Posted on 05/09/2010 5:04:41 AM PDT by reaganaut1
The Great Depression did not have too many silver linings, but it did change the way Americans thought about education, clearly for the better. In 1930, only 30 percent of teenagers graduated from high school. By 1940, after a decade in which there often was nothing better to do than stay in school, the number had jumped to 50 percent. The Depression didn’t just make Americans tougher. It made them smarter.
In the years that followed, these newly skilled workers helped create an economic colossus. They were the factory workers, office clerks and managers who built up General Motors, U.S. Steel, R.C.A. and I.B.M. So when our own Great Recession began more than two years ago, it was reasonable to hope that something similar, if less extreme, might take place.
In a historical echo, the share of young adults in recent years who graduated from college happened to be about 30 percent. By any serious reckoning, that number was too low. The gap between the pay of college graduates and everyone else has grown sharply over the last three decades, reaching a new all-time high last year, which suggests that workers with a degree are too scarce a resource. There may indeed be a natural ceiling on how many college graduates a society should produce, but the United States does not appear close to it.
A deep recession has the potential to change that. It can keep people in school, or drive them back to school, in two main ways. First, it reduces the opportunity cost — to use the technical term — of attending college. When times are tough, you are less likely to be missing out on a good $20-an-hour job by being in class.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
We’re trying to get our son (22, NOT living at home) to go back to college full time; there’s no better time than now, because he can’t find a job and Grandma will 100% bankroll him if he does so.
Of course, he knows what’s best, as do all of the unemployed 0bama voters out there. *Rolleyes*
And I totally agree; most of America has been dumbed down to the point where higher education is an impossibility for most...all by design, Comrade. All by design. ;)
People might not be smart enough to study at a college level, but people are smart enough to learn a new trade. During the Depression, technical correspondence schools flourished.
If the result would be a greater output of engineers, great. Unfortunately, the vast majority are going to be in the non-technical areas. Worse yet, more lawyers, MBAs, accountants, and other overhead personnel of which there already is a glut. And almost all of them are impossibly in debt.
About 29% of adults over 24 are college grads and about 1% have advanced degrees. Only about 4% of people with average IQ (100)or lower have college degrees. It seems like there are a lot people who can’t handle a higher education (college, at least). As to learning a new trade, apparently there are a lot of people who aren’t disciplined enough to complete such training.
So, they major in Political "Science", Ethnomania, Art Appreciation, "Journalism", or Gender Hatred, and along the way are programmed into good little Socialists who vote for "Change".
You beat me to my comment. Most of them will be fluff majors and it’ll be even worse than lawyers, accountants, etc. It’ll be psych, history, and african american studies majors.
I wonder if there is a single recorded instance anywhere of anyone using anything they learned in african american, gender, women’s, etc. studies to improve our international competitiveness.
He also ignores the fact that many people are simply not smart enough to study subjects at a college level, for example taking calculus or producing a coherent, footnoted 20-page term paper using a variety of sources.
It’s not just that. Most jobs require at best a 1 or 2 year apprenticeship. Of course that wouldn’t support an army of liberal indoctrinators.
Law School Graduates Face a Tough Job Market - WSJ.com
The ability of the Left to put happy faces on this major recession is incredible.
Hell; you don't even have to be a U.S. Citizen to get handouts now.
We've had the Democrats/Socialists create a dependent-class that assures they can stay in office, ALSO living off the earnings of working folks, and voting themselves raises and perks, at will.....
Is this a great country, or what?
How true. I recently purchased a new computer at Best Buy and the sales assistant, an African American, said he was thinking of going back to college to “earn” his masters in Africology.
“And I totally agree; most of America has been dumbed down to the point where higher education is an impossibility for most...all by design, Comrade. All by design. ;)”
Not say that ALL higher education is bad; but most I’ve seen from higher education are not that impressive IMO.
I think when you look at what some are paying out, and what they’re getting in return (for wages) it’s not worth it.
I just don’t see the returns being worth the initial cost. It’s way overpriced IMO.
“How true. I recently purchased a new computer at Best Buy and the sales assistant, an African American, said he was thinking of going back to college to “earn” his masters in Africology.”
....and his work skills will still be on par with what he learned from Best Buy. The End.
The ability? That would suggest they’re accomplishing the happy faces. I don’t see it.
More like the determination is incredible. I’m sick of it.
America’s education system and the choices that students are making is a snapshot of what is wrong with the country in general. Instead of creating a good business environment where creators and engineers and provide good jobs for the workforce, it is government and unnecessary paper-pushing where the remaining growth is.
So we’re educating a larger proportion of paper-pushers and artistes ... call me unimpressed.
What is so great about a bunch of people going back to school so they can pile up massive debts and still be unemployed?
Here’s one for you. I know a 30+ year old who is starting college this summer. She got a pell grant or something. The kicker is that she’s on social security disability for being bi-polar. So, our tax dollars are paying not only for her “disability,” they will also be paying for her to go to college.
This woman will never enter the workforce. She has never held a “real” job. She cleans houses or babysits every now and then, for which she gets paid off the books.
Well, I suppose he will still be at Best Buy afterward. Unless he is programmed to resent working for The Man.
A lack of critical thinking, to ask the question, "What will these studies gain me, and what career or earnings benefit do they have?" does not seem to be an encouraging predictor.
Until we dispose of this kind of foolishness, people will be burdened with student loans for absolutely no gain. What a scam.
And where would the "professors" be?
Do you have a source for these statistics, especially the 4% one? I think you are right, but I'd like to be able to cite sources for future discussions.
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