Posted on 11/11/2015 3:08:41 PM PST by conservativejoy
Rubio: 'We need more welders and less philosophers'
At Fox Business Network's Republican presidential debate, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) argued that increased vocational training and other measures would be more effective at helping American workers than raising the minimum wage. (Fox Business Network)
During the fourth Republican debate, Marco Rubio picked up a point touched on by Rick Santorum in the undercard debate earlier in the night. 'Welders,' Rubio said, 'make more money than philosophers.' Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler looked at the idea, but we thought it could use a visual.
Using data from the Web site PayScale, we can look at the introductory and median incomes of both professions. In 2008, philosophy majors started at about $40,000 a year — about the same as what the Bureau of Labor Statistics says first-year welders make.
But over the longer term, philosophy majors make more. Mid-career welders make $22 an hour, according to PayScale, compared with over $80,000 for philosophy majors.
Santorum's point was that there were a lot of welder positions available, which is a very fair point. Philosophy majors may make more — but if you can't get a job, that won't do you much good.
Important question though...
How many more philosophy majors find themselves saying “would you like fries with that?” during their work days than welders?
Mark
That is something to ponder.
On the other hand, if he had said the same thing except inserted the word ‘engineers’ he would have been correct.
Some companies are so desperate the will fly an engineer from Pakistan to the US, buy him a nice house, and pay $100K year, even if the man in question is mediocre.
Some companies start at 150K for an engineer. A really good engineer can expect to see 7 figure salaries, and going out on his own, much more.
However, even if philosophy majors make more, welders are in far greater demand.
Also, to be a philosopher takes, at minimum, a 4 year bachelor’s degree followed by a Ph.D. which ordinarily takes 5 to 7 years, often followed by suboptimal teaching jobs.
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