Saturday 2 June 2012

Maybe just get the Ferrari?

My husband's favourite magazine is - wait for it - Popular Mechanics. Yes.*

Personally, it always looks profoundly dull to me, but he mines it for all these nuggets of fascinating information and then tells me about them. (This endearing habit of making previously boring things scintillatingly interesting is one of the many excellent reasons I had to marry him.)

I was struck by this article, written by a law professor at the University of Tennessee, on the impossibility of higher education fees continuing to rise as they are now (at four times the rate of inflation!!).

Here's a quotable bit:

Research by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce found that people who major in computer science, business, or engineering get a big lifetime-earnings boost, while people who major in the humanities don’t do nearly as well. That’s not a reason to look down on the humanities, but with college growing ever more expensive, a degree that won’t add to your earnings potential isn’t an investment, but an expensive consumer item. It may be nice to have—but so is a Ferrari, another expensive consumer item. The difference is, nobody’s encouraging 18-year-olds to take on six-figure debt to buy a Ferrari. 

Read more: Can Technology Fix the College Debt Crisis? - Glenn Reynolds on the College Bubble - Popular Mechanics 





*If you know Peirce, you probably thought it was going to be an obscure historical or theological journal.



1 comment:

  1. My favourite magazine! I'll admit to enjoying it, but I don't think it's my favourite!

    ReplyDelete