10 thoughts on “The Higher Education Bubble”

  1. There’s nothing to fix. As long as students pay the tuition, they deserve the results. I am surprised it continues for years.

  2. There is a lot of predatory lending that takes place on college campuses. Loans are given out too freely without any examination of a student’s ability to repay them. Prior job history, current income, or even future income are not examined.

    It’s not just loans. College students also get bombarded with credit card offers.

    People will often say they make their own choices and are technically adults but that doesn’t mean that the financial industry is in cahoots with colleges to take advantage of them.

    1. Why, pray tell, would a lender extend credit without consideration of the borrower’s prospects to repay? And we’re not dealing with a charity here. There is clearly something distorting the market here.

  3. I got one of those all-but-guaranteed-approval credit card offers when I was an undergrad. Being young I considered it. Being not-stupid I concluded that if I couldn’t pay for something with money I already had, I didn’t need to fritter away money I hadn’t even earned yet to get it.

  4. Higher education has an Achilles Heal: Griggs vs. Duke Power.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griggs_v._Duke_Power_Co.

    This seminal SCOTUS ruling says employers cannot ask for job requirements that would cause de factor racial discrimination unless the requirement is “reasonably related” to the job. The evidence for this requirement cannot simply be hypothetical or conjectural, but must be justified by evidence.

    I think it’s clear that asking if a potential employee has a college degree would fail this test.

    If someone wants to demolish the higher education system, they could trying funding a lawsuit on this basis.

    1. In theory, a college degree means you have a level of skill in the degree field, and a capacity to learn. In practice these days, perhaps not so much.

  5. I have a degree in network administration and can’t find even a basic job. I took a psychology and culture class with a lot of useless knowledge.

      1. You can hire someone in India cheap. But what are they really worth? My experience with computer code outsourced to India is not favorable.

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