College degrees could be ticket to a dead end
Economist Paul Krugman has a sobering column in The New York Times that education is not a route to middle class status any longer.
He cites the development of software that can perform legal research that once required dozens of lawyers and software that can design chips without the need for engineers. He warns that putting more kids through college will not restore the middle-class society , saying, “It’s no longer true that having a college degree guarantees that you’ll get a good job, and it’s becoming less true with each passing decade.”
Krugman agrees with many posters on this blog who herald the value of technical school training and manual labor, but he warns that those jobs must pay better and provide health care, calling for a restoration of the “bargaining power that labor has lost over the last 30 years, so that ordinary workers as well as superstars have the power to bargain for good wages. We need to guarantee the essentials, above all health care, to every citizen.”
Krugman writes:
The fact is that since 1990 or so the U.S. job market has been characterized not by a general rise in the demand for skill, but by “hollowing out”: both high-wage and low-wage employment have grown rapidly, but medium-wage jobs — the kinds of jobs we count on to support a strong middle class — have lagged behind. And the hole in the middle has been getting wider: many of the high-wage occupations that grew rapidly in the 1990s have seen much slower growth recently, even as growth in low-wage employment has accelerated.
Why is this happening? The belief that education is becoming ever more important rests on the plausible-sounding notion that advances in technology increase job opportunities for those who work with information — loosely speaking, that computers help those who work with their minds, while hurting those who work with their hands.
Some years ago, however, the economists David Autor, Frank Levy and Richard Murnane argued that this was the wrong way to think about it. Computers, they pointed out, excel at routine tasks, “cognitive and manual tasks that can be accomplished by following explicit rules.” Therefore, any routine task — a category that includes many white-collar, nonmanual jobs — is in the firing line. Conversely, jobs that can’t be carried out by following explicit rules — a category that includes many kinds of manual labor, from truck drivers to janitors — will tend to grow even in the face of technological progress.
And here’s the thing: Most of the manual labor still being done in our economy seems to be of the kind that’s hard to automate. Notably, with production workers in manufacturing down to about 6 percent of U.S. employment, there aren’t many assembly-line jobs left to lose. Meanwhile, quite a lot of white-collar work currently carried out by well-educated, relatively well-paid workers may soon be computerized. Roombas are cute, but robot janitors are a long way off; computerized legal research and computer-aided medical diagnosis are already here.
And then there’s globalization. Once, only manufacturing workers needed to worry about competition from overseas, but the combination of computers and telecommunications has made it possible to provide many services at long range. And research by my Princeton colleagues Alan Blinder and Alan Krueger suggests that high-wage jobs performed by highly educated workers are, if anything, more “offshorable” than jobs done by low-paid, less-educated workers. If they’re right, growing international trade in services will further hollow out the U.S. job market.
So if we want a society of broadly share prosperity, education isn’t the answer — we’ll have to go about building that society directly. We need to restore the bargaining power that labor has lost over the last 30 years, so that ordinary workers as well as superstars have the power to bargain for good wages. We need to guarantee the essentials, above all health care, to every citizen.
What we can’t do is get where we need to go just by giving workers college degrees, which may be no more than tickets to jobs that don’t exist or don’t pay middle-class wage.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog.
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79 comments Add your comment
What's best for kids?
March 7th, 2011
8:36 am
How about college for the love of learning?
intownparent
March 7th, 2011
8:43 am
Well, I don’t know.. is it worth $250,000 to send your kid to college so that they can learn things they love? Would the $250K be better spent in an investment account which could grow a few years and allow that child to travel the world or start a business or engage in some other pursuit other than sitting in a lecture hall for 4-5 years.
My prediction is that colleges are digging their own graves with their insane tuition increases. 25 years from now, college as we know it will be completely obsolete.
Dr NO
March 7th, 2011
8:44 am
I ve been saying this for years. College, unless a specialized degree, is pretty much a rip-off. Thank goodness we have some better restraints on HOPE and this article should assist in slowly but surely abolishing HOPE!!
Tonya C.
March 7th, 2011
8:45 am
@What’s best for kids:
That’s what libraries are for. College is too expensive to go to at this point just because one loves learning. Too many other low-cost and free ways to gain knowledge to go the path that ends you up in debt.
2 cents
March 7th, 2011
8:51 am
unless we get a handle on energy policy and start building things again; America is not going to be around for much longer anyway.
What's best for kids?
March 7th, 2011
9:13 am
@intownparent. 250k? Which Georgia University charges 250k for a college degree? I don’t think it necessary to attend Harvard or Brown to take classes that are of interest and further one’s intellectual accumen.
What's best for kids?
March 7th, 2011
9:15 am
acumen…
chuck
March 7th, 2011
9:31 am
Dr. NO,
Once again you show how little you kNOw. A college degree, FOR THOSE STUDENTS WHO HAVE THE DESIRE AND ABILITY, is still essential in transmitting our culture to future generations. The fact that you never finished high school only diminishes your capacity for rational thought and discussion.
I have never seen ANYONE so hostile toward education. Maybe one day you will look beyond your obvious deficiencies in book larnin’ and leave those of us who value education to continue with our endeavors. In the meantime, kindly go back to the Disney Channel blogs where you belong.
chuck
March 7th, 2011
9:36 am
Tonya C.
REALLY?!?! I hope your next surgeon does more than just read a book from the library. This attitude toward education is exactly what will turn us from a super power into a 3rd world country. If you want to see what your hostility toward education leads to, go to the projects. They are ALREADY a 3rd world country. This is pure insanity.
chuck
March 7th, 2011
9:38 am
BTW, Krugman is a HACK. My daughter is currently in a macroeconomics class and they are using his book. It is the worst economics textbook and website that I have ever seen. Almost incomprehensible for an intro class.
College degrees could be ticket to a dead end | International Education News | Panama City Renaissance School | private preschool, elementary school, middle school
March 7th, 2011
9:47 am
[...] that you’ll get a good job, and it’s becoming less true with each passing decade.’”(more) Comments (0) Go to main news [...]
Tonya C.
March 7th, 2011
9:51 am
Really? Are you new here? I appreciate education, but a college degree to be a clerk or administrative assistant MAKES NO DANG SENSE. And that is what we’ve become. Going to college to acquire a skill and career path is one thing…for the “love of learning” is another. College needs to lose the academia thinking that a ‘thirst for knowledge’ is all it takes to be successful. B.S. College is too expensive for that, point blank. Not to recognize how much college costs and how those costs are financed, and what effect that is having on the current generation is delusional.
Port in a Storm
March 7th, 2011
9:55 am
College isn’t about “love of learning.” It’s about running the gauntlet through 4-6 years of college curriculum, collecting mostly disposable knowledge along the way. If you don’t believe Krugman’s piece has plenty of truth, you’re keeping the blinders on; a college degree is most valuable in education and other public arenas, where employees are still paid based on the amount of education, rather than the quality of the work. The private sector is interested in getting the most work from the least expensive employee, period.
Just A Teacher
March 7th, 2011
10:00 am
“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” Benjamin Franklin
Lee
March 7th, 2011
10:13 am
Basic Economics, there are only three ways a country can create wealth; grow it, mine it, or make it.
We’ve pretty much sent our heavy manufacturing offshore, good luck with any new drilling or mines because of our insane environmental regulations, and we pay farmers not to produce.
What could possibly go wrong?
A “service economy” is not sustainable long term. What we are doing is merely swapping wealth that was created years ago. Our trade imbalances and now, our outsourcing service jobs overseas, will further hasten our journey to second tier world status.
The only way this type of economy has grown in the past 40 years has been the massive influx of women into the workforce. You know, all those former stay-at-home moms who now drop the kids off at day care where she can go to work to enable the family to buy more stuff. However, we have reached the apex of growth related to that phenomenon. There is nothing left.
What's best for kids?
March 7th, 2011
10:16 am
Maybe college should be about the love of learning and then we would have students who actually cared about their degrees and their chosen careers instead of a means to a “middle class” end.
Why shouldn’t people take classes in art, philosophy, photography because those things interest them? Why shouldn’t people want to become more well rounded? Why should it be a hoop?
Tonya C.
March 7th, 2011
10:22 am
@What’s best for kids:
Did you see how much college costs lately? And how many people are struggling with those costs? I LOVE learning. Reading, museums, cultural activities. College was the WORST thing that could happen to a love of learning, at least based on the empirical evidence I’ve seen. Classes of 100+ students, TAs, and professors with almost no grasp of the English language. Throw in student loan debt, and you have discovered the current college experience.
What's best for kids?
March 7th, 2011
10:30 am
@Tonya C.
I have not been in an undergraduate college classroom in over 20 years, I will agree with you on that. I just think that we have lost the incentive to learn and pushed our priorities to getting a salary or a name with some letters next to it.
When society begins to understand that with knowlege comes an understanding of the human condition, college and careers will benefit.
blackbird13
March 7th, 2011
10:31 am
Square peg vs. round hole: Expecting a liberal arts education to be a job training program is a good example of this misfit. Krugman is right on this one; too many people are attending college because of social expectations when they should be learning a trade instead. I know college graduates who can’t engage in even a basic conversation about American history (to use one example), yet they have a degree that says they are “educated.” That’s because they went through the motions, doing just enough to pass classes before moving on the next level. Time to end this charade.
Gunluvr
March 7th, 2011
10:34 am
Krugman is right. There are no guarantees, especially with education. A college degree used to be the bridge to a solid job but no more; everything’s negotiable today. Today it’s a matter of who you know and what lobbying group best looks out for your interests. College degrees are becoming less and less relevent; I look forward to the day when apprenticeships formally return.
No Teacher Left Behind
March 7th, 2011
10:38 am
AMEN to that—the supply and demand for college graduates is imbalanced in this country. We need to go back to learning how to do and make things with our hands (trade). The middle class is the new “poor class” in this country because of financial and college loan debts, and by the limited and bleak job market. Everyone in this country needs adequate health care also. Health care cost bills are bankrupting the middle class and morphing them into the “poor and educated”.
Lee
March 7th, 2011
10:42 am
As posted previously, the stages of a college education:
Elation – away from Mom and Dad, time to party like a rock star!
Panic – Dad didn’t take it so well when he got those grades. Time to buckle down and study.
Satisfaction – Finally getting into your major classes and it is getting interesting.
Disgust – You realize that most of your professors are idiots who couldn’t make it in the “real world” and the book store has ripped more people off than Social Security and Bernie Madoff combined. You’re so ready to blow this joint.
Nostalgic – after a few years, you reminisce about those carefree days and think you can recapture it by going to grad school. Only now, you’ve got two kids, a spouse, and a mortgage. What the heck were you thinking?
Peanut Gallery
March 7th, 2011
10:50 am
A Georgia resident can get tuition and books at Georgia Perimeter College for about $2,000 per semester. That’s about $10,000 for your first two years of college. No, it’s not Harvard, but it’s an accredited college that can transfer you to wherever you want to finish your bachelor’s degree. Technical schools are also great options. But to sit around and refuse to learn anything because it might cost too much money is just plain dumb. Education is an investment in the rest of your life.
Metro Coach
March 7th, 2011
10:54 am
Paul Krugman is a Keynesian economist. That right there is enough to discredit him from speaking intelligently on anything that has to do with economics. This article is just a backdoor plug for labor unions.
ml
March 7th, 2011
10:56 am
a college degree is most important not in skill and knowledge obtained, but in our growingly significant class system. a college diploma is a white collar membership card. you can be better at a job than someone else but they will get that promotion over you if you don’t have a class membership card. you may even have to train the person to be promoted because you know the job and they don’t have a clue, but none of that matters. not talent, not performance, at a certain level in business there is a class cut-off, where serfs are forbidden. don’t want that low class riff raff swimming around in the country club’s pool, now do ya? also part of the reason why tuitions keep goin up. to limit the ability of those families that don’t have money from climbing up above where they belong. the upper class is for the upper class.
Gunluvr
March 7th, 2011
10:57 am
“Education is an investment in the rest of your life.”
Only if you know what you want to do and the majority of people who go to college and a lot of the ones who graduate don’t ever use most of the things that they are taught; it’s learned on the job.
Lt Col Razorback
March 7th, 2011
10:59 am
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of professions that require a degree from a reputable university. Occupations like being a medical doctor; nurse, engineer (of almost any type); military officer, scientist (laboratory or field research); university professor; high, middle, or elementary school teacher; sociologist; biologist, botanist; and I could go on and on. Until the institutions who hire people to fill their positions eliminate academic achievement as a qualifier for these professions, anyone aspiring to be employed and to be successful in one of these professions, will be left behind and will be eating the dust of those who demonstrated that they are capable of committing themselves to the lofty goal of attaining the required degree for whatever profession to which they aspire, and then doing the hard work that is necessary to achieve their goal, a university degree will remain as the ticket to attain success in the world of business.
LOL
March 7th, 2011
11:11 am
Chuck
“I have never seen ANYONE so hostile toward education. Maybe one day you will look beyond your obvious deficiencies in book larnin’ and leave those of us who value education to continue with our endeavors. In the meantime, kindly go back to the Disney Channel blogs where you belong.”
I think what Dr. No is saying is that some people feel that they don’t need to spend 4 years in a college or university, to gain the kind of knowledge it takes people like yourself 4 years to learn. I am a high school grad, and have attended college for a couple of years, and most of what is being taught in college was not worth it to me, as I already have that knowledge. I can do programming in my sleep without a degree, so why should I spend 4 years getting taught how to do something I already know?
CC
March 7th, 2011
11:17 am
WoW!!! I am saddened to see such responses… College was rewarding for me in many ways. I was exposed to various ways of thinking, and able to develop my higher thinking abilities, so not to just become a “worker bee.” The idea of axing out higher education is very dangerous thought, and this type of propaganda will be forwarded onto the most impoverished groups of this country to justify lacking govt. aid. Yes, libraries are there for reading but colleges,universities encourage dialogue and further thought, investigation. As a school teacher, I can only imagine less than 1% of my students going to a library to further themselves academically. And even if so, I remember how quick I was in college to be impressed by ideologies and jump onto the viewpoint but once exposed to dialogue and other philosophies, I grew mentally. Grabbing a book is not good enough but also critical thought. In college, mental development is the focus and this is where students realize the importance of independent thought.
Please be careful in jumping on band wagons because the privileged will still send their students to college,universities whereas the lower groups will jump on this bandwagon, digging more of a hole for themselves and increasing poverty rates. This is the one time in many children’s lives where they will be able to have exposure to various groups of people and ideas. Please don’t take this away from them, and promote the creation of a permanent lower class.
6Digitballin
March 7th, 2011
11:22 am
I went to college for 5 years. I’m still just an office assistant! UMFFF! carletta hates that!
Krugman is a socialist
March 7th, 2011
11:24 am
To suggest that we should create a society where prosperity is “broadly share” shows his liberal bias. Krugman wants to equalize prosperity (aka income) across the board by pulling down the people who work hard to get that prosperity by working hard in school and becoming successful in life. He also mentions how we must guarantee health care for all citizens, further showing his liberal bias. What does health care have to do with education and preserving the middle class?? I’m all for helping people out but problem is, who’s gonna pay for it? I bet if you ask Krugman, he’d say “well those doctors should reduce their fees so they make average income.” If you take away the incentive (aka money) for someone to do their job, they won’t do it anymore. And really, let the people decide what’s a fair wage; go to a different doctor if you feel they are charging too much. I really get tired of people like him that use this rhetoric to influence people into believing and doing something that will eventually bankrupt and ruin this country. Life is not guaranteed, why should we impose a belief on our country that it is?
A better solution would be for people to continue getting higher education and compete to their best abilities in the job markets. If everybody put their best foot forward and would be willing and flexible to take on the best position available and work to their fullest capacity, then prosperity in our society would be shared equitably. It’s all about being marketable and able to compete. The vast differences in prosperity that currently exist in our society are caused because some people who are not marketable and can’t compete choose to do nothing to improve their situation. You’ve got to keep pushing ahead and reinvent yourself if you have to, don’t just give up and stop working, nobody benefits from that.
yeah
March 7th, 2011
11:29 am
Not everyone should have a college degree. College degrees used to be enough to get you a leg up on other less educated job seekers and now it has become the norm to have one for many 30k jobs. If you earn great grades at a prestigious(aka GT or Emory) university….you will absolutely have a job when you graduate. Now that everyone has a college degree….high GPAs and graduate degrees are becoming the way to get a leg up over other applicants for a job. I think alot of this griping over not having jobs are from people who went to a mediocre state schools and/or did not make great grades in college. In that case…you havent done enough to earn that better job. Get work experience at a lesser job and move your way up…its what normal people do. Most people should not be expecting a 50k job when they graduate…its just unrealistic when college degrees are dime a dozen.
Krugman is a socialist
March 7th, 2011
11:30 am
And I really feel sorry for people who believe there is a barrier to increasing your own prosperity. Upward social mobility still exists in this country, even in this state. You just have to be willing to work for it. And I know this because I’m a result of it!
CobbParent
March 7th, 2011
11:30 am
I think we all have to admit that it is a little bit silly to see job ads for receptionists and admin assistants that require a 4-year degree. It seems that every position requires a BS (in anything, apparently) and that you have never been unemployed. Really? To answer phones, type and get coffee? I think that people have gotten lazy and figure that requiring a degree is a good way to weed out “undesirables”. I would always take a person who has been running the front desk since high school over someone who just spent 4 (make that 5 or 6) years hiding in a sorority getting a sociology degree…sorry to anyone who is offended by that.
Full disclosure – I am in no position to tell people not to go to college inasmuch as I spent 8 years there myself…BS-Business, BS-Economics, JD.
Education Insider
March 7th, 2011
11:36 am
Colleges at best graduate a mere 53% of incoming freshmen in 6 years. The numbers that get their degree in 4 years could be as low a 25%…a mere 1/4. Why all of this focus for “college bound” students to an institution that actually does worse at graduating students then K-12 schools? Coupled w/ teachers getting paid more for advanced degrees, although there is not a shred of documentation that shows that advanced degrees make better teachers. The true irony is the number of higher education institutions now “consulting” with K-12 public school districts on how to increase their high school graduation rates, and it is easy to see that they are not such strange bedfellows after all.
In private industry they never viewed a 4 year degree as if you have actually learned anything that you could apply, but that you learned how to set a long term goal and could achieve it. That really doesn’t apply any longer with the ease of obtaining student loans and the variety of things you can use that money for.
Once again those who have developed “grading on the curve” to make themselves look better, leave the rest of us looking worse.
rick
March 7th, 2011
11:37 am
College is great for a few certain majors in terms of future earnings. The love of learning won’t pay the rent on its own. The vast majority of majors simply do not pay much. It used to be that a college degree equaled a higher standard of living. Now, it is needed for basic survival. In time, the majority of Americans will have a four-year degree. That expensive degree is worth less with each passing year.
commoncents
March 7th, 2011
11:39 am
“So if we want a society of broadly share prosperity”
I’ll ignore the typo, but why the heck would anyone want to share prosperity?????
person 1: “I worked hard and am successful!!”
person 2: “I didn’t because I didn’t want to look like a nerd at school so I dropped out!”
1&2: “Let’s share and be equals! Yay!”
Socialist experiments always fail… Why promote more failure?
Krugman is a socialist- you’re name says it all
commoncents
March 7th, 2011
11:43 am
sorry about my typo… “your”
maybe
March 7th, 2011
11:46 am
Krugman should retire if he thinks education is such a farce. The man is profiting off education yet at the same time saying its not necessary. If he truly believes in this he will stop contributing to the problem and tell all his students at Princeton to just drop out. Attention students of America…make good grades and go to a good college. Schools like GT are still providing some of the highest starting salaries in the nation. Going to KSU or UGA to just party for four years is one of the reasons that many are having trouble finding decent paying jobs. If you work hard…you will be rewarded. What does a college professor, at Princeton of all places!, know about finding an entry level job?
maybe
March 7th, 2011
11:49 am
Rick a certain major doesn’t pay…please explain? Most companies could really care less about your major…they really only care about your GPA and that you have a degree…. sure some Engineering and Science firms may care but not entry level employers. I know history majors who have landed 50k jobs due to a high undergrad GPAs….its all about grades! Pick something your good at….if not your GPA will be lower.
Tonya C.
March 7th, 2011
11:55 am
maybe:
GT proves my point. Going to college on a career path makes sense; going because you love 19th century art are IS NOT. Working hard and being rewarded…in this country who you know is a heck of a lot more valuable in MANY cases than what you know.
Not Sure
March 7th, 2011
11:59 am
Ask me in five to seven years. Well, I graduated with a BS in Business Management about a year and a half ago. Haven’t found a better job and now the banks want to collect on that 65,000 loan. Too bad I can’t file bankruptcy on student loans. I can’t afford an extra $750.00 per month to pay on them.
mathwonk
March 7th, 2011
12:00 pm
It is obvious from reading Krugman’s article to the end that his point is not what the title implies, but rather that health care and worker’s rights need protection if there are going to be any jobs out there for them to apply for. Everyone with a liberal arts college education knows the primary benefits are an enhanced ability to read and write and to present ones arguments persuasively. These skills are invaluable even when seeking and interviewing for a manual job. Also the computer that analyzed the legal documents he speaks of was probably programmed by a college educated graduate. A good college education can change ones life, but only if pursued seriously.
Tonya C.
March 7th, 2011
12:04 pm
mathwonk:
You don’t need to go to college to learn how to BS, which is basically what you’ve described in a liberal arts degree. I’m just being honest. Many computer programmers have certifications, not degrees and make good money.
maybe
March 7th, 2011
12:05 pm
I agree with you Tonya, but GT also has liberal arts majors and they are actually landing some high paying jobs too. It is about who you know for many people, but doors fly open when you have a high GPA from a great school like GT, Emory, or UGA. Employers want to know that you are a hard worker, and a high GPA is indicative of that….the average GPA is a 2.98 at GT and making above a 3.5 makes you pretty much golden in the eyes of many employers. I graduated with a 3.7 from GT majoring in HTS(history, technology, and society) and have had no trouble finding job opportunities in the 45-55K range. Its all about your choices and the hard work you put into your schooling….I did not have a career plan…I just chose something I love…which is history.
Chris
March 7th, 2011
12:06 pm
I will encourage my children to pursue careers that combine brains and hands. Hands alone do not warrant high wages. Brains alone can be off-shored to India. Medical Doctor, Nurse, Electrician, Computer Networking Specialist – they should all be pretty secure.
Nevertheless, Krugman is proof that education is no guarantee. He is an idiot with a PhD. If we “return bargaining power to labor”, and thus drive up wage requirements, does he really think that will slow the loss of jobs in this country? What a hack.
Blue dog
March 7th, 2011
12:06 pm
I bought in to the mantra of “must have” college degree decades ago. I paid my way, enduring part time college courses and part time work…starving for 6 years to get my BS in psychology…that I never used.
My son finally graduated with a degree in Dietetics in the 90’s, only to learn he still needed a year of ‘clinical’ which required a GPA of 3.0…his was 2.96…he works at a printing company… owes $35,000 in student loans…and is mixing ink.
Most of his friends have similar stories.
I have observed that colleges are nothing more than another business. They have the unique ability to raise revenue at any time they deem it necessary…through tuition hikes. They are self sustaining and immune to criticism.
They have the perfect world… all their own…the vast majority of post secondary state and federal funds…all that lottery money… and more from tuition increases, as ‘needed’. Their professors have tenure…can’t be fired, regardless of accountability. Now we wonder why we have so many non employable graduates.
What is even more mind boggling, is the fact that 75% of students aren’t ‘college material’…yet they get their chance to attend via inflated HS grades. 80% of whom will not get a degree and worst…may also owe thousands for student loans.
With modern technologies, we can save a ton of money, get people educated in non traditional ways, and provide excellent occupational training for the 75% of kids that need a ‘hands on’ skill…not a college degree…which most will never use anyway.
HS Public Teacher
March 7th, 2011
12:07 pm
Too many people think that college is just an extension of high school. It is not. Students that make Cs in high school should not and do not really benefit from going to college. Please keep in mind that I am talking generalities so please don’t reply and point out an exception of ONE student that made Cs in high school and went on to earn a PhD in blah blah.
Colleges SHOULD only take the cream of the academic crop. These students SHOULD be trained for the more specialized fields such as law, engineering, medicine, etc.
Colleges today have become too much of a business and want to open up their doors to everyone regardless. They do this for profit – and yes, they do look at profit (after all, the professors want to make a higher salary, too). It is absolutely silly to admit some of the majors that students can earn at UGA….
CW
March 7th, 2011
12:21 pm
I believe the key message in the article is the statement that improvements in computers/technology are leading to a “hollowing” of the job market so that low end and high end jobs continue to grow. My guess is that future well paying jobs will require creativity, critical thinking and and the ambiguous quality of good judgment. If true, then an education (in the humanities?!), not vocational training, is the reason to go to college. The well paying jobs will be fewer, so most people will miss out. It’s starting to look bleak for my children. One hope, no solace, is that the world’s population is expected to start dropping around 2050, 2 generations from now, and the demand for work might start to coincide with the supply.
One comment re Krugman and hs “socialist” notion that a more equitable society is good. Most economists agree that a strong middle calss, with a modest differential between the poor and the wealthy results in a much happier, productive and economically healthy country. The US differetial between the poor and the wealthy is growing such that it is now similar to that of 3rd world countries.
commoncents
March 7th, 2011
12:26 pm
“Colleges SHOULD only take the cream of the academic crop”
And when they don’t, you start to see only a 25% grad rate in 4 years or whatever the stat is, and then everyone complains that colleges don’t teach anything and that they are useless.
Another comment above: “It is about who you know for most people”
That’s what life is all about! And where is a good place to meet those people and get those connections?————College! You won’t meet that business owner or recruiter or get those career fairs at a fast food restaurant or the local body shop.