https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/19/economy/american-dream-millennials/index.html


The us economy is not pro family 

The example around here is my wife's brother. He got a mechanical engineering degree. Not sure how much student debt he racked up, but it's kind of irrelevant, because:

He got an engineering job -- a job in his precise field of study -- immediately after college, and he's had the job ever since. I think he added some kind of PE certification (not physical ed) to get an increase in pay a couple years after he graduated. If something happened to his current employer (highly unlikely; his employer does work for various utilities and taxpayer-funded organizations, etc.) he would be doing another ENGINEERING job soon enough.

Another thing: he does "real work". He's not just a manager or someone that can be cut with no ramifications for the company. He does work necessary to keep the electricity running, water flowing, and other important infrastructure work. If a Great Depression started tomorrow, he'd probably keep his job.

Long story short, no "starbucks barista" gigs for this man. His degree was worth the time, effort, and money spent.

If you don't have such a clear-cut path between yourself right now and the career you want to be in -- don't bother with college. You have to know that college is required for the career you're going to work in. Don't waste a bunch of time/money only to find out you could have jump-started your career by saving the four years spent at college, and just getting some combination of certifications, self-study, personal experience/portfolio, apprenticeships, trade school, etc.

Obviously if you can do some of your college during High School, get a bunch discounted, get some scholarships and grants -- well go for it. Not much risk there. But don't sink yourself $100K in debt unless you're going to be a Doctor at the end of it... And I mean medical doctor, not PhD in history or literature. The latter CAN get cancelled, poor, and end up working at Starbucks.

Maybe, we should have traditional communities helping eachother to build familes. But from what I've seen, alot of the young men are immature, and the young women... are just as immature, if not even more... Failure of fathers... period. We had our Bishop talk about weak dads,selfishness in singles not getting married.. Talked about materialism, selfishness, etc.

Boy the church got real cold when he talked about this issue...

We need to sacrifice our comforts... We are not doing this...

He got an engineering job -- a job in his precise field of study -- immediately after college, and he's had the job ever since. I think he added some kind of PE certification (not physical ed) to get an increase in pay a couple years after he graduated. If something happened to his current employer (highly unlikely; his employer does work for various utilities and taxpayer-funded organizations, etc.) he would be doing another ENGINEERING job soon enough.

Generally speaking, even someone like him gets screwed because (based on the current job market) you only get significant wage increases if you job hop.  Generally speaking, employers don't reward loyalty or long-term job productivity.

He does work necessary to keep the electricity running, water flowing, and other important infrastructure work.

Farming and other truly essential jobs are also stabler.

Here on the Canadian prairies, beef ranchers are generally struggling.

I mean subsistence farmers, not corporate farmers.