The iPad is Killing Jobs or Idiocy is Hereditary

[Fe 26]

This is literally the ONLY WAY TO HELP PEOPLE. Give them ways to help educate and learn in-demand skills. That's a good use of government aid. If someone isn't willing to keep up they are dead weight and will not make the most out of life. There is no way to help those who won't help themselves. Charity is okay. Opportunity is better.

Sure, I said almost the same thing you are, and everyone says they don't want to give a hand out to people. I think the government should aid anyone that wants to be educated. I consider it a form of infrastructure. A good pool of educated and skilled people is good for any nation. It is a resource like any other. Last time I made that argument, a lot of people came down on me. They said that we should let the best of the best go to school and if you want a part of that hand out, you suck it up and find a way to be good enough to earn the hand out.

So which is it? Pay for just enough of the best and brightest to go to college, and send all the B and C students to CC and vocational schools? Let them learn to weld so by the end of the year we can have a few 1000 more auto body repair places? Or do we set up something really expensive that would provide resources for any adult to receive the education of their choice?

Good skills - math, communication, problem solving and other skills are needed in every profession. The skill set itself can vary.

This is true, but I don't think every person has those skills in them, or that it would be desirable to have a country full of little Drews and Yoshis.

Which is sad because I'm seeing a lot of that mind set in this thread. A whole lot of "think and be like me, or fuck you" Really people? Do you not have any more empathy in you than that?

[Diff-chan]

The thing is a lot of people are TRYING to re-educate themselves in response to the "new economy" by returning to school and learning new skills.

Glorious and perfect private industry responded by setting up a bunch of predatory, rip-off "for-profit" colleges have been set up with the sole purpose of saddling students with lots of government-guaranteed debt while teaching them not much at all. In the end, the students learn nothing and end up with thousands of dollars of debt they can't repay - they are in a worse situation than before. The companies get taxpayer money to cover the debt.

And the government just stood by and let this happen. In fact, they facilitated it. This is an intentional thing. The head of Bush's Dept. of Education was a former lobbyist for those crooks.

But that goes deeper, past the fact that this isn't really a meritocracy if it ever was. It's a society where people make money by ripping each other off or scamming each other. That's basically the core of the housing bubble. The government's role in all of this is to facilitate the scamming on the behalf of the big players (whether it is Sallie Mae or Goldman Sachs) while insulating them from damage.

[Gooch]

The companies do not get taxpayer money to cover the debt. The rest of your rant is fairly accurate.

[Tones]

A four-year degree still isn't a requirement to do well in life. There are many jobs available in the trades, and many of them are pretty hard to ship overseas. Yeah, that independent plumber may have to dredge up your shit, but he probably makes more than the office drone, and isn't getting called into work on the weekend without getting paid dearly for it.

A pretty solid way to make a decent living is to do a job no one else could possibly want to do. My dream blue collar job is garbage pickup. Sure, I'll stink, but I'll be outside all day, exercising, earning okay pay and benefits from the union gig, and who am I trying to impress, anyway?

[Diff-chan]

Your mom.

I'm sure she will be very proud of you.

[Drewbacca]

Sure, I said almost the same thing you are, and everyone says they don't want to give a hand out to people. I think the government should aid anyone that wants to be educated. I consider it a form of infrastructure. A good pool of educated and skilled people is good for any nation. It is a resource like any other. Last time I made that argument, a lot of people came down on me. They said that we should let the best of the best go to school and if you want a part of that hand out, you suck it up and find a way to be good enough to earn the hand out.

That argument specifically had to do with top tier schools like Harvard. You said it was B.S. they didn't let everyone in. Completely different.

This is true, but I don't think every person has those skills in them, or that it would be desirable to have a country full of little Drews and Yoshis.

Which is sad because I'm seeing a lot of that mind set in this thread. A whole lot of "think and be like me, or fuck you" Really people? Do you not have any more empathy in you than that?

I am in advertising and design. Everything I have can be created with a computer, sketchpad and creative suite (which you can easily pirate). I am good at managing and communicating with clients and keeping on top of projects. I learned most of my management prowess through practical experience and I toiled in college for 3 years becoming a designer. In the fall I'm actively going back to school to learn programming and web languages as that is the future of the web, and we are moving in to a period of augmented reality where cameras can scan real things and use that information to help people (like kinect). I will be able to scan a store shop and see all of the deals available in the store or around town for the same goods, etc.

I could say fuck it and just be a designer. But I know where that road is headed. I could probably also just be an art director and manage my assets. But why? I personally LIKE getting my hands dirty and doing the work. It's fulfilling and I save more money for myself and learn more. And I can use it for my freelance gig, too. 1/3 of my income every year comes from freelance money, after all.

Oh and also - Yoshi didn't take the easy way out. He learned hardcore math and does complicated statistics, doesn't he? He's in demand because everyone wants to be a designer or actor or whatever other profession is popular at the time.

[Brisco Bold]

designer or actor or whatever other profession is popular at the time.

A designer is popular?

[Brisco Bold]

A four-year degree still isn't a requirement to do well in life. There are many jobs available in the trades, and many of them are pretty hard to ship overseas. Yeah, that independent plumber may have to dredge up your shit, but he probably makes more than the office drone, and isn't getting called into work on the weekend without getting paid dearly for it.

A pretty solid way to make a decent living is to do a job no one else could possibly want to do. My dream blue collar job is garbage pickup. Sure, I'll stink, but I'll be outside all day, exercising, earning okay pay and benefits from the union gig, and who am I trying to impress, anyway?

My dream blue collar job would have been in construction. I wish I was good at it. Or.. setting up equipment for events. I love that stuff. And I'm actually good at it. If I could get a gig doing that, I totally would.

[Fe 26]

That argument specifically had to do with top tier schools like Harvard. You said it was B.S. they didn't let everyone in. Completely different.

I wasn't talking about them.

[MarkRyan]

Which is sad because I'm seeing a lot of that mind set in this thread. A whole lot of "think and be like me, or fuck you" Really people? Do you not have any more empathy in you than that?

It's not about "be like me," it's about "be what's in demand and the future of industry." Empathy is fantastic, but you do people no good by ignoring reality.