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> People try to claim that it really doesn't matter where you go to college. That's not true. There's probably edge cases, like for some startup founders or su

> People try to claim that it really doesn't matter where you go to college. That's not true. There's probably edge cases, like for some startup founders or supreme court justices, but for the more "advantaged" than average children, it largely doesn't seem to matter in aggregate (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228303493_Estimating_the_Return_to_College_Selectivity_Over_the_Career_Using_Administrative_Earnings_Data https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228303493_Estimatin...)

SadCanadian 5y ago
The economic pie is shrinking. Elites are spending more and more of their money sending their kids to the best prep schools and resume padding to ensure they don't slip through the growing cracks in the developed world (i.e. inequality that is well accepted at this point). See the college admissions scandal. That was the canary in the coalmine for intra-elite competition. They spent hundreds of thousands to low digit millions to send their kids through the backdoor because they couldn't afford the backdoor. These were like low-level elites (not hyper wealthy). The point is that if these people are concerned about their status, the middle and lower classes have little hope. While the average outcomes may have been true in past decades, one must ask if this will be the case going forward. In a low-to-no-growth economy, where most of the gains are financialized in limited sectors (high finance and tech), how else will one penetrate these sectors if not through an elite institution? Answer: they probably will not and will resign themselves to working in a stagnating part of the economy. Respectfully, I think people who subscribe to your view are whistling in the dark about the future of the country.
- imtringued 5y ago
  The economic pie isn't shrinking, it's not being allowed to grow. Companies produce more things when the price goes up. This works amazingly well for consumer goods. However, companies have been banned from doing so in the housing market. What follows is a shortage, the driver of all inflations. However, this only reflects rents, not necessarily the prices of homes because they are primarily driven by the availability of cheap credit whose monthly payments may stay the same despite a more expensive house. From what I can tell rent inflation itself went up by 3%+ every year since 2000. One problem with rents is that the only way they can employ people is via construction and since that isn't happening it will not translate into increased wages, which will cause wages to lag behind as most people are employed in an industry whose maximum wage increases are effectively bounded by CPI+productivity growth, not rent inflation+productivity growth, rents outpacing wages is only natural. Education is one way to increase productivity growth, but another way would be to simply reduce the productivity growth needed to have a normal life, by building more housing. rent inflation - CPI = education shortfall or rent inflation - CPI = construction shortfall it's a choice and a lot of people are picking 1. because it's other people that have to get educated to pay for the shortfall, not the ones owning the land.
BlueTankEngine 5y ago
This study is based on data from the college students of the early 1990s, and previous works in the field use data from 1980's college students. I think your claim might have been true 2 decades ago, but now? I highly doubt it....
- usaar333 5y ago
  Why not? I don't see tech say getting worse than it was a decade ago in terms of school bias. If anything it is better thanks to hacker rank, triplebyte, etc.

SadCanadian 5y ago

The economic pie is shrinking. Elites are spending more and more of their money sending their kids to the best prep schools and resume padding to ensure they don't slip through the growing cracks in the developed world (i.e. inequality that is well accepted at this point). See the college admissions scandal. That was the canary in the coalmine for intra-elite competition. They spent hundreds of thousands to low digit millions to send their kids through the backdoor because they couldn't afford the backdoor. These were like low-level elites (not hyper wealthy). The point is that if these people are concerned about their status, the middle and lower classes have little hope. While the average outcomes may have been true in past decades, one must ask if this will be the case going forward. In a low-to-no-growth economy, where most of the gains are financialized in limited sectors (high finance and tech), how else will one penetrate these sectors if not through an elite institution? Answer: they probably will not and will resign themselves to working in a stagnating part of the economy. Respectfully, I think people who subscribe to your view are whistling in the dark about the future of the country.

imtringued 5y ago
The economic pie isn't shrinking, it's not being allowed to grow. Companies produce more things when the price goes up. This works amazingly well for consumer goods. However, companies have been banned from doing so in the housing market. What follows is a shortage, the driver of all inflations. However, this only reflects rents, not necessarily the prices of homes because they are primarily driven by the availability of cheap credit whose monthly payments may stay the same despite a more expensive house. From what I can tell rent inflation itself went up by 3%+ every year since 2000. One problem with rents is that the only way they can employ people is via construction and since that isn't happening it will not translate into increased wages, which will cause wages to lag behind as most people are employed in an industry whose maximum wage increases are effectively bounded by CPI+productivity growth, not rent inflation+productivity growth, rents outpacing wages is only natural. Education is one way to increase productivity growth, but another way would be to simply reduce the productivity growth needed to have a normal life, by building more housing. rent inflation - CPI = education shortfall or rent inflation - CPI = construction shortfall it's a choice and a lot of people are picking 1. because it's other people that have to get educated to pay for the shortfall, not the ones owning the land.

BlueTankEngine 5y ago

This study is based on data from the college students of the early 1990s, and previous works in the field use data from 1980's college students. I think your claim might have been true 2 decades ago, but now? I highly doubt it....

usaar333 5y ago
Why not? I don't see tech say getting worse than it was a decade ago in terms of school bias. If anything it is better thanks to hacker rank, triplebyte, etc.