"Degrees clearly are great revenue producing machines for the portion of the workforce currently unemployed with degrees."
The unemployment rate for degree-holders in the US is currently 4.5%, compared to 10.5% overall. The bulk of the unemployed are in blue-collar sectors and among those who have graduated with a high school diploma or less. We can argue about what is or isn't an "acceptable rate" of unemployment, but typically for America it's been 4-5% unemployment. That even in this Great Recession, degree-holding citizen unemployment sits within the "acceptable" range, tells you that there is tons of value to getting better educated in this country at this time, and even in this climate.
One of my friends is finishing up her P.hD in entymology at Cal and she's somewhere around $175k in debt now with no expectation of ever making more than $50k/year in her field (if she can work in it at all). Another went to a private university for undergrad, then Temple for Med school, she's just now gone through Match and is around $225k in debt. She's chosen a career path that once through her residency (with a $40k/year salary expectation for 5 years through a triple-discipline program) should land her a comfortable $250k/year salary in the middle of nowhere. The $225k she'll have was a good investment, but my friend who likes beetles?She expects to pay 20-25% of her salary to pay it off for the rest of her life.
The unemployment rate for degree-holders in the US is currently 4.5%, compared to 10.5% overall. The bulk of the unemployed are in blue-collar sectors and among those who have graduated with a high school diploma or less. We can argue about what is or isn't an "acceptable rate" of unemployment, but typically for America it's been 4-5% unemployment. That even in this Great Recession, degree-holding citizen unemployment sits within the "acceptable" range, tells you that there is tons of value to getting better educated in this country at this time, and even in this climate.