> That's a market signal that this $40,000-per-year process that the US calls "education" has lost meaning and value. It's not that it's lost meaning, the mean

> That's a market signal that this $40,000-per-year process that the US calls "education" has lost meaning and value. It's not that it's lost meaning, the meaning has just changed drastically. Imagine that you're deciding between two candidates for a job opening. As you're preparing for the interview, the reception mentions that the first candidate isn't moving and doesn't seem to have a pulse. Are you going to interview both candidates or are you just going to hire the guy who can fog a mirror? That's what the modern college degree represents. It's no longer a guarantee of lifetime employment. Instead, it's now the bare minimum qualifier for even being considered for employment. A degree tells future employers that you won't soil yourself at work more than once a month. It's not a glowing recommendation, but it's better than the guy with the high school diploma who will soil himself weekly. Of course, you can point to great counter example from the titans of industry who don't have college degrees. On the other hand, we've had a vice president who didn't have a pulse. However, they're both statistical anomalies and you're far better off hiring someone with a pulse. For the record, I'm not saying that this is a good system. Rather, that's just the way I've observed it from watching my wife. She's been searching for work for two years. She's had fast food restaurants request her college transcript as part of the hiring process. Even below minimum wage baby-sitting gigs have fallen through because she doesn't have a bachelor's degree. The simple fact is that there's enough desperate people with degrees that there's not to require one.