Credentials have become necessities
of everyday life and achievement. To have a college or professional degree is
to have intelligence and to be able to succeed in being comfortable. “Death by
Degrees” even states that our system of education is, “a system of
stratification, and only secondly…a system for imparting knowledge.” To agree
with this statement does not seem ethical, but in some ways, it is understandable.
Attending university becomes a daunting task when one begins to realize how
much money and effort is required. The article states that student debt in the
United States alone exceeds to over $1 trillion, which only adds to the idea of
education being a system that establishes social rank. Frankly, some students
who wish to cannot attend college because of the cost, and many who do choose
to earn a degree struggle with their debt in the future. This can be because
they decided to finish their education with a bachelor’s instead of attending
graduate school. That decision often leads to lower paying jobs or their
careers becoming “underwater assets.”
In the nation’s current state of
mind, the type of credential a person has is far more important than it used to
be. When comparing places that two people have graduated from—with one from a
less than five star rated law school and one from Yale—it is blatantly obvious
which person is going to be chosen for a job. Becoming credentialed has become
necessary. As “Death by Degrees” points out, however, this “training” has come
to support a system that is costly for both corporate clients who overpay as
well as for small-time criminal defendants who can’t afford representation at
all. Despite the fact that many suffer financially because of this, there is
dignity in credentials. This needs to change, or else it will be harder and
harder to attain accreditation and the prices of doing so will continue to
shoot up. The idea of change proves to be difficult. “Death by Degrees” states,
“Quadrupling the supply of gold stickers is one way to devalue the credential;
getting rid of the sticker system altogether is another.” While some suffer,
some will continue to get a leg up and the never ending cycle will continue.
The ones at the top will not willingly step down to allow the bottom to rise
up, proving that, no matter how unfair they are, credentials will always be a
part of success.
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