Over-educating Ourselves

I don't have the statistical data at my fingertips, but it seems like it will be a self correcting problem!

At some point people will stop chasing that diploma if there is sufficient evidence that the ROI is not there.

The author wrote, "They have no job security and salaries start at $39,000 a year. "That's appalling: You could get that with a bachelor of science degree," Stephan says."

Obviously, Stephan, you do not have a PhD and your BA/BS degree (if you have one) is also in question (can you still get a refund?), because it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where the market is.

Students can and will decide for themselves and they will adjust their career goals. Like I said, it is a self correcting problem.

This is part of the problem; "asking if society is paying too much and developing scholars who can't find appropriate work in their fields." Society shouldn't be involved in "paying too much and developing scholars". That is the responsibility of individuals, not society. If a person has made a decision to pursue a certain field of expertise, he/she will then find a way to pay for it on his own. He/she will then have "skin in the game" and will be motivated to work hard because they have invested of their hard earned money and expended a great deal of effort. He/she has to make a decision about whether the field they are pursuing is worth the effort and the cost, either by financial remuneration or by the satisfaction derived from the job done.

We are not in the Industrial Age anymore and the emphasis on areas to learn and be involved in are changing. One thing to remember though is that from the neck down we are all worth minimum wage. It is what we do with our thinking and thought process that really counts. We better not be content with knowing what we know and that's it. On my white board in my office I have this quote, "Learn of the skillful; he that teaches himself only, has a fool for a teacher." Benjamin Franklin.

I am not sure exactly what you are responding to in my post.

I tend to agree with you that a self-paid education tends to have more value (to the student) than one that is gifted to them at the public's expense.

However, there are exceptions to that line of thinking. For one thing, a gifted student that comes from a family of little or no means would be of more value to society if they were educated to their potential versus educated to their parents' income.

This kind of investment from tax payers does have the high potential for ROI and more.

The problem with this approach is that it can easily become a slippery slope leading to free higher education for individuals that may not really be deserving. You can find this issue with a number of political arguments where what previously was termed a benefit is now being sold as a right.

In the instances of grants and gifts of education, you can expect an imbalance between the chosen field of study and the available job positions. My feeling is that tax payer grants for post graduate studies should be few to nil. In this regard, those individuals that seek advanced degrees are free to do so at their own expense (or the expense of their family or their current workplace). I just feel that having the tax payer foot the bill is a bad idea.

I was just mainly responding to the OP and hit Reply to yours my mistake. I think you and I are on the same page as far as individual responsibility and the role of government in our lives.

One thing that we as a society in general have mixed up is the premise that kids should move directly from high school to college. The predominant way for that to happen is for daddy and mommy to pay for the schooling or to go in hock/debt for a huge sum of money by the time college is done with. Why not get a job in the area of interest (like an internship). That would be a point of clarification and let the individual know whether that was something that truly excited him; which would affect his motivation for when he/she does go to school, and it would give him the opportunity to earn money, practice good handling of finances and let them save money so they don't go in debt so bad right off the bat. And, because they know that is what they want to do they will be focused and work hard at achieving their goal.

If someone is truly gifted and motivated they have quite a few opportunities to also obtain academic scholarships or grants from non-profit organizations. It is true that what you don't work for you don't appreciate nearly as much as something you have struggled for. I agree with you that the tax payer shouldn't foot the bill for advanced degrees especially.

I believe the simplest reply to the above topic will be answering the the following question. Is it or is not reasonable enough to pursue higher education for an individual in order to have return on their effort or investment of what they spent? Yes or No.

The answer is NO.

Just because someone has spent money and pursued a certain field of education or a certain venture doesn't mean there is, or should be, a guaranteed ROI by going even further in debt with time and money. That part of what is free enterprise is about; the risk of time, effort, resources and money invested with the plan for there to be a ROI. Maybe the individual chose a field that was on the decline of a trend. There is no guarantee in life that we will succeed. The only surety is that in this great country of ours that we will have opportunities to succeed. Whether we succeed on not depends on many factors. Some that we can control; commitment level, persistence, resources available, personal discipline, etc., and some that we can't control; like the current administration that is seeking to kill our economy and way of life, world economies, natural disasters, etc., all of which impact the environment in which we hope (not a wistful wish, but positively expecting) to succeed.

No danger of you over educating yourself is there?

I'm not sure what you mean by your statement in response to mine.

The most valuable learning that you and I will do in life is probably the time that you and I spend in learning our own by reading, listening and associating with people who are better than we are in the field we work in. We learn how to think like they do so that we can set the stage to have similar results.

I'm just saying that maybe a person needs to Plan, Do, Check, Adjust the process of life. If a particular career path isn't providing the results that someone wants, why keep doing down the same path only at a higher rate of speed (more money, time, effort spent on another degree) to try and get somewhere that still won't meet his needs or be available for him to work in.

I know there is technical information that we will only be able to get in the classroom, but it is still more important to tie that classroom information to real life experience.