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Instead, for Thiel, the bubble that has taken the place of housing is the higher education bubble. “A true bubble is when something is over-valued and intensely believed,” he says. “Education may be the only thing people still believe in in the United States. To question education is really dangerous. It is the absolute taboo. It’s like telling the world there’s no Santa Claus.”
Wow, this is going to really **** off a lot of people around here but it is true. To many coming out of schools flouting their "skills" when the reality is they don't have any.
To many that took the easier road believing what they have been told and that is "get a degree, any degree and success will be yours" and they did. Today we are at flooded awash in degrees in psychology, journalism, social studies, ethnic studies, gender studies etc, etc, etc. I hate to tell you but they are are nearly worthless and even if not totally worthless they are worth nothing near what was paid for them.
But like dude, are you trying to tell me my degree in Middle Byzantine Literature like won't like open doors to a $250k job in corporate America?
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I am surrounded by BA's in everything and what I would really like to do is meet someone who can put a proper thread on a 2" piece of pipe.
There's a few things that are important in relation to this:
1. If you've been working off your inflated college degree for atleast a few years, you've already capitalized on it and the bubble doesn't place you in a worse position than if you had avoided getting the education.
2. Anyone with a respectable degree from a reasonable school (top tier) will still benefit from their higher education.
Those who wasted their money and time getting a BA from a lower level college will be disregarded.
There's a few things that are important in relation to this:
1. If you've been working off your inflated college degree for atleast a few years, you've already capitalized on it and the bubble doesn't place you in a worse position than if you had avoided getting the education.
2. Anyone with a respectable degree from a reasonable school (top tier) will still benefit from their higher education.
Those who wasted their money and time getting a BA from a lower level college will be disregarded.
But it doesn't even have to be a "top tier" school it just needs to be in something the world needs. We got enough experts in middle Byzantine Poetry.
Rhodes State College in Ohio has a two year program in Concrete Technology where, just six months after graduation, the student will have Level II certification.
FYI Rhodes is not a for profit or private school it is part of the Ohio State University system. All credits will transfer if you want to go on for a professional engineering degree.
Quote:
A Concrete Technician is a person with training and/or experience required to sit for and successfully pass the American Concrete Institute’s (ACI) Certification tests for Concrete Field Testing Technician - Grade I, Concrete Laboratory Testing Technicians - Grades I and II, Concrete Construction Inspector-In-Training, and Concrete Transportation Construction Inspector-In-Training. A Concrete Technician should also have the experience required to sit for and successfully pass the Ohio Ready Mixed Concrete Association (ORMCA) certification test for Concrete Mix Designers. Furthermore, concrete technicians have knowledge of properties of aggregates, construction practices, inspection and test methods, pavement design and estimating. They are also prepared to work in the public or private sectors as inspectors, testing technicians, quality control personnel, supervisors and managers.
and
Quote:
This programs curriculum, combining concrete courses with courses related to civil engineering, prepares the graduate for employment with engineering and architectural firms; with federal, state, county, and city governments; and with construction companies and residential builders. Job opportunities are available in the areas of mix designers, material testing technicians, batch plant operators, admixture representatives, plant managers and project managers.
Entry Level Salaries in the field of study: Associate Degree: $27,500 to $32,500.
That's a two year degree and with 5 to 10 years experience salaries double and triple those are the norm. I know lots of them are earning between $70 and $100k. Even now there are twice as many available job openings than there are qualified people to fill them.
Although I don't agree with you about "worthless" degrees, I do agree that there are lots of alternatives out there besides the traditional four year college degree, and I definitely think there are too many people taking on too much debt with the idea that a degree is going to launch them into career success.
2 master degrees and still unemployed. But all over this forum I see people saying people are unemployed because they aren't willing to get the education needed to get a job. They discount the last statistic that said for every job in the US their are five applicants, which means 4 won't be employeed, regardless of background, education, etc.
It is a bubble and if I could trade in my three degrees and have my debt wiped clean I would in a heartbeat. The funniest thing is that I learned more in 1 year real world experience than I did in all of my years of college. But no one (employers) is interested in real world experience without the degree to back it up.
And I hear people who are employeed in jobs they love, which are secure, saying "now I can go back and finish my degree"????? The point of a degree is to get a job, not get a degree. Its not about that lovely piece of paper they hand you. It does not automatically elevate you to a higher level of intelligence from nondegree pions. As a matter of fact the stupidiest people I have met have PHD after their name, and the smartest person I know didn't even graduate high school. Its all a myth.
Now excuse me as I go finish my research paper. (okay okay so 1.5 degrees, but a 4.0 in the program, feeling confident enough to call it 2).
Gee, another person who has made millions in business claiming that education is worthless. It never ceases to amaze me how much venom the business sector has for intellectuals.
Last month, it was Bill Gates, not it's Peter Thiel. Fortunately, I have a degree that has given me the ability to think critically and recognize that these rants from the business community is just the latest trend and, therefore, a bunch of bullcrap (like most of what they say).
Successful businessmen should stick to business and leave the thinking to those that can.
Gee, another person who has made millions in business claiming that education is worthless. It never ceases to amaze me how much venom the business sector has for intellectuals.
Last month, it was Bill Gates, not it's Peter Thiel. Fortunately, I have a degree that has given me the ability to think critically and recognize that these rants from the business community is just the latest trend and, therefore, a bunch of bullcrap (like most of what they say).
Successful businessmen should stick to business and leave the thinking to those that can.
You didn't address the argument at all. I don't know where you went to college, but freshman English at the crappy state school I went to drilled us hard in avoiding passing off ad hominem resentment as real argument.
Anyway, Peter Thiel and Bill Gates are a billion times more intellectual than most putzes with a degree in Whatever Studies from Wherever State University will ever be.
2 master degrees and still unemployed. But all over this forum I see people saying people are unemployed because they aren't willing to get the education needed to get a job. They discount the last statistic that said for every job in the US their are five applicants, which means 4 won't be employeed, regardless of background, education, etc.
There's plenty of jobs out there. Those that require an education and those that don't. It's not that there's more applicants than jobs. It's that there's a disconnect between required and aquired skills. You can't expect someone working in a factory (former job) to be able to get a job in risk management (plenty of open positions with few applicants).
Quote:
Originally Posted by NaleyRocks
It is a bubble and if I could trade in my three degrees and have my debt wiped clean I would in a heartbeat. The funniest thing is that I learned more in 1 year real world experience than I did in all of my years of college. But no one (employers) is interested in real world experience without the degree to back it up.
And I hear people who are employeed in jobs they love, which are secure, saying "now I can go back and finish my degree"????? The point of a degree is to get a job, not get a degree. Its not about that lovely piece of paper they hand you. It does not automatically elevate you to a higher level of intelligence from nondegree pions. As a matter of fact the stupidiest people I have met have PHD after their name, and the smartest person I know didn't even graduate high school. Its all a myth.
Now excuse me as I go finish my research paper. (okay okay so 1.5 degrees, but a 4.0 in the program, feeling confident enough to call it 2).
You bring up a good point to some extent. I'm one of those people that dropped out of college, started my own business, made it, and then went back to school afterwards to finish up. It worked well for me. Why? Because by the time I went back to college, I had the right guidance and was mature enough to understand how things work.
Look at students that just graduated in the past few years who cannot find work? And then students who are currently in college. There's a lesson to be learned from this for those who didn't learn it from history. You go to college during a recession and you work during high GDP growth. You don't just blindly go to college after highschool.
Then there's the whole concept of learning in college vs learning in work. If you note that AS/BS/MS degrees train you for work, and AA/BA/MA degrees train you for continued research, it's not surprising that if you have the latter half, you wouldn't be prepared for work.
The bubble is that the government just approves all the student loans and the colleges figured this out and raise tuition to ridiculous levels year after year. THen they still complain they are broke.
Tuition is TOO DAMN HIGH!
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