Replies

“You are like a jewish mother forcing her son to be a doctor”

LOL...accurate, though it applies to a lot more than Jews now. It includes virtually all Asians.

Anyway, often we use the term ‘plumber’ here to mean a person who is in a profession that can make loads of money by NOT requiring college. Obviously Joma can answer, but I expect that answer to be among my lines - once they’re 18 they can do whatever they want, as long as they pay for it (which, of course, is true under the law too).

But, as parents, it is OUR MONEY, and we do have the right to ‘invest’ that money as we see fit. And having our kids enter a profession that actually pays well, college or not, is definitely a good investment. Having our kids, instead, be a financial drag on their parents for at least a decade after high school, as is the case for virtually all of my non-immigrant coworkers - not such a good investment (but not immigrants, they figured it out).

The “drag” has nothing to do with education. The drag has to do with inherent laziness.

A lazy intellectual or shiftless kid is going to be a drag even with a gradate degree or a corporate title.

While money is an issue, it should not be a weapon used to force a kid who has no clue along a path he doesn’t want to travel.

I reccomend “McDonalds as School” program. Go to work for a year at McDonalds and study the business from cleaning floors, selling up front, making fries, to ordering and managing inventory to running the place.

A McDonalds is American business in microcosm and is all facets of a large manufacturing company including sales and production in one compact location.

A year earning and learning at one of the best corporations in America can provide some solid basis for going forward.