We've sent every blue collar job we could to China. Construction is one thing we couldn't ship, but there are fewer jobs each year of the type Mike Rowe is talking about.
Posted on 05/05/2021 3:40:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
Americans took out $1.7 trillion in government loans for college tuition.
Now, some don't want to pay it back.
President Joe Biden says they shouldn't have to. He wants to cancel at least $10,000 and maybe $50,000 of every student's debt.
"They're in real trouble," says Biden in my latest video, "having to make choices between paying their student loan and paying the rent."
Poor students!
But wait: Shouldn't they have given some thought to debt payments when they signed up for overpriced colleges? When they majored in subjects like photography or women's studies, unlikely to lead to good jobs? When they took six years to graduate (a third don't graduate even after six years).
Shouldn't politicians also acknowledge that it's taxpayer loans that let bloated colleges keep increasing tuition at twice the rate of inflation?
Yes.
But they don't.
"Dirty Jobs" host Mike Rowe points out that students' demand for loan forgiveness is "kind of self-involved."
"I know guys who worked hard to get a construction operation running. Some had to take out a loan on a big old diesel truck. Why would we forgive the cost of a degree but not the cost of a lease payment?"
It's a good question.
"For some reason," continues Rowe, "we think a tool that looks like a diploma is somehow more important than that big piece of metal in the driveway that allows the guy to build homes that you ... are in."
The political class does focus on subsidizing college.
"Now everybody is armed with a degree. What kind of world is that?" asks Rowe. "Everybody dreams of being in the corner office, but nobody knows how to build the corner office?"
Lots of good jobs in skilled trades don't require a college degree, he points out. "The push for college came at the expense of every other form of education. Shop class was taken out of high school. We have denied millions of kids an opportunity to see what half the workforce looks like."
It's a reason America now has a shortage of skilled trade workers.
Yet, plumbers, elevator mechanics construction managers, etc., make $100,000 a year.
MikeroweWORKS Foundation gives young people scholarships to schools where they learn such trades. He seeks to make skilled labor "cool" again.
One Rowe scholarship recipient, Chloe Hudson, considered college but was shocked at what it cost.
"I was like, 'I can't afford this!' I don't want to be saddled with student debt the rest of my life!"
Instead, thanks to her Rowe scholarship, she learned how to weld, and now she has no trouble finding work.
"I've been under nuclear plants ... been in water systems," Hudson recounts. "Those jobs make me appreciate what I have now so much more."
"What do you make?" I ask Hudson.
$3,000 a week," she responds.
She's appalled by today's college student's demand for loan forgiveness.
"There is not a single loan I have ever taken out where I didn't have an expectation put on myself that I was going to repay it," says Hudson. "That's getting up at four o'clock in the morning and making sure I'm at work on time. That's staying late. That's working weekends."
But now she will have to help pay for all those college students who won't pay their debts.
"I am taxed heavily," complains Hudson. "It's not a good feeling to know that the government thinks that they can spend my dollars better than I can."
Right. Government doesn't spend our dollars better than we do. "Forgive student loans" really means workers must pay for privileged students who don't.
I hope it is retroactive!
Whatever $$ they get, those that paid off their debt or didn’t do loans should get the same amount.
Why shouldn’t they?
I took 2 classes in college total. I was a morning radio host for 25 years and have been in real estate for 20. I’ve always done exactly what I wanted to do in my careers. I own properties and live very comfortably. Some of the most successful people on earth have 0 college. You’re in America. If you have a brain and desire, you’ll do as well as you allow yourself to do.
Our neighbor kid graduated high school and started his own lawn care business. He’s doing very well.
I do wonder how many students have top of the line smart phones and are not paying off their loans. I also wonder how many do not have a budget and are getting deeper in debt because of easy credit. The time for them to grow up and become productive members of society has come!
Most colleges today are a huge scam, TOTALLY OBSCENE VALUE RECIEVED TO DOLLARS EXPENDED ratios. Same as with establishment medicine.
What is this going to do to recruitment into the Armed Forces? They’re already having trouble finding physically fit non drug using enlistees.
At least part of the incentive to sign up was the promise of a more or less free college education via the GI bill.
So little Johnny will ask himself should he enlist and get posted to some hell hole and get shot at or just hop aboard the newly created Biden gravy train?
I was a fabricator/welder for 25 years and never made anything close to that. Guess I should have gotten certified at specialized welding
Hard-Working Plumber Looking Forward To Paying For His Neighbor’s Gender Studies Degree
https://babylonbee.com/news/hard-working-plumber-looking-forward-to-paying-his-for-his-neighbors-gender-studies-degree
Fortunately his school started an after school welding program in his junior year which he enjoyed and he is now attending the Hobart Institute of Welding Technology in Ohio.....
“I was a fabricator/welder for 25 years and never made anything close to that.”
$3000/week? There’s more to that story that’s not told in that post.
I didn’t go to college until I was 50 years old. My company was doing tuition reimbursement so I decided to go. 11 years later, I am finishing up my MBA, paid for by the company.
She does mention working late and on weekends and she’s probably Union. 40 hours plus 23.33 OT ($40/hr x 40 = $1600) + ($60 x 23.33 = $1400) = $3000
“I’ve been under nuclear plants ... been in water systems”
Might get hazard pay. She ain’t welding dumpsters together.
Exactly, had a good time for a couple of years in school but it was just not for me. Had a great career because I did what I enjoyed doing. Lived on the beach in La Jolla and in San Francisco, trips to Europe every year. I retired at 62. The key was work and buying a home, I did what I enjoyed and it was never a job and I did not waste money.
We've sent every blue collar job we could to China. Construction is one thing we couldn't ship, but there are fewer jobs each year of the type Mike Rowe is talking about.
I did factory work winding transformer coils and went to community college to get a 2 year degree in computer programming (paid as I went), then 40 years of operating system programming and application development (mostly self-taught). On the side I built cabinets, painted, and fixed a few cars. Nice career and retirement. Rewarding follow-on was time I was asked to help a nephew solve a computer programming problem he was having (FORTRAN - yeah!). I put 2 kids through college (both have Master’s degrees). One is an AF Major now about to get her PhD. The other has a good job.
You said it! (I won't say what I'm thinking.)
As you previously noted, certification as a code pipe welder with endorsement for specific metal alloys will bring the $$$$ without even significant OT.
This country is desperate for skilled workers! We have a massive shortage of electricians, HVAC Techs and welders.
The company I work for has hired search firms to find these workers and pay a hefty fee for any who come to work for us. So far we have not found any.
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