The Dwindling Power Of A College Degree
Posted on: February 28, 2013 - 7:08am
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The Dwindling Power Of A College Degree
On NPR they had a guy who had a job which was to track down fake degrees. So I did some research and wow... degrees can be purchased with every thing from transcripts, real diplomas and more, to prove you got your degree. Cost? $6000-7000.
Compare this to the $100,000 it costs for kids to get a four year degree, then go out in to the workforce to make $40-50,000, plus saving four years of your life going to school, many people have opted to get the degree the easy way.
Makes you wonder if that diploma on your bosses wall or even your doctor's wall is real.
http://world.time.com/2013/02/28/putins-phd-can-a-plagiarism-probe-upend-russian-politics/
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/11/23/142698972/the-dwindling-power-of-a-college-degree
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i consider myself very lucky because i'm a member of one of the last generations (college class of 2004) who did college because everybody was "supposed to." i chose a degree i was interested in (religion and classical studies) and didn't worry about how impractical it was because we all knew, graduating from a college as prestigious as ours, that jobs were going to fall into our laps no matter what. at one time, that would actually have been the case, too.
but the fact of the matter is, were i not in slovakia and a highly sought-after ESL teacher (mostly because i'm a native speaker), the best i could probably hope for right now in america would be some mid-level management job at some call center. i would probably make more money, actually, than i do now, but i wouldn't be treated with the respect and deference i'm treated with today, and i would be considered much more expendable.
very little of the happiness and luck i've had in my adult life can be attributed directly to my going to college. soon, when it comes to college parents are going to start asking their kids, "is that something you really need to do?" i think our generation will be that way with our kids, as in many other respects we seem to behave more like our grandparents than our parents.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
I graduated in 1985. Then it was a big deal to get your degree and go off and get a job. My dad always used to say "if you aren't going to get a degree then you will be in the streets digging ditches".
I wanted to play pro-baseball. My uncle had played for The Dodgers and I was the type who ate, slept and dreamed of baseball. It's all I did in my youth. My parents tried to discourage me at every corner not to follow that path, but I did until I got the lame idea to join the USMC.
My oldest siblings got their degrees but only one is making any thing out of it, they work in a high paying medical research field. The other makes no good of their degree. The other almost finished but dropped out for political reasons.
I only got my AA and for a small part of my life made more money per year than every one but my oldest sibling. Now I'm in a job where degrees don't mean shit and high end sales people will make millions a year (not me) on down to 50k all with a single state license.
Degrees really are worthless unless you are in a research field.