@TG:
This is a country built on immigration, I am sure those that decide to stay (on their own will), don’t revert to this instinct…
Yes, i agree to that. But, do you think that the US might lose their flexibility to assimilate people in the future? The Romans were great in “adopting” people (and gods and customs) from other nations, still this flexibility died away somehow later.
I’m not sure how accurate CC’s data is (any written articles on it? :)), but I consider the act of graduating from college (and high school for that matter) to be a huge accomplishment. Judging from the rates that Americans are now attending college and finishing high school, the intelligence curve is very high compared with 50 years ago.
I bet that is the case everywhere in the fiorst world. Parents want their children to “accomplish more than they did”, and the best way to let the children do that is giving them a higher degree.
Do you have studies that look at the qualities of the degrees as well? From my (gut)feeling, i think that this quality is decreasing, that higher degrees are kind of inflationary.