Percent of Americans who actually have a college degree

Discussion in 'Education' started by kazenatsu, Mar 21, 2020.

  1. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Here's a little statistic that may be surprising to some of you.

    Slightly less than 37% of those between the ages of 25-30 have a 4-year college degree.

    Slightly less than 30% of those 55 and older have a 4-year college degree.

    sources here:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment_in_the_United_States

    https://thehill.com/homenews/state-...ericans-have-college-degrees-than-ever-before


    So the issue is, do we have a plan for all those people who didn't go to college, or is the plan to try to push them all through college, and basically abandon hope for those who don't make it?
     
  2. Texan

    Texan Well-Known Member

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    Not everyone needs college.
     
  3. tkolter

    tkolter Well-Known Member

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    Well how many apprenticed, went to trade schools and two year colleges (Community College) including military training?
     
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  4. Capt Nice

    Capt Nice Well-Known Member

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    There will always be a need for skills that don't require a college education. I often think of a saying that I feel is 100% true.

    Show me a man who works with his hands and I'll show you a laborer.
    Show me a man who works with his head and I'll show you a craftsman.
    Show me a man who works with his heart and I'll show you an artist.

    author unknown
     
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  5. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The point is there are a lot of people here who say the solution to our economic problems is to divert a lot more public tax funds into providing free college education.

    I was just pointing out that that notion is unrealistic, if we are talking about helping the majority of the people that have been left behind and need help.
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2020
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  6. LafayetteBis

    LafayetteBis Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    THE BIGGER PICTURE ABOUT EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT:
    [​IMG]
    Clearly, the Unemployment-Rate is far, far less the higher one's educational level-of-accomplishment - and the earnings are higher!

    What more can one want ... !?!

    PS: Graphic from here.
     
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2021
  7. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    for those that want and need it, some people do not need it and would not benifit from it
     
  8. LafayetteBis

    LafayetteBis Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    A GREAT AND UNNECESSARY WASTE

    Imho, the American people must be told that the additional credentials of Post-Secondary Degree are no longer a "nice thing to have". They are central to getting a well-paying job in the New Age of the Internet! Which means that more Americans secondary-school graduates must go through a post-secondary education. Or "they will miss the boat!"

    And at an average $25K a year of tuition, that aint gonna happin for everybody! Especially those coming from households earning $25K to $50K a year.

    It's time America and Americans understand that what has happened. This new Internet-Age of ours is going to make a lot of jobs easier to do IF YOU HAVE MASTERED THE INTERNET. And not before you have mastered the Internet!

    The Internet will also allow to invent new services that will require well-educated employees. But, we must do something about Tuition Fees if we want all to benefit. Because if your family is earning an income at the Poverty Threshold ($25K per year for a family of four) there is no way one can undertake a post-secondary program.

    So, Mr Biden has his objectives cut-out for him, because if his presidency fails to solve the post-secondary education cost-problem, he will not win the next presidency nor will any other Democrat candidate.

    I'll say it again: The cost of a post-secondary education at a state-run school in Europe costs from $1500 to $3000 per year. Ours is a Very Rich Country. The US government has got the money to fund post-secondary education at an acceptable fee but
    we are wasting it on the DoD!

    The matter is as simple and stark as that ... !
     
  9. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Um, no. Fallacy of composition.
    What is true for the parts will not necessarily still hold true for the whole.

    We've already discussed this extensively elsewhere.

    One has to wonder why you think handing out more credentials would help society. Does that education actually generate wealth in the economy or is it just a competition to get the job? A question you have to ask yourself before we spend lots of money on this.

    But my main point was that is simply unrealistic to expect all these Americans to get secondary school graduates, even if it could lift all of them up with no limit.
    Going from 37% to 47%, which would still be an enormous and challenging accomplishment, would still leave 53% of the rest of the population. What about them? Couldn't that money used on education be better used on them in some other way?
     
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2021
  10. LafayetteBis

    LafayetteBis Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    THE HIGH COST OF A POST-SECONDARY DEGREE IN UNCLE SAM'S COUNTRY

    I have one! We bring down the cost of a year in post-secondary education to $2K, and watch them flood in.

    I can't imagine anybody paying more than $100K a year for a university degree (at a state-run university) - except of course in Uncle Sam's country.

    How nice to graduate from university to start your working-career with a $100K debt hanging around your neck ... !


    PS: My kids went to university in France for $1500/2000 (in euros) per year (4 years) for their first-degree. So do the millions of other students in the European Union, which does not waste its funds on a DoD! (What nation would be stupid-enough to attack Uncle Sam?)
     
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2021
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  11. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I got a degree in art to work in the sewer.
     
  12. Chrizton

    Chrizton Well-Known Member

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    Like food stamps? Just because college is free does not mean that everybody will go. Public k-12 schools already are free and we have a matriculation problem. Over a million students a year drop out of high school. Some of them eventually get their GED, some do not. In addition you are only looking at one side of the equation. They other side is that $600ish a month I pay in student loan payments is money that could be spent creating economic velocity that helps employee more of that other chunk of the pie. My only real compromise point on this is that college in a free public system does not necessarily have to look like the current higher ed model. I thought it ridiculous the amount of money my university wasted on crap that not that many people used like the aquatic center, etc etc. Having movie theaters and mall-like food courts on campus added nothing to my experience. Start with free community college. CC in my city is about a third the cost of a state 4 year school which is about a third the cost of a local private university. Then, add on the last two years free at a state university if you get your associates from a community college first.
     
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2021
  13. LafayetteBis

    LafayetteBis Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    OUR BRAVE NEW WORLD OF EMPLOYMENT

    I beg to differ on this point above.

    Both the US and Europe are in the midst of a major change of manufacturing. The lower-class jobs have nearly all moved from the US to China or the Central American states (or North Africa as regards Europe);. Today manufacturing in the US employs barely 12% of the American workforce. Ditto for Europe!

    The jobs requiring manpower nowadays are now mostly concentrated in the upper-part of the market where a post-secondary degree is required. That degree can be simple, like learning how to employ a bulldozer. But it does require that people finishing secondary-schooling obtain a job-qualification that is prevalently in demand.

    The world-of-employment has changed drastically, a fact that and we must recognize and thus adapt to the new requirements ... !
     
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2021
  14. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    But we need to discuss WHY a post-secondary degree is required.

    A few factors:
    (1) Those are the only remaining jobs. Will there be enough of these remaining type of jobs for everyone?
    (2) When there are lots of people fighting for limited remaining good jobs, the entry requirements for those jobs go up. Keep educating more people and more of those jobs will just require more education.
    (3) The screening hypothesis. We've imported a lot of impoverished migrants from other parts of the world. Businesses need a way of trying to screen for better quality workers without resorting to overt racism. There has not been assimilation, huge masses of the population in the society now are unfit to work in many higher level jobs.
    (4) The screening hypothesis in the absence of the immigration and divided society issue. Maybe the jobs really are getting more technical, and just not all the people who were in the society before are well suited to do those jobs. So the education requirement screens out the majority, leaving a smaller minority who are believed to be more likely to have the type of ability to do these more intellectual jobs.
     
  15. cristiansoldier

    cristiansoldier Well-Known Member

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    I don't think it has to be a 4 year college degree. The goal is skilled jobs that pay well. That can be achieve through trade schools, technical institutes etc. There are many people working in IT with a 2 year technology diploma. Trades like plumber, auto mechanics, cooking, etc... pay extremely well and often better than someone with a college degree.
     
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  16. GrayMan

    GrayMan Well-Known Member

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    Well it is a sh1t degree. ;)
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2021
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  17. LafayetteBis

    LafayetteBis Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I have kinda-sorta explained that quite often in this forum.

    Once upon a time a half century ago, Manufacturing produced more than half the jobs in the US. The kind of work offered required no great advanced learning. My parents made sunglasses in central Massachusetts. The pay was not excellent, but together it was "decent" for our family.

    And that history can be repeated a hundred/thousand times all around the US. But, Uncle Sam ain't like that anymore. Those jobs have long since left for low-cost climates - namely Central and South America. Whilst jobs-in-America have gone "up-market" where a postsecondary degree is very, very often requisite.

    Still, America excels at producing amazing technologies. Uncle-Sam's house was the birthplace of the Internet and it has changed the world ...
     
  18. wgabrie

    wgabrie Well-Known Member Donor

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    Ok so the problem is that you stopped at 30 years old.

    Here I am at 38 years old and going for a Bachelor's degree. I previously had an Associate's degree which is a 2 year degree. And the threshold of a 4 year degree missed my situation.

    No need to worry about the 55+ years old population. They were from a time when one could make a living without a 4 year degree.
     
  19. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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  20. unkotare

    unkotare Well-Known Member

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    What sort of help?
     
  21. unkotare

    unkotare Well-Known Member

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    That is not the case. There are currently over ten million unfilled jobs in the US. The largest percentage of these are in the food services industry.
     
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