Education Investment

Tonight, President Obama asked all Americans to spend at least 1 year in post-secondary school. And he said, that not graduating high school is no longer acceptable. He also set a goal of being the nation with the highest % of its citizens college graduates.

The nation has been heading this way for years with some support from government, but more because markets have created the necessity to do so. If you want a job making more than 50K/yr, you almost certainly need to work - and generally, that should be enough of an incentive to take on the student loans and loss of lower salaries.

It seems that government interference may cause a glut of over-educated people. Who will be the garbage collectors, the fast food employees, the mailmen? Who will want to go to college to end up with a low paying job? Will there be enough jobs to satisfy the college educated? While a more educated society sounds logical on the surface, what will be the effects on the supply/demand for jobs standpoint? Supporters must believe that a more educated society will cause the supply of jobs to increase as more value-add companies are created.