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I mean, why should I put myself through Engineering School, Medical School, a top University, Law School or a Doctorate Program if I know that I will be annihilated by insanely high tax rates if I make a higher-income?
* FINANCIALLY Successful (for the overly-philosophical nuts out there).
If you think the hard part of being successful is completing the education, you're in for a rude awakening. That's the warm-up round. (With the possible exception of the doctorate, but if financial success is the goal, academia isn't the place anyway.)
Not really. Someone who makes $25K is going to get money back they didn't pay in so their net income is higher than $25K. They'll also qualify for WIC/food stamps. Their kids will go to college for free (what is THAT worth) and they don't need to save for retirement because if they save SS for anyone, it will be them.
I've, recently, become reaquainted with a high school friend who never went to college. The difference between our finances is I have an IRA while she'll get a full SS check (I assume I will not) and her kids went to college for free. Given what I'll pay to put my kids through college, I'm thinking it wasn't worth it. Of course my top wage was just under $100K. If I'd had a career paying a lot more, I would have broken even. Most college grads, however, don't make $100K.
How on earth did her kids go to college for free unless the were both low income and had great grades and got some scholarships....low income alone won't get free college.
I think the first part is finding something that you'll enjoy doing, at least most of the time. You could be taxed like crazy, but if you enjoy what you're doing it shouldn't matter as much.
Sure. This is a perfect time for an entrepreneur. The thing is to pick a degree that fits where either the shortages of qualified people are or a degree that allows a person to enter a market where everyone needs to have filled.
While new nuclear energy power plants are unlikely to be built anytime soon, the need for young qualified nuclear engineers has never been greater. Any kid walking out of a university with this degree can instantly find work in every state that has a nuclear power plant. And all jobs in that industry pay very well. The average age of nuclear engineers is around 57 now.
A kid who comes out of school with an agriculture degree with a minor in business management can also go straight to work at a high wage. The little family farm is a thing of the past; ag is all very big business now, and ag schools are training students in all the newest methods of big farming. If a young person really wants his own farm, the best way to get one outside of family inheritance is to go to work for one of the big outfits. That's where the money is and the best opportunities for buying a farm lie.
And as anyone in a farm state can tell you, farming is a money making career these days as long as a person knows all the ins and outs of modern farming. It is very much a high investment, high return industry now, and the average farmer is in his 60's.
Any young person who possesses skill in a needed craft can reach even higher with a college degree. A welder who can stick exotic metals together, as an example, can go high in a company that needs an engineer who has a lot of practical experience on the ground doing such work. A good welder with a chemical degree can do even better, as new specialized adhesives are now replacing welding in much modern metal fabrication.
There are a ton of professions outside of medicine, law, and engineering. All a person has to do is some research and looking around, taking into consideration what and where their strongest abilities lie, and a job can be found.
Getting a degree in computer graphics with the intention of becoming a game designer isn't a smart choice. Every lunkhead gamer wants that one. But becoming the person who writes the scripts for those games is something that is very overlooked, and even in a super-lousy occupation, where the graphics guys are a dime a dozen, a skilled writer can make huge money. And that's just an example of where real wealth can come from a liberal arts education. Business depends on the liberal arts just as much as it does all the other curriculums.
When one area gets too much attention, it always creates a shortage in the others. Why spend the money on becoming the 750th lawyer in town when the best and most satisfying work can be right in front of your nose?
I mean, why should I put myself through Engineering School, Medical School, a top University, Law School or a Doctorate Program if I know that I will be annihilated by insanely high tax rates if I make a higher-income?
* FINANCIALLY Successful (for the overly-philosophical nuts out there).
How on earth did her kids go to college for free unless the were both low income and had great grades and got some scholarships....low income alone won't get free college.
Tell that to my neices who went to school for free because their mom doesn't make much. They and my friend's kids went to school on government grants.
I read a story in Natl Geo recently about the economic state of Cuba. A physician who moonlights driving a cab makes 5 times hauling around tourists than he does treating patients. There is certainly a point where heavy handed Govt will disincentivise even the most dedcicated professional
Tell that to my neices who went to school for free because their mom doesn't make much. They and my friend's kids went to school on government grants.
I said you don't go to college for free with just low income. Those grants are also tied with being accepted at college. In short poor student accepted to college will get more money than rich person with going to the same college. But the poor student has be be accepted at that college first(i.e. have the grades to get in). Also a lot of private scholarships are given based on your sar score. How many kids from a low score high school in the Ghetto are going to get into Harvard vs. people from a high scoring school out in the burbs(with high housing prices to match)?
In short her kids had to have the grades to get into that college first, they don't clear that hurdle for the low income.
I read a story in Natl Geo recently about the economic state of Cuba. A physician who moonlights driving a cab makes 5 times hauling around tourists than he does treating patients. There is certainly a point where heavy handed Govt will disincentivise even the most dedcicated professional
Yes. Unfortunately for the freedom loving of us, its probably more of an incremental laffer ramp than a bell shaped laffer curve, giving govt great scope for violent extortion.
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