塔玛拉:那得看他们从事的是哪个行业。社会工作者、图书管理员、老师——这些现在都是需要硕士学位的行业。
Interviewer: Will it pay off if they go and get higher education?
记者:要是获得了更高的学历,他们的投入会有回报吗?
Tamara: Sometimes it will, but not always, because what that means is taking on a lot more debt in the order of $46,000 for your traditional master's degree, hundred-some thousand for going to law school.
塔玛拉:有时会,但不是一定的,因为获得一般的硕士学位需要四万六千美元,而上法学院需要十多万。那就意味着要背负更加多的债务。
Interviewer: And you said starting salaries are going down?
记者:你说过起点薪酬却在下降?
Tamara: They are. If you look at what's happened over the last three decades, let's take college graduates: your typical earnings for somebody who's in their 20s and early 30s have declined in three decades after you adjust for inflation. And for people without bachelor's degrees, their earnings have declined by about 30%, so it's gotten much, much harder to earn a decent living if you don't have that college degree.
塔玛拉:正是如此。要是你回顾过去三十年的情况,以大学毕业生为例:在调整了通胀水平后,那些二十多岁或者三十出头的人的典型收入在三十年里已经下降了。对于没有本科学位的人,他们的收入已经下降了大约30%,因此如果你没有大学学位,要过上体面的生活是越来越难了。
