I had to stop in middle of my reading of "Health of Nations" to quickly jot down a blog while the thought was fresh in my mind. I am currently on a segment about economic inequalities and how they somehow propel our nation, yet create major social difficulties. One argument that was displayed was that about education and tuition. As a college student myself, I experience the frequent terrors of experiencing (or my parents experiencing) bankruptcy due to the exploding prices of education. The author mentions that part of the reason for the so heavily increasing costs are due to the skyrocketing administrator's salaries. These salaries are then the burden of those paying tuition fees. What used to be a base of about $3000 at an ivy league school in the seventies is now around $30,000. The line that struck me was, "yet if the number of places at elite institutions remains unchanged, everyone is spending more to end up in exactly the same position." If everyone is striving for the most prestigous job, then it the value of it depletes. It all depends what everyone else is doing. We are spending way more than we did thirty years ago to attain all of the same jobs. However, as students become smarter and more skilled, the bar is raised, and I fear the price of tuition increasing even more. Oh, dear.
*As a sidenote, can anyone please explain to me what an arm's race is? It has been mentioned a few times, yet I can seem to decipher its meaning on my own.
1 comment:
So what'd you think about the discussion about the shortage of jobs for highly educated people and the number of college educated folks who can't get jobs that use their education? Now the question becomes, in part, how to make yourself that college educated person who has enough flexibility and breadth so that you are employable in any number of jobs that might be interesting and take advantage of your skills.
Post a Comment