There has to be something regional/cultural about this that I'm missing since I hear this complaint a lot, but don't know anyone personally that experienced it until very recently.
When I went to high school in Pennsylvania the 90s people were still encouraged to into the trades. I have some friends from high school that have gone on to be very successful electricians and welders. Even when my brother went to the same school and graduated in 2007 he was never pushed to go to college. He ended up getting his AA at a local university and is now a paramedic/fire fighter for the same city.
>When I went to high school in Pennsylvania the 90s people were still encouraged to into the trades.
I graduated in 2002, at the time any Georgia high school graduate with a B average got full tuition and fees paid for with the HOPE scholarship (still exists, but it only pays about 80% now).
Possibly as a result, almost everyone who wasn't a terrible student was encouraged to go to college.
The only people pushed into the trade direction were people with less than a B average, and with grade inflation you really had to be pretty lazy not to get by with a B.
Interesting. I too have heard it so many times I had assumed it was fairly widespread across North America, but I guess that is not true. I'm from Canada, for what it is worth. Maybe it limited to Canadian culture? Though another reply to you seems to indicate that it is also true across the western US.
The complaint is that teenagers are being told the only way you'll be a member of the middle class is that you must go to a four year university. People were saying that going into a trade or getting "just" an Associates degree would leave you in the dust of everyone else.
HN isn't remotely representative of the population at large. You're primarily getting bay area and a bit of Pacific Northwest culture here. A touch of NYC businessfolk sentiment that HN entrepreneurs envy but can't actually pull off.
If you think the folks commenting here have any idea what life outside the bubble is like, think again.
When I went to high school in Pennsylvania the 90s people were still encouraged to into the trades. I have some friends from high school that have gone on to be very successful electricians and welders. Even when my brother went to the same school and graduated in 2007 he was never pushed to go to college. He ended up getting his AA at a local university and is now a paramedic/fire fighter for the same city.