My brother in law got to basically go to college for free, since my sister has been a librarian at several colleges for over 45 years now, and almost 25 at her present one. Were ANY of his degrees actually useful? No. English Lit, Greek Lit? Philosophy? He's got master's degrees in them, and one other one, and BS degrees in like 4 others. He was going to school one way or another, with only a break when he was hit by a car and severely injured, from the time he was 5 until he was almost 50. What kind of jobs has he had? Working in a bookstore. Working in a pipe and cigar shop. He ended up owning the pipe shop, after the previous owners decided to retire and just gave it to him. He makes about half what my sister makes, and never has really done much better than about 50%. He can't do the simplest things around the house himself. They have to hire people to change a lamp cord. When she tells me something like, "We had to call our handyman to___________________________" (put almost anything in there, it works for them), I about lose my mind. Their finances are OK, but when my sister retires soon, her pension, and his SS and smoking store money will get them by, but they won't be going to Hawaii every year for sure. Nor will they ever be able to afford 2 decent cars at the same time. Meanwhile, I have 100 point+ higher credit, and am close to having only my car loan as any debt. I have some decent investments made when I was a young guy, and work a night job basically for the medical benefits. Paying for health insurance at 63 is not cheap, and while the job is not great, it pays for it and allows me to actually have money left over each month from my paycheck and SS alone. My investments pay way more than that, and the debt I built up taking care of my mother is soon to be paid off.
I barely graduated HS. I was bored with school from day one to Senior year of HS. College was vastly better, since I didn't have to torture myself getting up early in the morning. I didn't graduate, but I was close to a BS when I pulled the plug. Just being able to sleep made my health improve greatly. To this day, I will not work a 9-5 job, because it would almost certainly kill me. I worked for my dad in HS, my sister was too much into school to ever take a job before she graduated college. I learned way more USEFUL things working for him and being around people who were carpenters, plumbers, electricians, electronic techs, and car mechanics who were his employees and customers, than I ever did in school. My dad taught both me and my sister the basics of finances, how to balance our checkbooks, budget, etc, but my sister and her hubby, as smart as they are, and they are smart, rented homes for decades and only finally bought a house when they were in their middle 50's. They live in a strange world where they have to hire people constantly to do ridiculously simple things. They have no kids, so they have to pay or talk one of their clueless friend's kids into doing stuff for them. Putting a TV on the wall was a disaster that I had to laugh at, and wish I could have seen in person. Their friend's grandson came over with his 16 year old cheerleader GF and fixed the drywall and put the TV up in less than 45 minutes. He refused to take money my sister offered him, and said, "It's too funny how clueless you guys are!"
But if Youtube didn't exist, I think many of the young people I work with, and friend's kids would be in serious trouble. It's the main method they use to learn how to do anything with their hands. PC's they know all about, but how to fix a hole in the wall? Youtube to the rescue! I learned how to fix drywall when my dog ate the wall out in an unsuccessful escape attempt in 1977. How? I asked a neighbor. That seems to be something the kids don't do anymore.
I can't believe the useless degrees friend's kids and my coworkers took out loans for that are still being paid off. I know people in their 30's with Philosophy, Eng Lit, History, Religion, and other degrees that they owe a lot of money for, and have never had a job that their degree was supposedly for. They seem shocked when I tell them I didn't finish college, but I can afford a very nice car, and will in a couple of years be totally debt free. For decades, I fixed my own cars most of the time, did my own home repairs, made some cash fixing electronics, mostly radio gear, and I know how to DO STUFF. Most of my friend's kids are helpless when it comes to putting in a faucet without help. Guess who a bunch of them call? Me. An old crippled guy. It saddens me and amuses me at the same time when I see the look of wonder on their face when I show them how to do something like fix a light or fix their own car. My friend's grandkids seem to be better than their parents as far as their ability to do simple things themselves. Hell, they can go to Home Depot and learn how to do stuff, but the 30 somethings seem unable to do this before they have a kid and their money comes up a little short, and then they struggle. There are a couple of friend's grandkids who go to Lowes and HD and now know how to do floors and walls, electrical, etc. Their parents have no idea. But they have degrees, and the loans to prove it. The education "inflation" has become absurd. A lot of people should never even think of going to college. Pick a trade and get working at it. You'll be fine, while a lot, if not most of, your classmates who went to college, will struggle.
