Assignment #2

Believer:

In William McGurn’s The Wall Street Journal article “Labor Day and the American Dream” he tries to sell the idea that “while college is a good way to gain human capital, it’s not the only way.” As a believer I can never agree more. Like Mike Rowe always states in the begging on his television series Dirty Jobs, these are the jobs that “make civilized life possible for the rest of us.” We all think that college is the way to go in order to have a future, but if everyone were to go about doing so where would that leave all the other careers that do not require a 4 year plan. Empty? Yes, in fact this has caused many of these jobs to go unfilled, as Robert states “American employers continue to complain about a shortage of workers with the kinds of skills these jobs demand.” This shortage in workers has caused a greater demand, and higher salaries. Further enforcing McGurns claim that college is not the only way to go. Even more convincing to his argument is when the idea of entrepreneurship is brought it. McGurns personal statement about the young landscaper who made his way to owning his own business is only a mere example of what can happen. Just look at the Google guys and their billions, even Tom from MySpace.

Doubter:

William McGurn’s idea that college is not the only way to gain a good source of human capital is very off. In his article in the Wall Street Journal “Labor Day and the American Dream” he mentions very, very few ways to obtain this. Such methods and careers he mentions is entrepreneurship, physical therapy, and a power plant operator. Ok, let’s say he is right and everyone bailed out of college to take advantage of these opportunities everything would backfire. America is the land of Opportunity, and FAILURE. William McGurn is trying to convince us and take a gamble. Out of the few ones who succeed at entrepreneurship there are so many people who fail and many of those people who failed dedicated a lot of resources and time and it all went to waste. Why take the chance when he himself says that “a college grad will make much more money and have significantly greater job security.” Like I said, if everyone were to bail out to grab their ticket on the easy train to success the seats are going to get filled and fast, then what happens to those who ditched college and got the training to become a physical therapist but could not get the job because no one’s hiring?