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Do you think the only kind of workforce we need is one chocked full of plumbers?
not at all - but I think that our workforce needs plumbers, as well as builders, mechanics, electricians, and customer service representatives; as well as a thousand other things. I think that even among college graduates, the odds of finding a job that require a degree are 50/50 and from that I conclude that across the entire base of job-entry, only a distinct minority of jobs require a college degree.
The problem here is that you're not looking at the big picture.
on the contrary, that is precisely the error you are making, as we got into a bit above and will get into more below.
I'm sure anyone would agree that the kind of worker we need right now is an engineer, or someone that, like an engineer, can help the US adapt to a changing economy.
Then you are assuredly incorrect. We need engineers, to be sure, but we need lots of things other than engineers.
You really think a plumber is going to develop an alternative energy economy when we run out of Oil? Develop more efficient shipping techniques? Treat patients?
do you think a doctor is going to clean your septic tank? fix your stuck pipes? build you a house? repair your automobile? Do you suppose that an Exxon Mobile Engineer will be available to stock the shelves at Wal-Mart or perhaps get you your double-mocha-non-fat-frappicino-with-no-whip at Starbucks?
Your view on the world economy is incredibly narrow and you fail to see that a majority of jobs do require a college education
that is incorrect by tautology. A majority of jobs do not require college degrees as demonstrated by the simple enough evidence that a majority of current workers do not hold them.
that these jobs are ones that allow for the creation of others
that is also incorrect in two ways. Firstly, there are plenty of college-degree-requiring jobs that do not necessarily create others. Professor of English, for example, is a job that often requires a doctorate, but does not in and of itself create other jobs by moving resources to higher levels of production. Secondly, there are plenty of non-college-degree-requiring jobs that do create lots of others. My uncle, for example, has not seen the inside of a classroom since he graduated high school, and runs a construction contracting business where he currently hires about 50 people. It does not require a college degree to run a Starbucks or a Wal-Mart chain store, or open up a new business of your own.
The US is one of the world's microcosms of development, we are not a nation of plumbers - not one where we aim to halt development by refusing to educate ourselves.
ooooh, microcosm. you must be in your junior year by now, what a big word . But still in your junior year, because A) you have used it incorrectly and B) you are reduced to arguing a strawman - no one is saying we shouldn't educate ourselves. I am saying that in many cases the decision to attend college is economically detrimental rather than beneficial to the person who makes it, and thus, in aggregate with the others like him, detrimental to society at large.
Look, if we could educate our entire workforce with college degrees at no cost, then certainly that would be a major economic benefit. Unfortunately, however, everything comes at a cost, and the current scheme to reduce the price-at-purchase of an education has created bubble investment in a real-devaluing asset as assuredly as the scheme to reduce the price-at-purchase for homes did.