Prevalence College Education

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Prevalence of College Educations: The Sixties to Now. Over the past 70 years the United States of America has increasingly become more and more industrialized with its markets shifting from the production industry to the consumer service industry (Short). The history of this shift has direct correlation to the more accessible college education to the well Middle Class and competition from other countries in the form of inexpensive labor. In the Sixties you could get a well to do job in a steel factory, furniture construction, and even more sought after jobs at General Motors, Ford, and Chevy; all of which requiring experience in those industries, but not requiring a pricy college education. In 2015 United States, any higher aspirations than…show more content…
According to a census conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the median wage for a full time male in the Manufacturing of durable goods was 5,897 dollars, whereas professional services averaged at 4,364 dollars (Scammon). This is indicative that the desire to spend time and money to receive a college education was low because it was more rewarding to save your money and instead, use your time to gain knowledge and experience for a manufacturing company and receive more alluring benefits and a higher average income than the large majority of other sectors (Scammon). As time progressed new automated technologies sped up assembly processes, drastically lowering the demand for assembly line workers; ultimately leading thousands of layoffs. Now the qualifications for these jobs have increased because no longer are companies hiring for entry level positions, they are looking for technicians to fix and repair these machines and they needs managers to know when these machines need to be serviced. These technicians who had engineering degrees had made over 5 times what the typical assembly line worker would, thus creating a new demand for college education to manage technologies rather than work in manual labor intensive…show more content…
America has become a land of supplying the brain power to provide for a world of innovation through it’s highly professionally educated population, rather than assembling the product. The mind set of 21st century America is if you do not have a college degree, you have failed or you’re just not smart enough to attend. This social mind set is infiltrating the mind of high-school student with a whopping 68.4 percent of high school graduates going on to attend universities (Bureau of Labor Statistics). When going to a job interview you will sometimes find the employer asking not only for your resume, but also proof of your diploma. It is this sort of demand for degrees that colleges thirst for, attendance rates for colleges have never been higher and neither has the prices of tuition and cost of living. The more prestigious schools can get away with charging this much for an education because it distinguishes the student amongst all the other students applying for jobs or internships; college degrees are a mark of social status defining where you had the honor of pursuing your degree

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