It's a paradigm failure. The paradigm was that, if going to college was beneficial back when just a few did it, then think of the benefit if everyone could do it! So roll out the student debt to anyone with a pulse and society can just continue to improve itself until we are all above average.
Problem was -- the benefit from a college education was that it was a differentiator back when going to college made a difference. Having a college degree did open doors because few people had one.
But now that everyone has one -- it has ceased to be a differentiator. So education turns into an arms race. Now to differentiate you need at least a secondary degree like a masters if not a PhD. And thus pay more than average in order to appear above average on paper.
And meanwhile, the ceaseless flow of debt money into the system has created massive inflation in the field of education, and construction is booming in the educational field as they try to expand capacity to handle the influx. And the increasing costs make it mandatory to take on debt to afford it -- no "working your way through college" like you used to be able to do.
Only once you exit college do you realized that the educational system is a racket -- not one where everyone owns stock, but one where everyone, every educator from kindergarten to the top, is invested in the concept that society can improve itself through education. Hence the heavy tilt of that field towards Progressivism. Educate everyone and thus leave ignorance and societal dysfunction behind.
But this is the headspace from which safe spaces and nonsense like using discrimination to eliminate discrimination emerges from. Same "high quality thinking" that supposed that by educating everyone we could all have white collar jobs and all be above average.
Paradigm failure. Blind leading the blind.
You summed it up pretty well. Easy credit has allowed sub-par people the ability to mingle with average people. That's why we are seeing nonsense like "safe spaces" and "micro-aggression". Give it time. It will all balance out. 😉
Agreed. I suspect electronic education will surpass in person, and more difficult testing will start to spread out the herd again.