You're about to hear, assuming you click and watch, from John Green, an Indiana-based author and video blogger…and also a pretty smart guy. He and his brother Hank talk to each other via YouTube videos and John was responsible for a very sane, much-watched one I posted here some time ago about health care costs.
This one is about the value of a college education. It's wise as far as it goes but I can't help note that it doesn't apply to a lot of folks…say, those who do what I do. I quit U.C.L.A. before I got any sort of degree. I don't think I learned one useful thing while I was there and I can't imagine how I would have made one nickel more if I had hung around 'til I actually graduated. Yeah, I might have learned something if I'd taken more classes but I wouldn't have learned the things I did learn because I was working full-time instead of working part-time and going to college. College is surely cost-effective in some fields of endeavor but I've never had a position where someone would have paid me more if I'd had a degree, nor did they ask about it when they considered hiring me.
I went to college largely because my father bought into the belief that his son would do better in the world if he did. One of these days, I'll write one of those family-oriented essays here about how we both came to realize that wasn't the case. In the meantime, here's Mr. Green with his view on what's probably true for most people…