“Still the envy of the world.”
Limited gift link:
https://econ.st/407ATB4
I hyperbolically stated “everybody” young has some college these days, and someone passively aggressively responded by asking if I have ever even met an average American.
So, I quoted an easy to find statistic saying that quite a bit more than half this country has some college.
Personally I never really understood why “some college” was ever even a category. Levels should be based on diploma/cert/license attained, IMO.
Ah, yes. There is regional variation.
My one buddy was going to relocate to florida as a journeyman millwright but in looking into it, found that he would be taking a big hit on pay.
Who is Mill? And why is he always right?
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He’s the guy that came up with “Measure twice, cut once”.
I was goofing with a guy when I was new in the frames/fab stuff. I said “Hey man, whats wrong with this saw? I cut this twice and its still too short?”.
He spent way too long trying to figure out that it wasn’t the saw.
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It depends. I’ve noticed along with the general increase in a sense of entitlement, lots of kids expect college to just usher them in to a career, because it’s college.
But majoring in English lit, history, music theory et cetera historically did not create petroleum engineers, CFOs or surgeons. This used to be common sense, but not only do kids now expect every degree to graduate in to a job that pays $1m per year despite the value of the job, they want college to be paid for. And colleges are happy to introduce even dumber degrees to accommodate misguided demand.
So while it’s true majoring in underwater basket weaving with an emphasis on worshipping black victimhood and minoring in women’s studies generally won’t lead to jobs that pay as well as a master electrician with union membership, the degree path was never intended to do so. But this is an intersection of conflagration and “college” is viewed as a solitary experience and launch pad. A finance MBA and a social studies major are cut from different cloth, and their careers will be too.
College is still incredibly viable if utilized with sensibility, and will lead to traditionally coveted white collar salaries in tandem with white collar working conditions, hours and perks.
I’m not knocking trades, I think it’s great people are discovering they can be lucrative and they should be pursued if enjoyed, but it’s not accurate to say college is in its fading glory. The low value degrees are just showing up for what they are.
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Yes, when all of us identify as` AMERICANS, no hyphens, and share a common goal to make AMERICA great again.
During the Westward expansion of the U.S., people were moving across the country in a mad-hungry swarm to see who could take it all first with little regard for longevity. The “big guys” came first, taking the choice cuts, and behind them the thieves and scavengers.
That Spirit continues to scale to its “logical conclusion.”
You watch too many movies.
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On the contrary, I’ve never been a fan of film and haven’t watched a movie in many years. What about what I said was wrong?
This pretty much describes human history, as sad as that is. We are a truly parasitic species.
Sure, but when we “Seek first the Kingdom of God” instead of people, places and things, thrills and emotions, life seems to go differently.
I think Paul Bunyon represented the lumber industry and Babe The Big Blue Ox was the railroads.
They worked together to expand westward. I don’t know why the Ox was blue though.
Ehh…agree to disagree there.
If it gives you comfort, okay.
If one uses the (not you necessarily, but I have heard this in the past) argument that without a god or higher power humanity wouldn’t have any morals - that’s simply not true.
No cow to have progeny with…
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Maybe he was water and how they used waterways to transport lumber. 
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I was in like 3rd grade when I saw that. Pecos Bill & John Henry too.
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What is there to disagree?
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That “seeking the kingdom of God” usually improves life.
What else should you seek?
It has nothing to do with comfort. Seeking first the kingdom of God in the way it was meant to be done is ANYTHING but comfortable.
Well, since I consider myself a Buddhist these days (though this attitude is not exclusive to that), putting love and kindness into the world and understanding one’s self through deep meditation and reflection. Puts other people first and doesn’t require jumping through hoops.
Which Christianity claims to do (putting others first), but inherently can’t because it presumes that there is a “chosen people” (those who follow the god of the Bible) and therefore in practice have some authoritative moral superiority over others, which is simply false. We have other threads for WooWoo and biblical discussion, I won’t derail further. Most of the “christians” I know are not nice people.