young Americans who have their college degrees are unable to find jobs they couldn’t have gotten straight out of high school—or maybe even while still in high school. They’re often struggling with large college debts. And yet this study tells them that going to college is more important than ever.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Don’t take a PHD..supply and demand. High supply of egg-heads and low demand for them.
No investment in yourself is going to pay off, if we keep off-shoring American industries.
No investment in yourself is going to pay off, if we keep off-shoring American industries.
If everyone goes to college it stands to reason that over time the value of a degree will go down.
I have a 17-year old and a 15-year old, both traditional “college material”.
The marketing pressure in both of them is incredible. What a scam.
If the price of college keeps going up even STEM degrees will become uneconomical.
But... the left needs four more years to program young skulls full of mush.
And Moochelle’s proclamations that everyone should go to college are becoming increasingly hollow, like her head.
I think part of the problem is that people with degrees and can’t find a job are in that position because of misguided public policy. As a result, degreed people are taking jobs where they are over-qualified simply because the demand for their skill set isn’t needed in the market.
Try this: Cut business taxes to a max of 15% of earnings and personal income taxes to 17% and make personal income taxes a flat rate—no deductions for anything. (This is not the Fair Tax because there’s no Prebate here.) Now, stand back and watch what happens, including an influx of capital from the Pacific Rim.
Which country is currently experiencing the most rapid growth in the world? Chile. And guess which country has the lowest taxes on corporate and personal income? Accident? Not so much...
Unfortunately didn’t Chile just vote for the socialists who are going to undo all the good things Pinochet did?
IMO, if kids today don’t gain the skills so they know how to repair something, they are going to have a difficult if not impossible task finding a job.
There is a huge need for competent welders, plumbers, electricians, HVAC people and yes ditch diggers.
>>Unfortunately didn’t Chile just vote for the socialists who are going to undo all the good things Pinochet did?<<
No doubt, the grand success of socialism in Venezuela inspired them...
College is only worth the student loan if you are learning a hard skill, e.g. accounting, engineering or medicine.
There is another reason it’s worth it: If you are pretty much skill and talent free it can at least get you a shingle. That might get you out of McDonalds.
A person can go to computer school and learn C#, Java, MVC4 etc. and, if they have the aptitude for it, within a few years be looking at a comfortable six figure income.
College is not what it used to be.
Bachelet was widely credited for resisting calls from politicians from her own coalition to spend the huge copper revenues to close the country's income gap.[28][62] Instead in 2007 she created the Economic and Social Stabilization Fund, a sovereign wealth fund which accumulates fiscal surpluses which are above 1% of GDP.[63] This strategy allowed her to finance new social policies and provide economic stimulus packages when the 2008 financial crisis hit the country.[28]
Where Allende was punitive to business, at least she knows that markets lay the golden egg.
>>IMO, if kids today don’t gain the skills so they know how to repair something, they are going to have a difficult if not impossible task finding a job.
There is a huge need for competent welders, plumbers, electricians, HVAC people and yes ditch diggers.<<
A lot of people are suggesting we specifically create a 2-track PARALLEL system: Trades and Universities. Some brilliant people just don’t do well in academia. They should be able to choose an alternative, not stumble into it by default.
And we, as a society, should applaud tradesmen as strongly as we do College Degrees.
It’s called having a “Knowledge/Skills Portfolio”, just as with any financial portfolio, the idea is to have a diverse set of skills so that one can be in demand as economic conditions change.
>>A person can go to computer school and learn C#, Java, MVC4 etc. and, if they have the aptitude for it, within a few years be looking at a comfortable six figure income.
<<
Programming is a trade. Knowing what is needed and how to apply it is a skill.
Programmers are basically fungible. There really is no future in it today.
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