The Dirtiest Job…is a Screw Job

Mike Rowe, the host of the TV show, “America’s Dirtiest Jobs” recently suggested that the government should be just as willing to subsidize young Americans starting a new business as it is to pay for a college education. Rowe’s proposal was sparked by the current debate over forgiving student loan debt, a Biden boondoggle that plainly favors college educated, yet financially unsuccessful citizens. Of course, that demographic leans heavily toward voting Democrat, while blue collar workers and entrepreneurs lean Republican. Aside from the fact that the Federal government cannot prudently afford to forgive almost $2 trillion in debt, the more important long-term question is whether college attendance is a goal that deserves a blank check from the American taxpayer.

The reason Rowe’s proposal makes sense is that college education has become a crap shoot in terms of whether it will pay off. When Federal student loans for college were introduced, a college degree was a province of the top 10-20% of the population. Previously, the conventional wisdom was that society did not need that many folks to be college educated, and it seemed natural that the children of the financially successful would be the group college educated people would come from in each generation. Since their parents were at least affluent, the assumption was that parents would finance their children’s educations, or their kids would work their way through college and then be rewarded with rewarding white-collar jobs and financial prosperity for life. World War II changed that dynamic because it destroyed the economies of virtually all of America’s economic competitors while simultaneously creating the need for a massive global rebuilding program. In turn, that need created huge demand for professional and managerial talent far greater than the American university system had previously been required to provide. The result was a newly empowered Federal government deciding that it would help meet that need by loaning money to military veterans who could get the education that would allow them to meet the massive needs of the American economy as it helped rebuild the world. As the demand for professional managers, engineers, teachers, scientists, doctors, lawyers, and almost every other college graduate then available continued to increase, the government saw a chance to become a permanent guarantor of college funding for nearly everyone in America who wanted to go. That led to a huge boom in demand and supply of college graduates in America, and a huge percentage of them were only able to afford their degrees due to large amounts of debt financed by American taxpayers. In a real sense, the confluence of post-world war demand for rebuilding, and the incredible relative wealth of America due to its invulnerability to attack during the war, allowed America universities to tap the government revenue stream and create a “political-instructional complex” that now rivals the military-industrial complex in scope, cost, and influence.

The military-industrial complex is driven by a somewhat incestuous relationship between large corporations who sell weapons, ammunition, vehicles and other goods and services to the military. It is a potent force, but its effectiveness at garnering cash from the government tends to ebb and flow with Americans’ feelings about how dangerous the world is. As they feel safer, their tolerance for large defense budgets wanes, and then increases again as world events convince them that their security is threatened. By contrast, the political-instructional complex has faced no such variance because they have successfully convinced Americans that there is no such thing as too much education. Almost every American believed that a college degree is practically a guarantee of a good job and an above average income. That is starting to change, but most Americans still believe that a college degree is nearly a prerequisite for a financially stable life. Naturally, that belief in the value of a college education extinguished any attempts to rein in loans to students trying to pursue the American dream by getting a degree. After all, the recipients would repay the loans with interest, and then pay taxes on higher wages for the rest of their working life. It was a win-win. In contrast, loaning money to a high school graduate who wanted to start a small business, or learn to drive a truck, or get trained as an auto mechanic, seemed like a high-risk proposition. The borrower could get laid off, or fail to find a job, or make too little money to reliably pay off the loan. The long-term result was a systemic bias against small business owners and blue-collar workers, and for white collar job seekers.

Inevitably, America got more of what it was willing to pay for with its loans, and less of what it was unwilling to finance and ended up with a glut of college graduates (and college loan debt), and a severe shortage of skilled trades and other blue-collar jobs. There has also been a decline in the formation of small businesses over the past decade during one of the biggest economic expansions in American history. That is significant because small businesses have historically provided most of the job growth in this country. Clearly, the political-educational complex is not providing the American economy what it needs.

Mike Rowe’s idea is a worthy attempt to suggest a change to the current dominance of the political-instructional complex and reduce the bias against blue-collar and entrepreneurial Americans. The problem is that it would be just another big government giveaway. The better approach would be to dramatically reduce federal student loan programs and make the provision of loans competitive based on High School GPAs, community service, extra-curricular activities, and standardized tests. Loans should also be made available to accredited schools that teach students skills needed for specific jobs, like truck driving schools, pilot training, electrician certification, etc. Then, the government should reduce taxes on small businesses and give tax credits to taxpayers who spend cash on tools and equipment for their jobs. These changes would make pursuing a blue-collar or entrepreneurial career just as eligible for government support as a college degree.

The college bias of the political-instructional complex is not serving America or its customers well. That is why we are arguing about paying off the debts of millions of college students. They have degrees that will not allow them to repay the debts they incurred. Worse, if Biden forgives the debts of all these students, (which, BTW, is Unconstitutional) he will be forcing blue-collar workers and entrepreneurs, who skipped college and immediately began working and paying taxes, to pay for the college loans of those who did not. That seems like the dirtiest job of all.

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