Problem is not everyone can afford college at $40k a year and community college is not exactly going to land you that ultimate job.
We need high paid consumers to sustain the ecomony. Whether we like it or not those overpaid union members made enough to buy plasma TV’s and iPods. We are a consumer society and without signficant consumption the boys on Wall Street get cold feet about investing in America.
The Free Trade geniuses keep going on about how jobs will be created but they fail to account for many dynamics like retiring boomers “cashing out” at the expense of the next generation. Large companies need to bring on the next gen soon and put them to work instead of crushing the little newcomers as they appear.
High tech has created a significant barrier to entry both economically and from a intellectual standpoint when it comes to creating new product. When was the last time you saw the advent of a “garage” computer company like Apple?
I certainly don’t have the answers and I doubt anyone else does either when it comes to understanding how it will play out.
Not all colleges cost $40K per year, and community college is a low-cost way to get the general ed requirements out of the way. There’s no reason to pay $10K to 40K per year for English 101 and Math 112 classes at a university when you can do it for $4k at a CC.
You don’t have to go to MIT to get a good job. You just have to work hard and be serious about learning. I know this first hand.
One thing for people to ponder. I read every year the local paper profiles of the soon to be high school graduates.
In the past ten years I can’t recall a single graduate future plans was to work in a factory. It is also becoming more and more apparent that around this area which is fairly rural that the numbers of future farmers is going to crash because it don’t seem like anyone want to spend their future farming either.