Posted on 03/31/2011 3:37:50 AM PDT by MuttTheHoople
The President says that “the best economic policy is one that produces more college graduates.” No doubt this is best for colleges, which have been able to increase tuition faster than inflation, year after year, secure in the knowledge that they can rake in ever-rising government subsidies and skyrocketing tuition.
Students have little choice but to pay inflated tuition bills to the education industrial-complex, as they vie with each other for scarce entry-level jobs by acquiring ever more degrees that show their ability to jump through hoops and master difficult (but largely useless) skills.
But is this educational arms race really good for America?
Does America really need 8,000 waiters with doctoral or professional degrees? Do 5,057 janitors really need their advanced degrees? Millions of Americans already have useless college degrees.
The President seems oblivious of the fact that “some of the most successful entrepreneurs in modern America, including Microsoft's Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Apple's Steve Jobs, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Enterprise Rent-a-Car's Jack Taylor, Oracle's Larry Ellison, Dell computer's Michael Dell, movie and music producer David Geffen, and Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson — are not college graduates.”
The economy, after all, is not producing that many jobs for which liberal arts degrees are useful.
Across the world, instability has resulted when people’s educational levels outstripped their job prospects. In low-income Sri Lanka, rising educational levels among young people fueled the deadly Marxist JVP insurgency. In Tunisia, riots followed rapidly-rising college graduation rates not matched by economic growth; many college graduates there are deeply dissatisfied with the low-skilled jobs they ended up with. The rioting followed the self-immolation of a college graduate forced to eke out a humbling existence as a low-paid peddler. Under-employed college graduates also rioted in other Middle Eastern countries that had pro-American governments.
As law professor Glenn Reynolds notes, subsidizing the higher education bubble is as stupid as the government subsidies that helped fuel the housing bubble:
“The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people. But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits — self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. — that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them.”
My three years at Harvard Law School gave me a prestigious but educationally-empty credential, that I used to beat other competitors in the rat race, since the federal judge who hired me to assist him would only hire graduates of Harvard, Berkeley, or Stanford. But otherwise Harvard taught me virtually nothing of value.
I learned far more in six weeks of studying for the bar exam after law school, and two summers of working for law firms, than I ever learned in law school itself. Students are learning much less in college than they used to, even as federal and state education spending has skyrocketed. As tuition rose, Wake Forest University increased spending on its administrators by 600 percent.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/opinion-zone/2011/03/does-america-really-need-more-college-graduates#ixzz1IAhlHoui
The best way to stimulate the economy is to destroy the federal gangstas ability to raise fund and hog tie it like a suicidal crackhead on COPS so it is solely funded at the citizens will through states with balanced budgets and no ability to borrow..No federal taxes , the fair tax should be distributed to states only...they are held accountable easier as they are smaller domains, shut down most of DC to balance the budget and end this world police crap...
” The President seems oblivious of the fact that “some of the most successful entrepreneurs in modern America, including Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Apple’s Steve Jobs, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Enterprise Rent-a-Car’s Jack Taylor, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Dell computer’s Michael Dell, movie and music producer David Geffen, and Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson — are not college graduates.” “
And now, none of these ‘dropouts’ would even get their resumes read by their own HR departments...
College graduates will be much more able to present arguments why the government should give them unemployment benefits for life.
The best way to stimulate the economy is to destroy the federal gangstas ability to raise fund and hog tie it like a suicidal crackhead on COPS so it is solely funded at the citizens will through states with balanced budgets and no ability to borrow..No federal taxes , the fair tax should be distributed to states only...they are held accountable easier as they are smaller domains, shut down most of DC to balance the budget and end this world police crap.
HR departments are a major detriment to tech companies in the long term. More often than not they are the gate keepers of talent and can't recognize real talent when it is on the other side of their desk asking for a job.
A few years ago i read an article where a college professor said that colleges were no longer for the advancement of education of the students, but was for the advancement of the careers of the professors.
I have post-grad education and noticed towards the end the curriculum was more about indoctrination than education. I believe that’s why college is being pushed so hard by the government.
I, too, find those conflicts of reality interesting. The Enterprise model is an especially glaring example. The current advertising series about family ownership says a lot without even using words.
This guy can rant about it, we all can rant about it...but it's how the game is played. He was hired because of his degree. Until somebody convinces employers to stop requiring degrees, I don't see anything changing.
I too have graduate-level education and noted the same thing. The indoctrination attempts by the higher ups is incredibly noticeable due to the more personal attention we’re given as grad students. We get to know our professors a little better, and what we see can be a little on the unprofessional side.
On another note, start funding trade schools, shop, home economics at the secondary education level (high school). Give kids an option in-between college and the military when they’re done with high school. My brother barely received his GED, but the man he’s become is incredibly adept at manual labor with flooring and woodwork. Had a trade school been available to him out of high school, he might not need a “cheater” tape measure with the 1/8ths marked out on it for him.
Confidence is bred from the ability to bounce back from failure, but without the requisite skills, sometimes failure is the end game for these kids.
The present system keeps kids out of the workforce for a few more years and helps keep the unemployment stats down.
It is also a major resource pool for society’s liberal elite and a HUGE source of their funding.
The essence of the article.
HR departments are typically run by people with college degrees that have little real talent.
When we all have PhD’s (or the equivalent), who is going to pick up the garbage?
BTW—I am a college professor (computer science). There is some truth to that statement. However, it is also true that many students care more about getting an A vs. learning something. If most students were given a choice of taking a course by Prof A (who teaches poorly, but gives out As like candy) vs. Prof B (who is a better teacher but grades evenly), then would choose Prof A in a heartbeat. So Prof. A benefits by getting higher enrollments and probably better evals (tit for tat) and eventually promotion. After a few decades or so of this, you get a situation where college is increasingly dumbed down to cater to the student customer. Of course the other customer are the businesses that hire students. They are not as well served by this situation.
And now, none of these ‘dropouts’ would even get their resumes read by their own HR departments...
I first encountered HR people after graduation. I’d never even heard of them except for those taking that major. I sent out my résumé and waited. It included my short history of civilian jobs and 20 years of Army service. I checked want ads and government job openings. No luck.
The few interviews I had were the same; the young HR type would always end by claiming they needed a letter of recommendation from my last boss. I had no idea where he was stationed. I’d ask what they did with young graduates with no work history. I’d get a blank look and “Sorry sir, there’s nothing we can do.”
Yes, America does need more college graduates. Because of their being more socialized and controlled, the unemployment lines will be more discreet and orderly. Actually, since about 35% of American youth drop out of high school just what is all the wailing about everybody should be a college graduate? Just how insane are the politicians?
If it took Nixon to go to China, maybe it will take Obama to bring some sense, albeit by accident, to this. Maybe citing racial discrimination in making it illegal for employers to require college degrees other than those directly linked to specific professional functions (accounting, engineeering, architecture, etc).
There shouldn’t be a job on the planet for which one quaifies with a BA in history, marketing or economics. If we need people to demonstrate tenacity and a good blend of self-direction and obediance to authority, create six-week watered-down version of Ranger school for them to pass...
As for law school, it should be two years long at most, and MUCH harder to get into than it is now. Law school is a massive funnel of tax dollars into university payrolls.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.