i am glad to see that you came back to argue your point. we are always up for a good debate. if i understand your argument right, you define the merits of an education basically by how much a degree is worth. even though my view never claims to say that everyone should get a liberal arts degree, i will address the merits of the degree in and of themselves. just for the record, my opinion is that everyone will benefit from continuing their liberal arts education (not degree). once someone has trained themselves in whatever vocational training they see fit, there is a great need to spend the rest of their lives, at least in part, reading and studying the liberal arts. the benefits of the liberal arts contribute to a much greater study of what life is all about than do books that solely address how to make money. it seems impossible to define success with out including some of the areas which the liberal arts teach us. like understanding relationships, defining good and bad, and remembering our ancestors sacrifices to better our lives. i could go on forever about how liberal arts enhances our ability to comprehend the human experience. it is a study that can't possibly hurt any person alive. more boldly, it will improve the happiness of every person who studies them.
your argument agrees with some of the research made about what bachelor degrees represent the most and least income like the national center for education statistics http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d03/tables/dt387.asp
or cnn's online money magazine http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/21/pf/college/starting_salaries/
the problem you are addressing is still a very oversimplistic view of how liberal arts affects someone's ability to make money. i would be interested to see the proportion of successful entrepreneurs with a liberal arts interest to those who don't. or if you wanted to base the degrees off of the post undergrad merits then you still might need to consider the higher success rate at which liberal arts undergrads seem to outperform more narrow focused technology degrees when entering into professional higher education fields. such as m.d, mba, and jd. each school reports it differently, however, the reports support the fact that liberal arts under grads consistently perform at a higher level than do their vocationally trained counterparts.
more to the point, however, is the fact that i never pretended to argue which degree an undergraduate student should pursue. i have a brother in law who only has an associates degree but obtained it just at the right time in ultrasound diagnostics and earns 100k a year. as far as i am concerned he got alot of bang for his vocational degree. even though he is thriving financially, he admits that he really longs for more liberal arts background.
why? because he, like many other vocationally trained employees define success and quality of life much more broadly than income earning potential. he believes that the liberal arts would more effecively teach his children about morality. he relies heavily on his limited exposure to the liberal arts to find meaning in life. meaning that is very shallow from an ultrasound perspective. sure you are saving lives, but for what? money, a practical degree, to support your family? the more you ask yourself what the end you are pursuing is the more you begin to realize how much your liberal arts education can help you answer that question.
again, i don't intend to persuade anyone to change their major in college. however, a liberal arts education is an education that will more adequately address all of the other questions you have in life that don't concern themselves directly with how to make money. by all means pursue whatever education you feel is going to net you the most cash. i suggest that when you do or do not succeed in obtaining your goal of money. you should rely on the liberal arts to help you satisfactorily allocate it in the case that you succeed. and the liberal arts if you don't succeed, can help you cope with your failure. liberal arts is certainly a much more satisfactory and practical post graduate pursuit of knowledge than any other field of study. once in a career, what do you intend to study for the rest of your life. if liberal arts aren't part of your continued education, then do society a favor and don't marry or have kids. because you are effectively transitioning into a machine. liberal arts reminds you what it means to be human. it helps you connect with the human experience and it helps you make sense of all of the humdrum associated with being an engineer to make money. life without liberal arts is the most useless way to live because you are only living for the most superficial things imaginable. money and status. crazy how quickly that becomes unfulfilling.
by the way, i don't know how you came to the conclusion that i'm a realtor, i'm not...i'm am a closer for real estate investors. its ok if you don't see the difference. i just know it bugs vocationally educated people when they are lacking precision.
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I sometimes think that all you tell me of knighthood, kingdoms, empires and islands is all windy blather and lies
i am glad to see that you came back to argue your point. we are always up for a good debate. if i understand your argument right, you define the merits of an education basically by how much a degree is worth. even though my view never claims to say that everyone should get a liberal arts degree, i will address the merits of the degree in and of themselves. just for the record, my opinion is that everyone will benefit from continuing their liberal arts education (not degree). once someone has trained themselves in whatever vocational training they see fit, there is a great need to spend the rest of their lives, at least in part, reading and studying the liberal arts. the benefits of the liberal arts contribute to a much greater study of what life is all about than do books that solely address how to make money. it seems impossible to define success with out including some of the areas which the liberal arts teach us. like understanding relationships, defining good and bad, and remembering our ancestors sacrifices to better our lives. i could go on forever about how liberal arts enhances our ability to comprehend the human experience. it is a study that can't possibly hurt any person alive. more boldly, it will improve the happiness of every person who studies them.
your argument agrees with some of the research made about what bachelor degrees represent the most and least income like the national center for education statistics http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d03/tables/dt387.asp
or cnn's online money magazine http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/21/pf/college/starting_salaries/
the problem you are addressing is still a very oversimplistic view of how liberal arts affects someone's ability to make money. i would be interested to see the proportion of successful entrepreneurs with a liberal arts interest to those who don't. or if you wanted to base the degrees off of the post undergrad merits then you still might need to consider the higher success rate at which liberal arts undergrads seem to outperform more narrow focused technology degrees when entering into professional higher education fields. such as m.d, mba, and jd. each school reports it differently, however, the reports support the fact that liberal arts under grads consistently perform at a higher level than do their vocationally trained counterparts.
more to the point, however, is the fact that i never pretended to argue which degree an undergraduate student should pursue. i have a brother in law who only has an associates degree but obtained it just at the right time in ultrasound diagnostics and earns 100k a year. as far as i am concerned he got alot of bang for his vocational degree. even though he is thriving financially, he admits that he really longs for more liberal arts background.
why? because he, like many other vocationally trained employees define success and quality of life much more broadly than income earning potential. he believes that the liberal arts would more effecively teach his children about morality. he relies heavily on his limited exposure to the liberal arts to find meaning in life. meaning that is very shallow from an ultrasound perspective. sure you are saving lives, but for what? money, a practical degree, to support your family? the more you ask yourself what the end you are pursuing is the more you begin to realize how much your liberal arts education can help you answer that question.
again, i don't intend to persuade anyone to change their major in college. however, a liberal arts education is an education that will more adequately address all of the other questions you have in life that don't concern themselves directly with how to make money. by all means pursue whatever education you feel is going to net you the most cash. i suggest that when you do or do not succeed in obtaining your goal of money. you should rely on the liberal arts to help you satisfactorily allocate it in the case that you succeed. and the liberal arts if you don't succeed, can help you cope with your failure. liberal arts is certainly a much more satisfactory and practical post graduate pursuit of knowledge than any other field of study. once in a career, what do you intend to study for the rest of your life. if liberal arts aren't part of your continued education, then do society a favor and don't marry or have kids. because you are effectively transitioning into a machine. liberal arts reminds you what it means to be human. it helps you connect with the human experience and it helps you make sense of all of the humdrum associated with being an engineer to make money. life without liberal arts is the most useless way to live because you are only living for the most superficial things imaginable. money and status. crazy how quickly that becomes unfulfilling.
by the way, i don't know how you came to the conclusion that i'm a realtor, i'm not...i'm am a closer for real estate investors. its ok if you don't see the difference. i just know it bugs vocationally educated people when they are lacking precision.