Huge Need for Appliance Service Techs

[vacerator]

Bob,

I only completed two semesters.I did fine in political science, and english, but had aweful trouble with computer programming in cobol, fortran, and rpg. I guess I gave up. I was blessed with a good job, and when the recession of 1980 hit, I just didn't go back. Friends over the years, and my dad tried to get me to return. I didn't want debt. Being the eldest of 5, my folks couldn't afford to help. My dad did help my youngest sister though. She's a master degre'd teacher.
I have a blue collar neighbor who still blames Mexico, and China for his lower pay scale predicament. We were told in 1989 that a lot of goods were going to come from there, and if you were under age 25, you had best get a good education, or a skilled trade.
Yet had Americans not bought those imported goods then, who knows? But we did. I bought domestic products when I could. Dexter shoes, Red Wing, Levi's, Hanes, Haggar, RCA, Magnavox, Eureka, Kenmore, Maytag, GE, and always an American car.
Like exporting labor, it's always about the lowest cost. Same reason people shopped Walmart, and forced small stores, then big ones out of business.

 

[d-jones]

As vacerator points out there have been numerous studies showing the long term financial benefits of a college education, but it bears mentioning that as more and more people get college degrees the benefits will diminish. I'm reminded of a line from the movie The Incredibles where the character Syndrome says "When everyone is super, no one will be." With that in mind when everyone has a Bachelors degree a Bachelors won't matter and a Masters will be required to get ahead. When everyone has a Masters a Doctorates will be required, and so on. The truth is in order for a college degree to have any lasting value people must have the option to earn a meaningful living without them.

 

[iowabear]

Many new parts are so expensive that when combined with labor costs it really doesn't make sense to repair.  This is how the manufacturers want it but it is an environmental waste.

 

As far as the education debate, IMO there was too much emphasis placed on high school graduation rates, just so school districts and states would have good statistics.  Many kids graduated who shouldn't have and it just diluted the value of a high school diploma for everyone.