[quote=FlyerInHi] . . . But as the Trump phenomenon shows, there is a whole class of low-skill people who disdain education because they feel looked down upon by the educated “elite.” So their defense mechanism it to be against education. These people want an impossible return to a world where a C level high-school education allowed entry into the middle class. And the irony is that they call that “hard work.” . . . [/quote]Um FIH, I don’t know where you heard this but nobody really “disdains education.” Even middle-aged and older people who never received a complete college education (me included) are making sure our kids recieve(d) one. The world needs plumbers, electricians, drywallers, bricklayers, auto alignment, auto body and other auto specialists, etc, just as much as it needs “white collar” workers. And maybe more in many areas where the vast majority of parents are automatically “pushing” their kids into the “4-year college track.”
At the prices these “blue-collar” workers command (esp if a biz owner or part-business-owner), you’re damned straight that they live their own “elite” lives. Many (most?) of them probably make more than you or an “engineer” does, FIH!
The truth is that a college education wasn’t needed to live a decent middle-class life up through about the early 2000’s. Yes, even in SD! And student loans did not exist before the early-mid nineties which were large enough to cover “living expenses” on top of tuition, fees and books. The presence of those loans has been the only reason HS graduates from families of all income levels have been able to attend a four-year college away from home. Prior to that, if your family couldn’t “afford” for you to attend college away from home and you couldn’t get into your local university while living “at home,” then a HS senior’s counselor would simply counsel them into an ROP program or other private, low-cost occupational school in which they could obtain a certificate to work in a particular field in 4-12 months.
Now, nearly EVERY HS senior gets counseled to apply for university and assistance with their applications, if necessary. And many, also go into exorbitant debt after they are admitted.
For example, in most cases, a low-income HS graduate is better off financially after training for practically “free” as an HVAC technician for 12 months in a ROP program at their local CC than if they borrowed $20K or more per year to attend a four-year institution (which, in CA, could take 5-6 years to graduate from) only to graduate into a stagnant or “sewed-up” local job market in their field and with no money left with which to relocate with. In addition, the clock is ticking cuz their student loan payments will start in six months. If they borrowed $100K in Federally-backed “Sallie Mae” loans, their monthly payments could easily be $650 – $750!
That’s a lot of money when you don’t yet have a decent job, a decent vehicle, decent work clothing or money for a plane fare to go on a job interview out of area.
brian, I have to tell you that I’m tired of reading your “rhetoric” about Trump supporters being “angry white hicks who begrudge people that `made it.'” They’re not all “white,” they’re not all “hicks,” they’re not all male, and, believe it or not, most of them are doing just fine financially, even if the factories with all the “good jobs” left their area and moved to China or MX.
I know it might be a stretch for you to envision this but a lot of those folks who have lived in America’s heartland their entire lives have many, many resources available to them. The majority are living in the same general area which they grew up in and have family all around who will give them jobs in their businesses. They hunt and fish for food and freeze it and trade farm/homegrown food with neighbors and relatives. Most of them don’t have mortgages over $1000 mo (PITI) and that is high in many areas. By 40-45 years old, their mortgage is typically paid off so if they got “laid off” from their “lifetime union job” after that, their situation isn’t as dire as one might think. And the women (incl “wives”) work their a$$es off (many FT and also on farms) and also drive big trucks and heavy equipment if they have to to survive. In addition, they can together during the harvest season and put up everything in mason jars in their tornado shelters and trade with each other so everyone has a mix of fruits and vegetables. In short, they are very resourceful and hardy bunch of folks who don’t feel that they are any “less” of a person than a college graduate.
Unlike CA urban dwellers, most of these “flyover country dwellers” are much too proud to take “welfare” unless they are truly down and out and need “food stamps” to feed their kids and then consider it only “temporary.”
At the end of the day, the PhD (professor) and JD (lawyer) and their students, clerks/secretaries/paralegals (with assoc degrees or less) all use the same public restrooms. No one is “better” than another by virtue of having more education. Yes, aside from becoming qualified to work in a profession, four years at university away from home DID mature my kids (I can see a big difference in the maturity of my youngest already, who is currently a sophomore) but this is only because they were somewhat cloistered and “coddled” while attending K-12 public school (I didn’t have much control over this). But most kids who start out after HS graduation with little or nothing had to mature much faster as teens by necessity. That’s how it was 45 years ago, when I was a teen and that’s how it is today. That doesn’t mean these lower-income kids who might decide to enroll in an ROP program are “lesser people” than their brethren who are currently attending university.
