Why Americans Have Lost Faith in the Value of College | Hacker News Reader

Why Americans Have Lost Faith in the Value of College

wsj.com

It's the cost of getting a college education in the US that turns people off from it. Those who can't afford it often tend to rationalise it as "unnecessary". And unfortunately that idea seems to have spread in the US, without much challenge, as more and more Americans have been unable to afford a college education. This seems to have had a social "affirmation effect" on US society. So much that we even find that sentiment here in HN - "College is a waste of time and money." The consumer psychology is similar to those who buy a "premium" expensive product, like Apple iPhones or macs, and then irrationally defend it when its obvious faults are pointed out to them. The lack or abundance of wealth really does weird things to our way of thinking.

https://archive.is/P1yQh

This article is a PsyOp. Look at the data. Men are the ones leaving. The catestrophic drop in male attendance is due to the Me Too movement (2018) and the 2009 election of Obama.

They are trying to cover up the fact that the majority of reason that men are leaving university is that it has been politicized against men.

Two data points important in this data:

1. Obama elected in 2009, and began a full-nation emphasis on making things politically correct and installing DEI at every level of society, including universities. Men began checking out of college at that point.

2. October 2017 ( 2018 ) the Me Too movement began, causing a catestrophic dump in male attendance of college

Its the toxic politics in the united states that are turning institutions against men, not all these other reasons.

Women are getting the memo, they are a lagging indicator. Men leaving is causing the exodus in women.

The Democratic party, and it's influence organs, turned against men as a class, and men decided to check out of every institution, marriage, dating, college, work.

How do you prove this? I don't see any quantitate evidence of any sort that indicates that men are avoiding college due to political correctness or the Me Too movement. You might feel that this is obvious due to your gut instinct, but I bet that if you surveyed 100 men about why they didn't go to college, very few would name Me Too as a reason.

My own gut instinct is that the high cost of tuition combined with the diminishing value of a bachelor's degree are the biggest reasons.

Now that the internet is providing free access to most of the world's knowledge, there are very few reasons that one HAS to go to college to acquire knowledge.

Why did male enrollment fall off a cliff post October 2017. Look at the 2018 trend. That is immediately after Me Too.

The article conflates men and women leaving college, but the data clearly shows men are by far the biggest defectors.

Why didnt anyone ask men why they are leaving more than women? Is it because the answer is not politically acceptable (democrats) who run the media?

Yes. Ask any man in industry or university and they will tell you there has been a witch hunt against men.

Thats the data, its in the actual article.

Can you explain any other reason why men would suddenly check out en masse at that time? The economy was good.

Are you aware that News Corporation (Rupert Murdoch) owns the Wall Street Journal?

You have mentioned a handful of dates and events in U.S. sociopolitical history but cited no data to link them to the observed trends in post-secondary institutional attendance. The “post hoc ergo propter hoc” fallacy, basically. I would love to understand this shift in post-secondary education but “It’s Obama and #MeToo,” seems reductionist at best.

And, looking at the provided graph, the precipitous phase of the decline in male attendance began in 2017; Obama was not the U.S. president at that time.

The data is in the graph in the article

As someone who teaches college, I agree.

I will add: All forms of baseless discrimination hurt the economy.

Kill the anti-male, anti-white, anti-straight bias and our economy will boom.

Thank you.

I think whether true or not, this will only ever be an anecdotal observation. The same ideological forces that dominate academia, and are responsible for what you describe, will ensure no data is ever available to support your hypothesis.

How come no one has run a study to ask men, in particular, why they are leaving?

You haven't seen that data because that study is not politically popular so it will never get published.

Instead this article averages men and women and sort of goes: "well, college students arent going."

The data clearly shows men are leading the way.

Why would men be quitting more than women?

It seems pretty obvious to me. The cost/benefit ratio isn't favorable.

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