the reality in today's world is that experienced tradespeople earn as much or more and have better job security.

when we demand that they all go to college. The debt industry pushed for metrics which score public high schools based on what percentage of their graduates go on to college.

The push is so pervasive that even crafts and trades like cooking are packaged as "college" by businesses like the Culinary Institute of America.

Quality isn't chosen from the Project Management Triangle very often anymore. Some of this is pressure from like-minded overseas competition, some of it appears to just be greed. So, an engineer with that prestigious sheepskin who studied for four years and does things the right way and stubbornly follows best practices may find himself outshined by homegrown coworkers with a knack for quick fixes and shortcuts.

May as well just go with the flow.

In other words, NBC could, in effect, look in the back of the "teacher's edition" and tell us whether student debt for a 4-year degree plus interest plus the 4-years of missed income is more or less than the amount of additional income a degree generates over the lifetime of the debtor. But they don't. They make the story about beliefs rather than facts.

As the saying goes "Facts kill discussions."

Call it 9-10% annually over the long term. Strictly financially speaking, they are similar that way. That said, the degree has some serious up-front advantages. You get an education and will then likely work in a field of your choice. On the other hand, that ROI stops the moment you quit working. The S&P index fund keep compounding forever!

Some degrees do a little better, some MUCH worse.

Only rich kids deserve to get a degree. Poor kids should just forget all that and get to work. No union protection, no retirement plan, “right to work state”, no social safety net. Fuck you, get to work and do that until you die. Fuck you, you should have been born rich.
Oh, and if you lost your job, it’s because that brown person (who the government says I don’t have to pay as much) took your JOB!!!!!

Sad reality. I’m not advocating that everyone needs to get a college degree, I was able to ge an Associates degree via my experience in the military, but there are an overwhelming amount of jobs that the requirement is a Bachelor degree. Fortunately for me, I’m close to being able to retire retire and don’t need to worry about it anymore.

Many successful people went into trades, they are a valuable commodity in our shared society, but with no protections and states that catered to business over employees what’s the point of going to a trade school and becoming an apprentice with the hope of 3 or more years later becoming a certified tradesman.

Saint ronny wanted a service economy, all that he wanted is here. Media will convince everyone that you don’t need education, you need to get to work. Media will convince everyone that you can’t trust a union, they are leftist or in the case of teachers unions, they want to indoctrinate your kids.
Media will convince everyone that the way to your prosperity is dependent on YOU, work for yourself, not the “man” and do your own investing for yourself retirement. Every stockbroker can’t wait for the dumbasses to come calling.

Sorry for the rant, Cardinals suck and I have Scotch…

Cheers everyone

. . . all our public institutions were converted to "run it like a business" for profit institutions back in the late '80s early '90s?
This is the end result.