I think women are more motivated to educate themselves because the few well-paying jobs that don't require a degree are largely unattractive to them. I live in an area with a large oil industry and it's not uncommon for kids right out of high school to go up to the oilfield and be making $80k within a few years. These are intensely physical jobs in remote areas that are almost exclusively done by men. The construction industry and most skilled trades are similar.

I'm amazed that the author managed to write 2 pages about this subject without mentioning welfare even once.

Are you saying that if welfare benefits were reduced we'd have a lower unemployment rate? That a significant number of the currently unemployed have decided to remain unemployed because welfare is good enough?

That's certainly an effect to consider, but I really wonder whether it's actually significant in the US - welfare in the US is not particularly generous compared to a lot of developed countries, and I don't know that so many people really would find it a good enough alternative to working that I can believe they're really turning down reasonable jobs in favor of being on the dole. If this was, say, Ireland, where the government will literally put you up in a house and give you spending money if you don't have a job, I'd say it was reasonable to blame that for a lot of the unemployment problems, but here, I just don't see it - the unemployment rates have been pretty closely aligned with the economy as a whole, which makes me think it's the availability of work that's the issue, not the willingness to take it on.

I am amazed at the vitriol in the comments following the article. A sign of serious issues a-brew.

I dunno, xenophobic hate-mongers have been present on the internet for a long time. This seems pretty typical to me. Probably some white supremacist website linked to this article.

I think they are all from the same guy. I can't imagine more than one person calling H1-Bs "ethnic cleansing."

I really hope not, but you are entirely correct that the comments are crazy hateful. I have never seen anything like that, but it shouldn't surprise me since almost all communities want insightful and decent members. I guess the rest have to go somewhere.

Access to higher education? How about the much discussed education bubble with the proliferation of for profit colleges?

I don't really see those for profit colleges as true higher education. Most of the degrees are for a semi-highly skilled technician that usually doesn't require some sort of bar or licensure exam rather than a white collar job(eg paralegal instead of lawyer, physician assistant instead of nurse or doctor, or computer technician instead or low-end programmer instead of computer scientist). Yes the for-profit colleges are above trade schools, but for the above reason, I don't think they qualify as true higher education.