Getting a degree isn’t BAD, is it?

Of course not! Fellow Money Blog Network member Flexo makes some excellent points regarding my suggestion not to get over-educated, so I'm responding to them in hopes of opening some more discussion.

The post might lead people to believe that I'm anti-education. That's not true. Constant learning is absolutely, positively essential to succeeding in life. In some careers, it's absolutely, positively essential to not getting a pink slip — things move too quickly to rest even for a second.

Gary North has a lot of things to say about advanced degrees. (He has a PhD in economics, I believe.) He has contended that college degrees are largely job-hunting licenses — and often very expensive ones at that, leaving the licensee to pay off the cost of the license for many years. As for PhDs — don't even bother in some subjects. You're wasting your time if you want financial payback. The universities have a vested interest in recruiting PhD candidates, and the job market for PhDs in the humanities is horrible. If a college degree is like a deer-hunting license, a PhD in history is like a deer-hunting license where you can only use a blowgun with Nerf darts. The brass ring — a tenured position at a university, or anywhere for that matter — is located about 1,000 feet higher than the peak of Mt. Everest. Claw your way to the top, then jump really high.The sciences are a little kinder to PhDs. But only a little! Businesses hire PhDs in physics, biology, etc. There are more options. There's still a lot of competition though, and American scientists are at a disadvantage under most circumstances. Foreign PhD students strongly outnumber American PhD students in the sciences, and they will (other things being equal) work harder and a lot more cheaply. This is not a stereotype. I've seen it!

On the whole, graduate students are extremely cheap labor. Assistant professors or post-doctoral associates are only slightly less cheap labor. Nine years of school, or more, after high school to earn $30k per year? It isn't much more than that. I've seen it! And that's for a science post-doc! The economics are against you.

Did I make the right decision with my physics PhD? Well, I have it — no one can take it away from me. Do I flaunt it? No. Has it made my life better? Probably — my salary now allows me some comfort, and allows me the time to try other avenues of income-building. Would I recommend someone follow in my footsteps? An undergrad degree: probably, if they're technically inclined and want to learn how to solve problems in a general way and obtain skills in a number of areas. Beyond that? Probably not, unless they really, REALLY wanted to do research and development.

If you're merely interested in a subject, read! A course, or a degree, is an awfully expensive way to learn about something, and arguably it's less effective than digging into books and other resources yourself.

If your employer will pay you for a degree, that's another matter, but they'll probably only pay for the degree if it's directly applicable to the job you're doing now and they see the potential in you to flourish with the degree in hand.
Basically, extra formal education is appropriate for some circumstances and has lousy payoff for others. Examine carefully why you're wanting the degree, what the sacrifices and payoffs are. And not getting more degree than you need can be a sign of wisdom and is not a sign of lack of knowledge or skill.