Doug Henwood wrote:
> I know the wage and income distribution literature pretty
> well, and I know that the U.S. is characterized by a large and
> widening dispersion within demographic categories as well as across
> them. But all other things being equal (which of course they rarely
> are) you're more likely to be better off with a BA than without one,
> and more likely to be better off with a master's than a bachelor's.
>
> What is the point of questioning this so stubbornly?
I think the point people are getting at is the one that seems obvious to you, that if 40% of us get BAs now, and 10% of us got them 50 years ago, then it's not the entree it once was -- it gets you into the top 40% rather than the top 10% of the job distribution. And before, you used to get that high with a HS diploma. So in that sense, it's less valuable -- more "common" -- than it used to be, and going to college now gets a lot of us what going to high school used to. But of course, by the same token, finishing high school now gets you what finishing grammar school used to. So the gap can stay the same, or even increase, while all degrees being devalued (in terms of their entree value) through a process of credential inflation. And in a similar manner, the BA can be subdivided such that you need a "good" degree to get entree to the same percentile in the job pyramid that you could have crossed 40 years ago with a no-name degree.
So I think there are two different arguments here. You're comparing having a degree to not having one, and measuring it in monetary returns. Others are comparing having a degree today to having the same degree 40 years ago, and comparing it in terms of how high it got you on the available job pyramid. And pointing out that college degrees are more clearly subdivided into qualitatively different classes than they used to be back before the massive 60's expansion of the college system.
None of which I imagine you would disagree with.
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com