The world needs ditch diggers too. I have no degree. I worked hard all my life, and educated myself, and now I run 6 companies. You will find some of the most successful people in life have no degree because there is usually a big difference between going to school and not.
Going to college teachs you how to follow. Trying to do something on your own, teaches you how to lead. Having a passion and drive to succeed is all you need.
And I know people with masters degrees now who can’t find work, and will settle for being a handy man or paper delivery or something.
What is amazing to me, considering I hire a bunch of people with degrees, is that their knowledge of things outside of their specialty, is in general, limited.
Economics, politics, world events, other cultures, is usually where they are lacking. Having a degree doesn’t mean you can’t still be ignorant.
You make a good point. People who trudge through 4 years earning near useless touchy-feely degrees because they have “been told” this is what they should do have already failed one of the first big tests in life. Those who work hard to become educated and knowledgeable (with or without college) because they want to are miles ahead.
A couple of generations ago it was difficult for people to just finish high school because many had to work at an early age. Banks and governments didn't throw money around like they do now.
My deceased mother in law only made it through eighth grade but had a love of knowledge and was self educated far beyond that. She could do advanced math and calculus in her head that most people can't do at all. She had read all the classics and anything else worth reading, knew world history, geography and natural science. She understood plumbing, carpentry, masonry, and how mechanical things worked. She could recite all the documents and speeches important to development of western civilization and could hold an informed discussion on almost any topic that arose, even into her 80's.
What is most amazing is not what she had learned and accomplished while working at hard jobs and long hours since a young age, but that there were so many others of her generation who did the same. My mom and dad were like that as were almost all the other people of their generation I knew.
They were a generation of doers, builders of America, not the government coddled over schooled, undereducated whiners we see so often today. They litter the shopping malls and end up flipping hamburgers while they wait for Obama or a new government program to take care of them.
It is the self motivated people who learn because they have an interest in pure knowledge or to further their realistic goals and ambitions who are still the backbone of America.
A lot of successful millionaires don’t even have a high school diploma.