Live data from Hacker News

Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

nbcnews.com

911–914 of 914 posts

Re: Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

#911
post #857

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ukraine is going to have some painful demographic issues The scariest thing is that even in the best-case scenario, this may no longer be possible. Even before the war, Ukraine's demographics were dire, then young people left, and no matter how the war ends, there's no objective reason for them to return.

It depends on what happens. If Europe/US just shrugs and moves onto the next thing after the war, which is probably the most likely outcome, then yeah. But there is a real chance that they try to go full Marshall Plan with the goal of weaponizing Ukraine. If so, then there's going to be a lot of money flowing about there with some big opportunities.

With what surplus resources? Europe seems to be suffering from some pretty catastrophic looking political blowback with groups like Reform, AfD and a host of similar-looking parties gaining popularity because people don't think their interests are being prioritised. The US has a Trumpism phenomenon that might be matched by a left-wing revolt (crazy policies waiting in the wings Mamdani prioritising New York over Israel. The gall of the man).

On paper the US is broke. I'm not sure about the Europe situation but I doubt they're doing well either the growth statistics I saw last were a joke. They're all struggling to even arm Ukraine for this war.

If I were a Ukrainian strategist I too would not count on some sort of vast infusion of resources appearing after the war. These are not the conditions of the Marshall Plan where Europe had massive economic potential and the US was the world's leading industrial superpower with wealth to spare.

Re: Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

#912

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China hasn't started a war since the 1970s.

They're doing a good job as belligerents against the Philippines.

Literally yes, because they haven't started an actual war. If the US manages the same in Venezuela then they'll be doing a good job there too.

The difference between China and the US is China (humorously, probably because of US pressure) keeps re-investing their economic surplus and the US keeps blowing big chunks of it on meaningless wars. That seems to be the big factor of why China had this huge industrial economy appear out of nowhere and the US has been sort of lurching along for the last 20 years.

Hard to believe it, but trillions in investment is better for people's wallets than trillion dollars in making life horrible for goat herders in the middle east.

Re: Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

#913

Polls really need to start adding filter questions like "Do vaccines work?" "Did humans evolve from small mammals?" because some people not believing something works is actually a positive signal. Are there problems in Higher Ed? Almost certainly. Are changes to the situation driven by the "vaccines don't work crowd" likely to make things even worse for everyone? Oh yes.

I believe many do: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slate_Star_Codex#Lizardman's_C...

I've certainly seen YouGov surveys asking if I'd ever visited (IIRC) some tiny town in Alaska, presumably to weed out people who just say "yes" to everything. Recent quiz question from Tom Scott's Lateral podcast was along the same lines but for being qualified to pilot a military submarine.

Re: Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

#914

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I remember that right. It is not that easy to get into the state school in our state. UW engineering departments required GPA 4.0 last year. Kids who had GPA 3.9 or less had 0 chances getting into the UW engineering schools.

That is probably not true if you are transferring from a community college after two years. It's entering as a freshman direct from high school that has all the barriers.

Thank you! Interesting. I didn't know that. Do you have any information on why that is?
Post reply on HN