> I don't think the U.S. economy is intrinsically more requiring of college degrees than it was in the 1960's, and it's possibly less necessary today.
That's as bold a claim as my opposite claim is, and your anecdotes offer about as much evidence for it as I did, i.e. none. I'll offer a counter-anecdote: I'm a better programmer for having gone to college, I've used the knowledge gained there, my value to the labour market is higher because of my education. I'm sure there are more people like me.
I would love to know what the truth really is though. I'm not disagreeing with you that there is a massive problem with credential inflation, it's absolutely huge, but I still think there's been a net gain in real demand for college education since the 60's, and that the US as a nation has benefited from it. Digging out the truth seems like an incredibly complex task though, and you have to use the educational system to do it, a system which would be incredibly biased against any findings that it itself is useless... So yeah.
That's as bold a claim as my opposite claim is, and your anecdotes offer about as much evidence for it as I did, i.e. none. I'll offer a counter-anecdote: I'm a better programmer for having gone to college, I've used the knowledge gained there, my value to the labour market is higher because of my education. I'm sure there are more people like me.
I would love to know what the truth really is though. I'm not disagreeing with you that there is a massive problem with credential inflation, it's absolutely huge, but I still think there's been a net gain in real demand for college education since the 60's, and that the US as a nation has benefited from it. Digging out the truth seems like an incredibly complex task though, and you have to use the educational system to do it, a system which would be incredibly biased against any findings that it itself is useless... So yeah.