3 ms·

> We can already provide all of that for very cheap if people are willing to accept standards from some decades ago. But they aren't. They want the expensive st

> We can already provide all of that for very cheap if people are willing to accept standards from some decades ago. But they aren't. They want the expensive stuff. The three main things which have skyrocketed in price since the 70s are higher education, healthcare, and housing. On top of that, over-credentialized jobs now require bachelor’s degrees for things which used to require high school diplomas. This fact alone has meant that young people today start their careers significantly poorer than their parents did. Point is, it’s not just about the prices of sneakers and pasta. For all of the most important costs in life, things have gotten much more expensive.

TexanFeller 3y ago
> over-credentialized jobs now require bachelor’s degrees for things which used to require high school diplomas High schools do not maintain any sort of reasonable standards for granting a degree anymore, so it's no wonder businesses require a college degree. We decided everyone needed a HS degree, so we started lowering the standards for it, "teaching to the test", and only focusing on improving the worst quartile students to minimum tested standards. Now the same thing is happening with colleges.
- janalsncm 3y ago
  Sure, but that means that students today aren’t getting bachelor’s degrees (the “expensive stuff”) by choice, but by necessity. That’s tens of thousands poorer (and ~4 years older) because of a shifting job market.
  - midoridensha 3y ago
    Right, but the root of the problem is that secondary education in the US is abysmally bad in many places, so a diploma from a US high school is mostly worthless. Requiring additional catch-up education is just a band-aid, and now with that being watered down, employers will want to see graduate degrees. That's even more money, and more time: employees will be almost 30 by the time they're ready to work. The solution is to fix secondary education, but there's no political will to do that.

TexanFeller 3y ago

> over-credentialized jobs now require bachelor’s degrees for things which used to require high school diplomas High schools do not maintain any sort of reasonable standards for granting a degree anymore, so it's no wonder businesses require a college degree. We decided everyone needed a HS degree, so we started lowering the standards for it, "teaching to the test", and only focusing on improving the worst quartile students to minimum tested standards. Now the same thing is happening with colleges.

janalsncm 3y ago
Sure, but that means that students today aren’t getting bachelor’s degrees (the “expensive stuff”) by choice, but by necessity. That’s tens of thousands poorer (and ~4 years older) because of a shifting job market.
- midoridensha 3y ago
  Right, but the root of the problem is that secondary education in the US is abysmally bad in many places, so a diploma from a US high school is mostly worthless. Requiring additional catch-up education is just a band-aid, and now with that being watered down, employers will want to see graduate degrees. That's even more money, and more time: employees will be almost 30 by the time they're ready to work. The solution is to fix secondary education, but there's no political will to do that.