@@Sectarian. Moroccan here. Short answer for the region: Unemployment. All kinds of degrees, including physics and chemistry - unemployment recipes. Studied in Romania - even there: plenty of unemployed ENGINEERS (yes, engineers) IN ROMANIA, IN THE FREAKING EU!!! A friend of mine used his degree in English, not to teach (as he should), but to discuss with me "manosphere" stuff - I had to explain to him that it's not the women who were "modernized, westernized, spoiled..."; he just was BROKE: "If we lived in the future, I as another man, would have never mixed my DNA with yours to make babies in a sci-fi lab because you're broke and unemployed, dude! Can't raise those kids." I tough at first he learned English so well from the net like me (back in 2008 I used to watch AJ), ...but no...he's an unemployed professor who never taught.
@@Sectarian. Depends on a lot of factors, which country would you move to, what jobs would you be looking to do, how concerned are you about pay. In general with an english degree there's not many high level jobs you can do apart from teaching or translation but it might provide you with neccesary skills to do freelance work like marketing (you don't need a degree for that though) Like the comment above said, the region and sectors matter the most as in the UK many qualified graduates are unable to find a job simply due to the fact that there is abundant supply of degrees so choosing a good country with future job prospects would be a thing that is often overlooked. However I would personally not do English at uni as there is simply no demand for this degree right now and likely in the future
@@6464x Romania is developed in the Byzantine Empire fashion. All hail Constantinopole. There is a huge shortage of engineers. 'Work politics aside, but they are a major contributor' the problem is that you can somewhat reliably find work if you move to the few developed major cities or work remotely. BUT the local managers with very small pp's h8 to not be able to slap you in the office. So you get the commuting problem mentioned in the video and the road quality is at national tragedy level. Do not say stuff like 'but EU grrr'. Do your homework on where you think is good, but I will recommend all non-eu people to come study sciences in romanian university cities as the education is decent, not great (while it still lasts) and you will not worry about debt levels like in most EU (you can keep on green because the private sector loves pushing students around on low wages). Then run as fast as you can once you graduate if you have nothing binding you.
As I get older I'm realizing it isn't about what pays more, it's about what provides the best work-life balance. I could be a lawyer making 200k a year, but I'd never get to spend it and work 60-80/hr weeks until I'm dead, or I could be a plumber making 55k a year and actually see my family, go on vacations, and enjoy being alive. Being the hardest working cog in the machine doesn't mean you have the best life, it means the machine is running optimally; a machine you don't own.
The Oligarchs that run Capitalism founded and funded the Bolsheviks, and everything since. Wall St's Jacob Schiff provided 20million in gold to Trotsky in NY, and the Paul Warburg bankrolled Lenin and the Soviet Union. It's an economic pincer maneuver. Who owns the 2 machines?
I mean this could also go for academic jobs? I'm studying history and could work for my local municipality. 36 hours a week, lots of paid vacation time and good other options. Start pay: 3348 euros a month. End salary: 6500euros a month. Plumbers here (salaried) dont earn shit and have to make ends meet with working over or on the side. (Unless they start their own one man company) it really depends on what study/work and what company you work for or if you work for yourself. Blue collar jobs here don't pay good for 40 hours. They should and deserve to earn more.
And you get pension, good benefits, labor protections, you name it. Those Longshoremen at the ports make like $180,000 annual and they take breaks every 30 minutes or something. It's absurd.
In my last year at university getting my aerospace engineering degree and I have never been more convinced it is a scam. Professors are useless, and I am paying thousands of dollars a year to teach myself the material. Really wish I (and my parents who are the only reason I went to university) had watched this video 4-5 years ago
A scam requires a lie, that is simply not so. The word you mean is "bubble." And rocket science is one of the better degrees. The university I briefly attended had internships pretty much mandatory and these firms usually hired the interns upon graduation. Few get prestigious positions like with NASA or Skunk Works, though.
@@HontasFarmer80not true, but it is a real shame that you probably need a degree just to even get an interview. Companies like Grumman or Lockheed used to intake and train employees immediately. If you couldn’t learn you got fired after a few months. Furthermore, all of my personal skills and knowledge that have actually contributed in interviews and internships was not acquired in a university classroom.
@@samsonsoturian6013it is a lie. I am no more prepared now to work in industry than I was in high school. I got an internship because I had the ability to talk about Raytheon’s standard missile series (which I’ve known about since middle school), not because of my university knowledge. People spend 100k and 5 years to sit in a windowless basement and play with CAD software you can learn to use in a week. BUT, I see your point and the logic behind it. It is absolutely a bubble as well. But to further emphasize my point, my university is similar (despite being ranked very poorly in aerospace), and I ALMOST got one of those “prestigious” jobs because the interviewer was impressed by my mad ramblings about A2AD systems.
I had originally intended to go to my local university for a 5 year master's degree in architectural engineering until the pandemic hit. Everyone lost their collective minds, we switched to online learning, and I, someone on the spectrum with a preference for hands-on learning, couldn't adapt. I withdrew from classes, and while I was depressed and felt like a failure at the time, it was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. Right now, I'm at the local trade school halfway through my associate's degree in precision machining, paid in full by scholarship, and I've got a paid internship position at a machine shop thanks to my instructor and his industry contacts. It may not be as fancy or prestigious as a piece of paper and an office in some downtown highrise, but I found what works for me, and life is finally looking up.
I'm getting a history PhD and I can say emphatically that you should never do this with the intent of making money. The only job that requires this degree is professor and you'll spend at least a hundred grand and years of hazing in grad school and have few if any job offers afterwards. There's still a steady stream of applicants because this job attracts egotistical bastards. Don't ask what I want to do with my degree. I cannot tell you.
@robertmazurowski5974 or get stupidly luck. For instance, Arnie was a stuntman and body builder who spoke little English, but fit perfect for the role of the Terminator.
I'm a teacher and you're quite right. I have started telling my students that they shouldn't go to university unless they're going into a job field that requires a college degree.
@@Sectarian. there are english online courses that are, time and money wise, better alternative than going to university. Also, it's better to go and speak in the country that speaks the language to become proficient at it.
@@aether3697 yepp but my rationale for studying English is that it won't require me a lot of work .. also I'll be studying it on a scholarship so it's free
This video needs to be shown to every student who is considering university, and shown twice to those who are planning on going into a degree program without guaranteed jobs
Yeah, if they've got a career in mind, have done the math, and it works out, then fair enough. But so many go to uni to get a "education" and end up working crummy jobs wondering what went wrong. What happened was you committed to something without a plan, on an empty promise, and many don't even realise this after they've graduated. So people need to learn from history and don't make this mistake many of us already have done.
@@TheImperatorKnightI believe this is true with Stem subjects as well especially in the UK where there is a mech eng bubble where there are way too many students to become an eng related to their field.
@@TheImperatorKnight If all these arguments don't work, the one that works best still is the compromise-point of "If you don't want to work deep in the hard sciences, don't go to uni. If your aim isn't the top of that, don't go to uni." edit: It at least deters from most of the obvious garbage scam fields.
I'm an auto mechanic. Over the years I've self taught basic electrical engineering and gotten every bit of training I can get. I'm now making 120k+ a year. It's hard work but I make double what the teachers in my area make.
As a 31 year old certified electrician in the US I’m training my 3rd consecutive 23-25 year old college graduate as an electricians apprentice. They’ve all been tens of thousands of dollars in debt and unable to afford their own homes. I genuinely feel bad for them. They all had good intentions but they were sold a lie.
the lie is that student life is all 'american pie' in the US? I think most over there are social butterflies, then they get hit by the loan train and finally start living a real life.
Never went to school but wished I would have become an electrician. Too late now I'm 33. I don't have time to sit around making min wage as an apprentice even tho I have 10 years in construction and could pass the Journeyman test with my eyes closed. But too much of a corrupt system. Really need to do away with the Apprenticeship model.
@@alexlaw1892 Its never too late man. Here in North Carolina apprentices start out making double the minimum wage at least. There’s a HUGE demand for electricians in NC. There’s no real union here so we don’t waste time with long, low paid apprenticeships and wages are extremely competitive even for guys without experience.
Funnily enough, "Look at your future profession's demand and trajectory before getting into it" is one of the most important things that we were taught in school by some teachers in Russia.
As it was, it doesn’t really matter in Russia anyway, because the future career trajectory of everyone is to be sent to die pointlessly in a failed invasion of your neighbouring countries.
That's what people who looked at the automobile industry when it was in its nascent stage said. They observed that the demand for buggy whips would drop. And that buggy whips manufacturer was not a profession with a future. Sometimes you have to look past the obvious prestige that buggy whip making will provide you with and focus on something more tangible like home ownership.
Я учился на юриста, потому что это было модно в те годы и родители так решили. Устроился я в 2008 г. на государственную службу, потому что в частном секторе юристы были не нужны. У нас в провинциальном городе была дюжина (!) юридических факультетов. Очевидно, что столько юристов не нужно даже в столице. Конечно, есть профессии, которым угрожает безработица (в сфере туризма, например), но много рабочих специальностей, которые незаменимы. Никаких преимуществ перед хорошим механиком я не имею.
Russia has better colleges but that doesn't stop our Russia "experts" from thinking that Russians are stupid. You can get a degree in America and be stupid but not in Russia.
Outstanding video and assessment. I went to trade school (A&P tech). After wrenching on aircraft for a few years, I left for the operational side of aerospace at the bottom level. I self taught and educated myself in business and advanced aerospace technology. 10 years later I’m leading a team in Advanced Aviation Mobility. This was done with (still) no “degree”, simply self educating, continuing to challenge myself, and surrounding myself with great mentors. Many peers I work with are buried in college debt. No college debt, no degree, working in the advanced aerospace industry, with a house, wife and kids. I’m 35 years old. Advanced degrees are really only applicable in STEM fields, especially with the access to information we now have. Plus state run schools (including universities) here in the states are more about indoctrination and selling a activist mindset than educating.
How is this an "Outstanding video and assessment." He is literally comparing academia (a career which is notoriously low paid vs. the amount of investment required) vs. a plumber, one of the highest paying trades.
Got a worthless degree, worked in Universities for several years in a non-academic role which allowed me to see a lot of how things work behind the scenes. At first it was pretty easy money, chill job until I gradually realised what an unethical shitshow it all was. Providing quality education was nowhere near the top of priorities for the sociopaths in charge, not sure it even factored into their plans at all. Left nearly a decade ago and by all accounts things only got a lot worse after that.
You should see why textbooks are so expensive. They spend literal fortunes recruiting and paying professors and make it back by forcing students to buy new textbooks they likely won't read every year. I caused a stir in my teaching class because for a class on early American history I recommended The Beard's History of the US (written turn of the century).
Seeing behind the scenes of a place like a big college is very disappointing. One of my friends works for our school and called me in a blind rage 2 days ago. All of the deans of the schools’ separate departments had a 3 hour meeting and spent 2 1/2 hours of it introducing the random graduate students they brought with them and talking about things like the upcoming football season. Meanwhile our school is 22 million dollars over budget this year, and my department in particular is ranked at the bottom compared to other colleges in the USA………… I worked at the school’s airport for a year so I got to personally meet many of the sociopaths who actually run things from behind the scenes when they flew in on their private jets- everything you said is valid, it’s reached a point where every student, graduate and undergraduate alike, I know personally is actively rooting for our school to go out of business.
@@samsonsoturian6013 my favourite example of this was the lecturer who made his own book required reading. Latest edition of course, couldn't pick up last years edition as that was woefully out of date as it lacked the 3-4 new pages added!
I gained a 2:1 in history back in 1988 from a well known 'redbrick' UK university - roughly equivalent to US 'Ivy League'. I had no problems finding well paid jobs, though totally unrelated to history of course! I ended up going into IT and have pursued a successful career in this field. Not sure what the situation is now as when I went to university only 15-17% of 18 year olds did so in the UK. The problem is that Blair destroyed the implicit value of a degree by opening the door to almost anyone, and this is what has caused problems. Would I want to go to university now? Probably not. I would say that if you want to become a doctor or dentist then university is a pre-requisite, but for other careers it's just not necessary. Even to become a lawyer it's not strictly necessary as there are avenues for those who want to train with A levels; likewise for accountancy, IT and other relatively well paid careers.
Absolutely! Back in the day it was worth going to university because few people did. It's supply and demand. And it's not surprising that a socialist didn't understand this, increased supply to the moon without increasing demand by the same amount, resulting in wages going down. This also proves that the Labour Theory of Value is bunk because according to their theory, wages shouldn't be affected in this scenario.
Back in the early 20th century in the US we had a guy who almost became FDR's VP pick in 1944, named James Byrnes. He's the only American to have served in the House, Senate, Cabinet, as a Supreme Court Justice, and as a Governor. High school education only. He would have been President if he hadn't been passed over for Truman at the 1944 DNC.
@@TheImperatorKnightTony Blair was also ignorant of psychology, because his implicit assumption seems to have been that the _degree itself_ was what made graduates valuable in the labour market, rather than the _calibre of the students_ admitted. When Blair attended university, only the brightest 2% or so of youngsters went to university. Today, it's the brightest 50% or more, so a degree is no longer a mark of high intellectual ability (which is largely innate, not acquired), and not even a guarantee of _average_ ability. Blair and his cabinet were Fabians, and the Fabian Society had railed against meritocracy ever since the word "meritocracy" was invented in the early 1950s, in the title of Michael Young's dystopian novel, "The Rise of the Meritocracy". Michael Young's novel presented a theory that meritocracy creates and perpetuates hierarchy (which, from a communist point of view is obviously bad), so it must be destroyed. This led to the war on grammar schools, and the absurdly broad expansion (and inevitable dumbing down) of higher education.
@@73elephantsBlair is also- at least in my opinion- a narcissist and psychopath, and only cared for the optics. Basically it was all about the quick con and getting one over the one he was selling it to, the electorate! We are now suffering in UK politics from a rash of copycats trying to replicate his success at elections, and an ever expanding cohort of the "new elite" that think they are genuinely special. Can't remember the name of the academic that's been talking about this new elite in the last few months, but he really does have a point.
This talk remind me of my university professors, all of my marketing professors were poor, despite they taught people how to control the market... kind of irony... They also tried to improve their life with their finance knowledges, which ended badly as their plan was only good on mathematic paper... It was pretty weird to see 5 professors suddenly got themselves into a massive debt while they were trying to teach you how to not to...
I made the mistake of getting my PhD after the 2008/2009 financial collapse -- as a result, the schools were glutted with more experienced older "scholars" who were just riding out the economic situation in academia but whose life experiences OUTSIDE academia made them more attractive hires for the paltry university gigs out there. And as someone who refused to play the "Woke" game, I realized I was doomed if I tried to stay with academia. I have a family to provide for! At this point I've been a cab-driver, salesman, tutor, etc. and am looking to go back to get trained as a Plumber or EMT.
Read a book on plumbing, I did and can now do plumbing. Same with fixing cars, bricklaying and plastering (slowly), electrical wiring and gas plumbing. All this stuff is dead easy if you are a bit intelligent.
Gotta disagree with you, mate. I have an advanced degree, and while I know the theory of plastering, I cannot do it in reality. It is an art, and takes years to be proficient.@@andrewallen9993
@@andrewallen9993 same can be said for cooking and I am sure everybody on the planet can whip some interesting stories about 'Just Do It!' and what the result was.
I remember writing a paper in college about something like this for an Economics class. Essentially it boils down to this. If you want to have a return on investment in higher education, you need to get a degree with a substantial job at the end of it. This means, most often, a STEM degree of some sort. Business degrees are okay, but the return is generally delayed - unless the degree leads you to being good at Sales. As an aside to this I took a couple of courses while I was working my internships (I went to the Rochester Institute of Technology where paid internships were part of most degree programs), I took a class called "History of the Atomic Age" at a State University near my internship to save money. The class cost less than a single credit hour at RIT and I transferred the credits. The professor had his wife, an economics professor, provide one guest lecture. She asked the class full of History and PoliSci majors (and me and a friend from work who was also an engineer) who thought they would have no problem getting a job after graduation. The two of us raised our hands and explained we were engineering students. At that, she nodded and chuckled.
In the US we have a painful shortage of trades people, especially that are involved in construction like electricians and plumbers. The current minimum pay in California for a journeyman electrician (been working for 2 years) is $65 - $70/hour plus overtime, which takes you over $100/hour. When you get your full high-voltage license (so others work under you as apprentices) you're not even really doing manual labor anymore. You're now in meetings, doing contracts, and making obscene amounts of money. You land a deal doing electrical in a big skyscraper and that will pay you for years.
My buddy from grade school became an electrician and did very well. He retired at 50 and has a comfortable income even now from the sale of his business. One of our best contractors is paid $110/hr and is worth every penny.
@@TimEvans64nice. If I could do it all again I'd go into the trades. My ignorant father taught me that manual labor is not paid well and white collar work was superior. He's broke on social security somewhere after switching from a trades skill in a union to a self-employed white collar worker making 1/3 as much money in middle age. He has very little retirement to show for it.
Thanks for pointing this out about skilled trades in the USA. I don't know how it is in UK, but the construction related trades in the states are all in high demand. Taking on a skilled trade is really a no brainer for someone who isn't interested in getting a university degree. Depending on the type of trade and union, one can get paid very well right off the bat (e.g. over $80k/year after overtime as a union apprentice plumber), AND have good benefits, AND build a key set of skills that can be used anytime and anywhere.
Currently studying electrical engineering , only reason why I haven't dropped out is because a degree is *required* in order to even apply for a job (unless you are freelancing in which case I hear you get hired solely to unfuck whatever situation the company has digged itself in and it's by no means a stable job) . So getting a degree doesn't put you ahead of the curve , it just makes companies consider to hire you . And just to mention the quality of the lectures , 90% of proffesors are just reading off a powerpoint .
Even if they are just reading from power point, knowledge required to actually pass the exams would be useful to you. Not the information itself, but the skill to learn and overcome challenges.
Most of "us" don't learn from the lecture. The learning comes by doing the projects and assignments (homework for the high schoolers). Almost like on the job training, but without pay. 😊
You have to get your professional Engineering TEST if you want to work as a contractor and make even more $$$ otherwise you get a cog in the machine job at best if you only get a degree. Only if you show that your hobbies are in electrical engineering will you even sniff actual electrical engineering use in the real world. No one cares about your degree other than it shows you are interested in the subject. Take EVERY class as the college level and get that 5 credit course for $400 instead of paying $3000 for it. Most transfer.
I'm 22, about to start a 2 year vocational training course (Logistics and transportation) I didn't go to college while pretty much all of my former classmates did. However, almost all of them chose an education career (being a teacher for middle schoolers and little kids), and where I live a great percentage of people that go to college choose to be an educator. The problem with this is that since a lot of people chose that career, there is now a surplus of teachers and they are having a hard time finding a job that won't even pay that good.
I sniffed around after a teaching career about 20 years ago. The stench of arrogance combined with stupidity in the recruitment process put me right off. For instance, the amount of support for budding teachers was about zero, and in one interview I attended, they seemed to want me to know all about teaching, curriculums, etc to start with without being taught. I walked away from the profession after that one, having learned why there is a constant shortage of teachers: it's a crap job that pays peanuts.
All teaching economics is local. In Michigan, when all of the factors are added up, it pays better than being a lawyer, a Physician's Assistant, an engineer, or any non-medical profession you can think of. In Oklahoma, it is exactly as you say, a crap job that pays peanuts.
I recently applied for a teaching job, I was even recommended by a friend. They didnt hire me, but when my friend saw who they hired instead, she was in shock how the fuck they chose this retard new guy over me.
In the 1950's, my grandfather bought a plot of land, built a house on it, installed the plumbing himself, installed all the electrical wiring, and laid down a driveway for his car, which he repaired himself when that was needed. In this century, almost all of that is illegal, and you have to get every part of that plan approved by the government before you can even start on it, then certified when you're done.
And people wonder why there's a housing crisis... The bureaucracy is slow, expensive, and completely pointless. If it's your land, then you should be allowed to do what you want on it. If someone else doesn't like it, tough. But, of course, it's not really your land, you just think it is. In reality, the State owns the land, and you're just renting it, which is why you pay taxes on your property.
You hit the nail on the head, so many people are going to college for 4 year and getting buried under debt, while getting degrees that can't even earn enough money to pay off the debt.
As a history and economics degree holder, I agree...I consult in logistics software now. I found my career through friends and networks. And honestly, money has been my motivating goal in a career that I enjoy. I'm not regretful of my degrees though I learned more from my other campus involvements and not a whole lot from my course studies.
This made me question if education overall will be beneficial while taking the repercussions into consideration. Not to mention the current political climate we're saddled with; it's no surprise universities and colleges are mostly seen as a laughingstock.
I sent a Young Republican Smart Young Lady off to UCLA and she came back a Grape Kool Aide drinking Idiot! Thank GOD she is working becoming a Dr while Paying TAXES! I think she is coming around again?
There's a theory that college makes you dumber. It's certainly true that the people with lots of degrees who are running the country are dumb as bricks.
I feel like I'm the only one here who was actually satisfied by his education. I recently graduated with a degree in physics in June. I will admit the universities have gone politically hijacked. In fact that is the reason why I disdained and ultimately decided to leave academia for entrepreneurship. However, I had a great opportunity to talk to the best physics minds in their fields and collaborate on amazing projects. I credit my ability to think critically to my college degree. (Though most of my colleagues were brainwashed post-modernists and Marxists, showing that intelligence doesn't necessarily correlate to critical thinking).
So, either you went all the way to get a MS or PhD or you didn't get into graduate school. Which is it? No one suffers through thermogoddamnits class to get a BS without really wanting to be a physicist.
@HontasFarmer80 It was simply a change of heart. I didn't want to be bottlenecked into academia all my life trying to discover the 18th generation particle that frankly no one outside of physics cares about. Learning the foundational theories of the universe was great, but the hyper niche topics one would then progress towards were not that inspiring anymore. As I mature I start to value financial freedom and the will to provide inherent practical value to people. My startup is inspired upon machine learning I did for simulation models while in uni.
@@HontasFarmer80 I don't know. I went into engineering after physics and while I've never used anything from thermo directly, it was one of the best classes to learn how to think about real world problems and 'debunk' crackpot world changing inventions
This video has done an incredible job of making me feel good as an apprentice gun maker and a impressive job of making my brother squirm as he is doing his doctorate in maths
While I agree with the premise of the video, and it might make more sense economically, it's still worth mentioning that for a lot of people, working as something you like such as being a history teacher is far more fulfilling than being a plumber. I'm currently studying to become a phys-ed teacher, I live at home and my university is "free." (Maybe like £300 a year) Also, it's a 5 year study and in Norway. You're also almost guaranteed a job afterwards. To me it just feels more tempting to do this, and have long holidays with something I'm at least somewhat interested in. Jobs like plumbing, with probably less holidays annually than I'll have during the summer just doesn't sound that fun to me, even if I'll be behind some of my peers before I start making money. At 24 I'll still have like 5 years to try to find someone to buy a house with and start a family without being that old, obviously it's different for us guys but yk. But it's a great video regardless, and it's something not enough people take into consideration. I'm clearly extremely lucky and in a bit of a unique situation though.
Same here, I did a degree not only to earn more money, but to do a less physically demanding job that I thought would be more enjoyable. Turned out I was mistaken about the more enjoyable part but at least the work is not too demanding. I support getting university degrees for jobs where you need one if thats what you want to do, eg, teaching, nursing, doctor etc.
IF economy crashes: YOUR phy-ed so called "job" gets cut first as ANYONE off the street or the janitor at the school can do it. The plumber/electrician has a job.
Becoming a prestigious academic has a pyramid scheme like payoff. You pay someone to teach you, then must find several people that will pay you to teach them.
Maybe it's an Anglo-American experience. I've studied in Germany and the Netherlands - Controlling. Both down to earth, to the point, very practical universities. Also a sought after BA. If you study stuff that is actually needed for the subject (as it should be, even if uni level education lags a few years behind in-field needs) in a subject that is actually needed by companies, university has similar vibes and usefulness as vocational school. If you study something "fancyful" (my blue-sky dream would've been Philosophy) in a university where the best paid staff member is the sports coach, then you're right and your degree is only money-making for the student credit giver. And btw, German uni is ~150€/semester, and Dutch uni for EU citizens ~1000€/semester; with class sizes that are actually viable. So not cheap, but not American level; that's a scam.
I have a BA in Psych that I was never able to afford to use. Working as a housepainter always paid better than any job I could get that used the degree.
I remember never wanting to go into higher education. I told my mother when I was fifteen that I wanted to be a mechanic, since my school offered numerous courses in the subject and teacher had good connections to local businesses. But because my mother and brother were so convinced that I should be "designing cars instead of fixing them" insisted that I drop those classes from my future education and instead focus on mathematics. I got into higher education by some miracle, and I found myself despising the subject matters and downright hating it. It was not for political reasons, some of my favorite professors were die-hard liberals and leftists and I enjoyed their perspective and found that they did have something to teach me. But I decided to go back on my earlier gut feeling, I picked up a trade and now I am a plumber and I have never been happier. The philosophy, political, and economics courses I took were the most valuable to me not because there is a mythical philosophy factory, but because it had given me something to talk about with my coworkers, and it has endeared me to others.
Well, idea of university courses is also to understand basics of mathematics and physics. At first not practically applicable (just like philosophy) , but then you understand that is the lubricant of life. There is a whole world of difference between tradesman and academic citizen.
You are absolutely correct (as usual). I recently stopped funding via Patreon. I am in economic tough times. I hope you understand. I have enjoyed your channel and content. I agree with a majority of what you claim. You are well researched and are an excellent example of a self taught individual. If I can afford subscriptions again. you will be at the top of the list. Thank you for all you do. Do not get depressed and stay strong.
The one thing you don't take into account that trumps all your arguments is the quality of life difference. Being a plumber means working on your knees wearing overalls in grimey, smelly locations full of dust and muck and grime, associating yourself with people who are of the same level, while a university lecturer works in a comfortable office, wearing normal, clean clothes, spends his time around more intellectual and better-educated people. It's a huge night and day difference you cant understand while you're young. I, too, made the choice to go into a lower level type of career, and while i own businesses in it now and am very well off, the tradeoff was that i had to work in a low-level, grimey environment for many years. I didnt see the benefit of higher education when i was young and made that choice but i see it now. It would have been much better for me to become a doctor or a laywer or an engineer and start my business in those fields. Maybe the money would have been even better, maybe it would have been worse, what's certain is people around would have looked upon me differently, and no matter how stoic and careless one claims to be, hell is other people. I particularly remember the looks young women gave me when they found out what my field of work was, and that's a particularly hard thing to go through when you're young and looking for a partner. Just as an example, there are many others, with lots of other people and other situations. That's what university does basically, keeps you out of taxi driving, delivery jobs, construction works, all dirty and hard jobs, and puts you in a clean office where its warm and you get to wear clean clothes. You could do that without a degree of course, but very few people are self-taught and have the vision to go on the right path when they are 16, 18, 20 etc, if left to make their own choices most non-university goers end up working in fast food, nail salons, construction work, etc. Sorry for my english, its not my first language.
@@rat_thrower5604 I briefly dated the valedictorian of the chemical engineering department. She called me one night (right after we broke up) to ask the following; “soooool I loaned my drug dealer 250$. he’s blocked my number, my brothers number, my friends number, and me on social media. Do you think he stole my money……?” As someone who’s in a position to interact with the people you perceive as “intelligent” every day, you are wrong.
The issue is that the "education" system is the gateway for the new age Cast/Class system. Its not about having a skill, its about being part of the correct group. In the correct group and you can have a position of power and influence. Outside the group and you can do menial labor for them.
The internet could potentially break that. That's why the elites are so hellbent on controlling it. If people can learn to do anything online, for free, then companies will eventually catch on to that and stop caring so much if you have a degree. Especially considering how worthless a lot of degrees are these days. Who would you rather have as a mechanic, the kid who's obsessed with cars and has watched every UA-cam video imaginable, and can fix anything, or the kid who graduated from a tech school but hasn't actually done anything hands on?
Pretty much. Western society is currently geared towards those with university education. Their issues are put on the agenda, their concerns are met. Everyone else can just drop dead for being 'problematic'. The new class divide is as harsh as the old feudal system, but at least many a feudal lord at least still cared for his serfs. If only because they understood they were the basis for his economic power These enlightened highly educated would not stop if you dropped dead on the streets but demand that everyone stops doing everything when they have an issue. They don't value the work that working class people do nor do they think it will matter if those jobs are done away with.
I went to college because of a physical handicap preventing me from doing anything "real." But culturally/temperamentally, I'm not an academic, which makes me a better math teacher, in my opinion. People look up to me for my PhD, and the terminal degree has given me a little boost in salary. But it took me a long time to get there, and I didn't really start getting paid in proportion to my training until the past few years. But as a professor, I have a nice schedule, and lots of vacation. What ends up happening is I work a lot of weekends and overtime during school and do nothing in the summer.
You are also forgetting one thing that makes it even worse. The plumber guy has bunch of savings which a) allow him to buy a home considerably sooner which will save him considerable amount of money over renting or b) will accrue interest. So while the university lecturer is paying bunch of interest the plumber guy is getting payed interest. The equation is much worse for the university lecturer.
This is one of my most favorite video that you've made. Why? I'm a plumber. My mother has a PHD in nursing. She tells me that I make about the same or more than she makes. I'm so glad that I chose this path.
Most 17 year olds are either too inexperienced or just not thinking in terms of 20, 10 or even 5 years in the future. From 2017 to 2022 I acquired a bachelor's degree in Philosophy and a master's in Archaeology. I am now 24, scraping by from one insecure, minimum-wage job to the next with no applicable skills and no feasible career opportunities. I am not bitter and I only blame myself. However, it is sad to see the government taking advantage of young people like this. The whole system seems exploitative, as does much of the rest of our society. The overwhelming majority of my friends are in a similar situation. I am also convinced that it this one of the biggest factors causing the current disaster in young people's mental health (along with the obvious things like social media). I'm glad to see you reaching out to people who might be affected in the future. All the best.
I got the whole "You better get good grades so you can get into college and get a good job, otherwise you'll wind up as a plumber." growing up. Dropped out of high school my senior year, got a GED, did some extra learning, got into the military, and just busted my ass. For a few years about a decade after high school I was making over 90k a year. I also took lots of useful classes that had a point and cost me little to nothing through the GI Bill and other employer benefits and have many certs that are in pretty high demand. I also have friends who went through school and everytime we talk they're complaining about paying back student loans.
I have finally transitioned to one of your non-tank videos. Very skilfully and cleverly laid out. You have done better than any teacher or lecturer could have in explaining this hitherto unknown (to many of us out here) anomaly.
Literally NOONE goes into academic for the money, so this is not a fair comparison at all. A degree opens doors, doesn't matter what it's in. I never used my degree professionally, but it got me my foot in the door by demonstrating I had the ability to knuckle down and motivate myself. University also gave me plenty of life and soft skills that I still utilise 20 years after I took my finals.
I'm surprised by the response to this. I genuinely thought nobody would watch it, but lots of people have found it useful or (in a lot of cases) it's confirmed what they already knew / suspected
I wasted time and money on a degree, will encourage my son not to make the same mistake unless it's either a highly vocational degree, or from a very prestigious university with a clear career plan alongside it (.e.g I want to study law at Cambridge and be a barrister). Otherwise trades would be a better route.
i think it's even worse here in america tik. not only are state and local universities privatized, they actively compete with each other. to the point where these schools do things like build new academic and sporting facilities before they know that they need it for the illusion of a busy campus, which raises the costs of operation for the school, which that is passed on to the students. i kinda came to this same conclusion back in 1996 and decided to join the army. at the time i wasn't sure what i wanted to do, but i knew i didn't want to waste time in college not knowing or having a goal. after 4 years of service, i eventually went to school for refrigeration and hvac; been doing that for 17 years now. paid off well. good video and great work tik
One thing that this analysis misses is the gatekeeping of the HR departments. In the last 30+ years, the HR departments across the board have been seized by the left, almost exclusively women. These HR departments enforce the indoctrination of university by enforcing degree requirements far outside of what the job actually requires. Getting past these gatekeepers requires the university degree, regardless of the applicability of the degree to the job. So having the degree is less a positive than not having the degree is punitive Now if your plumber is self employed, great, no HR departments. However, even many traditionally blue collar jobs are getting caught up in this HR enforcement of class and political conformity, as more small businesses failed especially during Covid and the economic aftermath of the Covid panic
I do agree with you, I think university shouldn’t be pushed as the norm these days. Also, you have to factor in that plumber guy has a more physically demanding job and that will take its toil on his body while uni guy is sat on his arse and drinking tea all day. From a monetary point of view you make a fantastic argument but the perks and lifestyle etc is vastly different and not everyone is capable of tradesmen life.
I've got a bachelor degree in biology an I could have continued to phd and worked for big pharmaceutical companies or something... However, I've chosen to learn a trade and became an artisan, and now, I've got my own business, I give myself a very good salary, have the luxury of being my own boss, and love my job. So, yeah, it is not necessary to go to uni and to do phd to have a good job. It is an inaccuracy that has been heavilly repeated in my country as well for generations. Cheers from France.
My brother in law is a plumber and handyman, a damn good one, he makes slightly more than me, a lawyer and civil servant. But, he's frequently in danger, filth and stench with his back bent and going on interventions while I'm watching TIK video. So yea, when you get a college degree you buy easier working conditions not so much a larger cashflow.
I graduated from university with a BA in History and must admit the BA got me into certain jobs but the History aspect was more a curiousity for hiring managers. I’m in a finance role now but it gives me a keenness to seek information from the numbers, identify trends etc. most of my peers do not have this and are HS educated only and the difference in knowledge and maturity is huge. I feel like I work with children most days.
I tried first year uni 4 times and failed each time, wasted every dollar I earned in my 20s on cigarettes and computer parts, and still managed to stumble in to a $100k IT job with no Uni quals, just some cisco courses. I bought a house at 35, a bit late, but not having a student loan helped to build wealth quickly once I did figure out how to save (or rather, how not to waste money). Great video TIK.
I am from Spain, and I can affirm the same thing that you say. I also have a degree in history (2005-2011), as well as two master's degrees (Chinese studies and museology-management of cultural heritage). Except for this last piece of paper, which allowed me to work in deplorable conditions in a national museum for 5 years, everything else has been of no use to me, only to hang beautiful papers on the wall. Our generation grew up with the idea of "study what you like, but at university level, because it will guarantee you a good salary in the future (+3000 euro/month after taxation)". This was instilled in us in High Schools day in and day out. They sent hundreds of young people to study university degrees with no future, and they continue to do so today. In my opinion, High School teachers live in a parallel world, far from the reality of the labor market, among other issues that there is not enough time to explain here, such as the overvaluation of university degrees over job studies " less qualified", such as electricians, bakers, heavy machinery operators... It's a complex issue, but I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who doesn't like the narrative of the current education system. Greetings from Barcelona
Funny thing that happened to me... I ALWAYS dreamed about working in the theater. I love and adore theater. I of course went to a heck of a lot entrance exams to different acting and writing schools, I got into ZERO of them. So I started to work in an escape room, first as a instructor then I moved up as a manager. While I did that... I just did amateur theater, and I started to just write by myself, write stories and theater. Just by going to workshops I started to network with a lot of people working in the business, and finally I had a script I showed to one of them, she went on and presented it to the manager of her theater. He actually bought it! And now I can say I am an official, professional, theater script writer.... And I got ZERO official education. None... Zero... And people are utterly shocked when I tell them. "How can you get put up when you have no education?!" I just... did it.... And then I meet people who DO have the education, who spend THOUSANDS of dollars on their education. But never wrote anything at all, so of course they are not set up anywhere... I am gobsmacked. Education is a scam.
Hey TIK. Nearly hit the 10 minute mark on your video and I'm rather gob smacked by all this. I did wonder how the West/Japan created Wage Slaves. This video thus far. Has gone along way in explaining & outlining how that is done. I'm just so glad I never went to Uni. So glad.
Hey tik, thank you for your video on this topic. I have been studying at university for quite some time getting an engineering degree, which has been quite difficult. I am now almost finnished and i have the option of continuing my education or joining the workforce. While I am still not certain of what exactly I am going to do, this video has given me a new perspective on my situation. Keep up the good work and thank you!
May I politely suggest getting started in industry when you graduate. An engineering degree is extremely valuable. I would advise that work experience will yield better results in terms of learning and earning potential versus a masters. That's from my experience anyway.
I went to school for an English degree but wound up dropping out due to amassing too much debt. I wound up getting my foot in the door in the tech world because I worked on computers as a hobby and served as a student technician while still at school. I've been in IT for about 20 years now and I can say that my English and writing skills HAVE helped me advance my career forward...I'm now a 6 figure project manager....but the catch is that I had to look for unconventional roles and tasks within the tech world. So my advice is if you're going to pursue an arts degree of some kind, pair it with a science based minor or personal experience you know will be useful down the road. Arts degrees are useless by themselves, but combined with other tools and willingness to take the road less traveled, they'll get you somewhere.
In my senior year of high school, we had a presentation by an engineer who said that he had minored in English and it was one of the best decisions he had made because communication is so important. I don't know about that as everyone that I've ever worked with had good comm skills, but I can definitely see it as a plus.
I have a STEM degree. Even then, what got my career started was a co-op (a type of internship) job, not the degree. I guess you could argue that I managed to get the co-op job thanks to the relationship between the company and the university. Ultimately, almost everything I learned, I did through working (or on personal projects), rather than from university classes.
I am so sick of the plumber example, and the welder example, and the electrician example, and all of the other examples out there. Here's the truth guys: if you consider yourself to be smart and if you spend your free time learning things like history or philosophy or anything that involves the mind, you are NOT going to enjoy a life of a manual laborer. You are not going to enjoy the company and conversations you have with uneducated people. If you were born into the middle class or upper middle class, don't think for a second that you'll enjoy making the adjustment to working with low class, low-in-intelligence people, or living in low-income areas. Remember that you won't be young forever; you'll get arthritis in every joint and your lower back will fuse together after all of the physical work that you'll be doing for hours and hours a day for the next 5 decades. It is very popular for UA-camrs to come out and say that college is a waste of time, and it's very popular for them to say that any of the trades would be better. However, how many of them do you see who are actually doing it themselves?! NONE of them! They're all hypocrites who try to sell you an image of modesty. "Being a humble plumber is so much better, and actually smarter. I would have done it if I could do it all over again!" No. I may sound very vain and elitist in this comment, but that is because I am appealing to the truest desires of people who voluntarily watch history videos on UA-cam: the manual labor world is not for you! On the contrary, you're probably someone who was never athletic, never quick to act or move your body, someone who has always lived inside your head, and yet you hear these performers on UA-cam tell you that being a plumber is so great, and you believe it because you like the IDEA of it. In other words, you're using your faculties of reason and your sense of virtue to convince yourself that you should enter into a simple life where NONE of those things apply! There is no reason, no virtue, and no theory of any kind in the manual labor world. Wake up and realize what you're tricking yourself into doing! Don't forget the social component of this either. What will your friends think, or your parents? What about your ancestors? Did they work so hard all those years ago, centuries ago, just so you could throw everything away and be a plumber? You do not live in a vacuum. What would your teachers think of you, all the ones who complimented you and said that you had a promising future? Live up to their trust and faith in you! I know that I have generalized here. I know that these things won't apply to all who read them. However, I needed to be the contrary voice on this matter. I needed to encourage people to remember who they are, what life they were born into, and to embrace what they've been given by their forefathers. I am also not exactly saying that college is the answer, but you must at least try to not do anything laborious for a living, unless you truly know what you're getting into. The people who have big enough UA-cam channels to live off of are not normal cases of reality. They are anomalies, and should not be used as examples for success. They might not have degrees, and yet they're rich. They might not use their degrees, and yet they're rich. Okay, good for them. But do you really think that you will do the same? Be mindful of these things. Think a little bit, because you certainly won't get to think very much if you go for a manual labor job.
I'm a history graduate. Almost none of my time was spent in classrooms, it was almost all reading books on my own. I self taught coding during an admin job out of university and got a programming job afterwards. The history degree was useless for the experience I got and for the qualification I had afterwards.
@@ilikethiskindatube Nope. You have been conditioned to look everything trough "money lenses" . Thus, as a human being you have been reduced to financial animal. As such, you are perfect pray for those who control money.
@@aleksazunjic9672 The conditioning here is that put on children to go to university without ever thinking through things, marketing applied to misplace your own priorities so that your basic needs don't come first. 18 years old. You have nothing. First priority: develop a skill, have an income, support yourself, meet your basic needs. Other people in the comments say go to university for the experience and show your commitment and capabilities. You don't need to spend tens of thousands of pounds. University is sold to children by marketing teams. Universities are incredibly lucrative and use social pressure and marketing to get people in. Walking around the city I see universities advertised eeeeverywhere. Earning an income is not "reducing people to financial animals", wealth doesn't sprout out of nowhere. If you don't contribute then you depend on others supporting themselves and you too. Habitually relying on the hard work of others while contributing nothing would make you a parasite.
Also when PHD guy gets married at 33 years old. He has 2 lovely children.. After 10 years she is not happy! Divorce comes and he pays alimony and child support! Phd is in a deep deep hole!
There's an issue with the logic behind the math at 6:15. In order to do an apples to apples comparison, you would have had to compared the total cost of the education vs. the amount the plumber earned. Or, you would have had to compared how much the plumber earned, minus taxes, minus the amount a reasonable person would have had consumed during the same time. Then, given that $100 today is worth more than $100 a year from now, you would have had to include time preference (the interest rate). The student debt is 7%, OK, so once you figure out how much the plumber would have saved over those years, assume he invested it at a reasonable interest rate (let's say even 4%). The end result is that the plumber is even better off than in your example! Cheers! -An Economist who only went to University because the GI Bill paid for it
I think you way oversimplified the comparison. This either or philosophy that seems to have become pervasive lately is no better than the previous "everyone has to go to university ". Either path isn't necessarily within the capability of large portions of the population. The guidance has to be individually addressed. There are differences between the US and Britain but I was surprised at the low payscales. A journeyman plumber in the US makes a lot more, averaging over $60,000 dollars. More importantly, a Phd earns far more, usually starting there and going into six figures. The teaching path is also not stagnant. Whereas a plumber makes what a plumber makes, the teacher's salary is continually increasing with experience, tenure and the typical education career of more compensation with the addition of more degrees. Most importantly, your plumber is going to have a rough time working to 65, let alone 70. The physical labor will take a toll on their body. While you have your NHS, in the US any perceived advantage of pay over time will be reduced by medical bills far in excess of the potential student loan interest. A lecturer can easily "work" long into old age if they so desire. A 60 year old plumber is a rare being. That piece of paper usually opens doors to many management or other positions not related to the degree itself. It's not so easy for a trades to switch from plumber to carpenter. Basically it's the long game. If you have the intellectual capacity to get a useful degree, obviously not gender studies or pacific islander folk art, a mental career will serve you better. I know many people who have paid the toll of a career of physical labor out in the weather. Sure they have money, but not their health.
I'll give you my opinion. I'm in university and I think it has been more than worth the 27,000 for me. The life experience, the people I've met and the opportunity to move across the country has been invaluable to me. But notice I didn't mention the degree itself. I'm currently getting a degree in Ancient History. What job am I going to do in the future? Probably something with music honestly. So was uni worth it for the degree? No. What I think uni is useful for, as I say, is the connections I've made from university and the opportunities it gives outside of the curriculum. I genuinely find those more worthwhile to me then the degree itself and more useful for my future. I don't think this is true for everyone though, if you're not a social person like I am and are literally planning on doing uni solely for the degree itself I'd definitely advise caution. I other words I have willingly bought into a con, knowing its a con, simply because it benefits me. And that might not be the case for everyone.
Universities are great for business, science, math and medical/biology degrees. You also attend schools that have advanced facilities. If you want to be an astronomer then you go a school like the University of Texas that has an observatory (McDonald Observatory) or you go to schools with leaders in your field, CalTech manages the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA, UCLA Health is home to some of the most technologically advanced hospitals in the world.
The Covid 19 lockdowns proved me that none of this matter You can be an IT specialist and work from home or a plumber. Just be what you think and feel will suit you
It's like the myth that anyone can get rich. No, obviously not everyone can be millionaires. Most of us can only be successful by being skilled workers.
Good job completely missing the point of the video. Did you EVEN WATCH IT? HE GOES OVER THIS!!! COMPLETE wrong response!!! DUMB!!!! NOT A GOOD COMMENT! TRY WATCHING THE VIDEO BRO!!!!!!!
@@samsonsoturian6013 The difference between making 100k a year and a million a year is skills. The thing is though, you don't have to go to university to learn skills.
I advised my handy son at 18 who wanted to go to college to instead learn welding then slowly work toward speciality welding certs. Now 10 years later he doesn't know what to do with all his money and asked me for advice. Not a cent of student debt. Universities are not places of higher learning, they are a business and people need to realize this. The only way to make good money with a university is get into university administration.
Yes, good welders are in high demand. Good TIG welders especially. It will take time and practise but will be worth it, so, yes, that is a smart thing to do. Find a good apprenticeship.
100 % agreed. Once you understand how broken the university system actually is - gradually taken apart by fiat money and corporate interest - the only logical outcome is that the education this system can offer is as broken. Fix the money, fix the world.
The only difference is that being a plumber aged 60 it is getting more difficult to keep working at the same rate as before....otherwise i fully agree with you and i am not from the UK.
The thing you have to realize (at least in the USA) the average age of these tradesmen are 55, there will be a shortage. supply and demand says that tradesmen will be getting higher salaries in the future. This is the best time to be in a trade.
It would be, were it not for the reams of red tape and ridiculous regulations that make it very difficult for tradesmen to do their jobs. More and more work is just being done under the table.
Hi Tik I’ve listened to your videos for a while now, I’m a plumber gas engineer in Essex, I’m 26 and I launched my own business in November last year, from scratch after working for a company for 10 years, my customers are growing and so far It’s getting better and better, The market in Essex has a lot of plumbers but building relationships with home owners small businesses is key which the corporate firms fail too. Your videos like Public vs private really gave me answers to what I was seeking and helped me understand our world A great public private comparison is British Gas vs Ltd company like myself Corporations are indeed arms of the state,
I'm a webdeveloper, I don't have any college or university education. 13 years ago I've picked up a programming book and then another and another and suddenly I had a job. I earn good money and no college loan 😇 These days it's even easier to learn coding (lot of free youtube materials)
It's easier than ever to learn coding, but good luck getting considered for any programming job without some form of degree or certification nowadays. The industry cares about qualifications, not aptitude, and it really shows.
@@LN997-i8xthere are other fields in Computer Science that aren’t oversaturated as software engineering such as Cybersecurity, IT, etc. Cybersecurity is underrated.
Also keep in mind that plumbers, electricians and other trades man actually get a lot of money in cash directly without income tax. That might even double their salaries.
I'm currently working my way through two degrees: one in applied mathematics and the other in economics. Personally, I think it still makes sense for me because both those majors are hard, and so the number of students in it is pretty limited. For example, last year, 30% of my peers in the math major switched out. However, the employment prospects for my major are pretty good after graduation. I think that this occurs exclusively because the supply of math majors is constrained so much by the difficulty. It also helps how much demand there is for mathematical and technical skill in the information economy. The decline in the value of education in our era demonstrates that the laws of economics still apply when it comes to labor. If everyone has a college degree, then, practically speaking, no one does.
There are some jobs that simply require a degree or you won’t even get an interview, like archivist or librarian. Sure you could self-teach yourself but without that sheepskin you won’t even be on the shortlist for an interview. I also had good and bad teachers on all sides of the political spectrum. I read good history books and mediocre ones. To me university opened my mind to things I wouldn’t be able to learn on my own.
The difference in Australia is even more stark. Plumbing/gas fitting qualified tradesmen make anywhere from 80K to 180K AUD depending how much and where they are working. Running your own small business once established varies 90k - 200k+ AUD. I met a foreign relations PHD university lecturer recently who easily works more than 60 hours per week. She was on 75K AUD. Teaching Plumbing/gas fitting at a technical college I can make about 105K AUD annually with ten weeks off and a 4 day working week.
Reading books is better than listening to professors. The old way is not worth having. Sciences and mathematics are easier to learn with expert help. But workbooks can be navigated without.
@@samsonsoturian6013 Agreed. I can see value in a competent maths tutor for a student who is having trouble with a few concepts but the idea of a university as a place with some exclusive access to knowledge is very ancient. It made sense until the end of the last millennium. But it doesn't have the same value today, and the price is way too high for the results.
@@openeroftheway8596 most of the price is paying a guy to grade your work and issue a certificate. The majors where this isn't true are also majors that have real world use
While when I was young it was definitely true that education in mathematics and hard sciences was greatly aided by taking courses and having access to a university professor, relative to self-study options (i.e. reading a textbook on your own), I don't believe this is still the case. I can find UA-cam videos on highly technical subjects in physics and mathematics that are orders of magnitude more coherent, comprehensible, and insightful than my university lectures. UA-cam destroyed the last major practical advantage universities had, now they're just coasting on legacy prestige and gatekeeping privileges...and you can only run for so long on inertia, they won't be able to maintain these privileges in perpetuity without offering a necessary service, I suspect we'll see the end of the university system as we know it over the course of the next century or two.
@@costakeith9048 If we were able to expect things to continue without dissolution and calamity, what you say might be true. However, I contend that in person tutoring is still better than videos and always works better for some students. And I have no expectation of a direct progression without war and disaster and chastisements. There are always going to be good reasons for physical archives.
The internet has made a huge change to the disemination of knowledge. Educational institutions that have been heavily subsidised by the tax payer are becoming obsolete. At some stage the subsidies to the educational institutions will start to decline. At the same time as the subsidies start to decline the quality of online education will continue to improve. This represents another example of a societal bifurcation.
This doesn't even make sense as a ponzi scheme, lecturers have so many students all paying so much for so long and only a tiny fraction of them could become lecturers in order to... be paid a relatively paltry sum. Where. Does. All. The. Money. Go?
I went to engineering school (university of technology), architecture and urban planning; the saving grace is that in Poland the uni is tax-funded When I realised how useless the degree I was working for was it sent me into a depression which ate up 5 years of my life - time wasted doing basically nothing I taught myself to code and am now very successful, but it really felt that only around age 33 I had decent earnings , despite having been fully earning my own living since 26 for contrast, my brothers who graduated in computer science were earning good salaries even before getting their merit papers
Makes me question why I am still studying a bachelor in Political Science, especially since i learn much more at home and it is cheaper too! I am way far ahead than my classmates who are starting their masters or even professors who are unable to differentiate the characteristics distinguishing Nazism from Fascism, or Communism from Social Democracy. I want to be an author and I am good at researching, critical thinking and investigating (much like TIK) but at this point, I am unaware of what jobs you can get with those skills.
The only thing my University degree was good for was getting me into the interview for jobs that said "University degree required." And once I got the jobs, the degree really wasn't required. It was only to keep out the riff raff. I'm retired now. I had self-taught computer programming and computer hardware back in the1980s which got me thru the 1990s and retired in 1999 at 47. I won the game.
I can speak from experience because I was going for engineering when I first went to college, community college. After calc 2 kicked my ass three times, I realized that the trades were the best things for me to do. Thankfully the community college I went to had introduction classes so I could spend a semester figuring out which trade I wanted to go to, in this case machinist. Saving me a whole lot of headache and changing jobs. Now I'm going for credentials for the business but only in the career field I'm in. Do keep in mind I am just under 30
@@troyhaileyit was also decades ago for me. I went to career and the trades and I am happy for that. I have experienced several blessings in disguise.
I turned 27 this year; I went to University between 2017-2018 to study for a bachelor's degree in electrical and electronic engineering. I decided to leave after a year (I was and still am heavily addicted to PC games unfortunately) and still got £16k of debt, that I haven't yet started paying back because I'm still unemployed, and not had a job before (I live at home with my parents). A combination of mild autism, laziness and video game addiction have meant that i'm still wasting each day doing not very much, having no real drive or goal/ambition to make something of myself at the moment. I am fascinated by all of your content that you make, not just the discussions of history but videos like this where you talk about the economy and planning for the future. After watching this I cannot confidently say I would have been better off staying in university and getting my degree given the subject I chose, but this video really put it into perspective for me that I should try getting an apprenticeship instead. I believe I can still make something of myself if I put in the effort, I just need to get the confidence to try (I have 11 GCSEs of C grade or higher and 3 A level equivalents in engineering at grades B, C and C, although as you previously stated these are after all just letters on pieces of paper). I've always been a bit of a loner and have few friends whom I interact with outside of the world of PC gaming, so human interactions are a problem for me (we've never met face to face). Thank you for all the videos you make, they are very educational and delve into a lot of topics and history that I didn't know too well or had not known existed. You're definitely doing a good job in my eyes and most importantly you enjoy doing this, so don't let the detractors get to you.
When I was young I resisted all the advice to get a trade which I kind of regret. That said, I live in Australia and do not do well with heat so wanted an air-con job haha. If I lived in a more comfortable climate a trade would have been a much better decision.
Because no one wants to work *HARD* , get dirty and weather the elements for their income. Everyone (not literally, but large swaths) wants the insulating luxury of an office environment and sitting on their posteriors for that paycheck. Its a civilization thats living so high within the structure that it acts like the foundation isnt even there. Neglect your foundation, and eventually your structure will be unlivable
Back in the mid 2000's, when I was in high school, we were constantly told that you "needed" to go to university, and that trades were for the kids who couldn't handle higher education.
@@LN997-i8x Which is bunk, because the most life dependent group among the two you've presented is your average university graduate metropolitanite. They've even created jobs so that they don't have to make and pour their own coffee. The entire existence is one of dependency on OTHER people with witnessable skills that you have to pay them for.
Working in History doesn't need to be a hobby though does it? I chose History at university and I ended up becoming a History teacher, a job I love so very much. I've never done a day's work other than teach (and I don't want to!) And with History degrees you can become a tour guide, find a job with museums and heritage organisations, and even the Foreign Ministry. So, yeah, if you like History soooooo much that you don't want to work outside the field, why not? I hate plumbing and anything that has to do with "working with my hands." I like to study and read books, and there's job opportunities for us too :D
I've been saying this for years. I dropped out of highschool and became a Japanese-to-English technical translator through self-education. Who the heck needs the corrupt college system? With you all the way TIK!
![Things you don't say out loud in academia [9 open secrets]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/sgAlFPMugWw/mqdefault.jpg)
"Don't let schooling interfere with your education." - Mark Twain
Perfect
I'm Palestinian and I want to get an English degree :/ do ye all think it's a good idea?
@@Sectarian. Moroccan here. Short answer for the region: Unemployment.
All kinds of degrees, including physics and chemistry - unemployment recipes.
Studied in Romania - even there: plenty of unemployed ENGINEERS (yes, engineers) IN ROMANIA, IN THE FREAKING EU!!!
A friend of mine used his degree in English, not to teach (as he should), but to discuss with me "manosphere" stuff - I had to explain to him that it's not the women who were "modernized, westernized, spoiled..."; he just was BROKE:
"If we lived in the future, I as another man, would have never mixed my DNA with yours to make babies in a sci-fi lab because you're broke and unemployed, dude! Can't raise those kids."
I tough at first he learned English so well from the net like me (back in 2008 I used to watch AJ), ...but no...he's an unemployed professor who never taught.
@@Sectarian. Depends on a lot of factors, which country would you move to, what jobs would you be looking to do, how concerned are you about pay. In general with an english degree there's not many high level jobs you can do apart from teaching or translation but it might provide you with neccesary skills to do freelance work like marketing (you don't need a degree for that though)
Like the comment above said, the region and sectors matter the most as in the UK many qualified graduates are unable to find a job simply due to the fact that there is abundant supply of degrees so choosing a good country with future job prospects would be a thing that is often overlooked. However I would personally not do English at uni as there is simply no demand for this degree right now and likely in the future
@@6464x Romania is developed in the Byzantine Empire fashion. All hail Constantinopole. There is a huge shortage of engineers. 'Work politics aside, but they are a major contributor' the problem is that you can somewhat reliably find work if you move to the few developed major cities or work remotely. BUT the local managers with very small pp's h8 to not be able to slap you in the office. So you get the commuting problem mentioned in the video and the road quality is at national tragedy level.
Do not say stuff like 'but EU grrr'. Do your homework on where you think is good, but I will recommend all non-eu people to come study sciences in romanian university cities as the education is decent, not great (while it still lasts) and you will not worry about debt levels like in most EU (you can keep on green because the private sector loves pushing students around on low wages). Then run as fast as you can once you graduate if you have nothing binding you.
As I get older I'm realizing it isn't about what pays more, it's about what provides the best work-life balance. I could be a lawyer making 200k a year, but I'd never get to spend it and work 60-80/hr weeks until I'm dead, or I could be a plumber making 55k a year and actually see my family, go on vacations, and enjoy being alive.
Being the hardest working cog in the machine doesn't mean you have the best life, it means the machine is running optimally; a machine you don't own.
Indeed
amen
The Oligarchs that run Capitalism founded and funded the Bolsheviks, and everything since. Wall St's Jacob Schiff provided 20million in gold to Trotsky in NY, and the Paul Warburg bankrolled Lenin and the Soviet Union. It's an economic pincer maneuver.
Who owns the 2 machines?
I mean this could also go for academic jobs?
I'm studying history and could work for my local municipality. 36 hours a week, lots of paid vacation time and good other options. Start pay: 3348 euros a month. End salary: 6500euros a month. Plumbers here (salaried) dont earn shit and have to make ends meet with working over or on the side. (Unless they start their own one man company) it really depends on what study/work and what company you work for or if you work for yourself.
Blue collar jobs here don't pay good for 40 hours. They should and deserve to earn more.
@@Jonnesdeknost Netto 3348?
Best part about being a licensed Pipe fitter or Electrician is no matter where you move, there will be a need for your service.
And you get pension, good benefits, labor protections, you name it. Those Longshoremen at the ports make like $180,000 annual and they take breaks every 30 minutes or something. It's absurd.
In the states, it’s mainly DYI. demand is not as high for you English folks.
@@Masterhitman935 I don't see too many unlicensed DYI'ers building factories, buildings, homes. Im sure a few will. so save a buck or two.
never missed a DAY's work I did Not Ask for OFF! in the Trades! can't count the recessions?
@@phishENchimps we do have skeletons crew and “night crew”. So there is that.
In my last year at university getting my aerospace engineering degree and I have never been more convinced it is a scam. Professors are useless, and I am paying thousands of dollars a year to teach myself the material. Really wish I (and my parents who are the only reason I went to university) had watched this video 4-5 years ago
The truth is in STEM one needs an advanced degree to have anything of assurance of a job that pays well.
A scam requires a lie, that is simply not so. The word you mean is "bubble."
And rocket science is one of the better degrees. The university I briefly attended had internships pretty much mandatory and these firms usually hired the interns upon graduation. Few get prestigious positions like with NASA or Skunk Works, though.
@@HontasFarmer80STEM grad school is notoriously toxic
@@HontasFarmer80not true, but it is a real shame that you probably need a degree just to even get an interview. Companies like Grumman or Lockheed used to intake and train employees immediately. If you couldn’t learn you got fired after a few months. Furthermore, all of my personal skills and knowledge that have actually contributed in interviews and internships was not acquired in a university classroom.
@@samsonsoturian6013it is a lie. I am no more prepared now to work in industry than I was in high school. I got an internship because I had the ability to talk about Raytheon’s standard missile series (which I’ve known about since middle school), not because of my university knowledge. People spend 100k and 5 years to sit in a windowless basement and play with CAD software you can learn to use in a week.
BUT, I see your point and the logic behind it. It is absolutely a bubble as well.
But to further emphasize my point, my university is similar (despite being ranked very poorly in aerospace), and I ALMOST got one of those “prestigious” jobs because the interviewer was impressed by my mad ramblings about A2AD systems.
I had originally intended to go to my local university for a 5 year master's degree in architectural engineering until the pandemic hit. Everyone lost their collective minds, we switched to online learning, and I, someone on the spectrum with a preference for hands-on learning, couldn't adapt. I withdrew from classes, and while I was depressed and felt like a failure at the time, it was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. Right now, I'm at the local trade school halfway through my associate's degree in precision machining, paid in full by scholarship, and I've got a paid internship position at a machine shop thanks to my instructor and his industry contacts. It may not be as fancy or prestigious as a piece of paper and an office in some downtown highrise, but I found what works for me, and life is finally looking up.
I'm an MD near the end of his career. I can tell you that precision machining is every bit as fulfilling, maybe more, than medicine.
Good job man, smart
I'm getting a history PhD and I can say emphatically that you should never do this with the intent of making money. The only job that requires this degree is professor and you'll spend at least a hundred grand and years of hazing in grad school and have few if any job offers afterwards. There's still a steady stream of applicants because this job attracts egotistical bastards.
Don't ask what I want to do with my degree. I cannot tell you.
Great point.
I agree, but then why so many teachers complain "we don't get paid enough!!!" If you choose to be PhD, don't complain about pay.
@@BobbaFett312 everyone complains about wages no matter what they get
This is a career path like artists, actor, musician. It is for people who are from families with money.
@robertmazurowski5974 or get stupidly luck. For instance, Arnie was a stuntman and body builder who spoke little English, but fit perfect for the role of the Terminator.
I'm a teacher and you're quite right. I have started telling my students that they shouldn't go to university unless they're going into a job field that requires a college degree.
Thank you for giving them good information instead of just sending them blindly down the pipeline. I wish I had more teachers like you in that regard.
Do you think pursuing an English degree as a Palestinian person a good idea
@@Sectarian. Not necessarily, unless you're planning to become an interpreter or something.
@@Sectarian. there are english online courses that are, time and money wise, better alternative than going to university. Also, it's better to go and speak in the country that speaks the language to become proficient at it.
@@aether3697 yepp but my rationale for studying English is that it won't require me a lot of work .. also I'll be studying it on a scholarship so it's free
This video needs to be shown to every student who is considering university, and shown twice to those who are planning on going into a degree program without guaranteed jobs
Yeah, if they've got a career in mind, have done the math, and it works out, then fair enough. But so many go to uni to get a "education" and end up working crummy jobs wondering what went wrong. What happened was you committed to something without a plan, on an empty promise, and many don't even realise this after they've graduated. So people need to learn from history and don't make this mistake many of us already have done.
@@TheImperatorKnightI believe this is true with Stem subjects as well especially in the UK where there is a mech eng bubble where there are way too many students to become an eng related to their field.
they are not called british researchers for social studies for nothing Oh wait
@@TheImperatorKnight If all these arguments don't work, the one that works best still is the compromise-point of "If you don't want to work deep in the hard sciences, don't go to uni. If your aim isn't the top of that, don't go to uni."
edit: It at least deters from most of the obvious garbage scam fields.
They wouldn’t show it because the schools are on the opposite business track.
I'm an auto mechanic. Over the years I've self taught basic electrical engineering and gotten every bit of training I can get. I'm now making 120k+ a year.
It's hard work but I make double what the teachers in my area make.
I'm in a job where you can earn £38,000 a year by age 20 and receive qualifications and training at the same time. And travel the world.
Don't say that too loud. You might change the trend and increase the labor supply and your competition. :)
120k iis what a grad electrical engineer gets...
So glad that I'm doing distance learning to be an automotive engineer, whilst working in warehousing.
Maybe it's time I switch careers.
If it means getting paid well, I'll work harder for it!
As a 31 year old certified electrician in the US I’m training my 3rd consecutive 23-25 year old college graduate as an electricians apprentice. They’ve all been tens of thousands of dollars in debt and unable to afford their own homes. I genuinely feel bad for them. They all had good intentions but they were sold a lie.
the lie is that student life is all 'american pie' in the US? I think most over there are social butterflies, then they get hit by the loan train and finally start living a real life.
Be prepared for a 4th if you live in the Deep South. I hate my degree.
Never went to school but wished I would have become an electrician. Too late now I'm 33. I don't have time to sit around making min wage as an apprentice even tho I have 10 years in construction and could pass the Journeyman test with my eyes closed.
But too much of a corrupt system. Really need to do away with the Apprenticeship model.
@@alexlaw1892 Its never too late man. Here in North Carolina apprentices start out making double the minimum wage at least. There’s a HUGE demand for electricians in NC. There’s no real union here so we don’t waste time with long, low paid apprenticeships and wages are extremely competitive even for guys without experience.
I"m an Electrical Engineer if 11+ years. I hate it. I do more paperwork than work. I would love to do ACTUAL WORK. Work will set you free.
Funnily enough, "Look at your future profession's demand and trajectory before getting into it" is one of the most important things that we were taught in school by some teachers in Russia.
As it was, it doesn’t really matter in Russia anyway, because the future career trajectory of everyone is to be sent to die pointlessly in a failed invasion of your neighbouring countries.
That's what people who looked at the automobile industry when it was in its nascent stage said. They observed that the demand for buggy whips would drop. And that buggy whips manufacturer was not a profession with a future. Sometimes you have to look past the obvious prestige that buggy whip making will provide you with and focus on something more tangible like home ownership.
Я учился на юриста, потому что это было модно в те годы и родители так решили. Устроился я в 2008 г. на государственную службу, потому что в частном секторе юристы были не нужны. У нас в провинциальном городе была дюжина (!) юридических факультетов. Очевидно, что столько юристов не нужно даже в столице. Конечно, есть профессии, которым угрожает безработица (в сфере туризма, например), но много рабочих специальностей, которые незаменимы. Никаких преимуществ перед хорошим механиком я не имею.
Russia has better colleges but that doesn't stop our Russia "experts" from thinking that Russians are stupid. You can get a degree in America and be stupid but not in Russia.
Outstanding video and assessment.
I went to trade school (A&P tech). After wrenching on aircraft for a few years, I left for the operational side of aerospace at the bottom level.
I self taught and educated myself in business and advanced aerospace technology. 10 years later I’m leading a team in Advanced Aviation Mobility. This was done with (still) no “degree”, simply self educating, continuing to challenge myself, and surrounding myself with great mentors. Many peers I work with are buried in college debt.
No college debt, no degree, working in the advanced aerospace industry, with a house, wife and kids. I’m 35 years old.
Advanced degrees are really only applicable in STEM fields, especially with the access to information we now have. Plus state run schools (including universities) here in the states are more about indoctrination and selling a activist mindset than educating.
How is this an "Outstanding video and assessment." He is literally comparing academia (a career which is notoriously low paid vs. the amount of investment required) vs. a plumber, one of the highest paying trades.
got a future Son In Law working in the trade with his pops signed up for his Certs!
Got a worthless degree, worked in Universities for several years in a non-academic role which allowed me to see a lot of how things work behind the scenes. At first it was pretty easy money, chill job until I gradually realised what an unethical shitshow it all was. Providing quality education was nowhere near the top of priorities for the sociopaths in charge, not sure it even factored into their plans at all. Left nearly a decade ago and by all accounts things only got a lot worse after that.
You should see why textbooks are so expensive. They spend literal fortunes recruiting and paying professors and make it back by forcing students to buy new textbooks they likely won't read every year.
I caused a stir in my teaching class because for a class on early American history I recommended The Beard's History of the US (written turn of the century).
To be fair, an unethical blank-show run by sociopaths can describe almost any large bureaucracy...
Seeing behind the scenes of a place like a big college is very disappointing. One of my friends works for our school and called me in a blind rage 2 days ago. All of the deans of the schools’ separate departments had a 3 hour meeting and spent 2 1/2 hours of it introducing the random graduate students they brought with them and talking about things like the upcoming football season.
Meanwhile our school is 22 million dollars over budget this year, and my department in particular is ranked at the bottom compared to other colleges in the USA…………
I worked at the school’s airport for a year so I got to personally meet many of the sociopaths who actually run things from behind the scenes when they flew in on their private jets- everything you said is valid, it’s reached a point where every student, graduate and undergraduate alike, I know personally is actively rooting for our school to go out of business.
@@penultimateh766 usually because good organization minimizes bureaucracy
@@samsonsoturian6013 my favourite example of this was the lecturer who made his own book required reading. Latest edition of course, couldn't pick up last years edition as that was woefully out of date as it lacked the 3-4 new pages added!
I gained a 2:1 in history back in 1988 from a well known 'redbrick' UK university - roughly equivalent to US 'Ivy League'. I had no problems finding well paid jobs, though totally unrelated to history of course! I ended up going into IT and have pursued a successful career in this field. Not sure what the situation is now as when I went to university only 15-17% of 18 year olds did so in the UK. The problem is that Blair destroyed the implicit value of a degree by opening the door to almost anyone, and this is what has caused problems. Would I want to go to university now? Probably not. I would say that if you want to become a doctor or dentist then university is a pre-requisite, but for other careers it's just not necessary. Even to become a lawyer it's not strictly necessary as there are avenues for those who want to train with A levels; likewise for accountancy, IT and other relatively well paid careers.
Absolutely! Back in the day it was worth going to university because few people did. It's supply and demand. And it's not surprising that a socialist didn't understand this, increased supply to the moon without increasing demand by the same amount, resulting in wages going down. This also proves that the Labour Theory of Value is bunk because according to their theory, wages shouldn't be affected in this scenario.
Back in the early 20th century in the US we had a guy who almost became FDR's VP pick in 1944, named James Byrnes. He's the only American to have served in the House, Senate, Cabinet, as a Supreme Court Justice, and as a Governor. High school education only. He would have been President if he hadn't been passed over for Truman at the 1944 DNC.
@@TheImperatorKnight
🤔…So-anybody know how many “plumbers” are invited to membership in Bilderberg and/or Davos, *etc.*?
@@TheImperatorKnightTony Blair was also ignorant of psychology, because his implicit assumption seems to have been that the _degree itself_ was what made graduates valuable in the labour market, rather than the _calibre of the students_ admitted.
When Blair attended university, only the brightest 2% or so of youngsters went to university. Today, it's the brightest 50% or more, so a degree is no longer a mark of high intellectual ability (which is largely innate, not acquired), and not even a guarantee of _average_ ability.
Blair and his cabinet were Fabians, and the Fabian Society had railed against meritocracy ever since the word "meritocracy" was invented in the early 1950s, in the title of Michael Young's dystopian novel, "The Rise of the Meritocracy".
Michael Young's novel presented a theory that meritocracy creates and perpetuates hierarchy (which, from a communist point of view is obviously bad), so it must be destroyed.
This led to the war on grammar schools, and the absurdly broad expansion (and inevitable dumbing down) of higher education.
@@73elephantsBlair is also- at least in my opinion- a narcissist and psychopath, and only cared for the optics. Basically it was all about the quick con and getting one over the one he was selling it to, the electorate!
We are now suffering in UK politics from a rash of copycats trying to replicate his success at elections, and an ever expanding cohort of the "new elite" that think they are genuinely special. Can't remember the name of the academic that's been talking about this new elite in the last few months, but he really does have a point.
The difference is even bigger if the plumber starts investing his money at 25.Totally agree with your point.
This talk remind me of my university professors, all of my marketing professors were poor, despite they taught people how to control the market... kind of irony... They also tried to improve their life with their finance knowledges, which ended badly as their plan was only good on mathematic paper... It was pretty weird to see 5 professors suddenly got themselves into a massive debt while they were trying to teach you how to not to...
I made the mistake of getting my PhD after the 2008/2009 financial collapse -- as a result, the schools were glutted with more experienced older "scholars" who were just riding out the economic situation in academia but whose life experiences OUTSIDE academia made them more attractive hires for the paltry university gigs out there. And as someone who refused to play the "Woke" game, I realized I was doomed if I tried to stay with academia. I have a family to provide for! At this point I've been a cab-driver, salesman, tutor, etc. and am looking to go back to get trained as a Plumber or EMT.
to get what
Read a book on plumbing, I did and can now do plumbing. Same with fixing cars, bricklaying and plastering (slowly), electrical wiring and gas plumbing. All this stuff is dead easy if you are a bit intelligent.
Gotta disagree with you, mate. I have an advanced degree, and while I know the theory of plastering, I cannot do it in reality. It is an art, and takes years to be proficient.@@andrewallen9993
Solar panel and heat pump installation over the coming decades will be huge
@@andrewallen9993 same can be said for cooking and I am sure everybody on the planet can whip some interesting stories about 'Just Do It!' and what the result was.
I remember writing a paper in college about something like this for an Economics class. Essentially it boils down to this. If you want to have a return on investment in higher education, you need to get a degree with a substantial job at the end of it. This means, most often, a STEM degree of some sort. Business degrees are okay, but the return is generally delayed - unless the degree leads you to being good at Sales.
As an aside to this I took a couple of courses while I was working my internships (I went to the Rochester Institute of Technology where paid internships were part of most degree programs), I took a class called "History of the Atomic Age" at a State University near my internship to save money. The class cost less than a single credit hour at RIT and I transferred the credits. The professor had his wife, an economics professor, provide one guest lecture. She asked the class full of History and PoliSci majors (and me and a friend from work who was also an engineer) who thought they would have no problem getting a job after graduation. The two of us raised our hands and explained we were engineering students. At that, she nodded and chuckled.
STEM degrees are useful so long as the particular STEM field is not flooded with people which would dramatically lower the demand.
In the US we have a painful shortage of trades people, especially that are involved in construction like electricians and plumbers. The current minimum pay in California for a journeyman electrician (been working for 2 years) is $65 - $70/hour plus overtime, which takes you over $100/hour. When you get your full high-voltage license (so others work under you as apprentices) you're not even really doing manual labor anymore. You're now in meetings, doing contracts, and making obscene amounts of money. You land a deal doing electrical in a big skyscraper and that will pay you for years.
My buddy from grade school became an electrician and did very well. He retired at 50 and has a comfortable income even now from the sale of his business. One of our best contractors is paid $110/hr and is worth every penny.
@@TimEvans64nice. If I could do it all again I'd go into the trades. My ignorant father taught me that manual labor is not paid well and white collar work was superior. He's broke on social security somewhere after switching from a trades skill in a union to a self-employed white collar worker making 1/3 as much money in middle age. He has very little retirement to show for it.
Thanks for pointing this out about skilled trades in the USA. I don't know how it is in UK, but the construction related trades in the states are all in high demand. Taking on a skilled trade is really a no brainer for someone who isn't interested in getting a university degree. Depending on the type of trade and union, one can get paid very well right off the bat (e.g. over $80k/year after overtime as a union apprentice plumber), AND have good benefits, AND build a key set of skills that can be used anytime and anywhere.
That's insane money especially considering as a hv electrical tech in Australia I get $50AU/hour and the AU$ is hovering around US 60c.
There are still some free market "things" some places in the world.
Currently studying electrical engineering , only reason why I haven't dropped out is because a degree is *required* in order to even apply for a job (unless you are freelancing in which case I hear you get hired solely to unfuck whatever situation the company has digged itself in and it's by no means a stable job) . So getting a degree doesn't put you ahead of the curve , it just makes companies consider to hire you . And just to mention the quality of the lectures , 90% of proffesors are just reading off a powerpoint .
Being good at unfucking things will pay you very very well if you are actually good at it 😀
Even if they are just reading from power point, knowledge required to actually pass the exams would be useful to you. Not the information itself, but the skill to learn and overcome challenges.
Most of "us" don't learn from the lecture. The learning comes by doing the projects and assignments (homework for the high schoolers). Almost like on the job training, but without pay. 😊
I bet you can get a job right now as an intern or part-time worker
You have to get your professional Engineering TEST if you want to work as a contractor and make even more $$$ otherwise you get a cog in the machine job at best if you only get a degree. Only if you show that your hobbies are in electrical engineering will you even sniff actual electrical engineering use in the real world. No one cares about your degree other than it shows you are interested in the subject. Take EVERY class as the college level and get that 5 credit course for $400 instead of paying $3000 for it. Most transfer.
I'm 22, about to start a 2 year vocational training course (Logistics and transportation)
I didn't go to college while pretty much all of my former classmates did. However, almost all of them chose an education career (being a teacher for middle schoolers and little kids), and where I live a great percentage of people that go to college choose to be an educator. The problem with this is that since a lot of people chose that career, there is now a surplus of teachers and they are having a hard time finding a job that won't even pay that good.
I sniffed around after a teaching career about 20 years ago. The stench of arrogance combined with stupidity in the recruitment process put me right off. For instance, the amount of support for budding teachers was about zero, and in one interview I attended, they seemed to want me to know all about teaching, curriculums, etc to start with without being taught. I walked away from the profession after that one, having learned why there is a constant shortage of teachers: it's a crap job that pays peanuts.
All teaching economics is local. In Michigan, when all of the factors are added up, it pays better than being a lawyer, a Physician's Assistant, an engineer, or any non-medical profession you can think of. In Oklahoma, it is exactly as you say, a crap job that pays peanuts.
I recently applied for a teaching job, I was even recommended by a friend. They didnt hire me, but when my friend saw who they hired instead, she was in shock how the fuck they chose this retard new guy over me.
Which would explain why it doesn't get the best and brightest.
In the 1950's, my grandfather bought a plot of land, built a house on it, installed the plumbing himself, installed all the electrical wiring, and laid down a driveway for his car, which he repaired himself when that was needed. In this century, almost all of that is illegal, and you have to get every part of that plan approved by the government before you can even start on it, then certified when you're done.
And people wonder why there's a housing crisis... The bureaucracy is slow, expensive, and completely pointless. If it's your land, then you should be allowed to do what you want on it. If someone else doesn't like it, tough. But, of course, it's not really your land, you just think it is. In reality, the State owns the land, and you're just renting it, which is why you pay taxes on your property.
as a plumber I approve this message
Being a plumber can be physically demanding. I would expect that a fair number of plumbers have to retire before the age of 70.
You hit the nail on the head, so many people are going to college for 4 year and getting buried under debt, while getting degrees that can't even earn enough money to pay off the debt.
As a history and economics degree holder, I agree...I consult in logistics software now. I found my career through friends and networks. And honestly, money has been my motivating goal in a career that I enjoy. I'm not regretful of my degrees though I learned more from my other campus involvements and not a whole lot from my course studies.
This made me question if education overall will be beneficial while taking the repercussions into consideration.
Not to mention the current political climate we're saddled with; it's no surprise universities and colleges are mostly seen as a laughingstock.
I sent a Young Republican Smart Young Lady off to UCLA and she came back a Grape Kool Aide drinking Idiot!
Thank GOD she is working becoming a Dr while Paying TAXES! I think she is coming around again?
There's a theory that college makes you dumber. It's certainly true that the people with lots of degrees who are running the country are dumb as bricks.
I feel like I'm the only one here who was actually satisfied by his education. I recently graduated with a degree in physics in June. I will admit the universities have gone politically hijacked. In fact that is the reason why I disdained and ultimately decided to leave academia for entrepreneurship. However, I had a great opportunity to talk to the best physics minds in their fields and collaborate on amazing projects. I credit my ability to think critically to my college degree. (Though most of my colleagues were brainwashed post-modernists and Marxists, showing that intelligence doesn't necessarily correlate to critical thinking).
So, either you went all the way to get a MS or PhD or you didn't get into graduate school. Which is it? No one suffers through thermogoddamnits class to get a BS without really wanting to be a physicist.
The American Physical Society went "woke" a long time ago, but a strong background in Physics goes a long way.
I think physics and math are the only things worth going to college for for most people.
@HontasFarmer80 It was simply a change of heart. I didn't want to be bottlenecked into academia all my life trying to discover the 18th generation particle that frankly no one outside of physics cares about. Learning the foundational theories of the universe was great, but the hyper niche topics one would then progress towards were not that inspiring anymore. As I mature I start to value financial freedom and the will to provide inherent practical value to people. My startup is inspired upon machine learning I did for simulation models while in uni.
@@HontasFarmer80 I don't know. I went into engineering after physics and while I've never used anything from thermo directly, it was one of the best classes to learn how to think about real world problems and 'debunk' crackpot world changing inventions
This video has done an incredible job of making me feel good as an apprentice gun maker and a impressive job of making my brother squirm as he is doing his doctorate in maths
I am a mature apprentice 47 and training to be a plumber.
It's hard work but it's worth it
While I agree with the premise of the video, and it might make more sense economically, it's still worth mentioning that for a lot of people, working as something you like such as being a history teacher is far more fulfilling than being a plumber. I'm currently studying to become a phys-ed teacher, I live at home and my university is "free." (Maybe like £300 a year) Also, it's a 5 year study and in Norway. You're also almost guaranteed a job afterwards.
To me it just feels more tempting to do this, and have long holidays with something I'm at least somewhat interested in. Jobs like plumbing, with probably less holidays annually than I'll have during the summer just doesn't sound that fun to me, even if I'll be behind some of my peers before I start making money. At 24 I'll still have like 5 years to try to find someone to buy a house with and start a family without being that old, obviously it's different for us guys but yk.
But it's a great video regardless, and it's something not enough people take into consideration. I'm clearly extremely lucky and in a bit of a unique situation though.
Plus you don't get your back and knees broken by ducking under some sinks and tugging your tool box up and down constantly
Same here, I did a degree not only to earn more money, but to do a less physically demanding job that I thought would be more enjoyable. Turned out I was mistaken about the more enjoyable part but at least the work is not too demanding. I support getting university degrees for jobs where you need one if thats what you want to do, eg, teaching, nursing, doctor etc.
IF economy crashes: YOUR phy-ed so called "job" gets cut first as ANYONE off the street or the janitor at the school can do it. The plumber/electrician has a job.
Becoming a prestigious academic has a pyramid scheme like payoff. You pay someone to teach you, then must find several people that will pay you to teach them.
Maybe it's an Anglo-American experience. I've studied in Germany and the Netherlands - Controlling. Both down to earth, to the point, very practical universities. Also a sought after BA. If you study stuff that is actually needed for the subject (as it should be, even if uni level education lags a few years behind in-field needs) in a subject that is actually needed by companies, university has similar vibes and usefulness as vocational school. If you study something "fancyful" (my blue-sky dream would've been Philosophy) in a university where the best paid staff member is the sports coach, then you're right and your degree is only money-making for the student credit giver.
And btw, German uni is ~150€/semester, and Dutch uni for EU citizens ~1000€/semester; with class sizes that are actually viable. So not cheap, but not American level; that's a scam.
I have a BA in Psych that I was never able to afford to use. Working as a housepainter always paid better than any job I could get that used the degree.
Same for a friend; he sells used cars and makes a killing
I remember never wanting to go into higher education. I told my mother when I was fifteen that I wanted to be a mechanic, since my school offered numerous courses in the subject and teacher had good connections to local businesses. But because my mother and brother were so convinced that I should be "designing cars instead of fixing them" insisted that I drop those classes from my future education and instead focus on mathematics. I got into higher education by some miracle, and I found myself despising the subject matters and downright hating it. It was not for political reasons, some of my favorite professors were die-hard liberals and leftists and I enjoyed their perspective and found that they did have something to teach me. But I decided to go back on my earlier gut feeling, I picked up a trade and now I am a plumber and I have never been happier. The philosophy, political, and economics courses I took were the most valuable to me not because there is a mythical philosophy factory, but because it had given me something to talk about with my coworkers, and it has endeared me to others.
Well, idea of university courses is also to understand basics of mathematics and physics. At first not practically applicable (just like philosophy) , but then you understand that is the lubricant of life. There is a whole world of difference between tradesman and academic citizen.
You are absolutely correct (as usual). I recently stopped funding via Patreon. I am in economic tough times. I hope you understand. I have enjoyed your channel and content. I agree with a majority of what you claim. You are well researched and are an excellent example of a self taught individual. If I can afford subscriptions again. you will be at the top of the list. Thank you for all you do. Do not get depressed and stay strong.
The one thing you don't take into account that trumps all your arguments is the quality of life difference. Being a plumber means working on your knees wearing overalls in grimey, smelly locations full of dust and muck and grime, associating yourself with people who are of the same level, while a university lecturer works in a comfortable office, wearing normal, clean clothes, spends his time around more intellectual and better-educated people. It's a huge night and day difference you cant understand while you're young. I, too, made the choice to go into a lower level type of career, and while i own businesses in it now and am very well off, the tradeoff was that i had to work in a low-level, grimey environment for many years. I didnt see the benefit of higher education when i was young and made that choice but i see it now. It would have been much better for me to become a doctor or a laywer or an engineer and start my business in those fields. Maybe the money would have been even better, maybe it would have been worse, what's certain is people around would have looked upon me differently, and no matter how stoic and careless one claims to be, hell is other people. I particularly remember the looks young women gave me when they found out what my field of work was, and that's a particularly hard thing to go through when you're young and looking for a partner. Just as an example, there are many others, with lots of other people and other situations. That's what university does basically, keeps you out of taxi driving, delivery jobs, construction works, all dirty and hard jobs, and puts you in a clean office where its warm and you get to wear clean clothes. You could do that without a degree of course, but very few people are self-taught and have the vision to go on the right path when they are 16, 18, 20 etc, if left to make their own choices most non-university goers end up working in fast food, nail salons, construction work, etc. Sorry for my english, its not my first language.
Tik is not only great ww2 historian. He is also great at giving overall general advices. Another great vid from tik
Education is a gate keeper, a lack of education and you are on the wrong side of the gate.
EXACTLY. It’s all about playing the game to get access to the tiny slivers of “privilege” that the ruling class lets the plebs have access too.
"im not smart enough to meet the entry requirements"
@@rat_thrower5604 it’s not intelligence it’s being “good at school”
@@ZESAUCEBOSS intelligent people are "good at school"
@@rat_thrower5604 I briefly dated the valedictorian of the chemical engineering department. She called me one night (right after we broke up) to ask the following;
“soooool I loaned my drug dealer 250$. he’s blocked my number, my brothers number, my friends number, and me on social media. Do you think he stole my money……?”
As someone who’s in a position to interact with the people you perceive as “intelligent” every day, you are wrong.
The issue is that the "education" system is the gateway for the new age Cast/Class system. Its not about having a skill, its about being part of the correct group. In the correct group and you can have a position of power and influence. Outside the group and you can do menial labor for them.
We call those idiots prestige whores and they just lose money off the pyramid scheme.
I mean this literally.
Menial labor ain't so bad. I have a brother who works a trade & makes as much as I do with a Master's degree I don't use as a computer programmer
@@anonymousAJ menial labor refers to things a trained monkey could do. Skilled labor isn't that
The internet could potentially break that. That's why the elites are so hellbent on controlling it. If people can learn to do anything online, for free, then companies will eventually catch on to that and stop caring so much if you have a degree. Especially considering how worthless a lot of degrees are these days. Who would you rather have as a mechanic, the kid who's obsessed with cars and has watched every UA-cam video imaginable, and can fix anything, or the kid who graduated from a tech school but hasn't actually done anything hands on?
Pretty much. Western society is currently geared towards those with university education. Their issues are put on the agenda, their concerns are met. Everyone else can just drop dead for being 'problematic'. The new class divide is as harsh as the old feudal system, but at least many a feudal lord at least still cared for his serfs. If only because they understood they were the basis for his economic power These enlightened highly educated would not stop if you dropped dead on the streets but demand that everyone stops doing everything when they have an issue. They don't value the work that working class people do nor do they think it will matter if those jobs are done away with.
I went to college because of a physical handicap preventing me from doing anything "real." But culturally/temperamentally, I'm not an academic, which makes me a better math teacher, in my opinion. People look up to me for my PhD, and the terminal degree has given me a little boost in salary. But it took me a long time to get there, and I didn't really start getting paid in proportion to my training until the past few years.
But as a professor, I have a nice schedule, and lots of vacation. What ends up happening is I work a lot of weekends and overtime during school and do nothing in the summer.
Today is Labor Day in America. I'm making 20 or 30 videos, today.
Oh boy Tik, I'm starting university in a few weeks doing a history degree, this was some interesting timing!
You are also forgetting one thing that makes it even worse. The plumber guy has bunch of savings which a) allow him to buy a home considerably sooner which will save him considerable amount of money over renting or b) will accrue interest. So while the university lecturer is paying bunch of interest the plumber guy is getting payed interest. The equation is much worse for the university lecturer.
This is one of my most favorite video that you've made. Why? I'm a plumber. My mother has a PHD in nursing. She tells me that I make about the same or more than she makes. I'm so glad that I chose this path.
Most 17 year olds are either too inexperienced or just not thinking in terms of 20, 10 or even 5 years in the future.
From 2017 to 2022 I acquired a bachelor's degree in Philosophy and a master's in Archaeology. I am now 24, scraping by from one insecure, minimum-wage job to the next with no applicable skills and no feasible career opportunities.
I am not bitter and I only blame myself. However, it is sad to see the government taking advantage of young people like this. The whole system seems exploitative, as does much of the rest of our society. The overwhelming majority of my friends are in a similar situation. I am also convinced that it this one of the biggest factors causing the current disaster in young people's mental health (along with the obvious things like social media).
I'm glad to see you reaching out to people who might be affected in the future.
All the best.
I got the whole "You better get good grades so you can get into college and get a good job, otherwise you'll wind up as a plumber." growing up.
Dropped out of high school my senior year, got a GED, did some extra learning, got into the military, and just busted my ass. For a few years about a decade after high school I was making over 90k a year. I also took lots of useful classes that had a point and cost me little to nothing through the GI Bill and other employer benefits and have many certs that are in pretty high demand.
I also have friends who went through school and everytime we talk they're complaining about paying back student loans.
I have finally transitioned to one of your non-tank videos. Very skilfully and cleverly laid out. You have done better than any teacher or lecturer could have in explaining this hitherto unknown (to many of us out here) anomaly.
Being a plumber really set my life on a great path. I wish I had dropped out of school and got into it when I was 16
Literally NOONE goes into academic for the money, so this is not a fair comparison at all. A degree opens doors, doesn't matter what it's in. I never used my degree professionally, but it got me my foot in the door by demonstrating I had the ability to knuckle down and motivate myself. University also gave me plenty of life and soft skills that I still utilise 20 years after I took my finals.
I don't know if you've read the comments but are all these people "noone"?
I'm not sure what prompted TIK to delve into these topics, but I love it and want more!
I'm surprised by the response to this. I genuinely thought nobody would watch it, but lots of people have found it useful or (in a lot of cases) it's confirmed what they already knew / suspected
Some people prefer the academic environment to that of the plumber.
I wasted time and money on a degree, will encourage my son not to make the same mistake unless it's either a highly vocational degree, or from a very prestigious university with a clear career plan alongside it (.e.g I want to study law at Cambridge and be a barrister). Otherwise trades would be a better route.
To be fair, many majors are themselves trade skills. Like nursing.
i think it's even worse here in america tik. not only are state and local universities privatized, they actively compete with each other. to the point where these schools do things like build new academic and sporting facilities before they know that they need it for the illusion of a busy campus, which raises the costs of operation for the school, which that is passed on to the students. i kinda came to this same conclusion back in 1996 and decided to join the army. at the time i wasn't sure what i wanted to do, but i knew i didn't want to waste time in college not knowing or having a goal. after 4 years of service, i eventually went to school for refrigeration and hvac; been doing that for 17 years now. paid off well. good video and great work tik
One thing that this analysis misses is the gatekeeping of the HR departments. In the last 30+ years, the HR departments across the board have been seized by the left, almost exclusively women. These HR departments enforce the indoctrination of university by enforcing degree requirements far outside of what the job actually requires. Getting past these gatekeepers requires the university degree, regardless of the applicability of the degree to the job. So having the degree is less a positive than not having the degree is punitive
Now if your plumber is self employed, great, no HR departments. However, even many traditionally blue collar jobs are getting caught up in this HR enforcement of class and political conformity, as more small businesses failed especially during Covid and the economic aftermath of the Covid panic
I do agree with you, I think university shouldn’t be pushed as the norm these days. Also, you have to factor in that plumber guy has a more physically demanding job and that will take its toil on his body while uni guy is sat on his arse and drinking tea all day.
From a monetary point of view you make a fantastic argument but the perks and lifestyle etc is vastly different and not everyone is capable of tradesmen life.
You haven't taken into account what happens if the plumber guy invests his money, wealth compounds over time.
True. However. I guess that was out of the scope of this video.
I've got a bachelor degree in biology an I could have continued to phd and worked for big pharmaceutical companies or something...
However, I've chosen to learn a trade and became an artisan, and now, I've got my own business, I give myself a very good salary, have the luxury of being my own boss, and love my job.
So, yeah, it is not necessary to go to uni and to do phd to have a good job. It is an inaccuracy that has been heavilly repeated in my country as well for generations.
Cheers from France.
The plumber has a lot more opportunity to make extra cash money. I don't know any plumbers that don't.
With the tax rate as high as it is, I certainly don't blame them!
My brother in law is a plumber and handyman, a damn good one, he makes slightly more than me, a lawyer and civil servant. But, he's frequently in danger, filth and stench with his back bent and going on interventions while I'm watching TIK video. So yea, when you get a college degree you buy easier working conditions not so much a larger cashflow.
I graduated from university with a BA in History and must admit the BA got me into certain jobs but the History aspect was more a curiousity for hiring managers. I’m in a finance role now but it gives me a keenness to seek information from the numbers, identify trends etc. most of my peers do not have this and are HS educated only and the difference in knowledge and maturity is huge. I feel like I work with children most days.
I tried first year uni 4 times and failed each time, wasted every dollar I earned in my 20s on cigarettes and computer parts, and still managed to stumble in to a $100k IT job with no Uni quals, just some cisco courses. I bought a house at 35, a bit late, but not having a student loan helped to build wealth quickly once I did figure out how to save (or rather, how not to waste money). Great video TIK.
I am from Spain, and I can affirm the same thing that you say. I also have a degree in history (2005-2011), as well as two master's degrees (Chinese studies and museology-management of cultural heritage). Except for this last piece of paper, which allowed me to work in deplorable conditions in a national museum for 5 years, everything else has been of no use to me, only to hang beautiful papers on the wall. Our generation grew up with the idea of "study what you like, but at university level, because it will guarantee you a good salary in the future (+3000 euro/month after taxation)". This was instilled in us in High Schools day in and day out. They sent hundreds of young people to study university degrees with no future, and they continue to do so today. In my opinion, High School teachers live in a parallel world, far from the reality of the labor market, among other issues that there is not enough time to explain here, such as the overvaluation of university degrees over job studies " less qualified", such as electricians, bakers, heavy machinery operators...
It's a complex issue, but I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who doesn't like the narrative of the current education system.
Greetings from Barcelona
Funny thing that happened to me... I ALWAYS dreamed about working in the theater. I love and adore theater.
I of course went to a heck of a lot entrance exams to different acting and writing schools, I got into ZERO of them. So I started to work in an escape room, first as a instructor then I moved up as a manager. While I did that... I just did amateur theater, and I started to just write by myself, write stories and theater. Just by going to workshops I started to network with a lot of people working in the business, and finally I had a script I showed to one of them, she went on and presented it to the manager of her theater. He actually bought it!
And now I can say I am an official, professional, theater script writer.... And I got ZERO official education. None... Zero... And people are utterly shocked when I tell them. "How can you get put up when you have no education?!"
I just... did it.... And then I meet people who DO have the education, who spend THOUSANDS of dollars on their education. But never wrote anything at all, so of course they are not set up anywhere... I am gobsmacked. Education is a scam.
Hey TIK. Nearly hit the 10 minute mark on your video and I'm rather gob smacked by all this.
I did wonder how the West/Japan created Wage Slaves. This video thus far. Has gone along way in explaining & outlining how that is done. I'm just so glad I never went to Uni. So glad.
Hey tik, thank you for your video on this topic. I have been studying at university for quite some time getting an engineering degree, which has been quite difficult. I am now almost finnished and i have the option of continuing my education or joining the workforce. While I am still not certain of what exactly I am going to do, this video has given me a new perspective on my situation. Keep up the good work and thank you!
May I politely suggest getting started in industry when you graduate. An engineering degree is extremely valuable. I would advise that work experience will yield better results in terms of learning and earning potential versus a masters. That's from my experience anyway.
I went to school for an English degree but wound up dropping out due to amassing too much debt. I wound up getting my foot in the door in the tech world because I worked on computers as a hobby and served as a student technician while still at school. I've been in IT for about 20 years now and I can say that my English and writing skills HAVE helped me advance my career forward...I'm now a 6 figure project manager....but the catch is that I had to look for unconventional roles and tasks within the tech world. So my advice is if you're going to pursue an arts degree of some kind, pair it with a science based minor or personal experience you know will be useful down the road. Arts degrees are useless by themselves, but combined with other tools and willingness to take the road less traveled, they'll get you somewhere.
In my senior year of high school, we had a presentation by an engineer who said that he had minored in English and it was one of the best decisions he had made because communication is so important. I don't know about that as everyone that I've ever worked with had good comm skills, but I can definitely see it as a plus.
I have a STEM degree. Even then, what got my career started was a co-op (a type of internship) job, not the degree.
I guess you could argue that I managed to get the co-op job thanks to the relationship between the company and the university.
Ultimately, almost everything I learned, I did through working (or on personal projects), rather than from university classes.
I am so sick of the plumber example, and the welder example, and the electrician example, and all of the other examples out there. Here's the truth guys: if you consider yourself to be smart and if you spend your free time learning things like history or philosophy or anything that involves the mind, you are NOT going to enjoy a life of a manual laborer. You are not going to enjoy the company and conversations you have with uneducated people. If you were born into the middle class or upper middle class, don't think for a second that you'll enjoy making the adjustment to working with low class, low-in-intelligence people, or living in low-income areas. Remember that you won't be young forever; you'll get arthritis in every joint and your lower back will fuse together after all of the physical work that you'll be doing for hours and hours a day for the next 5 decades.
It is very popular for UA-camrs to come out and say that college is a waste of time, and it's very popular for them to say that any of the trades would be better. However, how many of them do you see who are actually doing it themselves?! NONE of them! They're all hypocrites who try to sell you an image of modesty. "Being a humble plumber is so much better, and actually smarter. I would have done it if I could do it all over again!" No. I may sound very vain and elitist in this comment, but that is because I am appealing to the truest desires of people who voluntarily watch history videos on UA-cam: the manual labor world is not for you! On the contrary, you're probably someone who was never athletic, never quick to act or move your body, someone who has always lived inside your head, and yet you hear these performers on UA-cam tell you that being a plumber is so great, and you believe it because you like the IDEA of it. In other words, you're using your faculties of reason and your sense of virtue to convince yourself that you should enter into a simple life where NONE of those things apply! There is no reason, no virtue, and no theory of any kind in the manual labor world. Wake up and realize what you're tricking yourself into doing!
Don't forget the social component of this either. What will your friends think, or your parents? What about your ancestors? Did they work so hard all those years ago, centuries ago, just so you could throw everything away and be a plumber? You do not live in a vacuum. What would your teachers think of you, all the ones who complimented you and said that you had a promising future? Live up to their trust and faith in you!
I know that I have generalized here. I know that these things won't apply to all who read them. However, I needed to be the contrary voice on this matter. I needed to encourage people to remember who they are, what life they were born into, and to embrace what they've been given by their forefathers. I am also not exactly saying that college is the answer, but you must at least try to not do anything laborious for a living, unless you truly know what you're getting into. The people who have big enough UA-cam channels to live off of are not normal cases of reality. They are anomalies, and should not be used as examples for success. They might not have degrees, and yet they're rich. They might not use their degrees, and yet they're rich. Okay, good for them. But do you really think that you will do the same? Be mindful of these things. Think a little bit, because you certainly won't get to think very much if you go for a manual labor job.
I'm a history graduate. Almost none of my time was spent in classrooms, it was almost all reading books on my own. I self taught coding during an admin job out of university and got a programming job afterwards. The history degree was useless for the experience I got and for the qualification I had afterwards.
If it was useless to you, then you did not learn anything. You just memorized information, without the ability to analyze it.
@@aleksazunjic9672 You can learn a skill and not apply it or not getting value from applying it, making it useless.
@@ilikethiskindatube Nope. You have been conditioned to look everything trough "money lenses" . Thus, as a human being you have been reduced to financial animal. As such, you are perfect pray for those who control money.
@@aleksazunjic9672 The conditioning here is that put on children to go to university without ever thinking through things, marketing applied to misplace your own priorities so that your basic needs don't come first. 18 years old. You have nothing. First priority: develop a skill, have an income, support yourself, meet your basic needs. Other people in the comments say go to university for the experience and show your commitment and capabilities. You don't need to spend tens of thousands of pounds. University is sold to children by marketing teams. Universities are incredibly lucrative and use social pressure and marketing to get people in. Walking around the city I see universities advertised eeeeverywhere.
Earning an income is not "reducing people to financial animals", wealth doesn't sprout out of nowhere. If you don't contribute then you depend on others supporting themselves and you too. Habitually relying on the hard work of others while contributing nothing would make you a parasite.
Also when PHD guy gets married at 33 years old. He has 2 lovely children.. After 10 years she is not happy! Divorce comes and he pays alimony and child support! Phd is in a deep deep hole!
There's an issue with the logic behind the math at 6:15. In order to do an apples to apples comparison, you would have had to compared the total cost of the education vs. the amount the plumber earned. Or, you would have had to compared how much the plumber earned, minus taxes, minus the amount a reasonable person would have had consumed during the same time.
Then, given that $100 today is worth more than $100 a year from now, you would have had to include time preference (the interest rate). The student debt is 7%, OK, so once you figure out how much the plumber would have saved over those years, assume he invested it at a reasonable interest rate (let's say even 4%). The end result is that the plumber is even better off than in your example!
Cheers!
-An Economist who only went to University because the GI Bill paid for it
I think you way oversimplified the comparison. This either or philosophy that seems to have become pervasive lately is no better than the previous "everyone has to go to university ". Either path isn't necessarily within the capability of large portions of the population. The guidance has to be individually addressed.
There are differences between the US and Britain but I was surprised at the low payscales. A journeyman plumber in the US makes a lot more, averaging over $60,000 dollars. More importantly, a Phd earns far more, usually starting there and going into six figures.
The teaching path is also not stagnant. Whereas a plumber makes what a plumber makes, the teacher's salary is continually increasing with experience, tenure and the typical education career of more compensation with the addition of more degrees.
Most importantly, your plumber is going to have a rough time working to 65, let alone 70. The physical labor will take a toll on their body. While you have your NHS, in the US any perceived advantage of pay over time will be reduced by medical bills far in excess of the potential student loan interest.
A lecturer can easily "work" long into old age if they so desire. A 60 year old plumber is a rare being.
That piece of paper usually opens doors to many management or other positions not related to the degree itself. It's not so easy for a trades to switch from plumber to carpenter.
Basically it's the long game. If you have the intellectual capacity to get a useful degree, obviously not gender studies or pacific islander folk art, a mental career will serve you better.
I know many people who have paid the toll of a career of physical labor out in the weather. Sure they have money, but not their health.
I'll give you my opinion. I'm in university and I think it has been more than worth the 27,000 for me. The life experience, the people I've met and the opportunity to move across the country has been invaluable to me. But notice I didn't mention the degree itself. I'm currently getting a degree in Ancient History. What job am I going to do in the future? Probably something with music honestly. So was uni worth it for the degree? No.
What I think uni is useful for, as I say, is the connections I've made from university and the opportunities it gives outside of the curriculum. I genuinely find those more worthwhile to me then the degree itself and more useful for my future.
I don't think this is true for everyone though, if you're not a social person like I am and are literally planning on doing uni solely for the degree itself I'd definitely advise caution.
I other words I have willingly bought into a con, knowing its a con, simply because it benefits me. And that might not be the case for everyone.
"I have willingly bought into a con, knowing its a con, simply because it benefits me." And you sir, are ahead of the game. Bravo to you - Bravo.
Universities are great for business, science, math and medical/biology degrees. You also attend schools that have advanced facilities. If you want to be an astronomer then you go a school like the University of Texas that has an observatory (McDonald Observatory) or you go to schools with leaders in your field, CalTech manages the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA, UCLA Health is home to some of the most technologically advanced hospitals in the world.
The Covid 19 lockdowns proved me that none of this matter
You can be an IT specialist and work from home or a plumber. Just be what you think and feel will suit you
It's like the myth that anyone can get rich.
No, obviously not everyone can be millionaires. Most of us can only be successful by being skilled workers.
@@samsonsoturian6013Or have luck, also
Good job completely missing the point of the video. Did you EVEN WATCH IT? HE GOES OVER THIS!!! COMPLETE wrong response!!! DUMB!!!! NOT A GOOD COMMENT! TRY WATCHING THE VIDEO BRO!!!!!!!
@@samsonsoturian6013 The difference between making 100k a year and a million a year is skills. The thing is though, you don't have to go to university to learn skills.
@Boz196 a million a year? You don't get that unless you run a business and that is not a matter of skill, but inheritance, debt, and dumb luck.
I advised my handy son at 18 who wanted to go to college to instead learn welding then slowly work toward speciality welding certs. Now 10 years later he doesn't know what to do with all his money and asked me for advice. Not a cent of student debt. Universities are not places of higher learning, they are a business and people need to realize this. The only way to make good money with a university is get into university administration.
Yes, good welders are in high demand. Good TIG welders especially. It will take time and practise but will be worth it, so, yes, that is a smart thing to do. Find a good apprenticeship.
100 % agreed. Once you understand how broken the university system actually is - gradually taken apart by fiat money and corporate interest - the only logical outcome is that the education this system can offer is as broken.
Fix the money, fix the world.
The only difference is that being a plumber aged 60 it is getting more difficult to keep working at the same rate as before....otherwise i fully agree with you and i am not from the UK.
The thing you have to realize (at least in the USA) the average age of these tradesmen are 55, there will be a shortage. supply and demand says that tradesmen will be getting higher salaries in the future. This is the best time to be in a trade.
It would be, were it not for the reams of red tape and ridiculous regulations that make it very difficult for tradesmen to do their jobs. More and more work is just being done under the table.
Hi Tik I’ve listened to your videos for a while now, I’m a plumber gas engineer in Essex, I’m 26 and I launched my own business in November last year, from scratch after working for a company for 10 years, my customers are growing and so far It’s getting better and better,
The market in Essex has a lot of plumbers but building relationships with home owners small businesses is key which the corporate firms fail too.
Your videos like Public vs private really gave me answers to what I was seeking and helped me understand our world
A great public private comparison is British Gas vs Ltd company like myself
Corporations are indeed arms of the state,
I'm a webdeveloper, I don't have any college or university education. 13 years ago I've picked up a programming book and then another and another and suddenly I had a job. I earn good money and no college loan 😇 These days it's even easier to learn coding (lot of free youtube materials)
It's easier than ever to learn coding, but good luck getting considered for any programming job without some form of degree or certification nowadays. The industry cares about qualifications, not aptitude, and it really shows.
I have a Masters I never use, and make all my money writing code
@@LN997-i8xthere are other fields in Computer Science that aren’t oversaturated as software engineering such as Cybersecurity, IT, etc. Cybersecurity is underrated.
Also keep in mind that plumbers, electricians and other trades man actually get a lot of money in cash directly without income tax. That might even double their salaries.
I'm currently working my way through two degrees: one in applied mathematics and the other in economics.
Personally, I think it still makes sense for me because both those majors are hard, and so the number of students in it is pretty limited. For example, last year, 30% of my peers in the math major switched out. However, the employment prospects for my major are pretty good after graduation. I think that this occurs exclusively because the supply of math majors is constrained so much by the difficulty. It also helps how much demand there is for mathematical and technical skill in the information economy.
The decline in the value of education in our era demonstrates that the laws of economics still apply when it comes to labor. If everyone has a college degree, then, practically speaking, no one does.
Good luck. Economics and maths usually are a ball buster when both of the are combined as a fulltime course.
There are some jobs that simply require a degree or you won’t even get an interview, like archivist or librarian. Sure you could self-teach yourself but without that sheepskin you won’t even be on the shortlist for an interview.
I also had good and bad teachers on all sides of the political spectrum. I read good history books and mediocre ones. To me university opened my mind to things I wouldn’t be able to learn on my own.
I'm an archivist and you're completely correct.
The difference in Australia is even more stark. Plumbing/gas fitting qualified tradesmen make anywhere from 80K to 180K AUD depending how much and where they are working. Running your own small business once established varies 90k - 200k+ AUD.
I met a foreign relations PHD university lecturer recently who easily works more than 60 hours per week. She was on 75K AUD.
Teaching Plumbing/gas fitting at a technical college I can make about 105K AUD annually with ten weeks off and a 4 day working week.
Reading books is better than listening to professors. The old way is not worth having. Sciences and mathematics are easier to learn with expert help. But workbooks can be navigated without.
As if you can't access the same classes for a fraction the price by buying great courses series off Audible.
@@samsonsoturian6013 Agreed. I can see value in a competent maths tutor for a student who is having trouble with a few concepts but the idea of a university as a place with some exclusive access to knowledge is very ancient. It made sense until the end of the last millennium. But it doesn't have the same value today, and the price is way too high for the results.
@@openeroftheway8596 most of the price is paying a guy to grade your work and issue a certificate. The majors where this isn't true are also majors that have real world use
While when I was young it was definitely true that education in mathematics and hard sciences was greatly aided by taking courses and having access to a university professor, relative to self-study options (i.e. reading a textbook on your own), I don't believe this is still the case. I can find UA-cam videos on highly technical subjects in physics and mathematics that are orders of magnitude more coherent, comprehensible, and insightful than my university lectures. UA-cam destroyed the last major practical advantage universities had, now they're just coasting on legacy prestige and gatekeeping privileges...and you can only run for so long on inertia, they won't be able to maintain these privileges in perpetuity without offering a necessary service, I suspect we'll see the end of the university system as we know it over the course of the next century or two.
@@costakeith9048 If we were able to expect things to continue without dissolution and calamity, what you say might be true. However, I contend that in person tutoring is still better than videos and always works better for some students. And I have no expectation of a direct progression without war and disaster and chastisements. There are always going to be good reasons for physical archives.
The internet has made a huge change to the disemination of knowledge. Educational institutions that have been heavily subsidised by the tax payer are becoming obsolete. At some stage the subsidies to the educational institutions will start to decline. At the same time as the subsidies start to decline the quality of online education will continue to improve.
This represents another example of a societal bifurcation.
Like... has your ability to read and write effectively helped you create a UA-cam channel.
This doesn't even make sense as a ponzi scheme, lecturers have so many students all paying so much for so long and only a tiny fraction of them could become lecturers in order to... be paid a relatively paltry sum. Where. Does. All. The. Money. Go?
I went to engineering school (university of technology), architecture and urban planning; the saving grace is that in Poland the uni is tax-funded
When I realised how useless the degree I was working for was it sent me into a depression which ate up 5 years of my life - time wasted doing basically nothing
I taught myself to code and am now very successful, but it really felt that only around age 33 I had decent earnings , despite having been fully earning my own living since 26
for contrast, my brothers who graduated in computer science were earning good salaries even before getting their merit papers
Your honesty on this subject is a pure refreshment.
Makes me question why I am still studying a bachelor in Political Science, especially since i learn much more at home and it is cheaper too! I am way far ahead than my classmates who are starting their masters or even professors who are unable to differentiate the characteristics distinguishing Nazism from Fascism, or Communism from Social Democracy. I want to be an author and I am good at researching, critical thinking and investigating (much like TIK) but at this point, I am unaware of what jobs you can get with those skills.
that's good you're able to differentiate the difference
Political science => become a lawyer => politics
Might as well just do a correspondence course or work as a paralegal
The only thing my University degree was good for was getting me into the interview for jobs that said "University degree required." And once I got the jobs, the degree really wasn't required. It was only to keep out the riff raff. I'm retired now. I had self-taught computer programming and computer hardware back in the1980s which got me thru the 1990s and retired in 1999 at 47. I won the game.
I can speak from experience because I was going for engineering when I first went to college, community college. After calc 2 kicked my ass three times, I realized that the trades were the best things for me to do.
Thankfully the community college I went to had introduction classes so I could spend a semester figuring out which trade I wanted to go to, in this case machinist. Saving me a whole lot of headache and changing jobs. Now I'm going for credentials for the business but only in the career field I'm in.
Do keep in mind I am just under 30
If anyone is more interested, the community college I went to also had further classes to advance your career so you can work as well
@@troyhaileyit was also decades ago for me. I went to career and the trades and I am happy for that. I have experienced several blessings in disguise.
I turned 27 this year; I went to University between 2017-2018 to study for a bachelor's degree in electrical and electronic engineering. I decided to leave after a year (I was and still am heavily addicted to PC games unfortunately) and still got £16k of debt, that I haven't yet started paying back because I'm still unemployed, and not had a job before (I live at home with my parents). A combination of mild autism, laziness and video game addiction have meant that i'm still wasting each day doing not very much, having no real drive or goal/ambition to make something of myself at the moment.
I am fascinated by all of your content that you make, not just the discussions of history but videos like this where you talk about the economy and planning for the future. After watching this I cannot confidently say I would have been better off staying in university and getting my degree given the subject I chose, but this video really put it into perspective for me that I should try getting an apprenticeship instead.
I believe I can still make something of myself if I put in the effort, I just need to get the confidence to try (I have 11 GCSEs of C grade or higher and 3 A level equivalents in engineering at grades B, C and C, although as you previously stated these are after all just letters on pieces of paper). I've always been a bit of a loner and have few friends whom I interact with outside of the world of PC gaming, so human interactions are a problem for me (we've never met face to face).
Thank you for all the videos you make, they are very educational and delve into a lot of topics and history that I didn't know too well or had not known existed. You're definitely doing a good job in my eyes and most importantly you enjoy doing this, so don't let the detractors get to you.
So many younger people have no interest in trades and it blows my mind. You can make excellent money as a plumber/electrician/welder/HVAC/etc.
When I was young I resisted all the advice to get a trade which I kind of regret. That said, I live in Australia and do not do well with heat so wanted an air-con job haha. If I lived in a more comfortable climate a trade would have been a much better decision.
Because no one wants to work *HARD* , get dirty and weather the elements for their income. Everyone (not literally, but large swaths) wants the insulating luxury of an office environment and sitting on their posteriors for that paycheck. Its a civilization thats living so high within the structure that it acts like the foundation isnt even there. Neglect your foundation, and eventually your structure will be unlivable
Maybe people aren't interested in money then. You can't tell people what they should be motivated by.
Back in the mid 2000's, when I was in high school, we were constantly told that you "needed" to go to university, and that trades were for the kids who couldn't handle higher education.
@@LN997-i8x
Which is bunk, because the most life dependent group among the two you've presented is your average university graduate metropolitanite.
They've even created jobs so that they don't have to make and pour their own coffee. The entire existence is one of dependency on OTHER people with witnessable skills that you have to pay them for.
This is surprising info Tik 😮! Thanks for making this video dude
Working in History doesn't need to be a hobby though does it? I chose History at university and I ended up becoming a History teacher, a job I love so very much. I've never done a day's work other than teach (and I don't want to!)
And with History degrees you can become a tour guide, find a job with museums and heritage organisations, and even the Foreign Ministry. So, yeah, if you like History soooooo much that you don't want to work outside the field, why not?
I hate plumbing and anything that has to do with "working with my hands." I like to study and read books, and there's job opportunities for us too :D
At 66 when plumber guy retires with a good pension and living the good life with a much better quality of life
I've been saying this for years. I dropped out of highschool and became a Japanese-to-English technical translator through self-education. Who the heck needs the corrupt college system? With you all the way TIK!