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| University Hall Burns |
Handwaving Freakoutery is not happy with the way the college students have been saddled with debt. He blames all of us for the disaster that has befallen the zillions who got loans to go to college. He's mostly right.
Universities also help maintain Western Civilization, teaching things like art, literature and history, things that are important if you want to maintain your civilization. But those topics are more of a hobby and don't necessarily tie into making a living, which is what the vast majority of college students are interested in, or will be, as soon as their funding runs out.
Is our economy functioning well? It is, mostly. There is a large, and possibly growing, underclass, and things may not be going so well for them. 'A rising tide lifts all boats' is a phrase I have heard on occasion, but it only really helps those who have boats. What we really need is a boat shop that is producing 'rowboats' for everyone, where a 'rowboat' is something that allows you to float on the rising tide of inflation. Problem is, all the talent and all the investment is being directed at building ocean liners and space ships and fancy stuff, fancy stuff that promises to bring ever greater rewards. Building rowboats for the poor is not such an attractive business proposition.
The Model T Ford was such a rowboat, as were mobile homes. Now we have smartphones which almost everyone has and will surely give you a leg up on surviving in this world.
So we are seeing colossal blunders all around us, but we are also seeing phenomenal successes. We have promoters promoting the most ridiculous nonsense, but since the the world seems to be awash with a zillion times as much money as sense, they are finding followers, followers who are contributing / investing in whatever the promoter is promoting. Cowabunga.
P.S. Mizzou, the University of Missouri alumni magazine has a fine story about the fire that destroyed their Academic Hall in 1892 (picture at top). Steam, electric and gas lighting and broken ax handles all play a part.
P.P.S. Just came across this:
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| Policy Violence |
One correction: "Universities _once helped_ maintain Western Civilization>" Those days ended in the 1980s after about a century of decline. Also, the main economic role of universities was to act as a filter: if you got a degree in anything, it used to mean you were at least some level of functionally intelligent. This was especially true back when really hard subjects - Latin, Greek, Calculus - were required for *admission* to any American University worthy of the name. Hiring a college man was just a simple way to get somebody with something on the ball. That, and keeping up your social contacts in the upper crust.
ReplyDeleteBut then, we peons noticed that the college men were disproportionately getting the good jobs, and wanted in on that action. After WWII, government got into the business of subsidizing college. Then, since very few of those new college applicants had the preparation required in the past, the classes had to be dumbed down - otherwise, the universities would be throwing away the government money that came with the unprepared students.
Now, 75 years later, a college degree is worth nothing unless it's in an obvious votech field like law, business, medicine, and the hard sciences. Going into debt for any degree other than those votech fields is insane. I blame the colleges as much or more than the gullible children who took the loans - they're supposed run by grownups, who would be willfully ignorant if they didn't know your gender studies or modern philosophy degree ain't getting you a job at the pay you'd need to pay off the debt you took on to get them. It's fraud, really, selling people degrees when you know they'll never pay off.
I wonder how many are going to college because their parent have brainwashed them their whole lives that they would go to college no matter what. Didn't matter what they took or what they did later, they had to go to keep up the parents social standing.
ReplyDeleteTo reinforce it the parents had all the trade schools closed. I know an awful lot of plumbers making over $100,000 with several other companies trying to hire them away.