Is a college education worth it?

Attending a college reunion can be traumatic.  Not only might you see once young and vibrant Baby Boom classmates (including yourself) sink under the weight of age and personal misfortune, but you realize just how lucky you were in the larger scheme of things.  However, I was struck by how little interest there was not only in my class, but any class at all.  The thoughts, hopes, tribulations, and discoveries of the Silent Majority are neither offered nor solicited. 

If they would listen, I would tell them about how economics has changed in America.  For instance, when I began college, its cost was $4 per hour at the local junior college.  When I transferred to a four year institution the cost soared to $27 per hour.  The U.S. population was 190,000,000 and businesses offered benefits such as fully paid health care, pensions, and profit sharing.  Even Liberals Arts majors could find jobs and there was no Affirmative Action.

Now a college graduate stands to never recoup his investment because the value added jobs aren’t there.  A semester costs more than a house used to cost.  Our population is 312,000,000.  Benefits are gone.  Social Security and Medicare are being threatened.  The man on the streets considers happiness to be a full tank of gas and the college boys and girls remain blissfully ignorant of the new era that has dawned.