College is over-rated

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

Put me down as someone who believes that college education is experiencing a bubble.

Like the housing bubble, the education bubble is about security and insurance against the future. Both whisper a seductive promise into the ears of worried Americans: Do this and you will be safe. The excesses of both were always excused by a core national belief that no matter what happens in the world, these were the best investments you could make. Housing prices would always go up, and you will always make more money if you are college educated.

I recall around 2005 I though that housing in America was experiencing a bubble, but all of my friends repeated the mantra that “housing values always go up.” That was partly persuasive. When something has been positive for a 100 years, you feel a little bit ridiculous saying “This has been true for 100 years, but it won’t be true anymore.” But of course, that is how bubbles work — when everyone believes something is always good and never bad, then its value gets bid up to the point where it simply has to become negative. It seems obvious to me, at this point, that college education has reached this point. It’s been a wonderful investment for the last 100, or even 200 years. But it won’t be anymore. The market is flooded.

Post external references

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    http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/10/peter-thiel-were-in-a-bubble-and-its-not-the-internet-its-higher-education/
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