A few days late, I finally read the grade inflation article George referenced Tuesday. I was struck by two sentences in particular:

With so few hours filled with learning, boredom sets in and students have to find something to pass the time. Instead of learning, they drink.
A recent survey of more than 30,000 first year students across the country showed that nearly half were spending more hours drinking than they were studying.

So let me get this straight . . . our colleges and universities charge tens of thousands of dollars per year to provide, what? An effortless, drunken sense of accomplishment?

Perhaps a seemingly ever-expanding economy could absorb graduates of such schools, train them over time to understand that work trumps play, and then provide the material benefits that graduates expect (no, demand). But for now those days seem to be past.