4 ms·

This sounds very similar to sub-prime lending behavior that occurred before the recent recession. I don't expect a different outcome this time, if the behavior

This sounds very similar to sub-prime lending behavior that occurred before the recent recession. I don't expect a different outcome this time, if the behavior continues. The article paints a pretty bleak picture. My nieces (well, their parents) didn't have enough money to pay for a 4-year college. Instead of taking out student loans one decided not to go to college and the other one decided to join the Army for GI Bill benefits. The one in the Army has been having anxiety issues and they've started her on the path to medical discharge, which she is fighting. It's really a shame that something we tell young adults is so necessary leads many of them to financial ruin or being a poorly paid servant to the government for years. My guess is that many of them will get sick of it and choose not to go, and the industry will have to adapt to employees with no higher education.

mywittyname 8y ago
> It's really a shame that something we tell young adults is so necessary leads We tell them it's necessary because it is for most people. The decades of data made this an indisputable fact: people with college degrees earned higher salaries, had better jobs, enjoyed much lower unemployment rates, and were generally better off than their under-educated peers. The problem is not that we push people to attend college, the problem is entirely the cost of education.
- jbob2000 8y ago
  The decades of data only make sense when you consider that a very small percentage of the population was attending college. Of course they were highly paid; they were rare. If everybody has a college degree, then those skills aren’t rare and you won’t get paid highly for them. Salary is about how hard you are to replace, not how good/qualified you are. The problem definitely is that we push people to college. You don’t need a college degree for 90% of the jobs out there and we’ve completely watered down what a college degree is because we wanted everyone to have one.
  - mywittyname 8y ago
    > If everybody has a college degree, then those skills aren’t rare and you won’t get paid highly for them. Salary is about how hard you are to replace, not how good/qualified you are. I disagree. Your model only works under the assumption that the economy can only have so many jobs. If the US graduated 10x as many engineers from 1990 until now, the economy would be much larger than it is today. Which means that salaries may even be higher because despite a 10x increase in workforce, the demand for them may have increase by 15x. This is an easily observable situation. Regions with concentrations of talent tend to have much higher salaries for such people than regions where that talent is scarce.
    - injb 8y ago
      > Your model only works under the assumption that the economy can only have so many jobs No, the argument only assumes that the number of jobs won't increase in proportion to the number of college degrees, which is obviously true.

mywittyname 8y ago

> It's really a shame that something we tell young adults is so necessary leads We tell them it's necessary because it is for most people. The decades of data made this an indisputable fact: people with college degrees earned higher salaries, had better jobs, enjoyed much lower unemployment rates, and were generally better off than their under-educated peers. The problem is not that we push people to attend college, the problem is entirely the cost of education.

jbob2000 8y ago
The decades of data only make sense when you consider that a very small percentage of the population was attending college. Of course they were highly paid; they were rare. If everybody has a college degree, then those skills aren’t rare and you won’t get paid highly for them. Salary is about how hard you are to replace, not how good/qualified you are. The problem definitely is that we push people to college. You don’t need a college degree for 90% of the jobs out there and we’ve completely watered down what a college degree is because we wanted everyone to have one.
- mywittyname 8y ago
  > If everybody has a college degree, then those skills aren’t rare and you won’t get paid highly for them. Salary is about how hard you are to replace, not how good/qualified you are. I disagree. Your model only works under the assumption that the economy can only have so many jobs. If the US graduated 10x as many engineers from 1990 until now, the economy would be much larger than it is today. Which means that salaries may even be higher because despite a 10x increase in workforce, the demand for them may have increase by 15x. This is an easily observable situation. Regions with concentrations of talent tend to have much higher salaries for such people than regions where that talent is scarce.
  - injb 8y ago
    > Your model only works under the assumption that the economy can only have so many jobs No, the argument only assumes that the number of jobs won't increase in proportion to the number of college degrees, which is obviously true.