Does Going To College Hurt The Economy?

College, they say, provides the best return of any investment. The first rungs of the economic ladder are education, and you have to ascend those steps before making it to the top. Well, that's great for YOU... but what about the rest of the country?

An academic background makes a person skilled in many things. But the "well-rounded" book smarts that a person develops in the university system could prove antithetical to a key sector in America's ailing economy: skilled labor.

Anton Troianovski wrote a very interesting article in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, detailing the urgency with which skilled manufacturers are seeking a new generation of workers. "We've made work the enemy... Essentially we took the nobility and the necessity out of it and replaced it with this vague sense of drudgery," said Mike Rowe, host of Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs. Rowe is gearing up to speak for a Connecticut based construction supply manufacturer, Terex, at an upcoming trade show.

Despite a slowdown in the construction sector, contractors and laborers from almost all trades are being sought after in large part due to energy companies booming on spiking revenues and the rising international sales of American products. The Journal reports that companies like BP are in need of skilled workers from several different trades, including piping and electrical.

Interestingly enough, there were several inferences in this article that the upcoming generation was too heavily invested in college education. According to union and industry leaders with a clear interest to draw in fresh workers as young as possible, college is useful but an Apprenticeship offers similar benefits without the pain of debt for years to come.

While I, a bachelor degree toting white collar man from Southern California, would never discourage a person from pursuing his or her academic potential, it suffices to say that we should all at least appreciate those that are working physically intensive skilled labor positions as they are the very embodiment of the original ethos that this nation was founded upon.

Of course balance is key, and the only thing more respectable than a person working a gruelingly exhaustive full-time job is a person with the foresight, discipline, and endurance to do it while also pursuing a higher education.

What's your take? Leave a comment, or email me personally with any suggestions at NCollard@cg3.com.