re: New figures on apprentice trade pay vs. new college grad pay

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The way I look at it, a college degree doesn't raise your compensation ceiling

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Not the initial compensation ceiling, but it gives you more of a ceiling down the road, unless the craftsman starts his own business.

How about taking your MBA to HVAC school? That is going to pay off, bigly.

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Have they paid off their student loan debt yet?

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Yes, pretty easy when you out earn the tradesman by about double on average

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You really think the average college grad makes double what trades make?

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That’s not what you said.

Like a total retard, you wanted to compare the top of one profession to the median of another. When you normalize level, the college educated make a lot more than tradesman… every single time

This isn’t debatable

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You mean when that plumber, electrician, HVAC guy is now a master in their trade and has their own company? They do alright.

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Generally speaking most don't own their own business by that point. Also generally speaking, even if they do own their own business (and especially if they don't) its with worse hours, worse benefits, and more wear and tear on their bodies by that point compared to the college grad.

I have some relatives that went the trade route. They own their own business. They rarely ever get to take a vacation. They are decent with their money (not great, maybe not even good, just decent compared to the average person who is very bad with money) but are near retirement and don't know what they are going to do because even though they saved some for retirement they just didn't get the compounding money college grads get with an employer match (or the lucky dogs who got a pension when those were still widely available). They haven't ever had health insurance, so their health issues now that they are older from the wear on their bodies are piling up. They haven't gone to the doctor regularly so who knows what kind of underlying conditions they have.

Trades are fantastic and I think should be promoted more in some ways, but we've jumped the shark to the point where we paint them as this glamorous way to the same lifestyle a college grad has (but cheaper to get to!) when its not always glamorous and not always the same lifestyle.

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How many college degrees will be replaced by AI in the near future?

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Less than or equal to those in the trades

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That’s not what you said.

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The OP is about trade vs college at the start
The post I replied to said "20 years later"

Nowhere did I say top profession... I simply picked the 3 most obvious trades.

Now calm down you little midget bitch

I'm definitely for the trades, but this is a bad comparison.

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If you're talking about the upper echelons of "normal" people... running a business, becoming an executive, partner at a firm, etc... I think you're correct.

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Yes, but we're also talking in the aggregate, not in specifically every case. There will always be outliers both ways. I think this covers the "normal" you're referencing.

Bill Gates, Zuck, etc. don't have degrees (although we could refine that a bit by saying "at least 2 years of college" which would skew things further to college).

And there are lots of guys who don't go to college but have the aptitude to potentially succeed there, who can handle the mental requirements of running a business because of this. There is this myth that's grown around the issue (seen regularly on here) about owning your own trade company, when the vast majority of those in the field lack the ability to do so.