[Magdalen] Gap year (or more)

[Jim Guthrie]

From: Jay Weigel

>All that stuff that Jim G is talking about still does not require a college
>education. It might require a *technical* education, but a lot of that is
>or can be hands-on and doesn't have to be via books. Most plumbers and
>electricians still learn the old fashioned way, via information that's
>handed down from the older guys, plus studying the code books.

Except for those places that require an Associates Degree with some experience 
or umpteen years of experience as Plumber's Helper or Apprentice to become a 
licensed plumber, of course.

That reminds me of one of the stories I did working in Williamsport that helped 
them drive me out of town. A former Williamsport Plumber returned after 4 years 
in the Marines in Viet Nam. His license had expired, but city plumbing board 
refused to re-license him as "un qualified." The Plumbing Board consisted of 
five men who owned the five plumbing businesses in the city, and they were not 
about to allow a freelancer to the party. I found out that this was not a unique 
situation,either.

>When my hairdressers were building their house, they started with one
>contractor and ended up firing him and hiring another who employed only
>Hispanic workers. It turned out that the Hispanic carpenters in particular
>were far superior to the local American guys. Carpentry is a respected
>trade among them, guess why? Yep, you got it. And skilled tradesmen in
>general seem to be among the most respected in the local Hispanic community.

Did they get a good price because they were Hispanic? Were all those tradesmen 
working legally, or were they underpaid because they didn’t have papers? I think 
that's kind of a bad anecdote in the discussion.

Of course there will be positions that one can get with only a high school 
education, and I'm sure everyone taking exception to my argument could raise a 
family in some degree of comfort for $31,000 a year, saving enough for 
retirement, putting any kids who want to through college and all the rest. 
Enough kids they can get Food Stamps, for heaven sake, so why worry about it?

The world is changing, and if Americans don’t figure that out, we'll all be 
consigned to a lower standard of living.

Cheers,
Jim Guthrie



On Fri, Jun 5, 2015 at 10:26 AM, Lynn Ronkainen <houstonklr at gmail.com>
wrote:

> news blurb from NYTimes this morning ; U.S. Economy Added 280,000 Jobs in
> May; Unemployment Rate at 5.5% Employers added 280,000 jobs in May, the
> Labor Department reported on Friday, blunting worries about the American
> economy’s momentum after a stretch of lackluster growth earlier this year.
> The official unemployment rate ticked up to 5.5 percent.
>
>
> I still think that Washington is using mathmagic to report information
> like this....
> and the Engineer and the burger flippin' 17 year old are on a level
> playing field in this new statistical economy of job reporting...
>
> Lynn
>
> website: www.ichthysdesigns.com
>
> When I stand before God at the end of my life I would hope that I have not
> a single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything You gave me."
> attributed to Erma Bombeck
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Jim Guthrie" <jguthrie at pipeline.com>
> Sent: Friday, June 05, 2015 8:31 AM
> To: <magdalen at herberthouse.org>
> Subject: Re: [Magdalen] Gap year (or more)
>
>  It's a vanity thing for too many.  Go to college whether it agrees with
>>> you
>>> or not. And that is nuts.
>>>
>>
>> Not in a world that's flat.
>>
>> And are you familiar with the kinds of things a modern electrician has to
>> deal with? All manner of IC Circuits for example. The job has changed
>> during the past 20 years or so, at least in the United States.
>>
>> Plumbers? In much of the U.S. one might need an advance degree just to
>> decipher modern plumbing codes <g>  It's not just fixing a leak in a pipe
>> anymore..
>>
>> There aren't enough of these jobs going forward that will provide much of
>> a life (or income) for those who refuse to advance their education. And if
>> there are too many who eschew education the basic laws of economics  will
>> drive down wages and make them all members of the "Working Poor."
>>
>> I, for one, am not in favor of that. I am not in favor of the idea that
>> "the poor will always be with you" as a command, not something to try to
>> overcome as much as possible.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Jim
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>