http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/skip-college-plumber-mayor-bloomberg-article-1.1347576
Mayor Bloomberg’s advice to ‘so-so’ students is to skip college and become a plumber. His argument is that they won’t waste time, would have a nice income and could avoid student loan debt. Plus, this is one profession that can’t be outsourced.
Some advice from career counselor Mayor Bloomberg: If you are a so-so high school student, steer clear of college — and learn to clear clogged drains.
Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show Friday that going to trade school to become a plumber is a better economic bet for many teenagers than obtaining an undergraduate degree.
“The people who are going to have the biggest problem are college graduates who aren’t rocket scientists, if you will, not at the top of their class,” he said.
“Compare a plumber to going to Harvard College — being a plumber, actually for the average person, probably would be a better deal.”
He said plumbers make a good living without having to pay off college loans.
“You don’t spend ... four years spending $40,000, $50,000 in tuition without earning income,” he explained.
Another benefit: Plumbers don’t have to worry about their jobs being outsourced or handled by computers. “It’s hard to farm that out ... and it’s hard to automate that,” he said.
The mayor said “a number” of studies conclude that plumbers start their careers with less debt and higher wages than their peers who attend college.
Mark Kantrowitz, an authority on college financial planning, said the mayor is partly right.
With the loss of income for four years, plus student debt, some people who go to college will have less to spend over their lifetime than people who skip school and land well-paying jobs in trades like plumbing and electrical work. “Not everyone has to go to get a college degree to get a good job,” he said.
But, Kantrowitz added, for most people, “college is a good investment.”
By attending a state school or a less prestigious private college, some students can improve their chances of faring better financially over the long haul, he said. “The only schools that cost $40,000 or $50,000 like the mayor said are elite schools,” Kantrowitz said.
Bloomberg is right. Not everyone needs to go to college to be successful in life. Also, Mayor Bloomberg is an independent, and he wants people to think independently and stray away from the ultrademocrat (read: Communist) assembly line known as college. People need to get into skill trades and do service work or just get to the fucking factories instead of pissing away tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in a glorified country club where you're forced to write essays about how all white men are evil. If you go to a private school, and just pass and get a degree, then yes, might have had more money being a plumber.
If you actually use the time to get a good understanding of the subject you are majoring in, network with other going into that field, and use the internship programs the university offers at a cheaper state school, you will do a hell of a lot better than a plumber, doing something more flexible and respectable.
@previous (B)
Most people fall in the first category though.