Somehow, people have been trained that having a job in the trades, or as an auto-mechanic or a plumber or whatever is "low", while staring at a computer all day, farting into an office chair, and sitting thru dumb meetings and watching HR department communist propaganda is "good". It's bizarre. I'm not even sure where that point-of-view comes from. I know I was brought up to think that way, but I'm not sure who ever told me that. I guess it's implicit in the community overall. Maybe teachers and professors pushed the notion implicitly... but I definitely do not remember anyone saying that overtly.
Based on my observations of the Amish families in my area, the majority of those people who have working class jobs and a minimum formal education (to the 8th grade) are actually doing significantly better economically than the counterparts, even their college educated counterparts.
Anyway, imagine leaving college with say $50,000 in debt. It's effectively like a severe tax on wages. Someone who ends up with an average job making $52,000 a year will be paying the debt and interest for many years, most likely, especially if they buy a new car, and then end up owning a mortgage/house. Such a person will hardly be able to save any money and will be living paycheck to paycheck.
The debt is basically reducing their income substantially. It's a very good question if a college degree is a road to prosperity for most people, especially if you look at an extreme alternative life strategy (involving debt avoidance) like the Amish. The non-Amish people have been hypnotized out of thinking about their life options from a broad perspective.
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