<story><title>Buyer&apos;s Remorse: High Debt and Low Pay Leave Some College Grads Rueful</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-28/buyer-s-remorse-high-debt-and-low-pay-leave-some-grads-rueful</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tsss</author><text>The common denominator for making a lot of money is not &amp;quot;the trades&amp;quot; but owning a business. Of course he&amp;#x27;s gonna make more if he doesn&amp;#x27;t have to relinquish the majority of his profits to a boss.&lt;p&gt;A lot of people here and on reddit like to romanticize the trades while sitting in an air-conditioned office like it&amp;#x27;s some secret tip to instant wealth without the need to study for years. But the reality is grim for the majority of salaried tradesmen. It&amp;#x27;s a job that is very hard on your body and the heralded &amp;quot;fresh air&amp;quot; suddenly sounds a lot less nice when you have to do physical labor in intense heat or cold.&lt;p&gt;Those who go above and beyond will always succeed no matter the field but for the average Joe a solid education is a much better bet and you are doing them a disservice by spreading these second-hand anecdotes.</text></item><item><author>sharkweek</author><text>I’ve told this story before on here, but most of my social circle went to college. In general, most of those I’ve stayed in touch with are doing alright for themselves.&lt;p&gt;But we graduated college between 2007-2010, so it was a rough economy to be looking for a first job.&lt;p&gt;One friend skipped college and joined the local electrician union. He did his 10 years to get his lifetime card, and started his own business a few years ago.&lt;p&gt;Not only is he already making a ton of money, he has zero debt, and more importantly charges close to whatever he wants an hour because of how in demand he is.&lt;p&gt;He jokes that he’s going to be the only electrician in the city in the next ten years because all the old guard is retiring, and way fewer millennials went into trades.&lt;p&gt;College would have been a bad idea for him and he knew it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>csa</author><text>&amp;gt; for the average Joe a solid education is a much better bet and you are doing them a disservice by spreading these second-hand anecdotes.&lt;p&gt;I agree with everything you said up to the above quote.&lt;p&gt;I’m not sure how you characterize “the average Joe”, but I assure you that the 50th percentile of college age people by any reasonable measure of aptitude will not be able to finish college with any degree, and they will certainly not be able to get a degree that will likely lead to (relatively) high pay like engineering or nursing.&lt;p&gt;About 32% of 24 year olds (maybe 25 yo) have an undergraduate degree. If you have a casual conversation with the 20%-32% folks (spitballing this number), you would probably be shocked about how little most of them know about anything, including their “major”. These folks were basically socially promoted through an undergraduate degree. This happens a lot more than many folks would like to believe, and it boils down to ability to pay.&lt;p&gt;If you need some anecdotal evidence of this, I strongly encourage you to teach or be a TA for a required freshman writing course (esp. at a lower competitive university &amp;#x2F; junior college). The inability of many of these folks to write a coherent short essay or even a coherent paragraph would make your brain explode.&lt;p&gt;These are the average Joe’s you are referring to. College, at least in its current form, is not the answer for these folks.</text></comment>
<story><title>Buyer&apos;s Remorse: High Debt and Low Pay Leave Some College Grads Rueful</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-28/buyer-s-remorse-high-debt-and-low-pay-leave-some-grads-rueful</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tsss</author><text>The common denominator for making a lot of money is not &amp;quot;the trades&amp;quot; but owning a business. Of course he&amp;#x27;s gonna make more if he doesn&amp;#x27;t have to relinquish the majority of his profits to a boss.&lt;p&gt;A lot of people here and on reddit like to romanticize the trades while sitting in an air-conditioned office like it&amp;#x27;s some secret tip to instant wealth without the need to study for years. But the reality is grim for the majority of salaried tradesmen. It&amp;#x27;s a job that is very hard on your body and the heralded &amp;quot;fresh air&amp;quot; suddenly sounds a lot less nice when you have to do physical labor in intense heat or cold.&lt;p&gt;Those who go above and beyond will always succeed no matter the field but for the average Joe a solid education is a much better bet and you are doing them a disservice by spreading these second-hand anecdotes.</text></item><item><author>sharkweek</author><text>I’ve told this story before on here, but most of my social circle went to college. In general, most of those I’ve stayed in touch with are doing alright for themselves.&lt;p&gt;But we graduated college between 2007-2010, so it was a rough economy to be looking for a first job.&lt;p&gt;One friend skipped college and joined the local electrician union. He did his 10 years to get his lifetime card, and started his own business a few years ago.&lt;p&gt;Not only is he already making a ton of money, he has zero debt, and more importantly charges close to whatever he wants an hour because of how in demand he is.&lt;p&gt;He jokes that he’s going to be the only electrician in the city in the next ten years because all the old guard is retiring, and way fewer millennials went into trades.&lt;p&gt;College would have been a bad idea for him and he knew it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sharkweek</author><text>My point isn’t that everyone should quit college and join a trade union, my point is that it can be a viable option for a lot of people, ESPECIALLY in lieu of taking on a bunch of debt at a young age.</text></comment>