In a May 21 article,
the board anguished over the fact that "the familiar assumption — graduate from college and prosperity will follow — has been disproved in this century." Their analysis, "the economy does not produce enough jobs that require college degrees." And their conclusion, "public policy has failed to address the stagnation."
Oh, public policy has failed, alright, but not in the way the NY Times seems to think.
On May 28, 2010, almost exactly six years ago, the NY Times published the article, "Placing the Blame as Students Are Buried in Debt", in which they profiled a young woman who borrowed money she will never pay back to graduate from an insanely expensive school with an economically worthless degree.
First, no banker in the history of humanity has ever earned a living by lending money to people who cannot pay it back. That banks have been doing just that, with abandon, can only mean a politician is behind it. Only bad public policy can encourage banks to lend money for "an interdisciplinary degree in religious and women’s studies."
“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life slaving away to pay for an education I got for four years and would happily give back”
Oh, public policy has failed, alright, but not in the way the NY Times seems to think.
On May 28, 2010, almost exactly six years ago, the NY Times published the article, "Placing the Blame as Students Are Buried in Debt", in which they profiled a young woman who borrowed money she will never pay back to graduate from an insanely expensive school with an economically worthless degree.
First, no banker in the history of humanity has ever earned a living by lending money to people who cannot pay it back. That banks have been doing just that, with abandon, can only mean a politician is behind it. Only bad public policy can encourage banks to lend money for "an interdisciplinary degree in religious and women’s studies."
Second, the universities are violating their part of the bargain. If we, as a society, are going to subsidize college degrees, the colleges, for their part, must offer economically valuable degrees. They are not doing that. The 2010 NYT article poignantly ends with the young woman saying,
“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life slaving away to pay for an education I got for four years and would happily give back”
Since that article, there has been a steadily increasing drumbeat of articles, in the NY Times and elsewhere, documenting the horror that college has become for a burgeoning number of young people. Across the country, more and more young people, who should not have gone to college in the first place, are not finishing college, walking away with nothing except toxic levels of debt, and realizing that "going to college is the worst thing they had ever done."
Why does the NY Times want to double down on this failed public policy? One of the first rules of military strategy is, "Never reinforce defeat." It is time to pull the plug on this educational nightmare.
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