Higher Education is in trouble. Universities don’t offer near as much value per $$$ as they used to. They are a bubble that needs to pop in this recession. They are propped up enough by other things though, that it’s likely they will just deflate some.
This commentary from Fearsome Pirate: (with my own notes)
I see several replacements already brewing:
1. Not going to college. The fact is that if you’re going to work in the service industry for the rest of your life, you’re better off investing that four years in moving up the ladder instead of running up $40,000 in debt getting a BA in Fitness & Health. More people are going to realize that, especially as the generation that wasted money getting useless degrees grows up and has kids.
More people ARE realizing this for sure.
2. Learning a trade. Did you know we have a shortage of plumbers in America? Fixing pipes pays way better than washing cars or serving coffee.
But not better than DRINKING coffee!
3. For-profit community colleges. These schools save the students lots of money by not having athletics programs, fraternities, or classes that exist solely for a professor to shove his politics down your throat. The one I worked at for a year has already added BA’s in Criminal Justice and a couple medical-related fields. The education is decent and costs a fraction of what you’d pay at a land-grant college.
“For-profit” drives innovation and efficency. Tenure promotes innovation on paper, but in reality it feeds mediocrity.
4. Going on welfare. We’re transforming our economy to model it after European socialism, which has chronically high unemployment, low productivity, and a massive welfare state. It’s much cheaper for the government to hook you up with a crappy apartment and food stamps than it is to put you through college for four years.
This is true. Might as well skip the student loans.
5. Playing Xbox and smoking weed. Turns out you don’t have to go to college to do this.
This is remarkably cheap now too!