Go Ahead, Go To College
"By any financial measure, the investment in a college degree is the winning choice, with a rate of return of a whopping 15.2% a year on the $102,000 investment for those who earn the average salary for college graduates. This is more than double the average rate of return in the stock market during the last 60 years (6.8%), and more than five times the return to investments in corporate bonds (2.9%), gold (2.3%) long-term government bonds (2.2%) or housing (0.4%)."
—You should totally go to college, say some guys from the Brookings Institution. I reluctantly agree! I mean, I used to think college was a total scam, but that ignores the ample opportunities it affords one to get drunk and laid. Also? With the way the economy is going now? Those 87 jobs America has left will probably all require college degrees. So if you feel like you've got a good chance of landing one of those 87 jobs—and why not you? It's gotta be somebody, right?—you should probably go for it. And finally: if you are a dude, going to college is a no-brainer. What with how women are going to have to run the wreckage we've left for them, college is where you go to find yourself a wife who will take care of you.
Photo by tinaxduzgen
I, for one, welcome this brave new world of lion pride-esque gender dynamics.
@Louis Fyne: But how am I supposed to get laid without a gender pay gap???
I would bet that other forms of post-secondary education would have a similar rate of return, if only because they are vastly less expensive than college. The world needs mechanics and foremen as well.
And you can't outsource your plumber.
Per the article, the authors base their "rate of return" on "the costs of tuition, books and fees, (minus the) loss of (potential) earnings from going to school rather than working." They don't take into account the fact that more than half of students take out loans to pay for their tuition, the interest on which should obviously be factored into even the most rudimentary back-of-a-napkin calculation about the "rate of return" on going to college.
I'm going to get out the old red pen and give the authors a gentleman's "C," because, c'mon.
@Gef the Talking Mongoose: Good enough for Yale!
Also, obviously, talking about "going to college" is a stupid way to talk about it! Like, do you think there's maybe a difference between going to college to learn about a) modern philosophers b) bioinformatics?
Dude, I work at an organization that's very top heavy with female leadership. Equally terrifying as male dynamics, and I have every confidence that they're up to the chore of screwing things up just as royally as the be-penised.
You'll spend $60 on a bottle of Green Label and then pour it in a red cup? You're college students. Canadian Club will more than suffice.
@melis To be fair, we don't know the contents of that red cup. They could be drinking straight from the bottle.