All the federal funding in so-called higher education has not only bid its price up to outrageous levels, it has caused most schools to care more about political correctness than doing their job, which is to make sure that just about every student admitted leaves with a degree and a good job.

This is one of several reasons I believe that for many if not most young people (including myself), college is a waste of time, effort, and money. They need to hear Mike Rowe on the topic.

It would also have been braver to take on programs, graduates of which have no more market value than a HS graduate, such as ethnic and gender studies programs, the ultimate in politically correct but worthless majors.

In this economy, one's training and skills are irrelevant because no one's hiring. Manufacturing? What do we even make here anymore? Where are the employers bemoaning a shortage of qualified applicants for anything? The problem isn't that people are majoring in the wrong subjects; the problem is there are not nearly enough jobs.

Michael Lewis was an art history major at Princeton, then he got a degree at the LSE and became one of the best nonfiction writers of his generation.

Art study equipped him for one of the best passages of Liar's Poker. Go to page 91. Start at "God gave you eyes," and read the next four pages.

Also, per the blurb on the jacket of Liar's Poker:"Before joining Salomon Brothers he worked with various degrees of success as a stockboy for a New York art dealership, a cabinetmaker, and a tour guide for teen-aged girls in Europe."

I'm guessing the tour guide thing went well.

> The problem isn't that people are majoring
> in the wrong subjects; the problem is there
> are not nearly enough jobs.

Strongly disagree: The problem is that people have lost sight of the fact that they have to bring value to each other. Read the book mentioned in the previous comment, and remember that "financial services" is now the largest sector of American employment. More people are trying to make a living by slicing off a piece of other people's wealth than by any other activity.

That wealth will need to be created to begin with. It can't simply be taxed into existence. "Jobs" are available to anyone who can do something that someone else will appreciate. People have forgot how to think about that.

You'd think Obama would be dismantling the insane college pricing scam - it's just one more way for the powerful elites to control entry to the ruling class.

Wait - what am I SAYING?! Sorry, sorry, haven't had my coffee yet.

I mean, that's just funny. Obama doing something for struggling Americans. Ha ha. Hey, you pussies, suck it up and learn to weld!

Ooops. I meant "People done forgot how...", not " People have forgot how...."

In this economy, one's training and skills are irrelevant because no one's hiring. Manufacturing? What do we even make here anymore? Where are the employers bemoaning a shortage of qualified applicants for anything? The problem isn't that people are majoring in the wrong subjects; the problem is there are not nearly enough jobs.
Posted by: Walter Moore at February 2, 2014 8:08 AM

For a long time, our economy was able to carry essentially dead weight, which was a lot of people with no skills other than shuffling paperwork. (Usually poorly)

Those days are over. My son works for a tech company. He has no college degree, but has been building and maintaining computers since he was 13. He also has people skills, and is a hard worker.
He has a clear path into upper management and loves his job.

This company has a lot of entry level jobs they have no trouble filling, but the high skill ones, they recruit, and pay big bucks for.

The problem as I see it, is a lot of people with mediocre to low intelligence have been pushed through a dumbed down college curriculum which has left them worse off than if they had started in the trades after high school.

There are still jobs for skilled tradesmen like plumbers, electricians, machinists, and skilled software, and hardware technicians and they pay pretty well.

I have friends who are machinists, and they are some of my smarter friends. It takes brains to be a good plumber, a good machinist, or a good computer tech, or to be an MRI machine repairman. Thinking that someone with an IQ of 90 can be "trained" to be good at these things is just a fantasy.

The children of the rich, can still afford to waste their time on a worthless degree. They are probably never going to have to actually work for a living. They children of the poor, and the middle class cannot afford to waste their time on these frivolities.

The High Schools here in Quebec have eliminated all practical courses we had back in the 70s.

Woodworking, Metalworking, Car repair, Drafting, Home Economics, Cooking, etc.

Now we have people who don't know the difference between a screw and a bolt, with zero practical knowledge of how things work.

So, the prep school graduate who got a political science degree from Columbia University is lecturing prep school students on going into welding or plumbing instead of art history.

=========================

Crid's point about bringing value to others is a good one.

I tell my nieces and nephews upon graduation from high school (or even before) to develop a skill set they can sell on the market. And it's not just plumbing or art history.

Those skill sets should include problem solving, effective communication, persuasion, analytical, and creative skills effectively combined with things like plumbing or art history.

On the job market, no one cares that you knit or love puppies. No one cares that you can tell a van Meer from a de Bray (lots of art and art history majors can do that). Your value on the job market is what added value you can bring to the person doing the hiring.

And if the only skill you can bring to the table is being able to sweep the floor, you'd better be cheaper than a Roomba.

While Obama's right that the trades are often overlooked by students and neglected by school systems, the lesson he should be espousing is building a valuable skill set, not denigrating liberal arts majors.

I know one art history major...a dorm mate from college. He currently earns around $65k/year. He doesn't exactly work in art history (what would that be, museum curator?) he does use the skills learned. I am not exactly sure what it is he does. I big component is translation and contextualization. He worked for an Olympic committee. He is currently working on another license or something and then he will be "easily making more that $100k/year" (quoted from him).

I do see it right now that there are too many people for the jobs. From what electrician friends have said that at the union halls only about 1/3 of the people get jobs on a given day. The welders appear to in a fairly good spot. Most all of them have regular jobs and those that don't who are good and have experience can regularly find work. The problem I hear there is that people just starting out can't get work and in the 15-25 year range 95% of the current ones will retire so we (society) will be really lacking in experienced welders then. Or maybe robots will greatly reduce the need for them.

That doesn't that there isn't a demand for the especially skilled in any given field.

Whenever one stands on the issue of not enough jobs vs. too many with useless degrees; I do agree with Amy in that this was a "cheap shot."

The great orator has once again stuck his foot in his mouth by mocking others.

Just imagine the outrage if Bush had said something like this? Liberals would be all outraged foaming at the mouth with bulging neck veins at the "stupid thing the village idiot from Texas said."

But, Obama says something mocking others and all we hear is silence from the news media and other liberals.

I'd say at least he didn't give them the finger; But, he's already done that to Hillary during his first Presidential campaign. So, can he really get any lower class?

I came across this while doing research for my own career change (source linked to at my name):

--Over the 2012-22 decade, 50.6 million total job openings are expected. While growth will lead to many openings, more than two-thirds--67.2 percent--are projected to come from replacement needs.

--In more than 4 out of 5 occupations, openings from replacement needs are projected to exceed openings from growth.

--Nearly two-thirds of all job openings are expected to be in occupations that typically do not require postsecondary education for entry. (See table 7.)

--Twenty-two of the 30 occupations with the largest number of projected job openings are classified as not typically requiring postsecondary education. (See table 8.)

[...]

The 2014-15 edition of the Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) will feature the 2012-22 projections. The OOH includes information about work activities, wages, education and training requirements, the job outlook, and more for 580 detailed occupations in 334 profiles. The
updated OOH will be available online on January 8, 2014, at www.bls.gov/ooh.

"I'd say at least he didn't give them the finger; ... So, can he really get any lower class"

No, he cannot.

"From what electrician friends have said that at the union halls only about 1/3 of the people get jobs on a given day."

And there is your problem right there. Most of the good trade jobs are located in right to work states where Unions have not run off most of the small businesses, (and the big ones) and the market sets the wages, not the union leadership.

The Unions are too busy protecting their turf to give much thought to what the demand would be for an electrician in a free market.

I joked with my little brother last week that fifteen years ago, our parents would have never guessed who would be working on electronics and which one was working in a clothing store.

I didn't pay a dime to the college racket, while he is an art history major. Guess which one makes more?

"Guess which one makes more?"

Hmmm....America's insatiable demand for crap vs the flood of Indian H1-B visa holders into the tech job market and the outsourcing to foreign countries ... I'm gonna go with retail clothing employment as the winner.

The sibling rivalry is another story in itself, I'm guessing.

"Art history majors account for less than 0.2 percent of working adults with college degrees.

Hmm. What percentage of non-working adults with college degrees do they account for?

Not many would denigrate (I can still use that word, right?) the intrinsic value of an education, but the market decides what someone will be paid to do. Art History majors are unlikely to find work in their chosen field, but it could be worse. They could be Marine Biologists. The Art History major I know owns a bookstore. The Marine Biologist is a Pharmaceutical Rep.

MarkD, I know a guy who graduated with a degree in Marine Biology a few years ago. He's currently working as a dance instructor.

Art history majors account for less than 0.2 percent of working adults with college degrees.

Sound trivial, doesn't it? yet, when translated to a work force of ballpark 157 million, that comes out to 314,000 art history majors.

That are employed, mostly at Starbucks...who can say how many are un(der)employed? and how many of them are carrying multi-thousands of dollars of student loan debt?

Now, if they're smart they'd go get some welding education, then head off to North Dakota and make some big bucks welding in the oil fields. They'd be employed, paying taxes, and paid enough that they could make serious inroads into their debts.

Now, if they're smart they'd go get some welding education, then head off to North Dakota and make some big bucks welding in the oil fields. They'd be employed, paying taxes, and paid enough that they could make serious inroads into their debts. ~ Posted by: I R A Darth Aggie at February 3, 2014 8:25 AM

But then they wouldn't be living that hipster lifestyle in New York or Los Angeles. They'd be surrounded by the Great Unwashed, the very people they took art history to avoid.

"But then they wouldn't be living that hipster lifestyle in New York or Los Angeles. They'd be surrounded by the Great Unwashed, the very people they took art history to avoid."

Colleges should be dismantled, higher thought outlawed, art burned, and everyone must learn a job skill no higher than that taught in Vo-Tech.

Then we can get to work outlawing the orgasm.

"Colleges should be dismantled, higher thought outlawed..."

A lot of what I see happening in our universities today is not what I'd classify as higher thought.