Too Many People With Degrees - Too Few Jobs For Them

David Trammel's picture

Greer has spoke about this before. One more reason to recommend trade schools or apprentice programs for your children.

"Too Many Brainy People Can Be A Dangerous Thing"

"Hugh Trevor-Roper, a historian, noted that “social crises are caused not by the clear-cut opposition of mutually exclusive interests but by the tug-of-war of opposite interests within one body.” The French Revolution was not primarily the product of misery but instead of a battle between an underemployed educated class and hereditary landowners. Historians identify “the problem of an excess of educated men” as contributing to Europe’s revolutions of 1848. Mr Turchin suggests that though slavery was the proximate cause of the American civil war, a more fundamental one was resentment from up-and-coming Northern capitalists towards stuck-in-their-ways Southerners.

Elite overproduction can also help explain the malaise gripping the rich world of late. It has become extraordinarily difficult for a young person to achieve elite status, even if she works hard and goes to the best university. House prices are so high that only inheritors stand a chance of emulating the living conditions of their parents. The power of a few “superstar” firms means that there are few genuinely prestigious jobs around. Mr Turchin reckons that each year America produces some 25,000 “surplus” lawyers. Over 30% of British graduates are “overeducated” relative to their jobs.

All this goes some way to explaining an apparently puzzling trend: why apparently well-off people are drawn to radicalism."

I'm a little concerned that so many trades schools seem to be rip-offs, cheap fly-by-nights, or dumbed down so much due to regulations that they barely spend any time doing the actual job, let alone getting good at it. A friend of mine went to a trade school and was intensely disappointed that even the worst performing, least capable students were basically guaranteed to graduate through a system of rigged exams, unauthorized "retries", and copious grey-zone assistance from the teacher/examiner to help them pass. When the teachers were asked about it they basically said they weren't permitted to fail anybody, at all, unless that student failed themselves. My research indicates that this is pretty much par for the course now in trade "schooling".

To be quite honest, I'd consider going back to a trade school to learn some more skills if they were actually decent quality educational and experiential sources. So, to end this on a hopefully useful note: does anybody know of trades or industries that have entry-level schooling that doesn't seem to have gotten too corrupted yet?

bobmcc's picture

Here in California we have two-year schools that are called Community Colleges, formerly known as Junior Colleges - tuition is cheap and they provide some trades training. For example, the construction classes build completed homes. Our local State University in converting to a Polytechnic University and will emphasize marketable skills. The alternative is a Union multi-year hands-on training course in the trade you're interested in - inquire at any Union Hall...

lathechuck's picture

Since I manage my church's property, and our building has an elevator, I meet the elevator technicians several times a year for routine maintenance and inspections needed to maintain our county operating license. Several of these gentlemen have recommended that more young people get the union-based training for their position. Every elevator needs monthly and annual service, at least, in our area, and trained technicians are in short supply (and some of the experts are reaching retirement age). I suspect (and have been told) that many new apartment buildings, which would have been walk-up buildings a generation ago, now include elevators for handicapped access. Is it sustainable? Who knows? Our aging population, living in multi-story housing, will be depending on them for a few more decades.