Dont' discount the value of learning a skilled trade.

[Millhouse]

(09-01-2017, 11:33 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Oh, by all means. If you want to make the choice go to college and advance your education, perhaps with something you're highly interested in, that's a great thing.

My main problem really just stems from the sudden unnecessary degree requirement for getting a lot of jobs, and the overwhelming push to force kids into going to college. There's a lot of stupid people out there being pushed into getting college degrees, who really aren't helped by getting the degrees, but are then in debt for it. (The US student loan debt is somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.5t right now.)

The cynic in me says when $1.5t is involved, you just need to follow the money to find out why this system is being pushed so hard despite it being unnecessary in most cases. The average monthly student loan payment for people aged 20-30 is like $350. Roughly 13.5% of the US population has student debt right now. Keep in mind roughly 30.4% of the US population is age 17-40.


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We're on pretty much the same page on this, it seems. :andy:

Gah imagine if Bernie and well Hillary got their way to provide free college, like for those from families that make under 125k a year. Can you imagine how many more stupid people would be going into college on the taxpayer's dime, only to flunk out or just quit. All the while a family that makes 150k or so has to figure out ways to pay for their kids to go to school, leaving them in debt probably. 


To the op : 

As the Judge said in Caddyshack, 'the world needs ditchdiggers too'. I believe that to be very true, though to me ditchdiggers can mean any skilled, labor, or blue-collar kind of job. 

Take truck drivers for example. Truck driving is the most important profession in our modern day world. Without them, our first world society would collapse within weeks, if not perhaps in days. The military keeps enemies at bay around the world. Farmers make sure our stores are stocked with food. Bankers make sure they are ripping people off in exchange for financial security, mostly. 

But truckers are the lifeline of our society on a day to day basis. If all trucks ceased to operate for good starting today, grocery stores would be emptied in a couple of days. Gas stations would run out of gas & diesel in a couple or so days. Then everything falls apart as people will end up doing whatever it takes to survive. Our society isn't designed today to be able to flip a switch back to the 1800s and everything will go on as normal.

So absolutely skilled jobs are very valuable, more valuable than many of not most college educated jobs. They are the pillars that hold up our society to be able to exist as it does today.