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greyenlightenment  investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...  2yr ago (greyenlightenment.com)   3109 thread views

Why the college bubble won’t pop

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This argument seems to centre around the mutually-consentual nature of the arrangement between students, educators & employers, but I'm reminded of the SSC parable of the society where everyone administers electric shocks to each other all day long and are stuck doing so because no-one has a strong enough local incentive to challenge the system and there's no Czar to put a stop to it from above. Students & employers only play along because defaulting is harshly punished by Mr Market. Even the schools don't love the current arrangement - they mostly remind me a lot more of a failing soviet bureau that everyone is nevertheless forced to use, than ruthless predators exploiting their gatepeer role.

I guess the issues are that

1-the current system has obvious failings and any rando can come up with proposals that might work better (legalize indentured apprenticeships!) but these would certainly have their own issues - not quite the same as 'stop shocking each other'.

2-the current 'Education Czar' is the US Dept of Education, and they are sufficiently captured by the system (and risk-averse to being blamed for alternatives that aren't overwhelming slam dunks) that they are firm electric-shock advocates.

As for the objection that it's not just the US doing this - I daresay that most everyone is just cargo-cult reproducing the US education system for lack of a proven alternative model. (including the US themselves)

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