Maggie's Farm

There are worse flaws w/ the Georgetown study than these authors point out.

Mainly it's the assumption that the statistical comparisons are valid. They are not. College self-selects the most talented and ambitious. Those people were always going to make more money regardless of their choice.

The reason why the average earnings is dropping is because the average now includes the poorer students. They're the ones who were formerly in the not college grads category, but now they are college grads. Their earnings didn't change, it just changed where it was tallied. Which, is exactly the point.

The better question, but one virtually impossible to answer rigorously, is, do students make more money by going to college?

Some likely do:
In part b/c of mandated credentialism (doctors, lawyers, accountants) which is up for debate whether it's worthwhile. (For some vocations I'd say emphatically yes.)

Other industries (teachers) have taken that model and got higher salaries, but at a cost of higher tuition, continuous learning requirements and denied opportunities. Whether they currently break even, I don't know. But, that bubble is bursting too, and already many teachers complain about the expenses of maintaining their certifications.

Others just learned good stuff faster than they'd do on their own: engineers, scientists.

But many others just wasted their time and tuition dollars. Do you really need a business degree to manage a grocery store, or Toys R Us? Didn't need one 30 years ago, does it really require one now? Jobs in social work don't even get to a break even point, w/ tuition and lost earnings likely never reclaimed by salary. You'd be better off skipping school entirely, and if you really wanted to "help people" do it as a volunteer.

I hope this bubble bursts, and people get angry about it. I want state universities to drop their ridiculous ______ Studies programs. And fire all of those professors who teach Marxism.