And I know lots of unemployed skilled laborers... Anecdotes don't change anything.

A lot of workers -- both white collar and blue collar -- in the US are struggling to find employment.

This whole idea of not going to college because it doesn't guarantee a job thing is ridiculous. You aren't guaranteed a job without a degree either. At least with a degree you have a chance at upward mobility. And an educated society is certainly better than an uneducated society. As a society, we're far better off with an educated population than we are with an uneducated population.

Now, if we want to discuss expectations from a degree, that is a different story, but I was mainly referring to this delusion that, as a society, we're losing skilled laborers, thats just nonsense. There are plenty of uneducated people in the US, and they also go through the same issues of not being able to find a job.

You brought up having to commute a long distance to get to work, for the low pay of a laborer, relocating and commuting are often just not really options.

I understand the urge to say that more people should go into blue collar jobs and not college, but the fact of the matter is: there is a shortage of blue collar jobs as well. Plumbers, construction workers, electricians, etc... have a hard time finding jobs as well as college educated people looking for white collar jobs.
If most of the people who have college degrees had skipped college, we would be in the same situation we are now but with a bunch of uneducated unemployed people.
Personally, I'd rather have an educated populace struggling to find jobs rather than an uneducated one.

Im sorry but, no. Just no. I dont mean to come across as rude but that advice is just madness. In new construction do not put cat5e lol. Cat6 is not any more difficult to work with than cat5e. Particularly with new construction cat6 is the absolute minimum anyone should run. He/she will likely already have an electrician running it through conduit anyway. Cat5e? wtf.. I just ran 43 jacks in my house, guest house, and two out buildings in cat6a (Chose 6a due to some of the runs being further than the 55 meter limitation on 10G) and once the electrician had them snaked through the walls, a friend and i were able to get all keystone jacks and patch panels punched down in a couple of casual pizza and beer nights, and it was our first time doing it. Every single jack works and the network has been solid as a rock. If your walls are already open, spend the lousy few hundred dollars and get at least cat6, at least. By far the most expensive cost, labor, will stay close to the same. 10gigabit is closer than you think. Particularly if 4k video comes along. Do it right when the walls are open and feel the sweet relief of knowing you wont have to open them up anytime in the near future.

You're just flat out living in denial if you don't believe advertising is powerful in convincing people -- of all education and class levels -- to consume in order to feel more adequate. I'm not sure how things work in delusional land, but over here in reality, advertising drives a huge chunk of our economy, because it extremely effective. It works, well.

And by the way, I'm far from living in poverty. Good life, good education, good job, and reality based, not some delusional nutbag who imagines advertising doesn't have a major impact on culture lol.

Yes, we should all do the right thing financially all the time, but, it doesn't take a genius to see that isn't happening. You don't even have to search very hard to see that people from every class and every education level fucks up their finances, the uneducated hardly have a monopoly on overspending and debt. In fact, a large chunk of Americas educated upper and middle class are in debt up to their ears.

Have fun out there in fantasyland, take care.

Some of us aren't. A number of us are fighting the good fight, we're facing strong opposition though. Entrenched beliefs stuck back decades, luddites, fans of the Kardashians, big money corporate interests, bought and sold politicians, etc..

We're trying though, I promise.

Lol it's hilarious the way these guys incessantly use 'special snowflake' and 'entitlement'

As if 'special snowflake', being different or wanting something different from everyone else is a bad thing. I'd wear the special snowflake badge happily. It means I'm not exactly the same as every other person near me. How dare we think of different uses for tech or imagine that some things in the world might *gasp* change *gasp* to work for others as well.

Throwing around entitlement means, accept everything as it is, there's nothing that needs to change, ever.

Really what it all means is, they don't like that people are actually doing things to fix the world around them. They're luddites and change terrifies them.

Its OK guys, everything will be ok. Not too long ago people were scared the Large Hadron Collider was going to swallow the universe. People were scared because the negro was going to be freed. People were scared women would be able to vote. Change is hard little buddies, but it'll all be OK *headpat* *hair ruffle*

Publicity stunt or not, his people are still getting 70k minimum per year.

And he still raised the minimum salary to 70k! Good for him!

You're definitely correct. We should say no. Do realize though, part of the reason our culture has become so attached to buying things that dont enhance our lives, at all, is due to advertising and media selling a lifestyle that is beyond most people.

Saying we can all just say no is spot on, but, look at the influence the media has on teenagers and how it causes them to attach their selfworth to useless brand names. Or look at the history of diamonds and see the crazy way one advertising firm turned an basically unknown stone --diamonds-- into the universal symbol of love in less than 50 years.

The media has played a large role in convincing giant chunks of our population they need $300 and up purses and tons of other useless trash. And it is usually attached to a brand name, not the rarity or quality of materials it is made from. The Louis Vuitton company could slap their name on a white hanes T-shirt and sell it for a hundred bucks.
A large part of societies self worth is attached to the things they own or want to own.

Exactly. This.

You can try go AC all you like, it is still pretty obvious you're the same nutter from before.

Because it isn't 1950 anymore, both parents tend to work nowadays. Glad to see you finally noticed.

Was this sarcasm? I hope so lol.

I'm sorry but, to imply 70k/year and 15 dollars per hour are immense sums of money like is just disingenuous. Winning the lottery and being able to afford the non generic bread are not the same things.

Still raised all of his employees salaries, so good for him.