Thinking about Higher Education

If everyone in the world became a multi-millionaire, would money still be viewed the same at it is today? Chances are, the value of a dollar would drop significantly. Now imagine how everyone having a degree would impact the society. Although unemployment is something that the U.S. has been dealing with, higher education should not be required of all U.S. citizens, because many people don’t use their degree, and higher education may lose its value.

In today’s world there are more and more people graduating college each year.

However, does everybody use their college degree? No! In the article “A four year college degree is not preparing people for today’s jobs” Robert Reich mentions that too many students graduate college, are unable to find suitable jobs, and are stuck working jobs that they over qualify for (1). My eldest brother for example fall under this category of graduating college and not using his degree. He graduated college nearly six years ago from Toccoa Falls College with a communications degree, has had several jobs in between then and not, yet neither one of them has required his college completion.

Get quality help now

WriterBelle

Verified writer

Proficient in: Free Essays

4.7 (657)

“ Really polite, and a great writer! Task done as described and better, responded to all my questions promptly too! ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

This same scenario is not unique to his life but among tons of other people throughout the United States. Not to say that he won’t make use of his degree in the future, because it is definitely possible, However if the world ended right now, then going to college could be seen as a waste of his time.

Not only do some people not use their degree, but there are also people who skip the college phase and eventually go on to make more money than others who have had to endure the grueling four years of a campus life. In the article “For some students, going to college isn’t the answer”, Rona Wilensky relates that some students that she has come across have talents and or interests that do not necessarily require going to college (1). In the United States today, they are many people artist such as athletes, song writers or even business owners that fit this profile. Kobe Bryant, an NBA MVP, 5 time champion, and future hall of famer makes millions of dollars every despite skipping college to go play professional basketball. On the other hand most high school teachers could only dream about making a hundred thousand dollars in one year, and there are quite a few of them have gone to college for upwards of eight years.

Going to college or university for most people also means racking up student loans and unwanted that that has to be paid back with interest. Going back to an earlier point some people work jobs that they over qualify for, so it would take them longer to pay back loans because they are not making enough to pay it off in a timely manner. Others who have not gone to college do not have to budget those expenses into their lives. In my family have a sister who makes about fourteen dollars and hour and has about twenty thousand dollars in debt to pay off, meanwhile my dad makes about eighteen dollars an hour and has no debts to pay off because he didn’t even graduate high school, personally if I has to choose, I would elect to be in my dad’s place.

Despite the above statements, some will naturally still argue in favor of going to college. People will say that going to college helps the economy. It helps the economy by reducing the number of people who are unemployed. Jobs would be readily waiting to fill open position with the increased number of college graduates. People will also make more money and be able to find a good job easily. With the reduction of the unemployment number, more money will be circulating throughout the economy which boosts the overall moral of the economic world. People will also support going to college by suggesting that the standard of living would also rise. Due to the fact that more people have experienced wage increases, they can now afford to live much better than they previously did.

Although unemployment may drop off short term, it would eventually pick up in the long run. In the Discussion Article “Are too many students going to college” Marty Nemko points out the fact that “We now send 70 percent of high-school graduates to college, up from 40 percent in 1970. At the same time, employers are accelerating their offshoring, part-timing, and temping of as many white collar jobs as possible” (2). So basically this means that people are graduating college in record numbers with the intent of finding a job, concurrently employers are now trying to operate with the minimum number of people required to get the job done. It would also make sense that people could easily find jobs, but now that everyone would have a college degree, it would make the employers job ten times more difficult in being able to distinguish good candidates from bad candidates. The cost living would also skyrocket now that everyone is projected to make more money. If the cost of living were to stay the same as what it is today, then the division of classes would start to merge and there just wouldn’t be a natural balance as a society.

If you were really sit and think about, there are tons of jobs in America that go unnoticed yet have to be done, and a lot of these jobs only require basic skills that be learned on the job. For example it wouldn’t make sense for a trash truck driver or mailman to be required to go pursue higher education unless they decide that’s what they want to do. Taking a look at the bigger picture, for example 100 years from now, there would be almost no change. College in the future may be treated similarly as the high school of today. Some new standard of measurement would have to implement to make up for the requirement college. The requirement of higher education or college should be avoided to conserve the time and peace of mind of people across the United States.