The Wall Street Oasis community is a pretty ambitious group. We have a decent amount of people that are quite intelligent as well. I’m sure we all hang out with people that equally are intelligent too. But it seems as if the average American student is “getting stupid”. Maybe Mac Dre is too heavy in their IPod rotation. Pun intended.
I remember I was bored one day and decided to watch BET. A caller called in to request a song to be played. It seemed like nothing out of the ordinary. The abbreviation Ind. appeared on the in-studio TV (caller was from there). The host glanced at the TV screen and referred Ind. as Indianapolis. She didn’t even correct herself to say Indiana. And even worse she referred to it as Indianapolis multiple times. All I could do is shake my head.
Was it a harmless mistake or is America just ignorant? What can’t be argued is that in the fiscal year of 2010, good ol’ Uncle Sam spent 602.6 Billion Dollars on Education. (Zero Hedge) What’s our IRR for the money we throw at schools?
It’s about as high as Mini-Me’s vertical. Bloomberg published an article that described the Class of 2012’s SAT scores. “Bloomberg News's Janet Lorin reports that American high-schoolers bombed on the SAT this year, with the average critical reading score falling 1 point to 496 from a year earlier, the lowest since data became available in 1972. The average score for writing dropped 1 point to 488, the lowest since the section was added in 2006. (Math scores held steady.)” (Bloomberg)
Ok, what about those who do make it to college? The United States is ranked 16 among developed countries that are 25-34 year olds with college degrees. We use to be number 1. 42% of college students drop out and never get their bachelors. It leaves the student in debt with no degree. What a great investment. The drop out college student is also 4 times more likely to default on their loans.
I remember when I was in college all I cared about was women, boozing and raging. It was the same way in high school too. From personal experience, I can attest that most students care more about their ‘rep’ than their GPA. Yet the quiet, smart kid that rarely socialized got offers from PIMCO and Goldman Sachs. Most American high school and college kids really need to rehash their priorities.
All this leads me to wonder where the real disconnect is between the billions of dollars spent and kids (particularly minorities) not being prepared for college.
Kids want to impress their peers, being dumb is cool to some kids until they sit down an reassess their lives and priorities. Sad but certainly true
Less competition for us, right?
That's the whole point of dumbing-down America. The new normal.
Why were you watching BET?!
I have thought about this same topic a lot and have come to a few conclusions which I'd like to share. I don't think the population has really gotten much dumber a few things have happened:
1) Yes test scores have dropped and yes we're lower ranked in Universities BUT consider the fact that we have more people going to University than any other country. Statistically the average IQ in the US is 98 and ~50% of kids enter college from HS. I don't know the exact standard deviation but basically you have a lot of morons in college. The percentage of kids going to University before was significantly lower. ie. only the kids with IQ 2 std dev from mean would attend.
2) With the sheer amount of Universities in the US you cant honestly expect us to maintain the #1 ranking in the world. Of the top 10 Universities 6 are in the US and the proportion of the top 50 is even higher. Trying to educate everyone is whats costing the money.
3) The internet has allowed for the mass dissemination of information. This has just allowed for the IQ of the majority of the population to be put on blast. Before the instant spread of information people werent aware of how unintelligent some family in podunk Georgia. Now we have Honey Boo Boo to give us an in depth view of exactly how low the well goes.
4) Lastly, per your BET example, idiots need entertainment too. If that person listening to the radio was honestly smart enough to know that Ind. was not Indianapolis then theres a good chance they wouldnt be watching BET in the middle of the day and would be broadening their intellect.
Ultimately its a fact of life (and statistics) that there will be stupid people and smarter people. Trying to fight this with billions of dollars is like trying to trying to change the rotation of the Earth. No matter how much money you throw at it (physics and statistics) don't change. So instead of complaining that our education is going to shit maybe we should focus on developing a system whereby anyone not within the top 2 standard deviations has a means to live comfortably and not go into debt for a degree. Then those few bright enough to utilize an education can go on to schools to utilize our natural gift of intelligence.
Our government can offer all the "free" money they want to kids in order to get a degree. But what counts is their motivation, and if they're lazy enough to smoke all day and do nothing with their lives but collect unemployment, there's not much you and I can do about that. It's the inner motivation that makes a difference, not the subsidies, grants, and student loans which our government believes will increase the quality of our population's education.
So yes, America is getting lazier and less educated. Look at the stats - there are so many more people out there now who just want the "free handouts" and don't want to work for anything because our government promotes it.
Cut the unemployment benefits and that will kick everyone into higher gear. Sure its harsh, but it's the only way to get people to get off their a** and accomplish something when they find out they won't have enough money for food at the end of the week. I'm not targeting those who are looking for jobs, I'm talking about those who do nothing but refuse to work and collect their free government hand outs.
If I knew how the SB thing worked, I might give you one just for this sentence.
And isn't it amazing how the laziest, lowest aspiring people have somehow convinced themselves that they'll be millionaires by age 25? They see crap rap artists and shitty pop stars and figure if Ke$ha can become famous then so can they. They have no idea what they want to do, they just want to make sure it takes as little schooling, skills, and critical thinking as possible. Meanwhile they have the "C's get degrees" mentality while expecting the opportunity will just fall from the sky.
Blame the infiltration of ADD-causing mobile devices, Jersey Shore-like shows, and the self-interested independent movement into mainstream society.
Eos doloribus harum consequuntur aut. Eligendi et hic et ipsum. Sed ut quo incidunt. Aspernatur ex dolorum voluptatibus modi et. Quia officiis aspernatur ut ut.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...