(07-11-2017, 11:08 AM)AD_84 Wrote:(07-10-2017, 10:48 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Majority Of Republicans Think Colleges Are Bad For The U.S., Poll Shows
Quote:More than half of the Republicans surveyed for a Pew Research Center poll released Monday say colleges and universities are hurting the country, a drastic shift from how the same group viewed such institutions two years ago.
Fifty-eight percent of Republicans say colleges have a negative effect on the nation, according to the survey, which also polled respondents on institutions like churches, banks, the media and labor unions. Thirty-six percent of GOP survey participants say colleges are having a positive impact on the U.S.
Those numbers represent a dramatic change from 2015, when 54 percent of Republicans said they had a positive view of colleges. And although younger Republicans tend to have more favorable views of colleges than their older counterparts, the number of Republicans under 50 years old who view college positively has dropped 21 points since 2015.
Yep, there'll be lots and lots a jobs coming back into the brownfields without:
- New crops of engineers
- New crops of information scientists
- New crops of physical scientists
- New crops of accountants
- New crops of MBAs
- New crops of lawyers
- Etc
Oh, but the self-made who learned everything on their own will do it all. Right.
Of course that all takes some education to create the maturity necessary for being a good engineer, information scientist, physicist, chemist, geologist, agronomist, accountant, business administrator, or lawyer. There is good reason for getting the bachelor's degree before specializing in the professions.
Add to that the schoolteachers and clergy who represent two of the professions that get a big chunk of college graduates. Note also that having a college degree of some kind may not be necessary for being a police officer -- but it certainly helps. Were I in a situation in which talk might alleviate a hostage situation or a family argument, then some teaching in the liberal arts (psychology and philosophy) might do better to resolve things than would brute force. Brute force tends to kill people.
For the superstitious and angry, little could do more good for them than genuine education. Contempt for education in general is the hallmark of gross ignorance.
...OK, so there aren't enough desirable jobs to go around in a culture in which a BA degree is normal. Sure, menial work seems like a waste of talent, as does most semi-skilled work. It may surprise people that well-educated people do such work better. Indeed one cause for the power of economic recoveries is that people get more competent in the basic work of hustling food in restaurants and merchandise in stores. In good times, that work is for dullards who plod along. In bad times, retailing and and food service get better workers -- new teachers facing hiring freezes, people having to drop out of college for lack of funds, and professionally-trained people cast off in mass firings. Someone with a college degree might hate selling underwear in a department store as a mindless, joyless waste of talent -- but people still need underwear. Let's not forget that the server of cappuccino and latte at a coffee stand can sell more overpriced coffee to customers if able to carry on a conversation -- and guess who does better at that? Well-educated people. Starbucks recently wanted its baristas to get college degrees and made arrangements for their employees to get college degrees on line. That may not be the ideal way to get a college degree, but a degree from an accredited university is still a desirable thing.
Something else worth noting -- contempt for learning looks like very much a 'white thing'. This is heavily Republican, and more decisively, concentrated in people with less than a degree. This is not to be confused with legitimate concern, usually be people with solid education, about educational content or disdain for some wayward professor. Colleges get their tenured cranks, too. But for those who hold colleges in such low esteem, there must be some perception that college education somehow worsens those who get the sheepskin. Less patriotism? No. College students are more likely to have seen the world or to have know people who have. Less religious? If religiosity implies uncritical acceptance of religious quackery, then college does make people less religious. Question: is the religious quackery such as young-earth creationism or belief that a televangelist can communicate well in prayer through a TV set likely to improve people? I think not.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.