HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Bachelor’s Degrees Aren’t Cool Anymore. “In a new research brief, The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Education found that only 44 percent of American high school students expected to earn a bachelor’s degree in 2022, down from 72 percent in 2002. The study also revealed a parental gap among high school students, with only 33 percent of first-generation students aspiring to a bachelor’s degree in 2022, compared to 60 percent two decades earlier. . . . Pundits typically cite ideological bias, social disaffection, rising costs, credential inflation, and poor labor market returns. Each contributes something, but none has been quite as ignored as this: the internet has effectively dismantled the cultural bottlenecks that historically upheld the fiat value of a college education.”

Matt Damon’s character in Good Will Hunting summarized the problem: “You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library.”

Related demographic irony:

Irony: Universities since the 1960s have been the center for 'the world is overpopulated! Don't have kids!'

Now the number of universities far outnumber the available students and they're slowly going out of business.

This is referred to as an 'own goal.' Good job there.

— John Ringo SF Author (@Jringo1508) June 15, 2026