November 30, 2010

Expectations for College

My next question along the lines of "expectations" is in regards to college. And I'd like your help.

Because children are expected to go to college if they want to get a good job one day. So, in their minds, college = good job. Obviously, that's changing as the new economy breaks that reality. But, that idea was never real to begin with.

College does not = good job. Comparative advantage = good job. If you had a higher learning degree in the past, you were in a minority of the labor force more likely to do good work. But if one day, everyone has a college degree, who do you choose?

That's why the political promise of giving every kid a college education means nothing to me. Oh good, we have 2 million new English majors? That's going to help a lot.

Let's change the next generation's expectations of how you can have a great job growing up. I'm leaning toward the idea of "specialization" within a broader market, and being one of the best within it.

Because it's either being specialized, or being cheapest. And the second one sucks.
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