November 3, 2009 3:21PM 

# Degree Disaster Behind The Great Wall 

By [Neal McCluskey](https://www.cato.org/people/neal-mccluskey) 

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Based on my regular reading on education, but not China specifically, I know that the world’s most populous nation has had a lot of trouble finding jobs for its throngs of recent college graduates. I wrote a bit about that yesterday, pointing out that the [important higher education lesson from China](https://www.cato.org/2009/11/02/if-china-jumped-off-a-bridge-would-we-do-it-too/) is that pumping out more college grads is meaningless if they don’t have skills that are in demand. Well, thanks to a very helpful Cato@Liberty reader who actually lives in China (and wishes to remain anonymous) I now have a much better idea just how important that lesson is. He directed me to [this *Asia Times* article](http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/KJ22Cb03.html) that includes, among many fascinating tidbits, this startling revelation:

> An explosive report released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in September said earnings of graduates *were now at par and even lower than those of migrant laborers* \[italics added\].

Wow! If this report is accurate, until now I have had no idea how truly ridiculous Washington’s obsession with pumping out more degrees to keep up with the Chinese has been — and I’ve been pretty sure it’s ridiculous! Much more troubling, if I’ve had little clue about the true extent of the absurdity, imagine how far from grasping it our government-loving federal politicians have been! Of course, as I wrote yesterday, even if they did know it, they probably wouldn’t let on.

##### Related Tags 

[Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom) 

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