RE: What will become of the economy if colleges fail?
Well, you'll need to cite your source for your 6 straight years of declining enrollment because local enrollment is down but international enrollment is way up. They make more money enrolling international students and out of states than in-state, local students.
Private colleges are in general more expensive than state run colleges, especially if they have prestige. Also, your college needs to be accredited in order for your degree to matter. Employers look at degrees and differentiate them by school's prestige.
Whenever I read about someone saying colleges are scams, people are brainwashed, etc... I'm wondering if they actually know what they're talking about. If you're talking about gender studies or music histories major, then I agree, those are useless. However, my dear misguided poster, if you're talking about hard science major, then you'll find out that a majority of them can very much calculate/manage/handle their financial life just fine. In fact, going into a 4 year degree in a hard science such as engineering (mechanical, electrical, chemical) and compsci will almost always guarantee better job opportunity than having no degree.
The very fact is that engineering students do not have time to waste on social justice like safe space and cry box and they tend to be condescending toward non-engineering students. The people who actually make their money worth of college are these guys. They can think for themselves just fine, so you don't have to worry about being left-leaning brainwashed. In fact, they tend to be mid or right leaning because they actually make more money than no degree people and they want to keep it.
I'll counter your prediction with my own. AI is bad for everyone, more so on the no degree people because they can be replaced by robots controlled by AI. However, it's a long way until AI is capable to operate on their own in a dynamic environment, (controlled environment is decent, dynamic not yet). The people who work with AI to develop/test/modify/discover it will make a lot of money. The people who can tell AI to do only what they need will make a lot of money. Companies will still hire people with degrees because if they can't find workers locally, they will hire people globally with degrees. They're already doing that now. I think the chance that the entire world will eventually abandon colleges is near zero, unless Armageddon.
Just like Steemit, people with money make the rules, and people with no money will flock to them. Corporate will always find someone to hire because they're fucking rich.
Thoughts can be discovered by oneself but to repeat the entire process of molecular model to quantum mechanics to adaptation of electronic circuits last multiple lifetimes. If you're talking about hand waving, philosophy speaking, yea sure. Not science knowledge in the past 100 years, let alone newly discovered ones.
I forgot to add the article to the post about the decline of students at universities. http://hechingerreport.org/university-enrollment-decline-continues-into-sixth-straight-year/
The university system, in general, seems to have an agenda. They want to steer the masses in a certain direction and it's not good. What I laid out was a possible solution to the end of corporate dictatorship. With all due respect, you seem to accept the dictatorship as a normal part of life. The university system is of the system and people are waking up to it by not attending.
You give a credence to what I say by awakening there is an authoritative unit that authorizes the credibility of a school but I assume that you assume it's benign and there for the general good. If what I assume is correct, then I disagree with it. No one hold a monopoly on knowledge.
You're right in saying university system has agenda, leftish agenda and it's true they're steering students toward it. I do accept corporate dictatorship as a normal part of life. However, to me, it will never be a black and white issue. As a person, an individual, I can never hope to change the system. I also accept that is beyond my ability. What I do know is that I can choose to play the game or not and when to quit.
I agree people should be given an option to attend or not attend college. What I don't agree with is the blame rests entirely on the university system and not the students. You get what you put in, regardless what you want to do. If you pick a useless major expecting to make living wages, then maybe don't even bother going to college because that's not going to happen.
I do assume that the accreditation for college is benign and for general good because it only means I'm not getting scammed by some scummy fake institution that preys on student loans. Not to say that the government one wasn't, but these ones are even worst.
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/12/07/502601724/what-former-employees-say-itt-tech-did-to-scam-its-students
I don't think anyone hold a monopoly on knowledge, only monopoly on the accreditation. You can learn everything in college by yourself with free online classes like MIT open course, Coursera, Khan Academy. However, getting employers to accept those classes as proof of your competence will be very difficult.
Your post is not wrong but it's too generalized. University provides a jump in earning wages, and that is true for immigrants. Why is it that Asians and Middle Eastern immigrating to America always have their kids becoming engineers/doctors/scientist when they themselves are working a blue collar job? It's because they pick a worthwhile major, bust their asses in school then work internship in summer (no time for social justice), then get a 6 figures job by the time they graduate. University is just a mean, you decide the end game.
I guess there are multiple ways to solve a problem. Usually in Steemit, what I see is people being "woke" because they see flaws in a system and immediately attempt to persuade others to join in. I see being "woke" is seeing the flaws and having the knowledge to play their game to your advantage.
In regard to university, if you want to play the system, here's one way: Take college classes at local community college when you're still in highschool. Since you're in highschool, you don't have to pay tuition on those classes because k12 is covered by the government. Since they are college classes, you get credits for passing and they stay with you. You save money on introductory math/english/physics classes and general ed classes.