Three untruths that are harming them. Unfortunately, they’ve been fed a load of toxic nonsense even before they get to campus.
And I have the same reaction to someone who leads an “argument” with “I feel.”
12 thoughts on “Wrecking College Students”
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These weren’t the untruths I was expecting. I was expecting at least one to be, “you need to go to college”. You don’t, and especially you don’t need to go $100,000 in debt to get a degree to do general office work. However, I’m ok with the first two untruths.
I’m not sure I’d phrase the last as “Us vs Them”. I get the point, and I do think we have a lot of polarity because of that thinking. But I’d say a similar issue, but greater issue, is the notion of “zero-sum” between Us vs Them. The idea that if the Others get an inch, then it came from you giving it up. This has lead to a misunderstanding of economics in which there is a belief that you can only get rich by making someone else poor. I think that ramps up the polarity just so much more. The idea should be if we help each other, then we build a bigger pie with enough to share even to a third.
“But I’d say a similar issue, but greater issue, is the notion of “zero-sum” between Us vs Them. The idea that if the Others get an inch, then it came from you giving it up.”
The notion that life is a zero-sum game is one of the core beliefs (if not explicitly stated) of socialism. If a rich man like say Gates/Bezos/Musk got rich he must have done so by stealing/exploiting it from some kind of an oppressed “worker”. Therefore that morally justifies taking it from said rich person; you are only then taking it from a thief. The idea that they created wealth because of their genius, drive, hard work etc., never occurs to them.
The proof of what you’re saying is everywhere but perhaps no where as strongly as the IT industry. Globally, it accounts for hundreds of billions of dollars in economic activity each year. A few decades ago, the IT industry was miniscule by comparison. This industry is built on silicon (one of the most abundant elements on earth), intelligence (which is much more rare), and creativity.
The entrepreneur community frames creating wealth as being compensated for solving problems for people. It is very useful from a persuasion standpoint and it doesn’t hurt that it is true.
“tealing/exploiting it from some kind of an oppressed “worker”. ”
No but if the worker’s labor is not creating excess value .. there isn’t any profits .. period… You are never going to pay for a labor force that is not creating more wealth then what you can convince them to work for. That is why collective bargaining is frowned upon. It is easier to convince an individual to work for less value than they create over an entire group when they can look at the financials and are well aware of the total value they are creating and their desire to have a bigger slice.
Well the way to reduce the amount of people who get into college with no need for it is to convince people who hire not to require a college degree if the position does not need one.
There should also be more emphasis on the job training.
But it is kind of ridiculous how expensive college has become in the US to begin with. I guess I’m lucky enough I lived in a country where I did not have to go through that mess of student loans and shit.
Government subsidizes student loans. And when government subsidizes something, the price goes up.
You want cheaper degrees? Get government out of the student loans business.
As I understand it, companies started requiring degrees to get jobs because they weren’t allowed to use IQ tests on applicants (because that meant they were hiring the best people for that job and that is JUST NOT FAIR!). Then it was institutionalized because ‘Human Resources’; probably the second-worst thing that happened to business after the MBA.
Of course now degrees have been devalued to the point whee they bear little relation to IQ, so companies are no longer finding them particularly useful to pick the best people for the job.
Indeed, the cost of a degree has become so high that it’s arguable that having a degree is a sign of low IQ; I’ve heard of some businesses refusing to hire kids with degrees lately; both for that reason and because they expect higher salaries so they can begin to pay off those huge loans.
I’ve heard of some businesses refusing to hire kids with degrees lately; both for that reason and because they expect higher salaries so they can begin to pay off those huge loans.
And also because many of them have had their brains thoroughly polluted by Grievance Studies. What business needs an employee who shows up with a chip on his/her/xer shoulder on Day One?
Who wants to hire someone whose college training was as a communist agitator/propagandist with a specialization in filing discrimination lawsuits with the EEOC?
IQ tests are overrated anyway.
They have poor co-relation with skills in most jobs.
HR relies on degrees as a filter because they are lazy and they couldn’t tell a qualified employee from a rock on the middle of road.
And no, college degrees are not useless. Go tell that to Elizabeth Holmes and her ilk.
It is just that are limits to how much a degrees gets you in terms of performance in a lot of tasks.
With regard to loans I agree. That’s why I think the state should just drop loans and give the money directly to public institutions. Not pay for loans to purchase ancillary services which have no bearing on the the actual learning. If it’s a local school there’s also less chances the student needs to get into a dorm and have even more expenses that way.
There should also be more emphasis on the job training.
Tell us more.
You want cheaper degrees? Get government out of the student loans business.
This too.
I have a son who works for Apple. Do to the fact that no one asked him were he graduated college until after he received his hire letter he was hired without one. He already had an impressive resume which probably explains the oversight. Each of his bosses has let him know that they would not consider hiring anyone without a college degree so he should not recommend such s person. None of them know about his lack. He has been promoted several times.