Gen Z men with college degrees now have the same unemployment rate as non-grads—a sign that the higher education payoff is dead

9 comments

1. No. This is a sign that Gen z men are worthless. Worthless is a bit of an overstament bc they are human beings, after all. So they’re not worthless, but they sure in the hell don’t have any marketable skills. This has nothing to do with higher education paying off. This has to do with the students who are being educated.

   They have no creative independence. They stare at influencers all day. They’re entitled, lazy, and pampered. Their whole life, they’ve never been allowed to fail. Not allowed to fail classes. Even their video games require bots so they can kill someone. Everyone gets trophies. There’s no competition now. No work ethic. There’s no reward or incentive to try harder or do better. Everyone gets the same regardless. Covid killed real education for 3 years.

   Why should they work hard to pass with a good grade if schools are just giving everyone good grades? And now it’s time to pay the piper.

   Can anyone guess what happens during times of strife with a surplus if useless males?

2. I would argue that there are other ways in which these results could be interpreted. Just saying a degree itself is economically “worthless” is not the same as saying the value of education is worthless. I think a significant hurdle that Gen Z is facing is that the quality of their education has decreased dramatically. Now that education has transitioned from a noble pursuit to a for-profit motive, the system is now designed to be virtually fail-safe. Kids who would have traditionally failed are being passed through the system and awarded degrees that they have not truly earned in merit. Furthermore, the system now turns a blind eye to rampant cheating. Kids are coming out of school with degrees but lack the actual education and skills those very degrees are supposed to infer. This by its very virtue inflates the value of a degree to now be meaningless as an easy way to distinguish those who are truly skilled and knowledgeable. Those who do have the skills and education that employers seek will ultimately find a means of differentiating themselves. However those who did the bare minimum to skate through the system are now finding that doing the bare minimum is no longer enough to succeed.

3. It seems lumping all degrees in one category is too broad to make a determination of anything. STEM degrees are traditionally doing better than arts and the humanities.

4. I’m a teacher. Other teachers get mad when I tell them I understand why people don’t want to go to college. Between the insane costs and the lack of job prospects I don’t blame people for going an alternative route.

5. Women still seem to benefit from college, maybe it isn’t about higher education, maybe we are raising boys in a way that they prioritize the wrong things.

6. “Higher education” has been a walk in the park joke for many years now, maybe that is part of the problem.

7. Not that I don’t believe you, but what is your evidence? I went 30 years ago, my son is in now, both UC schools. I’m not sure I see a big difference.

8. What about the salaries, though?

9. What is the distribution between ages 22 – 27? What is the difference in unemployment between those who have college degrees and those who don’t for each age group? I would bet unemployment goes down significantly for those aged 24 – 27 and those who have college degrees are earning more.

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