Originally Posted by
Thor29
I think the education thing is highly overrated. If every poor person in America received a college degree, then they would raise the bar so that you needed a PHD to get a decent job. The more people with college degrees, the more people with college degrees you'll see waiting tables and making lattes. While I agree that as an individual it might make sense to go to college to become more competitive, it really isn't a solution to systemic poverty. Considering that productivity increases have resulted in more profit for the ultra-wealthy and stagnant wages for everyone else, I think a little re-distribution of wealth is a much better answer. We can start by raising the minimum wage so that it is a living wage instead of an insult to working people everywhere.
I agree with that. A college degree is certainly no guarantee of career success.
I do think that technical college degrees are a great value today. I see a lot of folks graduating from tech schools and starting at $60,000 to $80,000 per year in specialty fields like electricity, construction, and welding.
Better yet, the tech schools allow people to freshen their education quickly, affordably, and conveniently.
I still meet people who say they hit a ceiling at work without a college degree and they go back to get a university degree. Surely, this is the case for many white-collar workers.
Still, I believe that a university degree by itself is over-rated for most graduates.
One thing is for sure, I would not want to be a 30 something years old in America with only a high school degree or GED or ...less than that. I have seen high school graduates with some work experience making $22,000 per year, but for most, that is the ceiling.