“Philosophy, sociology and liberal arts agendas will no longer suffice.”
A mind is a precious thing to waste, so why are millions of America’s students wasting theirs by going to college? All of us who have been there know an undergraduate education is primarily a four year vacation interrupted by periodic bouts of cramming or Google plagiarizing, but at least it used to serve a purpose. It weeded out underachievers and proved at a minimum that you could pass an SAT test. For those who made it to the good schools, it proved that your parents had enough money to either bribe administrators or hire SAT tutors to increase your score by 500 points. And a degree represented that the graduate could “party hearty” for long stretches of time and establish social networking skills that would prove invaluable later on at office cocktail parties or interactively via Facebook. College was great as long as the jobs were there.
[...]
One thing college does do is to keep 25 million students off the unemployment rolls, much like it did for me when I went on my own four year vacation. The world was a different oyster in 1966, however, and it behooves America to recognize the reversal and the necessity for significant changes if it is to compete in the global marketplace of the 21st century.
What then, shall we do? My preferred solution has long- term elements, which includes the opening language in this Investment Outlook, concerning the value of a college education as currently structured. Peter Thiel may be on to something, but all of our kids just can’t up and quit college à la Bill Gates. Still, if we are to compete globally while maintaining a higher wage base, we must train for “middle” in addition to “high” tech. Philosophy, sociology and liberal arts agendas will no longer suffice. Skill-based education is a must, as is science and math.
Additionally and immediately, however, government must take a leading role in job creation. Conservative or even liberal agendas that cede responsibility for job creation to the private sector over the next few years are simply dazed or perhaps crazed. The private sector is the source of long-term job creation but in the short term, no rational observer can believe that global or even small businesses will invest here when the labor over there is so much cheaper. That is why trillions of dollars of corporate cash rest impotently on balance sheets awaiting global – non-U.S. – investment opportunities. Our labor force is too expensive and poorly educated for today’s marketplace….The “golden” days are over, and it’s time our school and jobs “daze” comes to an end to be replaced by programs that do more than mimic failed establishment policies favoring Wall as opposed to Main Street.
C’mon Bill. Take your Metamucil like a good boy, and everything will be fine.
Is that a whistler painting on the wall? Classy
The world needs ditch diggers too…
-Judge Smails
Regarding his use of the phrase “skill-based education,” is he including ball handling skills?
–LAX player
Why not bring back home economics class while we’re at it, some one has to man GS’s Shake Shack grill.
You’re one of them fancy boys.
YES
YES
-DK
Yes, yes.
–Niles Standish, Earl of Yankerville
Those words mean so much to a man who scrubs garbage cans.
I haven’t even told my father about the scholarship I didn’t get. I’m gonna end up working in a lumberyard the rest of my life.
What’s up with that ‘stache? He looks like the lead in an all-male 80′s porno.
–Guy who knows stuff about 80′s porno.
What’s wrong with lumberyards? I own a few lumberyards… can’t remember where they are…
Great idea Gross. Take out philosophy, sociology and liberal arts and what do you have? A bunch of dick on campus, that’s what. Then, when they find out all the easy girls are gone, the guys stop going too. You just made the USA Mexico.
What you just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I’ve ever heard.
What you just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I’ve ever heard.
Do people really scrub garbage cans? I mean hose them down, sure. But actually scrub them like with a brush?
four year vacations weren’t offered in hyde park, and the government didn’t create google until the late nineties. how am i supposed to understand gross without my engels?
four year vacations weren’t offered in hyde park, and the government didn’t create google until the late nineties. how am i supposed to understand gross without my engels?
Your mom goes to college.
- Kip Dynamite
Your mom goes to college.
- Kip Dynamite
if we truly are capitalists who thrive on economic self interest, then who the fuck cares if we “win the future” or lead the world in xyz industry? Who cares about the collective goals of rah-rah nationalism other than politicians who have to be patriotic and say, “we’re #1″ in, say, toilet technology? If there are more consumers in the U.S. than anywhere else, then foreign companies who do things better than us will still set up shop here and hire U.S. workers. Who gives a shit who the owner of said company is? Use your education, skills and work ethic to be the best at what you – the individual – do and stop worrying about macro trends that in the end have no bearing on the success of the U.S. economy. If anything, the message to Americans should be this: do more fucking! population growth is a greater generator of long-term GDP growth than the fraction of percentage gain that might occur if we alter the curriculum at colleges. Besides, students don’t remember shit from their econ or finance classes a few days after finals anyway.The point of college is not to become mass-producing business clones for four years, but to be intellectually flexible, adaptable, and efficient so as to be prepared to excel at their first jobs and beyond.
I expect this crap from politicians, but to hear a supposedly intelligent businessman like Gross utter this drivel is surprising. Stop writing about toilet technology and thinking you’re some enlightened genius and get back to managing your bond portfolios better. Your track record sucks, by the way.
if we truly are capitalists who thrive on economic self interest, then who the fuck cares if we “win the future” or lead the world in xyz industry? Who cares about the collective goals of rah-rah nationalism other than politicians who have to be patriotic and say, “we’re #1″ in, say, toilet technology? If there are more consumers in the U.S. than anywhere else, then foreign companies who do things better than us will still set up shop here and hire U.S. workers. Who gives a shit who the owner of said company is? Use your education, skills and work ethic to be the best at what you – the individual – do and stop worrying about macro trends that in the end have no bearing on the success of the U.S. economy. If anything, the message to Americans should be this: do more fucking! population growth is a greater generator of long-term GDP growth than the fraction of percentage gain that might occur if we alter the curriculum at colleges. Besides, students don’t remember shit from their econ or finance classes a few days after finals anyway.The point of college is not to become mass-producing business clones for four years, but to be intellectually flexible, adaptable, and efficient so as to be prepared to excel at their first jobs and beyond.
I expect this crap from politicians, but to hear a supposedly intelligent businessman like Gross utter this drivel is surprising. Stop writing about toilet technology and thinking you’re some enlightened genius and get back to managing your bond portfolios better. Your track record sucks, by the way.
More like you turn America into China’s school system.
We really should just move to genetic testing after birth and require the underclass to be our street sweepers, janitors, fluffers, etc.
Only the genetically superior should be allowed to fly to Titan
More like you turn America into China’s school system.
We really should just move to genetic testing after birth and require the underclass to be our street sweepers, janitors, fluffers, etc.
Only the genetically superior should be allowed to fly to Titan
Damn, he always wins the PIMCO annual halloween contest with that John Holmes costume.
Damn, he always wins the PIMCO annual halloween contest with that John Holmes costume.
Don’t forget to pre-loosen things up with a quick conga line before drinking.
-Sino-Forest COO
Stoppped reading after “if”.
Spent a lot of time stuffed in a locker and still bitter about it huh?
I’m a huge fan of my work
Fuck you, Bill…..
Please tell me that moustache is photoshopped. I feel like I should go take a shower just for looking at this photo.
You are interesting
Bit of a reach? Correct. Not sarcastic at all.
But seriously think about how many hot girls were in business classes… 1 useless liberal arts option per year makes notches trend up.
Bill, you’re educated but exhibit enough low cunning to give me the fantods.
Bill, are you refering to my BA in English?
William H. Macy wants his hair back. John Holmes wants the mustache back. Liberal arts majors want their dignity back. Homer Simpson wants his portrait of Santa’s Little Helper back. Bess wants Gundlach to do something interesting immediately.
So you went to school for girls? Thats exactly his point. You can’t just go through the motions your whole life. If you do you will never wind up with a picture of a malnourished greyhound lost in the desert somehwere to hang on the wall in your office.
I didn’t take shop…I played lacrosse. But you know, a lot of those skills are universal.
- Sterling Archer
WHERE IN HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?
Dude… I was looking for a ‘stash tag or something…. It’s better than the other pics…
That film had a big influence on me too. Made me want to bring armed revolution to college. However, I still like to read.
At least blue collar workers tip, asshole.
-Still Fuming Santa Monica Waitress
140 characters or less, please.
you must have gone to Fordham
I’m getting a “Single White Female” vibe…
-Bridgette Fonda*
* Yes still fancy
Well played, brah
+1
Wow, been a long time since I heard a cabin boy reference. Bravo
Well loddy-freakin’-dah! We got ourselves a writer here! Hey, Dad, I can’t see too good is that Bill Shakespeare over there?
First of, his stash is trash…70′s are over, unless of course you’re gay (no judgment, all gods creatures).
Not based on this Outlook but in general…Like most communist he wants to slam shut the door of opportunity now that they have walked through it.
Ohhhhhhhhhh
The only lumberyards you own/respossible for is the stack of wood you’ve posted on this site!
Web Administrator who knows you’re a wanker
You must not SPIC-a english well.
I’d like the part of “gross, bill”
I really feel like my Joyce and Pynchon allusions give my pitch books that extra 2%
Petite Lap Giraffe > malnourished desert greyhound.
hi-dole-e ho-dole-e i’d like my stache back neighbor
My grandfather’s last words (not kidding): never write a paragraph longer than eight lines.
Ex Drexel Burnham Lambert Senior Managing Director of Client Service Communications
Back in my day, the primary reason to go to college was to avoid the draft. Scoring reasonably intelligent “ladies” (I’m at the office) was second.
-Old Guy
Lighten up, Francis.
I notice you don’t spend much time there…
examine your motives.
I tried to channel Pushkin one time… didn’t fly too well.
examine deez nuts biatch
What you just said is the most insanely idiotic thing I have
ever heard. At no point in you incoherent rambling responses were you even
close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. We are all now
dumber for having read it. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your
soul.
I hear you.
Drinking…but now I’m clean.
….unless you’re buying
Yes, if you live in a city where you have water restrictions you’d scrub with a brush instead of a hose. A hose uses too much water and with a brush, you can use recycled water.
Ayn Rand clawed her way out of hell to post this on DB.
Pretty hard to see where Bill is wrong here. Then again, you can NEVER have too much Critical Race Theory as an undergrad.
A Stripes ref?! Extremely underappreciated – I like your style.
“Soldier, I’ve noticed that you’re always last.”"I’m pacing myself, Sergeant.”
My bad it’s been a while since I’ve been to Bangladesh.