I agree with you! I just think mocking people for having trouble finding a job is useless at best.

I'm advocating mostly for people with good jobs to stop condescending to people with bad jobs in a bad job market and high student debt, honestly. I agree that high school kids should be better informed about useful degrees they haven't considered, but insulting them afterwards is useless and unfair.

Okay, but none of this really contradicts the fact that teachers are underpaid and schools are underfunded.

Okay? But most people graduating right now have debt, and very few are going to college for free (I generously say "very few" but I mean, really, who?). It's not really a wild assumption. If even half of that 10% (30% if you include people working through school) are in debt I'd call that a lot of people. Even setting…

I didn't say that they're all college grads, just that most of them are not teens (as is usually assumed) so a lot of them are probably college grads.

Who brought it on themselves? Those states or the teachers working multiple jobs?

I'm glad your education in theatre treated you well! I think you're right about "soft" degrees teaching you important useful skills even if you don't get a job in your desired field. Higher education in the arts is about turning you into a more well rounded person capable of approaching unfamiliar things in a…

Because of the link I posted in the comment above. At least 10% of teachers in every state (more than 20% in some states) work a second job. That means many of them don't make a decent wage. I'm glad you do but it's not universally true.

That's what I'm saying - there should be more opportunities in those fields, but if someone doesn't get a job in Poli Sci and has to work in a lower level or even minimum wage job it's not a sign of failure. It's just how it is.

This is true. Trades are also treated (sometimes unconsciously) as a man's thing so girls are particularly not encouraged in that direction in high school and beyond.

This is why it's particularly cruel to sneer at someone who works at a fast food restaurant. On top of everything you just mentioned you have to deal with people calling you a failure for not finding a better job in a job market that won't allow it!

Yes, but blaming someone for their difficulty getting a job in their field with an "impractical" degree is really something I disagree with. The teacher thing is a good example. Going into education is a bad idea when you're in debt, but should we discourage people from becoming teachers? Of course not. We should be…

That's my point. Those are important fields of study and he shouldn't have to work there. There should be more opportunities for him with those degrees. The difference is that you seem to be blaming him for having degrees in things that should rightfully be providing him with a career.

Yeah, I hate this narrative of "Well, they shouldn't have majored Interpretive Dance!" The job market is awful for just about everyone right now.

I think it's unfair and dangerous to blame people for wanting degrees in the arts. But you're also assuming that the people working in minimum wage to pay off student loans are all people who chose arts degrees. They're not.

My point is that I don't think people should necessarily be scared to get a degree in something that appears less lucrative at the time, especially since the arts (and things like Philosophy) would be the first to go.

People with degrees in artsy fields are not the only ones with this problem, but I also disagree that it's somehow a sign of failure for choosing one of those artsy/humanities degrees in the first place. Are we supposed to eliminate all those options except for the very rich until the economy starts booming?

I agree, but most of those jobs require schooling themselves, which isn't always an option for people who are already paying off student loans for another degree.

The job market is atrocious. You can't assume that the people working there have messed up somehow. More likely they can't get a decent job in their field.

It is, because the original comment suggests that it's somehow a sign of failure if someone works at McDonald's after graduation. It's not, it's normal.