I recently listened to the audiobook “[Freakonomics](http://www.freakonomics.com/ “Freakonomics”)” by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen Dubner, and as a result I’ve been on a conventional-wisdom busting crusade. I was having a discussion with [Chris Cowan](http://www.uhduh.com/ “UHDUH”) about the importance of a college degree on predicting the likely success of a person in business. (Interestingly we had wildly differing opinions of success to begin with. But I digress.)
The debate was heated and somewhat surprising. I took a very risky position and after all was said and done, I turned to Steven Levitt for some perspective. The following are some excepts from an email exchange with the brains behind the book. (Italics = my email, bold + italics = his response).
… His position* was that having a college degree illustrates “an ability to make long term goals and complete them,” and that this indicates likely success. “The most important thing about it is that you are ending a milestone and it allows you to reflect upon your achievement,” he said. He used the “US census” and an extrapolated statement “that college grads earn more money then non-grads” as an indicator of success in that subset of the population. And he argued that it was good practice to eliminate candidates for hiring based on whether or not they had a degree.
My position was that the degree of success that one achieves in life is more likely the result of the factors in their life that make them more likely to go to college in the first place such as affluence, stable home life, etc., rather than the mere fact of them successfully navigating our severely lacking higher education system.
Also, I argued, the census includes people who have no means of going to college and have vastly different life paths than those people who are likely to make it through college, and thus skews the numbers. “It is possible that given a more specialized subset, one that was equal in every way accept college degree, may in fact prove vastly different results,” I expounded.
I am not discounting the fact that “conventional wisdom in our society does use a college degree as a primary (and sometimes sole) criteria for hiring,” but that it is “unfairly weighted.” The fact that some “underprivileged” bootstrap themselves into college and thus into a “degree only” job, could merely be a reflection of the determination and perseverance that would have made them successful despite a college degree.
Ok enough of the background, is there any basis for my argument? Or am I grasping as straws? I tried to find supporting documentation online, but I’m not having much success. Do you know of any study combatting the conventional wisdom here?
—
The evidence is strong that more education increases earnings by about 8 percent a year. That appears to be a causal impact, not just correlation. so if you take a random person and give them more education, their earnings tend to rise.
So that seems to argue against your position.
Note that the rise in earnings may not be because the workers are more productive, only that employers treat them as more productive. That gives your position some hope.
—
… You said “the rise in earnings may not be because the workers are more productive, only that employers treat them as more productive,” which is precisely my point. But it would seem that my position is nearly impossible to prove (or disprove), because the importance of the college degree is so ingrained in our society. As a result, it is possible that those who may have the drive and initiative to self-study in a particular higher-level skill, and become experts without the higher education system, may be dissuaded from even attempting that life path because they believe that the stigma of not having a college education will hold them back.
Given today’s increasing availability of information, it is becoming more likely that self-taught individuals (specifically in technology related fields) can be more skilled at graduation age than many college grads. Not proven by any means, but only possible.
So maybe there is more to college and graduation than just the degree … right? The big caveat in my argument is that the life lessons learned in college, such as independence and higher-level social problem solving, are immeasurable. These are frequently used in counterpoint arguments against me. But I’m sure there are very likely other life-lesson education scenarios that could occur in the absence of college life.
But the question remains “why do we give the college degree such an importance in our society?” As you stated “more education increases earnings by about 8 percent per year,” but is that a result of the actual impact of the person given their education or just our belief that their education somehow makes them a better and more productive employee? And, back to my first point, since we are dissuading all of the non-grads early on in life, is it possible that we manufactured the “cause” relationship through hundreds of years of conventional wisdom?
At the heart of my argument I do believe in the power of education, knowledge and applied information. I just don’t believe that having a piece of paper ensures proper application of said knowledge. There are a lot of educated idiots in the world…
So far it’s not looking to good for me, but I thought I would post it up here and see if anyone else has an opinion on it. If I get any response from Mr. Levitt I’ll post it.
?
