Poll: In a dramatic shift, Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

[Sympthsical]

18. We're about 20-30 years late on this one

As soon as college became a big money business through easy loans, they've become degree factories. Write your papers, do your assignments, get your piece of paper. As long as that loan clears.

Come hell or high water, get that piece of paper.

And people were told, "If you have that piece of paper, you get a comfortable, middle class life."

That has been a case of diminishing returns for some time. As someone who has been around college students for the past five years in a variety of environments (from comm colleges to UC programs) - these are not scholars. Basic math skills are lacking. Piecing together coherent paragraphs is a skill not required. AI is accelerating this. Social media are replete with people who cannot laterally read for information and context to save their lives. Being told, "Write this paper, and we'll graduate you" does not a critical thinking factory make. I've seen self-fancied "educated" people on social media. L.O.L. We don't live in that world anymore. No one's tuning in to watch Gore Vidal take on William Buckley. It's people like Ben Shapiro on their side and know nothings like Hasan Piker on ours. Mush heads who have confused partisan entertainment for genuine scholarship.

Yes, there will always be people who go to college and become scholars, leaders in their fields, and deeply knowledgeable individuals. But the vast majority of degree holders are simply getting that piece of paper that says they can go get a job.

And once you can't even get that job, why are you paying for this shit?

College does not mean educated. Not in the way people think. Not anymore. Not for decades.

And I say that as someone who has spent a lot of time in college and has many pieces of paper. And I'm on my way to get even more. But this time, the shit's going to be actually useful for a change.

Academia needs an overhaul, and it's a disservice to future generations that we have been so stubborn about recognizing that out of a misplaced sense of partisanship. Republicans hate academia because they think they indoctrinate people. I hate academia, because they are not actually providing education and instead have become debt vehicles for our children and do not realistically prepare them for the demands of our modern economy.

Those are different things, and we should be able to hold space for them.