Quote from jeangenie:
Education needs to be made a profitable enterprise again, pure and simple. There needs to be a clearer risk/reward profile for the average college degree.
I also think we have *got* to get away from this university-centric model that encourages students to *waste* precious time and tuition dollars on "core distribution requirements" and similar bullshit for which they have neither the interest nor the aptitude. Nurses should go to nursing school, engineers should go to engineering school, lawyers should go to law school, and there needs to be an incentive to get out there and put that degree to work.
Even 12 years later, I can't *believe* I spent $2000 for a 3-hour credit for "Descriptive Astronomy" because I needed to fill the requirement. It did absolutely *zero* for my employment prospects or my enrichment.
I think it is important to be knowledgeable in many areas or well rounded. Having education be strictly career orientated will turn us into drones. Being well versed is important in order to engage in all aspects of society, not just your area of expertise. For example, those who do not learn history are bound to repeat it.
However, i do agree that paying an arm and a leg for it is ridiculous but it is equally ridiculous to pay so much for the core education.
To be a better society we need more people to obtain college and graduate level education but having the price be so high that we can never pay it off is a deterrent that will keep our society in a perpetual have and have not cycle.
Like i said before, Universities are the #1 worst run entities. Health care comes in a close second.
Can you imagine 2-4 billion people with a minimum of a 4 year university education? We would have such rapid technological expansion it would be mind blowing.
Some may say there is a scarcity of resource problem and i call 100% bullshit on that. There is so much hoarding of technology, money, and other key resources that it should make us sick.
The problem is how do we construct an economy without the profit incentive but allow people to keep their individuality and desire to create and improve?
Sharing resources has a huge label of socialism or communism and i sure as hell don't want to give my hard earned money to some low-life sitting on their ass. But at the same time if i created free energy for the entire world i sure as hell would not put a meter on it and charge the world, people who do that are disgusting, it would be blood money.
Chicken or the egg problem here. You wouldn't have to give away money if money didn't mean anything but how do we live without money?
I would have loved to have been a theoretical physicist so i could hypothesize and conduct experiments all day but there's no money in that so i decided to focus on financial markets. If i didn't have to worry about money i could follow my real interests and so could everyone else.
Can you imagine a society where everyone is doing what they are truly passionate about?
I think a solution that would accomplish the current problems will need us to evolve from money grubbing stiff your neighbor to viewing the world as a whole and all working together to improve the standard of living, technology, and other important things for everyone and not just themselves.
And yes some of the statements i made require a ton of economics to provide an adequate explanation but i believe the avg et viewer can understand what i mean.
