The U.S. College Scam

Not a bad idea. The Federal government does a horrible job of this right now with its huge slice of the employment sector. Yet the military does an awesome job of it. I've been in both, and there is simply no comparison.

 

Oh good, left wing narcissism has finally fully infiltrated the education dialog. We have a choice, agree, or be singled out and targeted. Some choice. "Only the federal government has the resources and the will" "The government is Us". Bla bla bla. Its convenient collectivism designed to refute individualism, the government has the will and resources, but if you disagree you are not part of "us". Lazy, tired, old, boring, intellectually vapid, and designed to glorify the author. Self justifying and full of straw.

 

Thank you for the feedback. I do enjoy being a patriot.

 

Imagine a large corporate machine mobilized to get you to buy something you don't need at a tremendously inflated cost, complete with advertising, marketing, and branding that says you're not hip if you don't have one, but when you get one you discover it's of poor quality and obsolete in ten months. That's a BA.

 

Oh boy, I didn't realize it would come off like that. Funny.

 

This just in from the NY Times:

Is College Worth It? Clearly!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/27/upshot/is-college-worth-it-clearly-new-data-say.html?ref=education&_r=0

 

Yes, but that's not the argument. Yes, college grads make more over their lives, on average. But we already know that. The real issues:

-- Why is college just about the only pathway to high-paying jobs?
-- Why is college so expensive?
-- Why are we leaving our national human resource development decision to one teenager (and his/her parents) at a time?

Finally, what is not accounted for is how much of the difference is due to other sociological (read: family financial) factors. In other words, it may not be okay to assume that college graduates are one population to be compared to another (non-college grads). I suspect each is actually made up of several distinct populations, making lumping them together for comparisons a dicey prospect.

More accurate: compare the differences over a lifetime of people who earned college degrees in, say, their 30's and those who never did. That would provide a more accurate comparison, even if it didn't lead to the grand answer of whether or not people should go do college.

(Hint: they should. Unfortunately, it's the only game in town, which is the point of this thread.)

 

To be honest, in hindsight if I had to foot the bill for my education I wouldn't do it. By the time I finish my masters, I'll be around $70k. Lucky for me, college is free but that's not atypical.