Andrew Yang Asks: Do Our Kids Still Need to Go to College?
Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang posted a question on platform X, asking "Are our kids still going to college?" and linked to his Substack article titled "Is College (Still) Worth It?".
Yang pointed out that the rapid arrival of AI will significantly reduce the education premium, diluting the value of many degrees; AI is consuming traditional entry-level positions for new graduates, leading to an increase in unemployment rates among college graduates, while their debt burdens remain unchanged.
Low-cost, career-oriented programs or top universities still hold appeal, but the cost-effectiveness of expensive degrees with no clear employment pathways is sharply declining; universities are facing difficulties in enrollment and pressure to close, prompting parents and students to reassess the cost-benefit of higher education.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Andrew Yang has continuously focused on the impact of technology on employment and education since his 2020 campaign. This article continues his warnings about the impact of AI on white-collar jobs, emphasizing that the traditional path of "going to college = good job" is collapsing in the AI era, where soft skills (resilience, communication, leadership) are more important than specific majors.
In terms of capital pathways, families and students are shifting educational expenditures from high-debt traditional liberal arts/general studies to low-cost online, vocational training, or elite schools. At the same time, the proliferation of AI tools lowers the barriers to self-learning, driving capital towards AI-driven new educational institutions and skill certification platforms like Khan Academy.
Similar to the transition from apprenticeship to formal university education after the Industrial Revolution, and the resurgence of community colleges and vocational training after 2008, higher education is currently in a mid-to-late stage of transitioning from a "degree barrier" to a focus on "skills + adaptability," accelerated by AI's de-intermediation process.
Structural judgment: This essentially belongs to technological substitution. AI directly replaces a large number of cognitive entry-level jobs and knowledge transmission functions, with the mechanism being that large models lower the barriers to learning and production, shifting the educational value from "diploma signaling" to "irreplaceable human unique abilities that cannot be easily replicated by AI," concentrating capital and talent from the traditional university system to new low-cost, highly adaptable learning paths.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
Degrees sell signals, real abilities sell irreplaceability.
AI devours entry-level positions; education should return to its apprenticeship essence.
When debt persists and premiums fade, parents are left with one question: Can this diploma still buy a future?