No, Everyone Cannot Go Out and Get an Education and Get a Good High Paying Job

People in the comments section are continuing to say that everyone can go off and get a good education so they can get a good high paying job. I would like to take this apart right now. Doesn’t being a high skilled high tech worker require a certain amount of intelligence? Like more than the average person has? Furthermore, probably ~2/3 of jobs (someone correct me here) are simply basic working class jobs. Surely at least 5 How can everyone have a “good, high paying job?” In the US, a good, high paying job means a job that pays quite a bit more than average. How the Hell is everyone supposed to go out and get a job that pays quite a bit more than an average wage? That’s like having a footrace and saying everyone has to win. What people are saying here is a variation on the classic American line, “Everyone can be rich.” It is amazing how many Americans believe this. How can everyone be rich? How can everyone make above average wages? It’s nuts. Reminds me of Lake Wobegon where everyone is above average.

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0 thoughts on “No, Everyone Cannot Go Out and Get an Education and Get a Good High Paying Job”

  1. I think what Jason is trying to say is that the “White victimhood” among lower class Whites is out of hand (he may be biased because he has personal resentment towards these people), and that they are really no different than Blacks or Hispanics wailing about ‘the man keeping them down’, that it’s their own decisions keeping them down, down really low (he wasn’t referring to average middle/working class, or even lower middle class people but really low down people)
    Don’t shoot the messenger 🙂

  2. Exactly, I’ve had this argument with people before. Everyone can’t be rich and there aren’t enough 6 figure jobs to go around for 320 million people. Only 6% of the population earns over 6 figures. I just looked it up. I remember someone on the Roosh forum once saying that if you aren’t making 6 figures, you’re either lazy or an idiot. And even if tomorrow magically everyone had a six figure job, you’d have hyperinflation to the point that we’d be right back where we started and $100,000 would be worth what $50,000 is now.

    1. Possibly if people had less kids than money would go further. 2000 a month to a single guy is middle class pay.

      1. Good point, Jason. Also, I believe that people should have less kids, because the world population is currently at 7 billion people, and the Earth only has the ecological capacity to sustain a population of 9 billion people. However, people just don’t think about the environment and the planet like they should. Once the air and all other resources become depleted, everyone, rich and poor, is going to die. Ultraconservative Republicans can take those facts and smoke ’em in their pipes, because those facts are real.

  3. Isn’t there already a high number of collage and university graduates that can’t find jobs? I think that alone settles it, and besides do you really want the average truck driver to become a doctor?

      1. Note. not putting down truck drivers in anyway. They have a totally acceptable job and nobody is making fun of them cause it isn’t academic.

      2. Their jobs won’t be here in a few decades. Autonomous vehicles will be putting them out of work. I know the thought of an 18 wheeler driving 70mph down the highway without a driver is scary, but I think once the technology is perfected, shipping companies will adopt it. Driving professions will will be going the way of pony express.

        1. I don’t trust any automobile without a driver. If they need no driver, than try a train, but even a train sort of has a driver.

  4. The standard American view on this -and its an American view, you almost never hear even very right wing non Americans express this- is simply insane. I’ve given up trying to correct people on it.

  5. You tell the truth amigo.
    However, it gets messy when we mix classical market economics with the term “good, high paying job”.
    Statistically, a classic bell curve supports the notion that one is most likely to land, and develop, an average earning career. However, as society gets wealthier, the center of the bell curve moves to the right. So, the “average” person obtains increasingly better standards of living over time.
    Charles Murray ruffled some feathers when he said to an audience “Many of you here today have children. By definition of the word average, half of your children are less intelligent than average”. Gasp.

    1. I’d suspect that the majority of people at a Charles Murray speaking are well above IQ 100, as would be their children. But I get his(and your) point.
      I also agree with earnings bell-curve ever shifting to the right, but the relative earnings gap will mostly stay the same. That’s why an average income person lives a more comfortable life than royalty did 1000 years ago.

  6. I think the way you live plays a role. For instance, somebody making 2000 a month can do crap with a family, but alone they would live well.
    Sadly though, many are raising two or three kids on 1000 a month.
    It’s odd how all these yuppies are into buying houses etc… and fixing them up while people are starving to death. I suppose on the bright side, the spending by yuppies provides jobs to people.

    1. Meant to say “I think the way you live plays a role. For instance, somebody making 2000 a month cannot<.b> do crap with a family, but alone they would live well.

    2. I don’t think anyone can live “well” off $2000 a month. Unless they live in a very cheap and rural part of the country. A bdrm apartment in any major city these days is going to cost at least $1000 a month. Throw in electricity, water, food, gasoline, insurance, phone, internet, car payment, and you’re pretty much living hand to mouth in the best case scenario.

        1. But think about it, If it cost that much for a single, then imagine having two kids, a demanding wife, and adequetely providing for them.

    3. To Jason Y:
      For instance, somebody making 2000 a month can do crap with a family, but alone they would live well.
      Highly dependent on where you live. My run down 500 square foot apartment costs me $1500 a month, that’s a below market cost by the way, as my landlord likes me. Health insurance subsidized by the ACA would be $185, utilities around $70. That leaves $245 a month for food, transportation, clothing, etc. And oh are we talking $2000 a month before taxes, social security, and medicare are taken out..? Social security and medicare alone would be more than $150 a month on a $2000 a month income. By the way minimum wage in California is $10 an hour… and yes there are quite a few people here making only minimum wage – so that’s even less than $2000 a month. Roughly 12% of the wage earners in California earn the minimum wage.

      1. In South Korea I made 2000 a month + free apartment and lived very well being single. But you know the USA could be different. But I think in East Tennessee you can do the same. But it wouldn’t be the case in New York City,.

        1. To Jason Y:
          In South Korea I made 2000 a month + free apartment and lived very well being single.
          In the US housing is generally the highest expense and a free apartment in my area would be worth a minimum of $1500 a month. Also, as I understand it, you do not need a car in most urban areas of South Korea So you could do without a car (needed in 95% of the US) in South Korea (transportation is second highest expense for the average US household) and your housing was paid for.. how about health insurance..? I mean given the same options and pay – yes I could live very well in Vietnam, the Philippines, Bali, etc but would homeless in the San Francisco Bay Area or have 4 or 5 room mates and barely scraping by,
          But you know the USA could be different.
          Umm.. yes it is.
          Tennessee you can do the same.
          Well in your case in Korea you had free housing – how much is an apartment in your part of Tennessee..? I am assuming that you need a car in your area, which legally requires insurance (at least in most states) and you are now also obliged to pay for health insurance if your employer does not provide it. Do some checking and I’m sure you’ll see that $2000 a month in your area is barely scraping by and would almost certainly necessitate needing a roommate(s) or living with your family.
          But it wouldn’t be the case in New York City
          Umm yeah, you can’t even rent a one bedroom apartment in a safe area of NYC for less than $2000 a month. The same applies to San Francisco and 3/4s of the surrounding cities. The median price for a one bedroom in LA is $1800, the same for Seattle. Second tier cities in California and Washington are cheaper but generally require the need for a car which is an added expense. As Tulio said it’s generally $1,000 a month for a one bedroom apartment in most medium to large cities in the US (at least the ones that have a semblance of functioning economy where you can make $10 an hour or more).

        2. I don’t know how anybody survives who lives on thier own. Only the hated mama’s boys can survive at all, but there is so much shame associated with it.

        3. People cannot be doing as bad as it seems cause people on thier own are surviving, and most people don’t have college degrees. If things were as bad as they seem we’d see a revolution.

        4. Some don’t have college degrees and some, not even technical skills like welding etc.. They’re just working at call centers, Wal-Mart, McDonalds.

        5. Places with cheap housing have a catch. There are no jobs there. Also South Korea isn’t poor yet the ESL teachers get free housing. It’s a good deal, even though based on the corrupt industry’s track record, many won’t be able to keep the job for more than a few months.

        6. Well, there are jobs in the third world, but they pay pennies, so in a sense, the housing in the third world is the same as in NYC.

  7. Possibly most people could get a higher than average job, but it would take people a long time, and most people don’t want to study for 20 years to get a doctor’s degree.

    1. Jason! Think about it! How can “most people” get an “above average paying job.”
      Of all of the jobs out there, only 49% are above average paying, and a lot of them are pretty close to average. Anyway at any given time, I assure you that 49% of the population has an above average paying job. In general, it always has to be.

      1. Access to biz capital is one problem, and on top of that you must have the brains, but especially you have to have the startup. Of course, in that case, you don’t need an education to make more money, any old business will do. Different businesses require different amounts for startup, from a few thousand, to 100,000 for a Subway restaurant.

        1. Of course, if your working for someone else, then you only have the 50/50 chance of making above average income, considering only so many people have advanced education. But you don’t need a lot of advanced education to do simple marketing, as is the case with your own biz.

  8. “get a good education so they can get a good high paying job”
    I feel like this is a big reason why education has been ruined.
    Remember when the vast majority of people in the United States didn’t have education? (Or at least at college level ) People worked and developed skills on their own time? Remember how many innovations in quality of life were happening at that period? It was because of innovative people with pioneering minds, something that doesn’t exist anymore or at least to the same extent because of this mentality where you have to go into a field that pays well. Everyone needs to go to college so that they can get a high paying A job. You need a above average IQ and ca ertain mindset to do well in higher education, yet everybody is funneled into it and expected to complete it. As result college has been dumbed down and a college degree is barely better than a high school degree now.

    1. I have seen no evidence it’s been dumbed down. However, it might be true the GPAs are lower now, and perhaps more people are going and dropping out.
      Universities take grade pride in keeping standards high.

      1. How much more difficult do you want it? Already in the math department so many people fail even with standards the way they are.
        In other departments like English, it’s often incredibly difficult to get As or Bs in upper level English courses etc.. That of course is a good thing, but your arguing the schools have gotten soft.

  9. We cannot make everybody reach, but we can make everybody decent. I think many jobs are overpaid, this creates a large income inequality, hence the mockery of the working class by the higher classes. If a common jobs and high-tech (or similar) jobs would be paid equally, then people would not be ridiculed with their “low” jobs, and you would go to high-tech jobs not to get more money, but just because you like such a job. However, many will argue that it would kill any creativity and initiative, but there have been a lot of “garage geniuses” who invented a lot of things not to get alota money and become rich, but just for fun.
    In the Soviet Union there was an attempt to create such a society, when blue collars usually were paid more money than white collars, but unfortunately instead of a society where everybody is equally rich, we got a society where everybody is equally poor. But I think it was because of some faults of the Soviet system, and not of the very idea of equality itself. Even in capitalism we can create such a fair society, the Scandinavian countries have proved it quite well.

    1. I meant “everybody rich” in the first sentence. Silly mistake. Sorry if I have made other mistakes.

    2. Sometimes the middle class has less than you think. If the parents are taking care of 3 kids and owning an middle class home, then the money runs out. However, again, a lot of times the middle class is wasteful, which would be bad, unless your a home improvement store or painting thier house or something.

      1. Yuppies and the rich are also good for the tourist industry. So these people are needed by some, but resented and hated by others.

      2. Paying kid’s college tuition is also a drain on the middle class, and also, as in the case also with rich rock stars, your having to pay for problems with drugs: buying them, rehab

        1. Many community college certificate programs offer better return on investment than private liberal arts colleges, so that is a drain also.
          And working class kids are willing to do odd jobs in their spare time that upper class kids wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole.

        2. Middle class and rich kids have the capability for being spoiled and emotionally weak. It’s always a problem. I guess that’s why they send young Trump to military school

        3. Universities seem to be more for people going to masters and Phds. If you just want a career, then community college is often better.

        4. Also community college is free in Tennessee, even though it’s the most conservative state. Possibly it is in other states also.

        5. I’m moving to Tennessee then. None of the advanced Math courses I took offered job prospects.

        6. I’m not sure if you have to be Tennessee resident for a few years to qualify for free education though, sorry.

        7. I’m moving to Tennessee then. None of the advanced Math courses I took offered job prospects.

          Did you make As and Bs in them? Math courses are never a waste of time, and you can always made a decent living helping people with math homework.

    3. AngryRussian? You stated, “I think many jobs are overpaid, this creates a large income inequality, hence the mockery of the working class by the higher classes.” Well, here’s how it is here in the United States of America. Hedge fund managers are overpaid. However, if you believe that Wal-Mart employees are overpaid, then such a contention could not be any further from the truth. Then again, I get the distinct impression that the point you made in your post did describe the situation in the United States of America of how much hedge fund managers get paid versus how much Wal-Mart employees get paid. If that is the case, then I completely agree with you. What greatly angered me about the government bailouts of big corporations back in 2008 and 2009 was that Chief Executive Officers in these big corporations continued to get pay raises and bonuses they should not have gotten after the Federal government lent their companies a whole mint of the taxpayers’ money. So much is wrong with how the job market treats the average people here in my country.

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