College is optional. Actually, if you're just looking for "a skilled job" trade school is a better bet than college now. But the only people actually saying that are conservative nut-jobs trying to fight a culture war against a balanced education. People send their kids to colleges for the same reason why they demand more car lanes instead of better buses and trains: it's a status symbol.

The thing about status symbols is that you are buying them to feel better than someone else. So they almost have to be scarce - and therefore expensive. That's the basic idea behind cost disease; scarce things in an economy of abundance become more expensive, not less.

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adam_patarino a day ago | parent | next [-]

Perhaps it is optional for some. The point isn’t if it’s technically required. It’s that these items have less price sensitivity, which could be a greater factor in what industries invest in automation.

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SubmarineClub a day ago | parent | prev [-]

> Actually, if you're just looking for "a skilled job" trade school is a better bet than college now.

Better for whom? And better in what sense?

Long-term, on average, post-college careers still blow the trades out of the water in earnings.

In my case certainly, if I had bought into the “trades are better!!” online rhetoric I would be making far less money than I am now, and I get to work remote.

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kmeisthax a day ago | parent [-]

> Long-term, on average, post-college careers still blow the trades out of the water in earnings.

That average has a lot of outliers. There are a handful of degrees which almost guarantee you gainful employment. Like, someone getting a law degree or prepping for hospital residency will make waaay more money than maths, liberal arts, or anything on PhD track. The latter do not have anywhere close to the same job prospects.

Furthermore, some degrees are extremely expensive to get. My guess is you got an engineering or CS degree, which in terms of "degrees with job prospects" are still reasonably priced. You can graduate and go into the work force with little debt (or at least, I did, YMMV). Less so for the lawyers and doctors pushing up the college average, who have to go to more expensive schools and even more expensive post-graduate programs. They rack up lots of student debt in the process. Even if it gives you a higher salary, you might not be comfortable with a decade and change of debt slavery.

	▲	ghaff a day ago \| parent [-]
		Law in the US is actually not that great an overall profession in terms of compensation if you're not talking top schools, white shoe firms, and a prestigious clerkship.