To some degree, you get what you incentivize. Easy access to student loans made it too simple to enter the college system—repayment was someone else's problem later. That flooded the pipeline and encouraged the proliferation of degrees with weak economic returns, contributing to the 42% underemployment Yang describes.
Compounding it: grades have inflated dramatically, making it far too easy to 'succeed' in college with minimal rigor. When the real world hits without those artificial props, the shock is greater. Instead of adapting, some try to reshape the workplace (or broader society) to accommodate their inflated expectations and outcomes. This dynamic helps explain the surge in organized labor efforts among degree-holders in service jobs.
Redirecting talent toward high-value societal needs—like the regenerative work Yang proposes—could break the cycle better than more credentials.
Good insights this incentive allowed too many people to pursue degrees with unrealistic expectations. Demonizing work and minimizing the risk of nondismissable debt was catastrophic.
There’s plenty of work that needs to be done: shift cultural values and prioritize regenerative forestry, agriculture, and landscaping to restore biodiversity. This would heal the water and carbon cycles to turn down the heat, rehydrate desertified spaces, and sequester carbon. All to address the biggest threat to humanity. A large young workforce could do wonders of good on jobs that matter. Generally see bio4climate.org.
Good insights although I dont necessarily agree that the solution is unionization. There are so many easier solutions. One idea is employee contracts for all levels. If either party violates the terms the contract is broken and compensation, if any, is negotiated.
Also home care on every level is available work. All we have to do is look at all the work that was deemed essential during the pandemic and we'll.see where the work lies.
Contract work is great, in theory. But because our country is dependent on an employer-based benefits model, if everyone was a contract employee, the onus of having a benefits platform would be wholly on the employee. Can you see where this might lead in the type of economy our country champions? In other words, unless we have Medicare-for-all and a highly improved social safety net, the idea of contract employment will be unattractive to most, especially the risk-averse.
Yes, I understand that perspective, however, if we changed our business model to some really Big Idea thinking changing the model to serve individuals and the companies the world could change drastically.
Medicare and a social safety net are two ideas. Contract work could incorporate living a healthy lifestyle minimizing the need for the drastic treatments required to treat chronic illness. Productivity would soar in this creative economy.
To some degree, you get what you incentivize. Easy access to student loans made it too simple to enter the college system—repayment was someone else's problem later. That flooded the pipeline and encouraged the proliferation of degrees with weak economic returns, contributing to the 42% underemployment Yang describes.
Compounding it: grades have inflated dramatically, making it far too easy to 'succeed' in college with minimal rigor. When the real world hits without those artificial props, the shock is greater. Instead of adapting, some try to reshape the workplace (or broader society) to accommodate their inflated expectations and outcomes. This dynamic helps explain the surge in organized labor efforts among degree-holders in service jobs.
Redirecting talent toward high-value societal needs—like the regenerative work Yang proposes—could break the cycle better than more credentials.
Good insights this incentive allowed too many people to pursue degrees with unrealistic expectations. Demonizing work and minimizing the risk of nondismissable debt was catastrophic.
There’s plenty of work that needs to be done: shift cultural values and prioritize regenerative forestry, agriculture, and landscaping to restore biodiversity. This would heal the water and carbon cycles to turn down the heat, rehydrate desertified spaces, and sequester carbon. All to address the biggest threat to humanity. A large young workforce could do wonders of good on jobs that matter. Generally see bio4climate.org.
Good insights although I dont necessarily agree that the solution is unionization. There are so many easier solutions. One idea is employee contracts for all levels. If either party violates the terms the contract is broken and compensation, if any, is negotiated.
Also home care on every level is available work. All we have to do is look at all the work that was deemed essential during the pandemic and we'll.see where the work lies.
Contract work is great, in theory. But because our country is dependent on an employer-based benefits model, if everyone was a contract employee, the onus of having a benefits platform would be wholly on the employee. Can you see where this might lead in the type of economy our country champions? In other words, unless we have Medicare-for-all and a highly improved social safety net, the idea of contract employment will be unattractive to most, especially the risk-averse.
Yes, I understand that perspective, however, if we changed our business model to some really Big Idea thinking changing the model to serve individuals and the companies the world could change drastically.
Medicare and a social safety net are two ideas. Contract work could incorporate living a healthy lifestyle minimizing the need for the drastic treatments required to treat chronic illness. Productivity would soar in this creative economy.
Thank you for the conversation!
I appreciate your perspective as well. I didn’t fully take that into account.