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Education - a bubble??
With all this talk of post industrial economies (basicallly everyone else doing the West's dirty work). Is education a bubble? In the UK, the number of people going onto University has increased dramatically over the last 15 years with seemingly little added value other than to underline a stronger sense of entitlement syndrome based on those that pass in front of me for interview.
Perhaps controversial, but what level or spread of education will make for a balanced society, or are we heading the way of India where even a vocational PhD sometimes isn't enough for a factory operators job?
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The fear behind No Child Left Behind in the U.S, is that there will be no jobs at all for people without education, and then there is the fear that our education might not be good enough to compete to hold jobs here in the U.S. The factory jobs are gone, and jobs that can be outsourced are going. Companies are getting leaner and doing without poorly trained personnel. Education doesn't guarantee a salary, but it could prepare you to have some flexibility.
britinbe,
I think your point is well taken. And, I have to wonder, given that 25,000,000 are unemployed in the U.S. alone, whether folks who are not the absolute "brightest and best" will not have to eventually realize that a college degree is not necessarily a guarantee of a high paying job anymore. Although this IS true in some highly specialized areas, I don't think it is true anymore, as general rule.
I still believe a college education is a great ticket to broaden one's understanding. I do not believe that it guarantees that they will make hundreds of thousands of dollar more than their counterpart who did not go to college. Things have certainly changed since I earned my bachelors and masters, many, many years ago. I suspect the entitlement syndrome that you mention is just going to cause a lot of problems for those folks, who hold that attitude.