> cultural belief that a college degree will guarantee a living wage
I have more than a few friends and acquaintances who are deep in debt from school loans, many of them with degrees from excellent schools but with low market value (compared to e.g. engineering, science, medicine, law). I'd be in the same boat (a lit degree) if it weren't for an obsessive hobby that happened to be lucrative (programming, design).
So I think you're exactly right. Many people are given false expectations about what opportunities a degree confers. Much of what you're paying for is a good brand attached to your name and access to a social network. That's much more of a gamble than med school, where although you're guaranteed to come out with a lot of debt, you're also fairly certain you'll be able to pay it off in ten years or less while making a very comfortable living.
I would love to see more money and effort spent on secondary education, vocational education, and community colleges. I would pay more taxes if that's where they were going. If the collective mindset could be shifted from "I need to go to college" to "I need to get an education, learn how to be creative and work constructively with other people," we'd have fewer people in debt and more functional institutions.
There's no one deciding whether investing in a particular degree for a particular student makes sense. Which is what would normally happen if you go to the bank and ask for money.
There's a reason we aren't graduating enough people in the difficult high-value fields like engineering. Its financially too easy to take an easy, low-value degree. And young people don't have a good understanding of how things work out in the long run.
So societally we are, once again, sending people down very bad roads paved with good intentions.
We have a mistaken belief that every good thing can and should be subsidized. But in doing so we destroy the decision-making process that normally would weigh the costs and benefits.
The result is decisions that more frequently don't make sense for individuals or society.
I have more than a few friends and acquaintances who are deep in debt from school loans, many of them with degrees from excellent schools but with low market value (compared to e.g. engineering, science, medicine, law). I'd be in the same boat (a lit degree) if it weren't for an obsessive hobby that happened to be lucrative (programming, design).
So I think you're exactly right. Many people are given false expectations about what opportunities a degree confers. Much of what you're paying for is a good brand attached to your name and access to a social network. That's much more of a gamble than med school, where although you're guaranteed to come out with a lot of debt, you're also fairly certain you'll be able to pay it off in ten years or less while making a very comfortable living.
I would love to see more money and effort spent on secondary education, vocational education, and community colleges. I would pay more taxes if that's where they were going. If the collective mindset could be shifted from "I need to go to college" to "I need to get an education, learn how to be creative and work constructively with other people," we'd have fewer people in debt and more functional institutions.
/hand-waving