Paul Krugman
November 2, 2011, 4:18 pm
OK, I see that some people are doubling down on the claim that rising inequality is all about education — when what the CBO report drives home is that this is all wrong, the big increase has come from gains at the very top. I have to admit that I have a sneaking suspicion that this is in part driven by KDS (DS for derangement syndrome): some people will rush to take a position precisely because I have debunked it. But anyway, it’s really, really wrong.
[...] [see graph with familiar info on how almost all gains in income since 1979 have gone to the top 1%]
For comparison, here’s some data on wages of men by education from EPI:
Not the perfect comparison, but good enough. Notice the difference in scales. College graduates have made only modest gains, and basically nothing after 2000; even advanced degrees weren’t giving anything like the gains we see for the top 1 percent (and the much bigger gains of the top 0.1 percent).
Yes, college grads have done better than non; but inequality in America is mainly a story about a small elite pulling away from everyone else, including ordinary college grads. And we’ve know this for a long time! There is no excuse for getting it wrong.
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At least part of what is happening is that as a larger percentage of the population get college degrees, a college degree is being required for jobs that didn't used to require it. This reduces the number of resumes and applications that companies need to spend time looking at.
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