Degrees and Dollars

At some point when he were kids, we all probably had that discussion with our parents where we indignantly queried as to why we had to go to school in the first place, as we begrudgingly sat down to do our homework. And their answers were probably: 'Because if you don't go to school, you won't get a good job, and if you don't get a good job you'll be poor and have to live on the street,' or something to that happy effect. We took this notion with us throughout our primary school years (scribbling away dutifully to complete assignments) and into adulthood and our postsecondary academic careers because we believed that, ultimately, "degrees and dollars" went hand in hand. But in recent years, what with the ravages of recession and the growing threat represented by outsourcing (borne of the increasing desire of firms for cost effective labor), it has become necessary, as Paul Krugman suggests in his article, to reevaluate whether the age-old postulate that equates college education with economic success, still holds water. So doing, it seems, would be behooving on a general (and even individual) level for all.

In Krugman's article, he discusses and ultimately impugns the validity of the "universally acknowledged" notion that education is the indispensible condition of financial triumph later on in life. This widely accepted concept, championed by everyone from the common man to President Barack Obama himself, is becoming increasingly untrue in a world where jobs once requiring the specialized knowledge of highly trained professionals are being lost in the onset of technological advancements allowing such work to be performed by computers. Krugman cites the automation of legal research as well the computerization of chip design as prime examples of this process. And though popular thought may presume that only menial jobs are being phased out by this sweeping mechanization of labor; that the well-educated workers will be the winners of tomorrow, the truth is that such conceptions are quite outdated.

This steady encroachment of technology on the job market has been apparent, says Krugman, since the 1990s. And unfortunately, it has accounted for a "hollowing out" of the "middle-wage jobs" (as opposed to low or high-wage jobs) necessary to support a strong middle class. Ultimately, he says, the positions that will invariably require a human element (even for years to come) are those positions not characterized by routine tasks. These jobs (like janitor jobs for example) are hard to automate and thus are here to stay.

Another factor limiting the job market "pool," is the globalization of labor. Advancements in telecommunications have made it possible for companies to save money by hiring foreign employees who are willing to work (from long distance) for lower wages than potential employees from that company's own country. Such "outsourcing"