I can’t emphasize enough to young people get a trade first…then, then go to college. Perhaps as to build expertise or an engineering or business degree in that trade.

Frankly the entire education system is a fascist scam, with the criminals dressing themselves in socialist clothing.

1.) College is the only way to financial success;

2.) A college degree is a college degree and it doesn’t matter what you get it in;

3.) Working with your hands is a shameful sign that you are a loser who has failed at life.

College, when applied with a greater overall plan, and when the degree sought is specialized for a specific career, CAN be a way to financial success, but it isn’t the ONLY way.

I still remember my Dad telling me things like “you need to go to college or else you’ll end up digging ditches for a living.”

What’s so damn wrong with digging ditches for a living? An excavator operator makes good money, has low stress.

I joined the plumbing apprentice program out of high school. My Dad was beside himself, telling me that I didn’t want to be a plumber, essentially that plumbers were “losers” and that I’d be working in hot, dirty conditions all the time and wouldn’t make enough money to support a family.

That’s a lie. Journeyman pipe fitters routinely make over 100K a year. I ended up going to college for engineering to please him. I became an engineer and ended up working as a Construction Project Manager for huge projects (40 plus million dollar buildings). I don’t particularly like it. Long hours, high stress, massive responsibility for all sorts of things outside of your control, tiny mistakes leading to massive consequences, traveling all the fuck over the place and being away from my family… But at least I don’t turn wrenches for a living. /s

There is no shame in being a craftsman. There is no shame in being an unskilled laborer, if that’s what makes you happy. If you’re willing to work hard, and you bother to get good at what you do, you will make an acceptable living doing lots of different things that don’t require a college education.

Welders, plumbers, electricians, carpenters (a tragically undervalued occupation, I’d argue), mechanics, etc.