[Ache]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1216236 ... =yhoofront

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')A four-year college degree, seen for generations as a ticket to a better life, is no longer enough to guarantee a steadily rising paycheck.

A college degree may not take you as far as you'd expect. However, WSJ's Jennifer Merritt reports on a few fields where a bachelor's degree still remains a worthy investment.

[vision-master]

Benefits my friend. It's all about fringe benefits.

[emersonbiggins]

"College degrees in technological fields often require an inordinate amount of continuing education, the absence of which makes your average degree in such a field practically worthless within 5-10 years.

Also, in the tech field, jobs can be easily outsourced for a fraction of the cost of a U.S. worker."

[Plantagenet]

We've got peak oil, peak coal, peak corn, peak water....why not peak college?

[strider3700]

I've thought about leaving the computer world to take a trade numerous times before. At the moment I've moved into upper management so my tech skills aren't overly needed and it doesn't matter that the syntax and languages I learned in university are becoming antiques.

So long as I have a source of fresh blood desperate for work to pay off those loans I'll continue to have people with up to date skills to use. What happens to them when their skills are obsolete and there is no management positions to move into is the real question.

[joeltrout]

My degree taught me very little about petroleum land management but without it the only way I would get to were I am at is to start out working a labor job in the oil fields and hope somebody noticed I had enough sense to work behind a desk.

Few people can get their foot in a door without a degree. Just don't get a worthless degree.

joeltrout

[bodigami]

I have not finished my career in the tech field, but for me it's fun to keep current... being "in the know". It's easy with RSS and some search of what can be promising techs. I'm no cornucopian, but still think that we can engineer our way through peak oil. Not a "save us", but a "make our changes less painful".

[HellKaiserRyo]

From this information, and other information that I have read, I will predict that with an increasing perception of economic insecurity and inequality the welfare state will make a huge resurgence. Of course, this assumes that peak oil is not an important issue.

[jasonraymondson]

A giant welfare state called commufacism

[mattduke]

Just major in "homeland security science", available at many government-subsidized universities.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jasonraymondson', 'A') giant welfare state called commufacism

[Ludi]

Turned out I didn't need my degree anyway.