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What value can most US educated bring to the economy? I count myself included. They’re not hardcore enough to do meaningful research. They’re too expensive to
by drivebyhooting 2y ago
What value can most US educated bring to the economy? I count myself included.
They’re not hardcore enough to do meaningful research.
They’re too expensive to work in factories. (And not going to compete with Chinese slave labor)
What’s left? Hard to automate or offshore labor: service, or menial labor.
Surely you can’t become wealthy that way?
I just happened to blunder my way into tech despite subpar education.
- jpalawaga 2y agoAmerica is not hardcore enough to do meaningful research? huh?
- drivebyhooting 2y agoDid you go to American high school? Most kids barely pass algebra 2. Even the “smart kids” can’t really compete in college. With standard American route there’s a sub 1% chance you can make it as a researcher in a hard science.
- asdf6969 2y agoThat’s better than a system where future janitors are still expected to grind math problems instead of having a childhood
- firstplacelast 2y agoWhat? I went to an American public high school, there were/are plenty of kids who are very smart. 8% of my graduating class were in the uber-advanced honors math track. This is in a flyover state outside a small city. I also used to work in science, the reason there's so few chances to make it as a top researcher is that there is little opportunity. Look at jobs for a lot of life science majors after a BS, you will find a ton that is washing glassware in a lab, a complete waste of anyone with half a brain. There's reasons why there is little opportunity that's not worth exploring here, but suffice to say there are a ton of very smart kids in America that choose other paths. Outside tech and specialized physicians, nerd careers are not lucrative on average. With little opportunity, smart people end up doing banal work. Why do banal work and have a mediocre salary predicated on jumping through higher than average academic hoops? Doesn't add up for most people.
- drivebyhooting 2y agoWhat’s uber advanced here? I was in the calculus BC class and double majored in math and physics in college. My performance in the Putnam (I got a 2…) and in grad school are all the proof I need that I couldn’t compete. BTW I was the best student in my flyover state public school.
- im3w1l 2y agoI'd say the reason there is so little opportunity in science is that science as an instiution is terrible at capturing the value it creates. Thus it instead relies on charity of which there isn't enough.
- janalsncm 2y agoThe original question was about what value educated people can bring to the economy. You are asking about most people. And I reject your characterization of the capabilities of American students. There are plenty of incredibly bright ones.
- acdha 2y agoYes, and what you’re describing is inaccurate. This is a meme promulgated by the for-profit education industry but it’s based on people not comparing like cohorts. The American education system is huge and includes everyone, so if you compare averages it appears to produce worse results than systems which track poor/lower-performing kids out into vocational education, exclude kids with special needs or limited English proficiency, etc. but if you compare matching cohorts based on socio-economic status, etc. the results aren’t bad. The trick is realizing that research over the last century has shown that the most accurate predictor for educational outcomes is the socio-economic stability of their parents at birth, and the United States has both a lot of poor people and done less to help them than many of our peer countries. Regarding science, there are plenty of American scientists who graduated from public high schools. The problem there is that even highly-qualified students probably aren’t going to have a research career because the funding isn’t there to support it - even if you look at people who completed graduate school that was like 1/10 even before the Republicans’ savage cuts.
- janalsncm 2y agoYou are onto something but I would suggest a slightly different conclusion: that the best and brightest STEM students are attracted to the shiniest jobs, which right now involve programming computers to trade money (HFT) and teaching computers to do advertising (ML-backed ads). Neither of those are fundamentally useful.
- drivebyhooting 2y agoAds are waning. Due to ATT and centralization.
- OfficeChad 2y ago[dead]
- chasing 2y agoThere's plenty of work for educated people. And my understanding is that each dollar in education spending adds many dollars to the overall economy, an indicator of its importance. What we need is wealth that's spread out more evenly so more of our educated (and just simply smart) people have the resources to apply that education in valuable ways. If you have a valuable education but the only way to make a living is to work for some tech company selling ads or writing increasingly sophisticated AI software then, yeah, you're being wasted. Or if the entire economy is aligned to whatever whim Elon Musk or Donald Trump in their most gracious overlordship feels like funding. The a lot of valuable people will be wasted.
- drivebyhooting 2y agoSo my point stands? Nowhere in the American economy where to add value?
- chasing 2y agoI don’t think there’s “nowhere,” but the wealth disparity is making it much harder than it should be.