So I don't think that information is much more accessible, broadly speaking, though Internet access has certainly increased the amount of information on the topic that's readily accessible.
The shift in attitude could be owing to other factors, or maybe it just took time for the warnings to sink in, i.e. generationally.
I wonder if it is change in the way risks are processed and considered overall.
Back when I was in high school, you could make mistakes and still end up successful. You could get a few B's in your grades, you could decide not to do so many sports and extracurriculars, you could get detention, you could even get in light trouble with the police for horsing around--and still make it into a good University and move on to a good career. I know because I made all of those mistakes. Plus, the consequences for being mediocre were not too severe. B students had community college, C and D students had decent jobs at the mill and the factory or could learn a trade, and so on.
Today, the bar for entry into a comfortable, middle class career is so high, that my kid needs to make zero mistakes. She has to get straight As, she has to stay out of any kind of trouble, she has to have the right polished "profile" for all the various career- and life-gatekeepers she will meet and need to pass. And if she doesn't pass the gatekeepers, where is she going to end up? There is no safety net and no real humane jobs left for lower-performers. Life is so much more bifurcated now, the kids know it, and they stress about not making a mis-step.
In the 80s I was competing with my small town. Now, kids are competing with the entire world.
I agree the linear progression of school>College>good job seems a lot more cutthroat and inflexible. That said, it seems like there are still lots of alternative paths out there for smart motivated people- they just arent clearly paved.
I have a long time to think about it, but I'm not even sure if I will encourage my kids to go to college, for the reasons you outlined. They may be better off doing work that isnt readily outsourced. Much of this will depend on what the economy looks like in 15 years.
As it stands today, I'd be tempted to give my kid 150k to start a plumbing business instead of paying for college.
Now, housing is way more expensive. Basic things are more expensive. McDonalds hires less and pays less relatively to what they used to.
I just went up state and visited a couple friends who failed to go to college or do anything with their lives. Nearly everyone is gone from the home town, because all the jobs are in cities. Small rural towns are basically empty of younger people. The few jobs that do exist are AWFUL, give you less agency than in the past, have zero upwards mobility because every single company is either a tiny business where the owner is the manager or a giant megacorp that pushes management down from Corporate, and STILL pay less than that burger flipping job did. They are soulless. They have almost no friends, almost no options, almost no money, and the place they live is literally dying around them, because it has been for 40 years.
More women go to college, so more of the people left in tiny rural hometowns are lonely men, who cannot find a partner, because there literally aren't many available.
They look at the next 40 years of their lives and see nothing. There's nothing to hope for. There's nothing to attempt to improve for. There's no chance that someone will offer them a good job, because everything is owned by like six companies.
>As it stands today, I'd be tempted to give my kid 150k to start a plumbing business instead of paying for college.
Guess what, being in the position to give your kid $150k period means they are already near the top of the food chain. The vast majority of Americans growing up can't even come close to that. Having a parent or parents that have that kind of expendable income is already chart topping levels of "Has a support structure they can rely on". None of the kids suffering from "no options" syndrome had that.