A profound bit of analysis in Business Week caught my attention. The American Economy is doing better than the numbers say. For example the expenditures on higher ed by families is considered as expense by federal economists and statisticians. Ask any baby boomer Dad and Mom about their take on their kids college expenses. These baby boomers will tell you that they are "investing" in their kid’s careers. They are investing on making their kids becoming more capable in "learning how to learn." This profound shift in how families view college expenditure is reflected in the totally changed attitude of today’s American parents ( the baby boomers) to their kids – the Echo Boomers, also called the Millenials and the Y-Generation. This attitude is radically different from American Parents of the sixties and seventies who basically expected kids to grow up and take care of themselves from 16 or 18.
Strangely enough the relatively new kids’ "college as investments " phenomena is not fully understood as the BW article alludes to. In any case this is a very welcome change for American parenting when it comes to preparing American kids for a global knowledge economy…