03-15-2017, 06:20 PM
(03-14-2017, 05:48 PM)SomeGuy Wrote:Quote:Being willing to move to a city for work and get retraining and/or higher education
How is that working out for you so far?
I really never got the "blue collar=unskilled" meme. Some of them? Sure. But for plenty of others, those manual trades (formal or not) take at least as much skill as the average BA/BS holding office plankton or barista.
I'd guess that many kids from blue-collar households whose parents want their smart kids to go to school to have an opportunity at a white-collar career find that the white-collar world isn't what it looks like from the outside -- and then decide to rejoin the world of the skilled trades. The pay is better, and the chance of career advancement based upon proficiency is higher where there are no low glass ceilings.
A college degree for a shop steward is not a waste. Having a college degree and working as a barista? There had better be something going along with the job. If one lives a spartan-enough life one might get to do some travel to see the world because the throw-away jobs are easy to get.
Were I to give advice to a young adult on what to do with the prospect of cr@ppy jobs with low pay -- recognize the employer and location as no less expendable as the employer sees you. Don't buy more than you can keep in your suitcase unless it is old furniture that you bought cheaply at Goodwill or Salvation Army and can donate as someone else;s bargain while you buy much the same at a Goodwill or Salvation Army in the next city. Collect memories while young; those are precious and they will stick, unlike the schlock that you can buy easily. Make a commitment only when you see signs that you might want to stick around.
The truth is that few people have the maturity to manage anything before age 30. So you don't mature economically until you are 30 or so. Unless you have a congenital heart defect or other life-shortening defect (like a cancer gene) you will have plenty of time to enjoy the questionable delights of 'Affluenza'.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.