<p>A thought provoking interview which complements the book Going</a> Broke By Degree: Why College Costs So Much.</p>
<p>From the interview:</p>
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...12% of the mail carriers in the United States now have bachelor's degrees...
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<p>I don’t watch videos online. What’s wrong with a mail carrier having a bachelor’s degree?</p>
<p>Vedder is a crank who worked at a low second tier school and never got over it.</p>
<p>Perhaps that was an ancedote that illustrates how college degrees are becoming more prevalent . I expect at least that many baristas and salespeople at The Gap also have college degrees.</p>
<p>But I gotta ask is he any relation to Eddie?</p>
<p>Starting with the baby boom generation, a college degree is what was for our parents a HS degree. The opportunity for achieving even a modestly good living continues to diminish in our country, all while the artificial “education bar” continues to rise higher and higher in response to those opportunities getting fewer and fewer. </p>
<p>I wish this were not true. But it is.</p>
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<p>GAH. My dream man… who is only four months younger than my father. haha</p>
<p>My grad school creative writing teacher suggested I become a mail carrier. I gotta second the question…why shouldn’t mail carriers have degrees? Are they not members of our community? Isn’t having an educated citizenry a Good Thing?</p>
<p>Maybe the education is better spent in a line of work in which it would be of relevant utility.</p>
<p>Setting aside his credentials, his basic premise matches my own observation of the cause of the problem: Due to increased FA, the number of college applicants/grads has increased tremendously without the concomitant increase in the the number of colleges. Simple supply and demand.</p>
<p>I think he is saying that the costs of sending more people to college does not result in adding anything to our economy when grads become mail carriers. It is a purely economic analysis.</p>
<p>Note that video link removed above can be searched for on [Reason</a> Magazine’s site](<a href=“http://www.reason.com%5DReason”>http://www.reason.com).</p>
<p>Definitely an economic answer to what I think is not just an economic question–or have we given up on the idea that an educated, thinking citizenry is a good thing in itself?</p>
<p><a href=“%5Burl=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063122045-post2.html]#2[/url]”>quote</a> …What’s wrong with a mail carrier having a bachelor’s degree?
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<p>Absolutely nothing…but the statistic is thought provoking as the original post suggested.</p>
<p>Related: [Harvard</a>, Ivy Leagues Bust Tuition Cost Bubble](<a href=“Politics - Bloomberg”>Politics - Bloomberg):</p>
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<p>I read the book details mentioned and to me it was neo-conservative drivel expounded a profit driven model of education, celebrating institutions like Phoenix which are almost entirely distance learning and degree oriented (as in buying a degree rather than an education.)</p>
<p>Although I’m sure there is fat that can be pared (dare I say athletics? better not as the mother of a Williams’ student) I don’t think the model offered is a good one.</p>
<p>Perhaps our model is based on extreme affluence – the idea of the well rounded educated person. But a school like Williams was begun so that the poorer Berkshire boys could have the same knowledge as the Harvard swells. And come to think of it, John Adams was not from an affluent background either.</p>
<p>Our country is so diverse that I think that a basic liberal arts education (a rarity these days, sadly) could be a force to unify our populace. I like that my carpenter could recite the opening of The Canterbury Tales in Middle English, just as my doctor likes the fact that I took enough college science to talk about certain issues that have come up with depth and insight.</p>
<p>I think if it’s argued that a college education doesn’t bring a justifiable financial gain, that might be true.</p>
<p>And FWIW: All my friends from foreign countries who were forced to specialize very early in their academic careers really regret it.</p>
<p>I am a much stronger educator because of the extensive background I have. I would not want to teach Middlemarch without completely understanding (and being able to teach) Darwin.</p>
<p>I am amazed we still have letter carriers. They are probably not going to be around much longer. But while we do, how lovely that they can tell me thing or two if we meet at the mailbox.</p>
<p>Who wants elitism and mandarinization of a society?</p>
<p>I love my letter carriers- They are often young men ( or not so young) of Asian background, although that doesn’t mean anything as this area is on the Pacific Rim and Chinese and Japanese families have lived here for generations.</p>
<p>I chat with them as I work in my yard apologizing for all the junk mail I get.</p>
<p>Especially since K-12 education in some areas has been homogenized and standardized until it has little meaning-
college is where we send our citizens so they can be informed enough to be active participants in society.</p>
<p>The same Richard Vedder who helped Forbes come up with the perverse idea that West Point is the #1 college or university in the US. Also based on economic ‘reasoning’, that it provides 100% employment (mandatory, with a single employer); and leaves no undergraduate debt (because owing 8 years to the government is not a valuable consideration).</p>
<p>Beautiful post, mythmom. I had all kinds of things building up in my head as I read the earlier posts in the thread, and voila! you said them.</p>
<p>Oh, thank you.</p>
<p>More food for thought: [What’s</a> Wrong With Vocational School?: Too many Americans are going to college.](<a href=“http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009535]What’s”>http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009535):</p>
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<p>IQ is not static .
Additionally an IQ of 160, doesn’t mean you will be unhappy in a job that doesn’t require a degree.</p>