評論
打印
That more people should go to college is usually taken as a given. People with college degrees make a lot more than people without them, and that difference has been growing. But does that mean that we should help more kids go to college--or that we should make it easier for people who didn't go to college to make a living?
應該讓更多人上大學往往被視為理所當然。有大學學位的人比沒有大學學位的人掙錢多得多，而這種差距還在擴大。但這就意味著我們應該幫助更多孩子上大學嗎？或者，我們應該讓未上大學的人更容易謀生嗎？
We may be close to maxing out on the first strategy. Our high college drop-out rate--40% of kids who enroll in college don't get a degree within six years--may be a sign that we're trying to push too many people who aren't suited for college to enroll. It has been estimated that most people in their 20s who had college degrees were not in jobs that required them: another sign that we are pushing kids into college who will not get much out of it but debt.
在第一條策略上我們幾乎盡了全力。我們大學的高輟學率或許表明我們在竭力推動太多不適合上大學的人入學——40%的讀大學的孩子在6年內沒拿到學位。據估計，在擁有大學學位的20多歲的人當中，大多數人并未從事與專業相關的工作。這也表明了我們在把孩子們推進大學，而他們除了債務卻幾無所得。
The benefits of putting more people in college are also oversold. Part of the college wage premium is an illusion.
使更多人讀大學的好處也被過分頌揚了。大學畢業生工資提升有一部分屬于假象。
People who go to college are, on average, smarter than people who don't. In an economy that increasingly rewards intelligence, you'd expect college grads to pull ahead of the pack even if their diplomas signified nothing but their smarts.
讀大學的人一般比不讀大學的人聰明一些。在一個日益獎賞才智的經濟體制下，你總會期望大學畢業生成為同齡人中的佼佼者，即使他們的文憑除了意味著其聰明外別無其他。
College must make many students more productive workers. But at least some of the apparent value of a college degree, and maybe a lot of it, reflects the fact that employers can use it as a rough measure of job applicants' intelligence and willingness to work hard.
大學必須使許多學生成為更具生產力的工人。然而，在大學學位的表面價值中，至少有一些——甚至更多——能夠反映這樣一個事實：雇主們可以把它作為一個粗略標準，衡量求職者的聰明才智和積極肯干精神。
