Late Stage Capitalism
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Edit: Going to just bold 'vast majority' since people seem eager to ignore that part of what I wrote.
I strongly disagree.
Unless you're born into a wealthy zip code (and your zip code of birth correlates strongly with whether or not you become successful), you have four choices as far as I can see it: Crime, a lifetime of debt for a college degree, risk death in the military, or work a dead-end job until you inevitably can't afford to live.
That is what the vast majority of young people are facing. They want to work, but even if they get a job, it doesn't keep up with the cost of living and neither ruling party is going to lift a finger to help them.
The college degree also does not guarantee you're not working a dead-end job! I know graduates doing things like driving school busses, working as a barista, and just working in an apartment building office. No guarantee you'll find anything in your desired field
Good point. And even doctors and lawyers are finding it a struggle to live, because of the debt burden.
Or just be smart, hard working, and get scholarships by going to schools that offer generous aid packages.
And where does that leave the rest of us mere mortals, you know the 99% of us humans that don't enjoy the smell of their own farts
We attended the college scholarship presentations for my kids. A bunch of scholarship folk from the colleges spoke about "Just apply" that's all it takes.
Because millions in unclaimed scholarships are left on the table because nobody applied.
One guy got the women's sport scholarship because no women applied for it, so the school was like what the hell might as well give it to somebody.
Yeah but just apply implies a support system. Those kids dont just apply because they dont have parents who can force them to do it. And a ton of kids millions of them, did sit there and apply for the scholarships and now they're baristas and uber drivers. Because even if everyone went to college for free, not everyone can be a lawyer or a doctor, we need greater numbers of baristas and uber drivers than we need numbers of lawyers and doctors, the economics just doesn't work.
So again, what are the 95% of us who arent in the top 5% supposed to do, just be poor forever fuck us?
Also, uni doesn't have to be about career, it's personal growth. There is a good book, which I forget the title right now, about how countries that stop teaching the arts start to have less critical thinkers in society and just become factory minded workers with no questioning of the capitalistic nature their country is pushing onto them to only increase profit. So really we should all have free schooling to grow as a society, even if your passion is making the perfect latte
Trades is the best bet. I left Uni, and went into a trade. At 23 I had a house, wife, car, and baby on the way—Trades can be surprising lucrative, and can lead into other avenues via the variety of skills learned.
For example, now I train engineers how to use their software or how to solve the technical problem they face via the sequrnce of tools in the engineering program.
In some cases I'm earning more than the engineers. Their paper might open other oversea jobs though.
Dude we're not talking about personal advice, we're talking about policy, what's a good idea for one person to do cannot be a social policy.
You asked: What are the rest of us supposed to do LOL. If you don't like local policy, and in a country thwt isnt going to change, move to a country that has free Uni. There are many like Germany where as long as you show you are integrating you can get school paid.
Exactly "the rest of us" can't all go into the trades! And you're right the answer is to leave the country because it's going to shit, that's kinda my point -- if we don't change policy then the answer is just for people to give up on this country.
If you mean the USA, it appears to be by design. The ruling class wants productive workers, not a society with a healthy system
Join a union! Now my dead end job is a 'career' with benefits
I'm so glad you said that.
Because it's just that easy.
I don't think these are "four choices", as Crime and The Military are roughly interchangeable. Both of them are dead end jobs that only function if they give you a leg up into a degreed profession. I also have to say... you really don't need to go into a "lifetime of debt" to get a degree from a city college or community college. We're talking the cost of a car - too much, to be sure - but not every university is charging Harvard rates.
Beyond that, pretty much every job takes you along the path from entry level newb to valued technical master. What skills you develop and where they add that value can change with the shape of the economy and the technological frontier. But in the end, where you spend your time working trains you to do what you will be paid for in the future. There's not four choices, there's more like two choices - do what you're doing right now or change and start back at the bottom of the ladder.
The vast majority of young people have no experience and no background. So they're attacking what is a very opaque job market in the economic headwinds of an '06/'07 or '00/'01 financial meltdown. But you're not an entry level employee forever. Learning your profession is as much about learning how to get paid as how to do the work. Your income is ultimately predicated on your ability (and luck) when navigating between employers and across downturns.
But careers do improve over time. You're not the new guy forever.