Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

Re:Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as wort... by pfdietz on Sunday November 30, 2025 @07:15AM (#46096023)

Strategic motivation? If one assumes the US is going to be globally involved, yes, but that's begging the question.

Economic motivation? Not so much now, with the US being a dominant oil producer, and with petroleum itself losing importance. Even then, it's questionable if this could justify the full cost of the US military.

I think the original motivation was two fold: it was a combination of some sort of moral obligation to defend the "free world" from authoritarians, and (after WW2) a desire to keep small countries (and recent WW2 enemies) from deciding their only option for defense was their own nuclear deterrent.

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Re:Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as wort... by amanaplanacanal on Sunday November 30, 2025 @09:51AM (#46097098)

I don't see much evidence that's the US wants to defend the world from authoritarians. Some of their closest allies are authoritarian countries.

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Re:Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as wort... by pfdietz on Sunday November 30, 2025 @12:17PM (#46098490)

Expansionist authoritarians, which in the post war world was communists.

Why would the world need defending from non-expansionist authoritarians?

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Re:Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as wort... by amanaplanacanal on Sunday November 30, 2025 @05:35PM (#46101117)

Maybe. They seem to actually like expansionist authoritarians now. Evidence being the Russia Ukraine peace effort.

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Re:Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as wort... by pfdietz on Thursday December 04, 2025 @08:06PM (#46155625)

Another thing the US did in the post-war world was apply economic leverage to dismantle European empires. This can also be viewed as defending nations against external coercion.

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