Wednesday, January 26, 2011
How many people should go to college?
I'm a big of Tyler Cowen, who blogs here. He's brilliant and loves be devil's advocate, with minimal political affiliation. Although that makes for a bad leader/policy maker it does make for interesting intellectual theater.
He recently self-published an e-book titled "The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better , reviewed here.
Two interesting points in the discussion:
1) Commutes - I can do 80% of my work from any location that has a computer and a printer. Many of my friends have similar positions. Corporate locations are expensive, competition to minimize commutes is a huge drain on our economy, and much welfare and productivity are sacrificed to commutes. I actually can't believe I'm saying this, but companies should be more flexible in allowing once-weekly (or more) telecommuting.
2) College - The blogger goes on through the usual blahbity blahbity to make the tired point that college isn't for everyone, and only the elite of society (like the author!) can truly benefit from a college education.
College is mis-targeted, and programs like University of Phoenix are an embarrassing farce for most people. But it seems that a 20% argument is specious at best. No one has offered any good evidence that 50% of college grads are NOT receiving any benefit from their educations.
Labels: Q: Polychromatic? A:Polytechnic
¶ 8:30 AM
