If you are lucky!

Beware of Propaganda about College like this Pew Study

These social “scientists’ spread this propaganda and consistently mix up causation with correlation.

Here would be a way to actually test the Pew’s hypothesis that college education results in substantially better incomes and life styles: Take 1,000 high school students and send them to college.  Take another 1,000 students and direct them to non-college alternatives.  Each of the groups would have the same distribution of SAT scores.

Then look at the results 10-15 years later.

The reason the Pew’s results are so skewed is that on average high school grads with higher IQs go on to graduate from college in greater proportion than those with lower IQs.  This factor alone probably accounts for most of the differential in salaries 15 years later.

I am not saying that college cannot be valuable.  But based on the Pew propaganda we have allowed the cost of college to get out of hand and college students are going ever deeper into debt to finance it.

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Investors, Traders and Entrepreneurs. 

A Great Spoof!

OK - I know this is a spoof, but the strange thing is that it is very close to reality today.

"Saying that his great grandparents could have never even dreamed of squandering such a fortune, recent college graduate Eric Singer told reporters Monday that he is the first person in his family to throw away $160,000. 'This level of debt was just out of reach for my father and grandfather, which makes my wasting so much money all the more meaningful,' said Singer, noting that his mother only flushed $12,000 down the toilet during her time in school."

The Private Sector Expects Results!

Here is a great piece on education by Libertarian John Stossel.  My favorite part was a clip from the movie Ghost Busters where Dan Akroyd is explaining to Bill Murray why he is crazy to seek a life outside of the academic world: "Personally I like the university. They give us money and facilities; we didn't have to produce anything. You've never been out of college. You don't know what it's like out there.  I've worked in the private sector. They expect results."

President Obama gets it right about the trades and skilled manufacturing!

“A lot of young people no longer seek the trades and skilled manufacturing as a viable career. But I promise you:  Folks can make a lot more potentially with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an Art History degree. I’m just saying you can make a really good living and have a great career without having a four year college education. “ President Obama

I would differ with the President on the most of his speech, but he is spot on with this point!