
Mike Rowe to Bernie Sanders: Stop Telling Everyone College Is the Only Thing - aaronchall
https://reason.com/blog/2015/12/15/mike-rowe-to-bernie-sanders-stop-telling
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setra
I quote:

Bernie Sanders tweets, “At the end of the day, providing a path to go to
college is a helluva lot cheaper than putting people on a path to jail.”

I wonder sometimes, if the best way to question the increasingly dangerous
idea that a college education is the best path for the most people, is to stop
fighting the sentiment directly, and simply shine a light on the knuckleheads
who continue to perpetuate this nonsense. This latest tweet from Bernie
Sanders is a prime example. In less than 140 characters, he’s managed to imply
that a path to prison is the most likely alternative to a path to college.
Pardon my acronym, but...WTF!?...

It’s a cautionary tale as predictable as it is false. But now, as people are
slowly starting to understand the obscenity of 1.3 trillion dollars in student
loans, along with the abundance of opportunity for those with the proper
training, it seems the proponents of “college for all” need something even
more frightening than the prospect of a career in the trades to frighten the
next class into signing on the dotted line. According to Senator Sanders, that
“something,” is a path to jail.

I try not to be political on this page, because the truth is, arrogance and
elitism are alive and well in every corner of every party—especially with
respect to this topic. But I have to admit, this is the first time I’ve seen
an elected official support the hyper-inflated cost of a diploma by
juxtaposing it with the hyper-inflated cost of incarceration. Honestly, I’m
not sure what to make of it.

~~~
dikdik
I took the comment differnetly. If we as a society are going to spend 30k+ a
year on an individual, wouldn't it be better for that to be spent on educating
a citizen than imprisoning them (especially for things like marijuana)? One is
an investment, one is a money pit.

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rkho
I was the first generation of my family to attend college. Throughout high
school (graduated high school in 2006), the idea that college was the answer
to everything was everywhere. Go to college, get a degree, you'll end up with
a job. After seven years of paying high college tuition for a sub par
education, I graduated in 2012 with a BA degree that was not in any demand,
provided no real skills, and spent several years during and after college
working in dead end retail/customer service jobs.

I ended up teaching myself how to code and landed a very well paying career as
an engineer with a huge passion for what I'm doing.

Here are the takeaways I have from having gone down this route:

\+ Don't go to college just to go to college. If you don't know why you're
going, don't go.

\+ If you do go to college, don't expect your major of choice to land you a
job. If you know what you want to do in life, you should probably just go and
do it on your own. College is not synonymous with landing a career.

\+ If you go to college and don't end up landing a job, more college is not
the answer. A master's/graduate program is not the answer.

~~~
tryitnow
I have no idea why people still make this mistake. Clearly, way too many
"adults" are telling high school kids that "college is the answer!" without
providing more detail.

It's more like getting a profession is the answer. That can mean going to
college (necessary for things like medicine, law, accounting), going to vo
tech school, apprenticing (e.g. electricians, carpenters) or teaching yourself
and gaining experience (e.g. coding).

The last route is a little problematic because there's no real barrier to
entry (other than intelligence). We're in the midst of a demand boom for
developers now, but eventually companies will start recouping their
investments in code and start laying off developers or cutting pay simply
because there's so many bright people who figured they can just teach
themselves code.

Of course, if you really enjoy and are good at software engineering then
you're going to have a career regardless. But the people who are doing it just
because it's what pays well now will be washed out in the next recession.

~~~
rkho
The idea of developers that aren't passionate about the craft who just do it
for the money makes me cringe. Writing software isn't just another job you do
for your employer or client, it's about creativity and empowerment.

I definitely think I'm in the minority when it comes to people who taught
themselves to code and ended up legitimately loving it.

------
chrisbennet
_" Les Swanson from Wisconsin cleaned septic tanks. I asked him one day-we
were literally standing up to our nipples in the most indescribable
bouillabaisse-"Les, what'd you do before this?" It's like 110 degrees, the
sweat is running off his face, and he looks and me and he says-I swear-"I was
a guidance counselor." He was a psychologist. I said, "Why'd you leave that?"
And without missing a beat he said, "I got tired of dealing with other
people's shit."_

