Also, there's this strange belief that getting more people through degree programs will increase the number of people with higher paying jobs. The number of high paying doesn't change simply because we're increasing the number of degrees per capita - it merely devalues the degree - just as printing money devaules currency leading to inflation. Companies don't just decide to hire more candidates just because there's more of job candidates available. Utlimately, they hire to create value based on market demand for their products.
> The number of high paying doesn't change simply because we're increasing the number of degrees per capita
It should. Not necessarily in proportion to the number of degrees, but having more degrees out there should increase the number of high paying jobs. Superior education should make people both more intellectually malleable and capable of creating value in unforeseen ways.
If it doesn't, it would be evidence there's something very wrong with the degrees.
What your saying may have been true hundreds of years ago when the number intellectual jobs was much smaller and far less diverse.
But, today, professions are far more specialized than people realize. How much of what you learned in your degree do you still remember? 1%? of that 1%, how much do you actually use on a daily basis? and of that subset, how much of that knowledge is things you couldn't have easily learned on the job.
