I agree with this author. It seems that going to college replaces the potential income from working with loan debt. Previous generations didn't need college to make a career, and since high school was free via public funding, they had a leg up. It seems there's an argument somewhere for the public to subsidize state colleges more, which may help young people and the economy overall. That being said, I think parents and teachers have a responsibility to give high-school students the facts about what college will do both for them and to them. I recall being in high-school and being told that college is the cure-all for anything and everything. I wonder if this message is still being promulgated and how millenials' children will view higher education. Will that generation be less educated?
I too was told from an extremely young age that college was essentially a must. Everyone, regardless of ability or financial situation, it seemed, was destined for college. The public school I went to did little or nothing to expose us to other options. That's a crime. Students need to be made aware of the wide array of career routes they have as far trade school and skilled labor, as well as community college and whatnot. Not everyone was destined for college. It seems there's an argument somewhere for the public to subsidize state colleges more, which may help young people and the economy overall.
I like this idea a lot. Germany has had free college for a while. I spent the summer there, and the more I thought about it, the more astounded I was. As someone paying through the nose for a college education, it seems too good to be true that it could all be free. Not that we would ever make it free here, but it will be interesting to see what happens with higher education. Every year college becomes less and less viable for so many Americans. What's going to happen? Are prices going to reach a peak and then collapse, or will it just become impossible to go to school here without being incredibly wealthy? I don't know much about economics, certainly not enough to speculate, but it looks like something's going to have to give.
I was about to say something about Germany spending all their war money on education but then I looked it up and damn if Germany's education budget is the same as the United States'. I'm at a loss.
I'm not sure. The same has been said about our medical system and that's usually blamed on "inefficiency" but from what I've seen and who I've talked to (my wife used to be in medical benefits - some of her friends still have obnoxious titles like "VP" at places like Cedars Sinai), it's not that simple. As far as medical costs, a lot of it is related to the win-at-all-costs approach the United States takes to trauma. Not all, but a lot. As far as education, what I know of Germany's education system includes "tracking" of students a lot earlier. "High School" as I understand it is a lot more like vo-tech while "university" is a lot more like "grad school" as far as the students involved and the approaches taken. You also have to consider that post-war Europe was essentially set up by the Marshall Plan, via fiat, to craft a society that Truman & Co wanted the world to have. Egalitarianism was seen as a great solution to demagoguery and ethnic exceptionalism, which nobody wanted to see again. "University" went from being for the privileged elite to being for everybody; Tony Judt's "Postwar" has a great set of chapters on the economic and social upheaval that caused. The United States, meanwhile, was busily being built up by the GI Bill, fighting wars in Korea and Vietnam and reaping the benefits of a proxy empire. That all started crumbling in '76 and has been crumbling ever since. So I guess "inefficiency" is a way to look at it, but it seems like a lot more than that.
Here's a hell of a book. Here are the pain-in-the-ass facts: 1) A college education costs more than it ever did. 2) The returns on that college education are less than they've ever been. 3) The lifetime wage gap between high school diplomas and college degrees is greater than it's ever been. So: You're fucked if you go to college. But you're more fucked if you don't go to college. And your parents don't even understand the magnitude of your fuckedness. The book was a good read: it illustrated that every college is stampeding towards online education but none of them are willing to pass along the savings to their students because they're all mortgaged up to their eyeballs. It pointed out that three different nonprofit mammoths are establishing universal education standards such that if you test out of English 101, you test out of English 101 everywhere. And it made a convincing point that the middle can't hold, the entire system is going to shift and the future of higher ed is bright but there's a bloodbath coming before we get there. It's a shitty time to be a recent college grad. It's going to be a less shitty time for their kids. Millenials will have the last laugh; here's the 'boomers slagging on Generation X shortly before they created The Internet. Doesn't help in the moment, but all these people griping about what cheap pricks the millenials are have a future filled with cat food and sawdust ahead of 'em.
> It's a shitty time to be a recent college grad. It's going to be a less shitty time for their kids. Millenials will have the last laugh; here's the 'boomers slagging on Generation X shortly before they created The Internet. I wasn't born until a month before that article was written. Now people who were considered "whiners" around that era are complaining about us being whiny.
> So: You're fucked if you go to college. But you're more fucked if you don't go to college. This makes going to college sound like some sort of educational drug. 30 years ago, you used it to get anywhere you wanted to. Nowadays, you need it to get anywhere at all.
I should read that book. These are the things I idly wonder about. I knew those three facts, and that's what I'm talking about. Something's got to give, right?? Or will we all just end up really educated and really broke? I like that you mentioned the parents not understanding the magnitude of fuckedness. I constantly feel disconnected from a generation doesn't understand or even believe in the validity of the bleak prospects that millennials face.
This is something I keep hearing, and it scares the hell out of me. I'm glad the future is bright, but I'm wondering what will happen to the students, parents, teachers, and whoever else gets caught in the crossfire. I've no doubt that large groups of people are going to get really screwed. I'm also in the last two years of my 5-year program. When I finish, I'll actually be going into education. I guess I should keep tabs more closely on all this, huh? I love the article you shared. I feel as though if you replaced the nicknames for the populations of the respective generations in the article, if could be taken word-for-word as a gripe about millenials. I'm not really upset, but that's probably because my parents are more than understanding of the situation, and, regardless, I'm personally in an excellent spot and don't have a lot to be worried about. I'm very lucky and grateful for these things. I know many of my peers are much more frustrated.the future of higher ed is bright but there's a bloodbath coming before we get there.
It's a good read, and a quick one. Especially if you're going into education. I read just the one book but it seems to me that as always, there's opportunity in the delta. Focus on distance learning. Focus on compatibility between academic standards. Focus on, I shit you not, badges. And let me know what you find out. I got a kid to put through college and I'd like to be able to plan. The current state of affairs makes that a tricky proposition.
Here's my guess: You hate it because you're probably one of them, no? Everyone hates a label, because it's an attempt to put your beliefs, aspirations, opinions in a box. And, therefore, to tell you you're not a person so much as a product of your environment. Of course we all suffer from circumstance, and we share a lot with those who grew up at a similar time, culturally speaking. But we still each have an identity, and letting others tell us what our identity is seems like a robbing of our fundamental right of self-determination. Millenials in particular have suffered from coming of age in a once-in-three-generations terrible economy, so unemployment among them is higher than what one would expect on average for the last hundred years. Old people see this and ascribe it to laziness, and not circumstance (ironically). Therefore, "millenial" has become a pejorative euphemism that essentially means hopelessly unemployed, lazy complainer. Just my conjecture.
This has been true for the past few years, but I believe the tide has somewhat turned. Employment is increasing now; I've even made the decision to take a break from school to take advantage of all the new opportunities popping up. Whatever happens, I'll have stocked some money in savings and be better of for it when I'm back in academia.
Good on ya. Be warned, though - the macroeconomists are starting to blow the warning horns. Strong dollar means weak exports and all the foreign-owned REITs are in trouble. The real estate sector is looking soft, too. It won't be 2008, but there's likely a correction coming.
John Mauldin did a pretty good job of describing Quantitative Easing, QE2, QE3 and all the rest before it happened. I'm subscribed to his newsletters, which include three or four thinkers. I also follow David Rosenberg at Gluskin-Scheff. He was chief economist at Merril-Lynch. I tried to post some links, but all the stuff I'm seeing is in password-protected email distribution. Suffice it to say that I haven't paid a dime for anything so it won't hurt ya to sign up.
Thanks! Honestly, I'm anticipating a foreign investment increase supporting the economy. I plan to move in a few months once I've built up savings so I can take advantage of it. Real estate may dip, but urban markets have a lot of growth potential - I know in Boston there has been a lot of foreign investment recently in urban real estate.
Thing about foreign investment - it goes further with a weak dollar. Dollar be strong and getting stronger. You're right about the growth potential - but you're talking long-term and I'm talking near-term. Just keep your eyes open and your powder dry is all.