Fresh on news that there are 21 million Americans out of work – there is the question of the undremployed–
Why Did 17 Million Students Go to College?
Two sets of information were presented to me in the last 24 hours that have dramatically reinforced my feeling that diminishing returns have set in to investments in higher education, with increasing evidence suggesting that we are in one respect “overinvesting” in the field. First, following up on information provided by former student Douglas Himes at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), my sidekick Chris Matgouranis showed me the table reproduced below (And for more see this).
Over 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees (over 8,000 of them have doctoral or professional degrees), along with over 80,000 bartenders, and over 18,000parking lot attendants. All told, some 17,000,000 Americans with college degrees are doing jobs that the BLS says require less than the skill levels associated with a bachelor’s degree.
Now I’ve said for a while that one the the great myths of the new depression is the existence of high tech jobs needing high education. At this point there are millions of college educated out of work or substantially underemployed. You cannot fix the roots of the current economic malaise by by generating more job seekers – no matter how well educated or qualified. The brutal fact is, very little of our current economy is actually dependent on new technology. Think of it this way – the leading cell phone platform is dependent on thinking and aa technology concept first developed in Xerox Labs in the 70’s. Very little of the development today of “new technology” is actually “development’ = it is actually execution against old technology. So if you trin them – what would this new legion of scientists and engineers do?
And there is the crux of the problem.
Btx3's Blog 
Constructive Feedback
January 19, 2012 at 10:51 AM
Ahh my dear friend Mr BT is back on the scene.
Let me ask you a question – as we debate joblessness, corporate monopolization and “income inequality”.
In watching a story about a pharmacy graduate who claimed that the corporate chains prevent him from pursuing his dreams of opening his own store I had a question for you.
It seems that his problem should be with the CONSUMER and not Rite Aid, Walgreens and CVS.
His argument is like a woman seeing her man cheating on her and she decides to beat up the other woman who he told he was unattached.
Why do the progressives claim to OWN the message of the poor yet as you all gain more control over more districts – you never seem to be held accountable for failing to DELIVER job creation.
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btx3
January 20, 2012 at 3:07 PM
Not sure how a local pharmacist became a Playa, Strawmandingo – although being on the delivery end of the Hillbilly Heroin chain could be parlayed into some benefit by unscrupulous Republicans.
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