Menial work? I think here is part of the problem. No work is “menial”. Oh, and 1/3 of all college students pick degrees which were obviously one of their big life choices.
No, quite a lot of it is.
And that’s the problem with unrestricted capitalism. You’re gonna get people forced into pointless busy work just because businesses feel bad for them.
You can already see this in aging countries like Japan where slews of old men are forced to act as basically human traffic cones because their pension is tiny and they want to continue to add value to society.
There are jobs where I live that only require a 2 year cert and you can earn up to 100k a year. Why spend 4 years on a degree that might not pan out when you can make some real money quick and be able to afford middle class lifestyle.
Farker speaks: “I wish I’d known this when I was in high school. I was sold, and admittedly bought into the idea that everyone has to go to college, otherwise you’re farked. Well then the recession happened, and I’ve been stuck in a job that pays juuuust enough for it to be hard to find something else worth leaving for.
So I’m back in school getting my HVAC certs and have a job offer lined up already for my apprenticeship. I hate how manual labor is looked down upon. Plumbing, electrical, etc. There’s good money to be made doing a lot of things that don’t require a degree.”