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[wombat]

Yes, this is on Cracked.com, but it has a lot of insights.
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-we-ruined-occupy-wall-street-generation/

The problem is that we've sort of set you up to think that after high school, the next step is college, and after that you just jump in and start working at the job you went to college for. We kind of implied that this "college to job" transition is as natural and orderly as "high school to college." That is, if you get the right grades, you "graduate" to it. That's not true, and it's our fault that so many of you think that.

See, our parents told us that because they didn't actually know. As a generalized whole, they didn't go to college. You have to realize how recent the whole "everybody goes to college" thing really is. It was only two generations ago that college educations were rare -- in 1950, less than 10 percent of adults had bachelor's degrees (hell, only half even graduated high school). People back then were less mobile and more likely to stay in the town where they were born. That meant that their options were limited; men joined the military, or went to work at the local factory/warehouse/whatever was hiring. Women got busy having babies and being waitresses/secretaries/whatever was hiring. College was something that smart kids and people with money did. And they probably thought those college kids had a free ticket to a nice job in an air-conditioned office.

So when they worked hard and gave their kids the opportunity to get a degree, they thought they were giving us what those fancy smart kids got: an automatic job with a hotass secretary to feel up. Sexual harassment wasn't a thing yet.

This reminds me of when I was working as a research assistant for a professor at MIT and told my mom (who didn't finish high school) that I was going to grad school to be a college professor someday, she said "Can't you just work your way up?" She just didn't have a clue.

[greenkoolayd]

Learning magic is a fake thing is a sucktacular experience for some folk, I guess.

its basically some a-hole behind a curtain twisting knobs, pushing buttons, and yelling into a microphone.

[theinevitable]

on the other hand, my mom and her dad both have PhDs, and still think that I should get a PhD as my road to success.

Wombat, my dad has a story which reminds me of yours. Apparently no matter how many times he explained that he presided over thousands of people, how much money he made, or whatever, my grandma would ask him every so often if he thought he'd make Branch Manager soon.

Maybe, in her own way, she was trolling.

[wombat]

Back in the MIT days I mentioned, I had a friend who got her Phd in that lab, and when she had a kid, she said about his future career, "He just has to get his PhD and then I don't care, he can do whatever he wants." I kind of wanted to strangle her.

[Doc]

My mum expressed a similar sort of idea about me and my brother, i.e. that we should get a university degree and then we could do whatever we want.
This worked out fairly well for me but my brother is someone who really should have just got a job and worked his way up, it's effectively what he's doing now anyway in a job he didn't need a degree to get but he's wasted 5 years getting a degree he didn't really want or enjoy and I think it was a bit of a waste really.

[miles]

I think this country needs more craft and trade training during the mandatory schooling. Bullpushing people who'd be perfectly happy and comfortable doing HVAC or plumbing into an unwanted degree is dumb-assed.

Believe me, there's pride and a good living to be made in making the heater work or the crapper flush strong.

Totally agree. If I could change anything about my teenage years, I would have worked summer and after school jobs where I actually used my hands to learn useful and difficult skills. This is pretty interesting, but basically it takes a whole book to say what you said in one sentence.

Who knows where I would have ended up but I imagine I would have had much more direction in college.

[Doc]

Believe me, there's pride and a good living to be made in making the heater work or the crapper flush strong.

So much this, when I was up on Thursday Island a couple of months back on a placement we were chilling with some young electricians who were up there on a contract, they made some joke about how we'd be pulling in doctor-money in a couple of years and driving fancy cars, my friend and I had to laugh at how much more money they were making right now than we would for a long-ass time. Not only does trade work make bank (over here at least) it gets you making bank much earlier than most degree-related jobs. I might make all right money doctoring but I won't be making it till my mid to late 30s at least, fancy car money will be much later still.

[AugustWest]

I think this country needs more craft and trade training during the mandatory schooling. Bullpushing people who'd be perfectly happy and comfortable doing HVAC or plumbing into an unwanted degree is dumb-assed.

Believe me, there's pride and a good living to be made in making the heater work or the crapper flush strong.

Do you know who does not want this?  Who will actively work to control this?

The current active plumbers, HVAC contractors, electricians and so forth (along with their corresponding unions).  These guys keep a tight lid on how many people they train each year and have done so since forever.

[Arachno-capitalist]

The happiest guy I know is a dude who went to trade school and became a plumber. He has a business, a house, an El Torino he makes love to, and a family.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Mike Rowe gave good Senate testimony a while back on this very thing.
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/dirtyjobs/mike-rowe-senate-testimony.html

I tend to agree with him. We've stigmatized these jobs way too much. But tell you what, I have days where I feel like my job is complete bullshit, like nothing I did that day has any kind of real-world substantial benefit to anyone, and on those days I am rather envious of people who actually make and fix things for a living. And of course when my plumbing is fucked up, I think the plumber is freaking AWESOME.

[theinevitable]

How are those jobs doing in this recession, though? My understanding is that the building trades are in the shitter.

[jaydub]

One difficulty facing trade education in the US is the human desire to have a simple fix for complex problems.  The "just get a college degree and you'll be fine" mindset comes from the same place that says "all we need to end the recession is for everyone to spend a bit more".  Happily for me, I got a college degree and am working in my field of major study.  I wish I could explain to other people how I did this - all's I can say is that it's what I wanted to do, so I did it...

[Carlos del Vaca]

How are those jobs doing in this recession, though? My understanding is that the building trades are in the shitter.

From Rowe's piece:
"Right now, American manufacturing is struggling to fill 200,000 vacant positions. There are 450,000 openings in trades, transportation and utilities. The skills gap is real, and it's getting wider. In Alabama, a third of all skilled tradesmen are over 55. They're retiring fast, and no one is there to replace them."

[citation needed] and all, and who knows exactly what trades or how he cherry-picked his numbers.

[Arachno-capitalist]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0125-spjL9s

This. A thousand bajillion times this. Brought to you by the man who implanted much of what I understand about the world.

[theinevitable]

Capitalism is like Communism, in that as far as I can tell it has never actually existed in the wild.

Neither system is working, because there is clearly a strong demand in the market for that man to get a better hairstyle.

As soon as he used the word "handouts" I knew where he was going. Boo to that. "only way to make profits is to improve standard of living" my eye.