Current Events > I think useless degrees are a myth.

(+) Yeah! (+)

If somebody out there can make 6 figures selling rocks, then surely if you can't sell employers on your skills, you can use your knowledge and experience along with some marketing skills to sell people some dumb product or service that they never even knew they wanted.
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They are just not compatible with our capitalist society. Which is fine except they will need money to pay off the loans.
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it's just a strawman argument made by republicans
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theAteam posted...

They are just not compatible with our capitalist society. Which is fine except they will need money to pay off the loans.

I wouldn't even say so much that.

I think the problem is that people in our society are kind of sheep. They're used to having a plan laid out for them and following it for guaranteed results and rely on employers to assign a value to them.

Meanwhile there's some kid out there making money off of selling the most abundant resource on planet Earth just because of how he sells it to people.
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RchHomieQuanChi posted...

theAteam posted...

They are just not compatible with our capitalist society. Which is fine except they will need money to pay off the loans.

I wouldn't even say so much that.

I think the problem is that people in our society are kind of sheep. They're used to having a plan laid out for them and following it for guaranteed results and rely on employers to assign a value to them.

Meanwhile there's some kid out there making money off of selling the most abundant resource on planet Earth just because of how he sells it to people.

hence strawman lol
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so what you're saying is they can get a well paying job despite their degree?

I woukdn't say they are "useless" since personally I don't think education is a waste. My issue is the ridiculous costs of higher education kind of reinforces the notion that a college education is essentially job prep because if your expensive degree doesnt lead to a job that helps you pay your education off then it is deemed worthless or useless. Which on the merits of getting the degree, I don't agree with. The whole "useless" aspect comes from the high cost so you better make the degree worth it. If it didnt cost so much and was just another means of further educating yourself (which I believe it ultimately should be, job training is something separate imo) then degrees like that woukdn't be "useless", it'd just be educating yourself in a particular subject of field of interest
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Yeah, all you need to do is get your foot in the door and have a good interview.
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RchHomieQuanChi posted...

If somebody out there can make 6 figures selling rocks, then surely if you can't sell employers on your skills, you can use your knowledge and experience along with some marketing skills to sell people some dumb product or service that they never even knew they wanted.

Monica is drunk or sump'in, man. Shit.
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Fahren posted...

so what you're saying is they can get a well paying job despite their degree?

I think that if they can't get a well-paying job working for someone else, they can definitely find ways to generate their own success if they use a little bit of creativity and smart marketing.

I still think degrees are completely overpriced though.
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WaterLink posted...

I woukdn't say they are "useless" since personally I don't think education is a waste. My issue is the ridiculous costs of higher education kind of reinforces the notion that a college education is essentially job prep because if your expensive degree doesnt lead to a job that helps you pay your education off then it is deemed worthless or useless. Which on the merits of getting the degree, I don't agree with. The whole "useless" aspect comes from the high cost so you better make the degree worth it. If it didnt cost so much and was just another means of further educating yourself (which I believe it ultimately should be, job training is something separate imo) then degrees like that woukdn't be "useless", it'd just be educating yourself in a particular subject of field of interest

Yeah. The core problem is that education is no longer seen as a reward in itself, but rather a means to getting a high-paying job.

People get the idea that something isn't worth learning if it won't immediately get them a 6-figure income, and a lot of that is because of education being overpriced these days. I think Western civilization has become extremely dumbed down because of this. You've got people making way more than any of us will ever dream of, yet they can't operate a computer simply because they don't need to.
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Says the Art Major with a minor in Dance Therapy for Orangutans.
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deltadan posted...

Says the Art Major with a minor in Dance Therapy for Orangutans.

People have sold art for hundreds of thousands of dollars though.

I mean, yeah, there's tons of art majors that clearly won't get this money, but art is a skill that can apply to a lot of different things that are beneficial to both individuals and businesses. People just don't know how to apply it.
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deltadan posted...

Says the Art Major with a minor in Dance Therapy for Orangutans.

Seems to me the latter would pay extremely well.

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

People have sold art for hundreds of thousands of dollars though.

and many more people have starved to death in alleyways trying to sell art

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

If somebody out there can make 6 figures selling rocks, then surely if you can't sell employers on your skills, you can use your knowledge and experience along with some marketing skills to sell people some dumb product or service that they never even knew they wanted.

So you're saying there's no such thing as a useless degree, only a useless person?
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Fahren posted...

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

People have sold art for hundreds of thousands of dollars though.

and many more people have starved to death in alleyways trying to sell art

I think those artists have a bit of tunnel vision. They're trying to make money off of passion projects and that simply won't cut it.

But an art program at a decent school would teach fundamental skills that can very easily be applied to things that people would be willing to pay money for, such as logo design or website design.

As somebody who enjoys creating art, it's important not to be too specialized and put all your eggs in one basket. Spending your whole life trying to sell a personal painting is pointless, especially since really only rich/well-off people buy paintings, and they really don't have any interest in art that isn't done by somebody famous.
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s0nicfan posted...

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

If somebody out there can make 6 figures selling rocks, then surely if you can't sell employers on your skills, you can use your knowledge and experience along with some marketing skills to sell people some dumb product or service that they never even knew they wanted.

So you're saying there's no such thing as a useless degree, only a useless person?

I wouldn't even say useless, so much as brainwashed.
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