I graduated from a reasonably well ranked liberal arts university and have worked in tech for the past 4 years.
After buying my first property and realizing how much I didn't know about fixing anything in the place, I started to think more heavily about how we've basically designed an education system and society that will forget how to maintain and build itself.
We need to almost a) create a cultural stigma against office workers (yes, seriously) or b) subsidize viable alternatives to college, such as trades, much more than we're currently doing.
Or we need to stop stigmatizing the trades and not going to college, but the politics of "those" people isn't in line with what is considered "proper" and so that's a much harder row to hoe.
Who the hell stigmatizes the trades? I swear in every comment section there is an echo chamber of folks saying this, but never anyone actually saying it. Maybe there are, but I've never seen it.
What I have seen in the last decade in comments sections is folks claiming (despite most of them not actually working in said trades) that the trades are a great living and an easy way to making significant income despite the data saying otherwise.
We also need more support for people who work trades. Often those are jobs you cannot work until you are 65 or that involve non trivial amounts of physical risk. It's not just the current stigma, it's the long term social impacts. I'll have a comfortable retirement and can work until I'm 70, a welder likely doesn't have a 401k and can work until they are 50.
Or you could you allow the market to price those professions. If enough 60/70 year-old plumbers retire and there's no one to pick up the slack, those costs will rise and people will take those professions. Or someone will innovate in the space and make those professions different and more efficient.
The alternative is a top-down approach that requires policy-makers to pick winner & loser professions. Imagine being given the task of investing tax-payers money into incentive programs for trades/professions? How do you know which ones will be viable in 10 years time and which ones will be obsolete?
I'm not recommending a fully market-ist approach. But market forces can help appropriately price scare resources (professional services, in this case).
I assume you went somewhere prestigious and it really just validates my pet theory that you and your peers are really one-trick ponies. Don't blame society or college that you can't fix a clogged drain, blame yourself or your parents.
yeah, most things are pretty fixable if you're willing to spend some time and buy some tools. You just have to keep an eye out for situations where you need a real pro. Especially if it's some kind of electrical thing.
Do you replace your own car headlight bulbs? Replacing a wear part like a washer or clearing a screen in a plumbing connection isn't a job for professionals. It's a half a step up from doing your own dusting and vacuuming.
After buying my first property and realizing how much I didn't know about fixing anything in the place, I started to think more heavily about how we've basically designed an education system and society that will forget how to maintain and build itself.
We need to almost a) create a cultural stigma against office workers (yes, seriously) or b) subsidize viable alternatives to college, such as trades, much more than we're currently doing.