These days all Americans are told
go to college!
A higher education is the
single best investment.
But a new book, The Case Against Education
says this college push
is a big mistake.
How many thousands of hours
did you spend in classes studying
subjects that you never thought about again?
Economist Bryan Caplan says
most people who go to college shouldn't.
I learned little in college.
I liked my friends and illegal drinking,
but I slept through lectures.
At least tuition then was $2,000,
now it's almost $50,000.
People usually just want to talk
about the tuition, which is a big deal
but there's also all the years that
people spend in school
when they could have been doing something else
if you just take a look at the faces of
the students it's obvious that they're bored
and people are there primarily
in order to get a good job.
Because a diploma is a signaling device
for people with
no more brains than you have but they have
one thing you haven't got,
a diploma!
The con man who was the Wizard of Oz
hinted at the problem years ago.
Doctor of Thinkology.
Why'd you write this book?
The Wizard of Oz already made the argument.
But almost no one seems to believe it.
College graduation has never been more valuable
than it is today.
Education is my top priority
and by supporting this budget
you'll make it yours as well.
Meaning taxpayers must pay for it.
All the politicians say, go to college.
And there is evidence
the higher you go, the more money you make.
It's totally true that when people go
and get more and better and fancier degrees that
their income generally goes up,
but the reason why this happening is not really
that college is pouring tons of job skills into you,
the reason is that it's impressive.
You aren't saying,
you, individual don't go to college,
you're saying
we as a country
are suckers
to push it
and subsidize it.
Exactly.
Just because it is lucrative for an individual
doesn't mean that's a good
idea for country.
Because when most everyone goes to college,
that just raises the bar.
Imagine that you're at a concert
and everyone is sitting down and you
want to see better, what can you do?
Well you can stand up alright, and of course
then you'll see better.
Now it does not follow though
that if everyone stands up
everyone sees better.
You just block each other's views.
The same thing has happened
in education, says Caplan,
as more people got degrees,
more employers insisted on degrees.
The result isn't that graduates
get better jobs,
it's that employers require degrees for
most every job.
There are so many jobs
where it used to be crazy to think that you
would need a college degree,
like to be a waiter in a fancy restaurant
where now it would be very normal.
Of course a college education is about more than
getting a job,
it's also about learning
but Caplan says if students really
wanted to learn, they would just do it.
If you want to go to Princeton,
you don't have to apply,
just move to the town and start attending classes.
Nobody does that.
In people's bones they realize
that what really counts is that diploma.
Today that's a taxpayer subsidized diploma
and when you subsidize something,
you get more of it.
More students apply to college,
so schools raise tuition.
Tuition cost has risen
at triple the rate of inflation.
Schools use that money
to attract more students
and more tax money.
Many compete by advertising luxury.
They promote things like lobster dinners,
fancy pools.
Students will come to us and say,
this is what sealed the deal.
Used to be reading, writing, and
arithmetic,
and well we're now the 4th "r",
recreation.
600 colleges now have rock walls.
Give our Tigers spring break every time
they step in
to the Student Recreation Complex.
This is a public school,
taxpayers fund that spring break.
We also fund years of study in subjects unlikely
to help students get jobs,
like social justice, gender studies, multicultural studies.
If we're doing computer science
or electrical engineering,
then you probably
are actually learning a bunch of useful skills,
but every year we graduate about
twice as many psychology bachelor's degrees
as we do engineering bachelor's degrees.
Of course there's value in learning psychology,
philosophy,
literature,
many employers say they want liberal arts graduates.
It's technology married with liberal arts,
married with the humanities,
that yields us the result that makes our hearts sing.
It makes us better, wiser people.
But you can't assume that works.
How many years of people's lives should
they be made to study stuff
when the odds that they'll ever appreciate it are
1 in a 100, 1 in a 1000?
Maybe it makes our brains work better?
It's the kind of thing
you'd expect teachers say,
but there's a whole field of people who have
actually studied this.
Much as they want to believe that you're right
they generally come away
after looking at a lot of evidence and saying,
wow actually
it's wishful thinking.
Although Caplan calls college a scam,
he says it's great
for a few people.
People like him.
I'm a tenured professor. Your audience may not
realize how good of a gig this is,
but a tenured professor cannot be fired
for almost any reason
and you get a nice income
and there almost no demands upon your time.
You just have to teach five hours a week?
Well there's people who consider that
a horrible burden.
That's a scam that we're paying so much money for
people like you to teach you five hours.
Yeah well, I'm a whistleblower.
The bottom line of The Case Against Education:
taxpayers ought to know
that they're getting ripped off.
Government has made a tremendous effort
to make education
accessible to everyone.
I say really what we need to do
is to go back to a world
where college is not so accessible,
where it really distinguishes you,
and in this way,
people are going to be able to
start their lives years earlier.
The wisest solution all things considered
would be if government just got out.
It would be good if government
got out of a lot of things.