Recently, I had a conversation with friends about the issue of education: Why do many people now feel that going to college is meaningless?
After much contemplation, it seems to me that the educational advantage for ordinary people has disappeared. (The following represents personal opinions)
The first reason: Imbalance between input and output#
Many university courses are now outdated, difficult, and far removed from real life, making students feel that the input-output ratio is too low. For example, when you hear about university physics, calculus, and programming, you know just from the names that they are very difficult. Therefore, students from ordinary families may feel that investing time and energy in these courses has a low input-output ratio. They invest a lot of time and effort in these courses to improve their grades, but it does not necessarily enhance their actual earning ability.
The second reason: Educational worship#
Most students have been instilled with the concept of educational worship from a young age by teachers, friends, or family. However, in today's reality, education is constantly devalued, and it is difficult to find good jobs even with higher education, which is a significant blow to current university students.
What is the reason for this? First, we need to understand where this widespread educational worship in China comes from. In the late 1990s, during the Asian financial crisis, foreign investments decreased, and domestic demand needed to boost economic growth. At that time, Chinese economists proposed expanding university enrollment, partly to stimulate consumption and encourage us to spend our savings. Another purpose was to extend the learning period to prevent young people from becoming social problems. From these two perspectives, the expansion of enrollment was considered successful. For example, from a consumption perspective, university students were scarce at the time, so the initial expansion of enrollment received a very positive response from society because many children who could not attend university were able to enroll. The cost of supporting a university student was particularly high. In 2006, the annual cost of supporting a university student was around ten thousand, while the average disposable income of urban families at the time was only around thirty thousand. This led people to spend a lot of their savings.
Conclusion#
In summary, the premise that higher education equals higher salary is based on rapid economic development in society, but education itself does not create high-paying positions. This is because in an environment of rapid economic development at the time, education became a credential for allocating social resources. Further analysis reveals that the pursuit of higher education for social mobility at that time was due to doing things that were in line with the times. In today's terms, it means riding the wave. Just like some people are successful today, one of the main reasons is that they did things that were in line with the times before, rooted in the trend, and focused on creating value.
Therefore, the conclusion for students who are still studying or considering further education today is to think outside the system, observe society and the times while studying, understand and engage with current popular or advanced trends, of course, in industries under the sun, and do things that truly align with the times. Instead of blindly pursuing a degree, because the era of educational advantage has passed. While focusing on the road ahead, also remember to look up and see the path.