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Colleges: Consumer Products or Investments?
大学是投资还是消费？
There are few more sobering online activities than entering data into college-tuition calculators and gasping as the Web spits back a six-figure sum.
几乎没有什么在线活动比输入数据计算大学学费更重大的了，当网页上出现六位数的计算记过时，您可能会惊讶得屏住呼吸。
But economists say families about to go into debt to fund four years of partying, as well as studying, can console themselves with the knowledge that college is an investment that, unlike many bank stock, should yield huge dividends.
但是，经济学家认为与银行股票不同，大学学费是一笔注定获利丰厚的投资，即使各个家庭因为为孩子四年的学习和社交生活支付学费而负债累累，也可以因此聊以自慰。
A 2008 study by two Harvard economists notes that the "labor-market premium to skill"-or the amount college graduates earned that's greater than what high-school graduate earned-decreased for much of the 20th century, but has come back with a vengeance（报复性地）since the 1980s.
哈佛大学的两位经济学家2008年的一项调查显示“劳动力市场技能溢价”——20世纪的大多时期，大学毕业生的薪酬虽然高于高中毕业生，但这个差距正逐渐缩小。然而，20世纪80年代以来，这个差距再次拉大。
There's no question that going to college is a smart economic choice. But a look at the strange variations in tuition reveals that the choice about which college to attend doesn't come down merely to dollars and cents.
毫无疑问，上大学是聪明的决定、实惠的选择。但是，各大学数目不一的学费也着实让人奇怪，这也说明选择进入哪所大学学习也不仅仅至关乎金钱。
Does going to Columbia University yield a 40% greater return than attending the University of Colorado at Boulder as an out-of-state student? Probably not. Does being an out-of-state student at the University of Colorado at Boulder yield twice the amount of income as being an in-state student there? Not likely.
哥伦比亚大学的学生其将来的薪酬回报会比博尔德克罗拉大学的外州学生高出40%吗？不一定。博尔德科罗拉多大学的外州学生其将来的薪酬会比该校内州学生高出一倍吗？也不一定。
No, in this consumerist age, most buyers aren't evaluating college as an investment, but rather as a consumer product-like a car or clothes or a house. And with such purchases, price is only one of many crucial factors to consider.
不，在这个崇尚消费的时代，大多数买主并不把上大学看做是投资，而是将其看做消费产品——就如一辆私家车和一屋子的衣服。购买这类商品时，价格只是需要考虑的众多关键因素之一。
So which is it? Is college an investment product like a stock or a consumer product like a car? In keeping with the automotive world's hottest consumer trend, maybe it's best to characterize is as a bybird（混合动力汽车）: an expensive consumer product that, over time, will pay rich dividends.
因此，大学到底是什么呢？是像股票一样的投资产品还是像汽车一样的消费品？按照汽车行业最热门的消费趋势来说，大学也许更像是一辆混合动力汽车：价格昂贵但回报日益丰厚的消费品。
