So what about the average people that are smart with their money and make their money work for them?
Losing game too?
I also believe there are right majors to choose in terms of ROI, and long term growth. Its clear to see...
There is no doubt that the money is being spread unevenly. All we can do is be smart with our money and invest to end the cycle of 9-5 slaving.
As far as personal advice is concerned, do what you see as the best for your situation. I am not advocating for anyone to give up even though the system is so unbalanced.
When it comes to public policy, I believe two important things on this topic. Personal advice does not equal sound public policy. I listen to a good deal of talk radio when I drive from Southern California up to Central California and what strikes me is how so many conservatives, especially blue collar, white men either will not or cannot think about economic problems systemically. The standard, talk radio solution to every single economic problem is "work harder," "go to college," "go to trade school," "get your CPA," "just follow David Ramsey's advice" ect.
At some point, it is the fault of the employers and the ruling class and not the fault of 18 to 25 year olds who have little money and no power.
Also, I think that the 90% of American Households that have to work for a living, should think of themselves as workers. There is no greater animus then that between the guy who makes $15 per hour and the guy who makes $12 per hour. I am amazed at how it is the guy who makes not much more than minimum wage who hates the idea of raising minimum wage. America is a strange country in that only the wealthy have class conciseness.
If you want the best ROI for your money, pick engineering. 9 of the 10 best paying jobs are engineers according to CNN
View media item 1573189
Here are the best schools for lifetime ROI according to
Payscale.com
People frequently say that if you have to borrow money to go to school, major in a STEM field, especially engineering. Hey, I've even said it because if you do not have the social capital (a euphemism for one's ability to benefit from nepotism) to get a career going in law or finance, an engineering career is probably one's best bet for making a good salary. With that said, telling people to get engineering degrees does not constitute any sort of serious public policy solution to the problem of decreasing wages among college graduates.
First; if everyone went to college and got a degree in engineering, the wages of engineers would likely plummet. If every kid in America could get a 2400 on the SAT's, triple majored in physics, theoretical mathematics and engineering and then went to law school and business school, only a small number of those kids would get the extremely well paying jobs on Wall Street and at blue stocking law firms and most would be lucky to be making 30k per year in some crappy office job. The demand side, the number of jobs, of the labor supply-demand equation is as important as the supply side, the workers.
Also, we have to remember that when it comes to engineering, the reason why those majors make a lot of money is because the game is actually rigged in their favor. The US Tax payer spends a fortune on the Military-Industrial Complex (MIC) and that MIC hires a lot of engineers and that obviously raises the wages of engineers who do not even work in the MIC.
Suppose it is 2025, we have a new President and Congress and they decide that the US simply can not longer maintain its Empire and we cut the funding for the Military by 3/4, suddenly the starting of pay of engineering majors would be much closer to that of "under water basket weaving" grads (you know the people who keep Western Culture alive).
Finally, when we talk about the balance of supply and demand in the labor market, we are not just talking about wages, the cost of training assumed by the employer is determined by the supply and demand of labor as well. If we had an economy that favored workers, college graduates in non STEM fields would get hired on and taught particular skills at the expense of the employer.
In the late 1930's and early 1940's, the business establishment agreed that the reason for chronic unemployment was because many Americans simply lacked the skills to work in the modern work place. Pearl Harbor happened, total mobilization happened, a negative unemployment rate happened, labor had leverage and suddenly the nation's employers actually did have the money to train people without college degrees to be engineers. Heck, within six months after pearl harbor, we trained people with Middle School educations and housewives how to engage in very sophisticated industrial work.
Under our current system, the employers have too much leverage and they expect potential employees to assume all of the cost and risk of obtaining human capital and that is not a good system. If 18 to 21 year olds are not legally responsible enough to buy beer, they should be expected to either outsmart future labor markets or live the rest of your lives with crippling debt.
