How Much Human Capital Are We Pissing Away?
Matthew Yglesias
Going To College Is Very Valuable: Peter Orszag’s slide about college and class stratification is absolutely crucial.... The smartest kids are most likely to go to college, so it’s no surprise that college graduates tend to go on to earn more money even if you’re not learning anything of value there. But... people actually do pick up skills in college, and... whether or not your parents are rich is a major determinant of whether or not you end up going to school and gaining those skills.... If middle-third kids from families in the bottom half of the income distribution went to college at the same rate as middle-third kids from the top quartile, they’d be better off and we’d have a much more skilled workplace....
Anthony Carnevale and Stephen J. Rose of Georgetown... [show] that college has big benefits even in many fields where a degree is not crucial. Construction workers, police officers, plumbers, retail salespeople and secretaries, among others, make significantly more with a degree than without one. Why? Education helps people do higher-skilled work, get jobs with better-paying companies or open their own businesses.... General skills in reading, math, communication, and analytical reasoning are going to help you ply your trade more effectively even if your trade doesn’t itself involve much in the way of reading, math, etc...
