I was at a party a couple months ago, and brought up the idea that perhaps — just perhaps — some smart people, depending on where they are in their lives and what they want to do for a career, shouldn’t go to college, an acquaintance tore into me, saying that everyone needed to go to college. This is the sort of person that blows up the rapidly, terminally expanding higher education bubble here in the United States. The pernicious idea that everyone needs to have a college degree, regardless of their capabilities or work/life desires, along with the government — both Federal and state — interfering with market forces, is causing a huge problem. I really feel bad for kids these days and the choices they have to make, and worse for the ones that aren’t told the choices until they have loans they won’t be able to pay down for 20 years.
Here’s a great graphic I saw the other day showing some of the problems that are already here and ones that are currently brewing. Scary. This bubble is going to blow up, and probably not that far down the road.
Columbia Gorge Dispatch 