I was replying to this: >The issue with some college programs is that they focus more on getting students to pay for degrees than on preparing them for the futu

I was replying to this: >The issue with some college programs is that they focus more on getting students to pay for degrees than on preparing them for the future. I agree that we oversell the value of a collage degree. To me it feels like that some point in the 80's or 90's that everyone in the US decided that collage was "this one simple trick to get rich" that they had to have their children try out. I would note that this occurred at the same time that we decided that we needed to move to a service economy rather than a manufacturing economy. I think trying to tie "the usefulness" to a loan that is being used to impart general knowledge on the basis of job prospects is going to be very hard. For example, in the early 90's a degree in Network Engineering would be rated a a high risk as there would not be many jobs available for those with that skill set. Fast forward 10 years and the internet is the hottest thing on the market. There are examples in the opposite direction as well, where there are fields that were booming and suddenly went bust. Mining Engineer for example when looking at coal mines. You seem to be looking at things from a top down command point of view where our society is operating as more of a bottom push driven system.