Overwhelming consensus dictates that a college education is a necessity for a fulfilling career. That is, our society expects a university degree as immediate proof of an individual’s value. An engineering firm hires an engineer certified by a college degree based on the fact that the degree offers confirmation that the person is a worthwhile investment. The degree is a useful tool for businessmen; it allows for them to seek suitable employees and for qualified professionals to seek appropriate employment. The assumption that a person’s degree is a viable representative of that person’s merit saves time and money for both employers and potential employees. However, the possession of such a degree does not entitle its earner to employment. No man is entitled to anything that comes at the expense of another. No employer is obligated to hire any man solely on the principle that he has a college education. If the college degree does not reflect anything valuable to the hirer, it implies that the holder of the degree is not worth the investment.

In essence, the degree acts as objective evidence of an individual’s marketability. A good businessman does not hire a worker because the worker needs a job; he hires a worker because he requires a certain job to be carried out. If the inverse were true, incompetence would plague the workforce. A hospital hires a doctor to diagnose and heal so that the hospital can process more patients and earn more money. It does not hire the doctor because he needs a job; the hospital owes nothing to the unemployed. And it certainly owes nothing to those who are unemployed due to incompetence. If one’s resume, including education credentials, shows that he is capable of performing and producing, a company will hire him to gain a profit from his employment. If a person expects a job simply because he deserves a wage, he also expects that the company providing the job is willing to lose money on an incapable prospect.

Capability is relative. A person trained as an engineer is of no use in a pediatrics facility. Each industry will hire a uniquely qualified person based on his capability to fulfill the tasks that the industry requires. The college degree allows companies to identify suitable candidates. If a man chooses a subject in college based on the demand for people studied in the discipline, he will increase his chances of being hired. He is a commodity that has more value when demand is high. If demand is low, his college degree is worth less. Eventually, it is not worth the paper that the degree is printed on. Admirable though the pursuit of knowledge may be, it is wise to choose a field that companies value. If there is no demand for anthropologists, anthropology majors will not be hired. If a man believes the world owes him employment merely because he obtained a degree, he is mistaken. Who owes him a wage? Should a car manufacturer sacrifice profit to pay for an anthropologist it does not need? Should a hospital or bank sacrifice their profit? Should every working individual sacrifice profit so that a government agent may hire the anthropologists for studies that will not benefit them? The answer is a resounding no. No man or business should be required to adopt to a system that guarantees employment to a person.

Because of this, a college graduate who complains about his unfair unemployment is unrealistic. He remains unemployed because nobody found him worth paying for. A manager expects an employee who works for the benefit of the company; this is why the company hires him in the first place. A business that does not fire the man who cannot produce enough to earn more than his wage will fail; it practices the habit of producing at a loss. And if a man’s college degree is in an inappropriate field for a particular industry, it precludes him from being capable of earning a profit in that industry, and he will not be hired in that field. If his degree has no value, and if no industry can profit from his expertise, he will not be hired professionally.