To the Editor:
The very sensible June 1 Editorial Commentary “Commencement Address” says college students may discover “that going to college is no guarantee of…entrance into the upper-middle class.” Very true, but for many students, this discovery is a mathematical certainty.
Make the reasonable estimate that getting to the upper-middle class means you have to be in the top third of the income distribution. One hundred years ago, when about 3% of young people went to college, they could all reasonably expect to fit into the top third of income. Fifty years ago, when approximately a quarter of young people went to college, it was at least statistically possible that they could all end up in the top third. Now, when about two-thirds of them are pursuing post-secondary education, at least half of the college students by arithmetical necessity cannot end up in the top third.
If everybody went to college, half of them would end up below the median income. The continuing miracle of enterprising, free-market economies is that everybody can become better off, and the average can get higher and higher. Alas, everyone cannot be above-average.
Alex J. Pollock
Resident Fellow
American Enterprise Institute
Washington, D.C.
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