COVID-19

[nittany03]

But remember, kids, if you pick up a trade or God forbid join the evil military, you’re a failure! </SARCASM>

I ended up with an almost-free college education (3 years paid for), and a GI Bill in my pocket for a Masters. A good friend of mine growing up owns his own carpentry business now.

How many decent careers do middle-to-upper-class parents bias their kids out of due to pure prejudice? That’s part of the problem.

 

[taxi1]

We haven't banned driving.

I wish seat belts and air bags would lower the CFR for the virus by a factor or two.

I am consistently baffled by the stupid choices kids make with respect to college majors, only to leave college with debt and frustration on why they cannot land that straight-out-of-college-100k-a-year-job with their degree in underwater basket weaving.

I work at a college, and we are a huge part of the problem.

I feel bad for today's youth. I was able to work my way through college, paying my own tuition and living in an apartment while working part time the whole way through. Unimaginable now.

We've created a world where you "have" to have a college degree, where we've run up the cost of college above inflation every year always, where we make cheap loans available but that you can never declare bankruptcy against. Unless you're from a tech sector, you will be paying the loans off forever. The loan company stockholders and us university folks are living on the future of the young folks. Meanwhile, a generation is skipping home buying and all the things of the American dream.

This is the environment we created for them.

I see too many drop out after 2-3 even 4 years, with monster loan loads.

I'm trying to steer my youngest into the high tech trades, but he feels the siren call of "have to go to college".

Not much to do with COVID-19.

 

[ABMD]

i'm sure those are the same people that are expecting student loan forgiveness , paid for by the guy next door who didn't buy all the toys, lived within his means, saved up a nest egg and paid for his kids college

I was having this discussion with a family member. Those people/students made a conscience decision to go into that much debt and to go to a certain school knowing full-well what the costs would be. They made their decision now they have a personal responsibility to repay those loans. The people calling for loan repayment don't want to take responsibility for their actions (signing for a loan, attending a stupid expensive school, etc). I love that video of the guy asking Elizabeth Warren if he was going to get his money back after paying his daughter to go to school. Those of use doing the right thing would get screwed.

But remember, kids, if you pick up a trade or God forbid join the evil military, you’re a failure! </SARCASM>

I ended up with an almost-free college education (3 years paid for), and a GI Bill in my pocket for a Masters. A good friend of mine growing up owns his own carpentry business now.

How many decent careers do middle-to-upper-class parents bias their kids out of due to pure prejudice? That’s part of the problem.

I love this, people look down on the trades, but I know so many people in the trades that are extremely successful. People will ALWAYS need plumber, electricians, carpenters, etc.

 

[Pags]

I wish seat belts and air bags would lower the CFR for the virus by a factor or two.

I work at a college, and we are a huge part of the problem.

I feel bad for today's youth. I was able to work my way through college, paying my own tuition and living in an apartment while working part time the whole way through. Unimaginable now.

We've created a world where you "have" to have a college degree, where we've run up the cost of college above inflation every year always, where we make cheap loans available but that you can never declare bankruptcy against. Unless you're from a tech sector, you will be paying the loans off forever. The loan company stockholders and us university folks are living on the future of the young folks. Meanwhile, a generation is skipping home buying and all the things of the American dream.

This is the environment we created for them.

I see too many drop out after 2-3 even 4 years, with monster loan loads.

I'm trying to steer my youngest into the high tech trades, but he feels the siren call of "have to go to college".

Not much to do with COVID-19.

Always makes me wonder just what exactly are colleges doing with their endowments and profit? So many schools with monstrous piles of cash and yet they continue to increase tuition. I don't know if colleges are trying to make money while the market is hot but it certainly does seem that they're driving themselves into irrelevance as many people ask "does 400k of debt for a liberal arts degree make good sense?"

 

[taxi1]

Always makes me wonder just what exactly are colleges doing with their endowments and profit? So many schools with monstrous piles of cash and yet they continue to increase tuition. I don't know if colleges are trying to make money while the market is hot but it certainly does seem that they're driving themselves into irrelevance as many people ask "does 400k of debt for a liberal arts degree make good sense?"

Actually, an awful lot of them are failing right now. Students can't afford to attend them. The big ones are OK, the small liberal arts schools are suffering. I think that's a problem. You need people that can just plain think well. To write well is to think well. English majors are important too!

The whole country has switched to remote learning for this semester. I think people are going to realize that they can do an awful lot of learning without having to live in a dorm. This is going to change higher ed, is my prediction.

 

[BarryD]

But remember, kids, if you pick up a trade or God forbid join the evil military, you’re a failure! </SARCASM>

I ended up with an almost-free college education (3 years paid for), and a GI Bill in my pocket for a Masters. A good friend of mine growing up owns his own carpentry business now.

How many decent careers do middle-to-upper-class parents bias their kids out of due to pure prejudice? That’s part of the problem.

Even if you dare join the evil military, have fun paying for room and board (at some schools) . . . but at least people are gonna be getting some of it back.

 

[Jim123]

Always makes me wonder just what exactly are colleges doing with their endowments and profit? So many schools with monstrous piles of cash and yet they continue to increase tuition.

Colleges are run by people. Human nature includes a lot of things, including greed. In that regard, college administrators are no different than people from other walks of life. (Well, except for monks.)

Cue the Gordon Geck "Greed is Good" speech.


/break

I strongly agree with this:

You need people that can just plain think well. To write well is to think well....

Sloppy writing drives me batshit crazy. Not sloppy like when you rewrite your paragraph three times and now it's fragmented, not sloppy like a lone spelling error, even on an important document like a resume (I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt when it's just a single mistake), sloppy like when a person seems to read and write at an elementary school level and they're too lazy to rise above it.

And I'm a guy with one degree in engineering* and another one in international relations.* And if we're about to fall into a big recession, my plan for a long time now has been to use my GI Bill to get an A&P license- because I enjoy getting my hands dirty and I would like credentials to show for it.* I think all three areas are important- applied sciences, soft "sciences," and trades.



*Though I don't need the skills for job security or financial stability

 

[Swanee]

Not all jobs are meant to support someone as full time employment. I worked jobs as a teenager that I was happy to have at the time. Those jobs never would have existed if they were forced to pay enough for me to raise a family in one of the most expensive areas of the country.

So in places like Orange County those jobs go unfilled.

If you need cheap labor, you need a stable, cheap labor force. Teenagers aren't it.

 

[Treetop Flyer]

So in places like Orange County those jobs go unfilled.

If you need cheap labor, you need a stable, cheap labor force. Teenagers aren't it.

Then in places like Orange County you don’t get cheap burgers. It’s not rocket science.

 

[AllYourBass]

It'd be nice if 18-year-old kids fresh out of high school weren't shoveled lies about how college works and allowed to sign away an accumulated fortune on insanity-level student loans because everybody (their parents, their school, their mentors) told them that's what's normal and expected for an 18-year-old high school graduate to do, only to find that the cost of their premade decisions will cripple them into their middle-aged years -- all the while receiving blame for irresponsible decisions as they do what normal college freshmen do (e.g., navigate the post-high school waters where decisions are finally theirs to make, decide what they want to major in and possibly change that after researching job prospects, etc.).

God, sometimes I wish we did it how Germany does it. If you don't pass a certain aptitude in high school, you don't go to college. Enjoy your trade school! If you do pass that aptitude, your college is paid for.

Either way, there's a career waiting for you at the end of your pipline.

Less freedom? Sure. Fewer old people pointing fingers and telling you "See? Shouldn't have bought our bullshit, idiot!"? Definitely.

 

[wink]

This is what you get when the government suspends stupid regulation and let's entrepreneurs do their thing. Booze to the rescue! 'Merica!

Seriously, we are now seeing the drag some government regulation has on business. The administration drops certain regulation and perfectly effective and safe mask deliveries explode. Similar help for ventilator production, streamlining of drug, virus test kit and medical device testing and approval.

 

[Jim123]

This is what you get when the government suspends stupid regulation and let's entrepreneurs do their thing. Booze to the rescue! 'Merica!

 

[OscarMyers]

View attachment 24855

Just tryin to make a livin for his family...

 

[taxi1]

This is what you get when the government suspends stupid regulation and let's entrepreneurs do their thing. Booze to the rescue! 'Merica!

Sterilizing the COVID ward.

 

[cfam]

It'd be nice if 18-year-old kids fresh out of high school weren't shoveled lies about how college works and allowed to sign away an accumulated fortune on insanity-level student loans because everybody (their parents, their school, their mentors) told them that's what's normal and expected for an 18-year-old high school graduate to do, only to find that the cost of their premade decisions will cripple them into their middle-aged years -- all the while receiving blame for irresponsible decisions as they do what normal college freshmen do (e.g., navigate the post-high school waters where decisions are finally theirs to make, decide what they want to major in and possibly change that after researching job prospects, etc.).

God, sometimes I wish we did it how Germany does it. If you don't pass a certain aptitude in high school, you don't go to college. Enjoy your trade school! If you do pass that aptitude, your college is paid for.

Either way, there's a career waiting for you at the end of your pipline.

Less freedom? Sure. Fewer old people pointing fingers and telling you "See? Shouldn't have bought our bullshit, idiot!"? Definitely.

Ehhh, I’d be careful what you wish for. I’m sure you’re aware that Germany has its own set of problems. The most common complaint I’ve heard among my German friends is the lack of career flexibility. For example, one of my close friends is a master brewer, but he barely makes a living wage. This is a guy who has multiple higher level degrees (not only in brewing). He’d love to switch careers to be more upwardly mobile, but he’s pretty much stuck unless he moves to another country.

I won’t dispute that the free education here is great, but the quality of it widely varies.