Young'ns sold a lie

For what it's worth, I agree. The trades are an excellent career choice, even if they don't have the social cachet of some careers.

How the job market will develop in the future is always a mystery, but one thing is pretty clear: unless there are some enormous leaps in robotics and AI in the very near future, those working as plumbers, electricians, HVAC engineers and so on are not going to be replaced by automation any time soon. It's also pretty damn difficult to out-source the repair of a plumbing fault to some foreign worker paid peanuts on the other side of the world.

Here come the bastards
I heard it from a confidant
Who heard it from a confidant
They're definitely on their way
There's one with this idea
Something about a hammer head shark
Nose hairs and flatus
Best keep your distance because
Here they come
Here come the bastards
Bury your head deep in the sand
Anonymity is a virtue
In this day and age
Amazing hand dexterity
Flagrant misuse of security
Better run, run, run, run, run, run run run run, run
Here they come
Here they come
Here they come

I agree, education has been oversold, and it is continuing to be so.

There is a move across the globe to make the first 4 years of college mandatory and part of a fundamental education system. This just pushes the problem down the road, you can already talk to people that will tell you, you really need a masters or doctorates degree to get a good job. Everyone has a undergraduate degree and if you want to stand out you have to have more. A bachelors degree is almost or soon will be, equivalent to a 1970s high school diploma.

There are a lot of skills and trades out there paying good money but the problem becomes what is 'good money'.

I know trade workers making 50 usd per hour that equivalent to $100000 plus per year. That's not going to be enough when the car mechanic, or ac repair guy wants $150 an hour to check your car or system just to diagnose the problem not fix it

When the average car cost 80 to 100g and a house cost 500g a person making good money is going to need to make 200 or 300 grand a year just to make ends meet.

Those of us that have worked a lifetime at 75 to 150g and thought we could live easy on our saving, won't have enough to even get by.

Somewhere this freight train needs to slow down or it's going to derail it's self.

Part of the root cause is the education system being oversold and teaching our children they are above blue collar working jobs. They graduate with an expectation of wealth and the bills that require them to make 100g a year just to make payments even when they are working at the fast food joint.

It's clearly true that the Education System has oversold what they can do for people.

"Get a good education - so you can get a good job."

The problem is that good jobs no longer exist like when that saying was created. Back then you could get a job with a company, likely stay for 15-45 years with the same company, and make enough to support your spouse and kids with a solid middle class life.

Those kinds of jobs no longer exist... and part of the reason is that the number of college educated people skyrocketed... diluting the value of a college education. World wide trade also brought economic competition and its no longer possible to pay workers premium wages when much lower paid employees elsewhere can do the same work.

College Graduates these days are being told that you will likely have to have 3-5 completely different careers in their work life, and not just job changes. Of course, the education system will train you for each of those new careers as well (thus generating more future clients for themselves).

This is something I see spoken about regularly amongst people slightly older than myself, but one detail is often left out. Highschool children these days ARE informed of trade schools and other paths to success. A lot of them just didn't want to pursue that path. Kids, and teenagers, just aren't interested in being a blue collar worker.

I do think we need to start telling the younger generations that the best degrees are STEM degrees.