[Nepeta]

In general your jobs with the most people are also your jobs with the lowest necessary skill level. Which makes them entry level jobs, which makes them low paying, and if you want to make more money get more skills and move up or move out.

You are assuming that education and skills will translate to decent paying jobs. For all the whining and moaning about a lack of technical degrees, the truth is employers aren't willing to pay much for such training.

Frequently, employers will hire marginal people for jobs that really should be done by people with some background in the field. For example, I worked at a contract lab where much of the alar testing was done. The person doing the alar analyses had just gotten her GED; she could push the right buttons but she couldn't begin to recognize if something wasn't working right. But, she worked cheaply and they made a lot of money out of the alar scare.

[discostu]

Who said anything about the employers paying for anything? All of my skill acquisition that moved me from entry level job land to skilled labor land I did on my time with my money.

They hired a button pusher not an analyst. They should have (and maybe did) have an analyst around too, but analysts costs more than button pushers and you don’t want them pushing buttons any GED holder could push.