Around my home, we’re in full-on college mode. My older daughter is already off at school, and the younger, a high school junior, has taken us on a tour of exciting collegiate options from North Carolina to Massachusetts. They all have exquisite campuses, exciting academic programs, and total annual costs exceeding…I am pausing here to breathe…$50,000 a year. Four times $50,000 is—I am trying to breathe more slowly and deeply—a crazy number, especially when multiplied by two kids. It sounded even crazier when I read the other day that 53 percent of college grads under the age of 25 either have no job, or are waiting tables, manning receptionist desks, or folding sweaters at the mall. As Frank Bruni noted in The New York Times, college used to be “a synonym for success. We only had to go. We only had to graduate.” Now a diploma—especially in the liberal arts—guarantees nothing but a lot of debt.
Yes, I know: Education is not merely a means to a good job. You don’t have to convince me. In my college years, back in the less-competitive 1970s, I took classes in whatever I found intriguing—philosophy, psychology, English lit, and astronomy, with little thought to anything as crass as making money. After graduating, I found an entry-level job at a newspaper anyway. (Agreeing to working nights and weekends helped.) Today, education experts say a liberal arts degree isn’t entirely useless—as long as it’s followed by a graduate degree. Kids with a simple B.A. will still be folding sweaters at age 33. So do the math: 2 kids x $50,000 a year x seven years = ???! I’m breathing deeply, this time into a brown paper bag.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'Elevating Earth Day into a national holiday is not radical — it's practical'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
UAW scores historic win in South at VW plantSpeed Read Volkswagen workers in Tennessee have voted to join the United Auto Workers union
-
Today's political cartoons - April 22, 2024Cartoons Monday's cartoons - dystopian laughs, WNBA salaries, and more
-
Editor's letterfeature
-
Editor's letter: Are college athletes employees?
feature The National Labor Relations Board's decision deeming scholarship players “employees” of Northwestern University has many worrying that college sports itself will soon be history.
-
Editor's letter
feature
-
Editor's letter: When a bot takes your job
feature Now that computers can write news stories, drive cars, and play chess, we’re all in trouble.
-
Editor's letter: Electronic cocoons
feature Smartphones have their upside, but city streets are now full of people walking with their heads down.
-
Editor's letter: The real cause of income inequality
feature When management and stockholders pocket all the profits, the middle class falls further behind.
-
Editor's letter: The real reason you’re so forgetful
feature When you consider how much junk we’ve stored in our brains, it’s no surprise we can’t remember our PINs.
-
Editor's letter: Ostentatious politicians
feature The McDonnells’ indictment for corruption speaks volumes about the company elected officials now keep.