Bad Economics: College degree’s & Income inequality

Innervoice

Innervoice

I think many people who go to college to get degree’s is actually a bad economic decision. I also think income inequality is tied into bad economic policy.
So, going to to college and choosing to get a degree in sociology, communications, art, philosophy, psychology, is just plain stupid and makes no sense economicly. A student may pay 200k for a useless degree and will much more likely get a low paying job if he or she actually finds one pertaining to their degree. Its even worse if the tax payers take care of the students college tuition which is the case many times. They are useleless degree’s.
The income inequality myth: if for instance a study is conducted and its determined that 100 black students make a starting salary thats on average 25k less than 100 whites one will claim “ income inequality “. Peeling away at the onion one will discover most of the black graduates had degrees in communications , sociology, psychology, and other low paying degrees while the white or asian group had mostly engineering and finance degrees. So its really not inequality is it? Its poor choices for a major.
Digging further, one might say both groups had engineering degrees and whites and asians still made more money. Inequality? Not so fast. One group may have had degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering while the other had degrees in lower paying civil engineering. The white group could also choose to get lower paying degrees which we see a lot. One group also may have had more experience because they chose to work as interns during their summer break while the other group chose to have fun during their summer.
I think more people need to get into the trades..
Billions of dollars are wasted by useless college degree’s.
 
2rosy said:
is the only reason to go to college to get a degree and then get a job related to it?
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Yes. Although in Japan women use it to find a husband.

Before you start to debate it, if you want KNOWLEDGE, you can have free classes online like MIT's. If you want to party, you don't need to pay tuition, just have a party.

But in America where college is expensive, higher education is an INVESTMENT.

According to my personal estimate, about 30% of American college students will never use their education for their job. So basically they are paying for the "good times". On the other hand we are running out of plumbers and electricians...

Beside military and healthcare, college is the 3rd biggest racket in America.
 
Yes, America is in a dilemma. It's the only modern country in the world that charges a lot of money for its own population's college education. The consequence of which is to regard education as a financial investment with necessary practical returns and thus the comments by the OP. In fact, (only in America!) this is a political argument by Republicans against education. Why waste time and money learning anything when you could become a middle class blue collar worker?
The argument isn't without merit if 1. The cost of education is born by the individual and not the nation 2. The value put on education is strictly conscripted to income generation.

If I may generalize and use stereotypes for a minute, Americans are pragmatic people who take everything down to the lowest common denominator of understanding, which is pretty low in large part because of the general lack of education. In fact, Republicans use the argument without shame... Why "waste" time and money getting educated when you can make good money instead? C'mon, Raptor/babe/beers and drugs... Isn't that good enough for you? Oh, you think you're better than us?... Blah, blah, blah.

In the rest of the modern world, education is paid for by the nation and there are very few (if any) voices within these countries who think they should be more like America. The fundamental agreement is that an educated nation is a better nation. Individuals can choose to become plumbers and electricians or choose to become doctors and lawyers, or choose to get PhD in art and civilization or astro physics. The state will pay (most of) for you to follow your bliss. I know, that's crazy. But what's even more crazy is that people aren't looking for ways to get wealthy, they're looking to have a rich life, simply free of financial insecurities. And the people elect leaders and build nations to provide this life, which limits individual wealth for collective wellbeing. Free education, free healthcare, retirement benefits, 5 weeks vacation, parental leave, excellent infrastructures, etc.
Most Americans have no idea what any of these benefits are. And the typical rebuttal question is, yeah? But how much money do you make? And it makes sense! Because in America, only enough money can buy all of these perks, only the deserving ones, those who work hard, get to have what all these other people have. But why? Because otherwise no one would work!... But the people over there work ..

And the argument goes around and around
 
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VicBee said:
Yes, America is in a dilemma. It's the only modern country in the world that charges a lot of money for its own population's college education. The consequence of which is to regard education as a financial investment with necessary practical returns and thus the comments by the OP. In fact, (only in America!) this is a political argument by Republicans against education. Why waste time and money learning anything when you could become a middle class blue collar worker?
The argument isn't without merit if 1. The cost of education is born by the individual and not the nation 2. The value put on education is strictly conscripted to income generation.

If I may generalize and use stereotypes for a minute, Americans are pragmatic people who take everything down to the lowest common denominator of understanding, which is pretty low in large part because of the general lack of education. In fact, Republicans use the argument without shame... Why "waste" time and money getting educated when you can make good money instead? C'mon, Raptor/babe/beers and drugs... Isn't that good enough for you? Oh, you think you're better than us?... Blah, blah, blah.

In the rest of the modern world, education is paid for by the nation and there are very few (if any) voices within these countries who think they should be more like America. The fundamental agreement is that an educated nation is a better nation. Individuals can choose to become plumbers and electricians or choose to become doctors and lawyers, or choose to get PhD in art and civilization or astro physics. The state will pay (most of) for you to follow your bliss. I know, that's crazy. But what's even more crazy is that people aren't looking for ways to get wealthy, they're looking to have a rich life, simply free of financial insecurities. And the people elect leaders and build nations to provide this life, which limits individual wealth for collective wellbeing. Free education, free healthcare, retirement benefits, 5 weeks vacation, parental leave, excellent infrastructures, etc.
Most Americans have no idea what any of these benefits are. And the typical rebuttal question is, yeah? But how much money do you make? And it makes sense! Because in America, only enough money can buy all of these perks, only the deserving ones, those who work hard, get to have what all these other people have. But why? Because otherwise no one would work!... But the people over there work ..

And the argument goes around and around
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USDJPY said:
Where does your energy come from to write all this?
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:)
 
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