Comments by "L.W. Paradis" (@l.w.paradis2108) on "Saagar Enjeti: How Biden May SCREW Working Class By Bailing Out HIS Voters, Inciting Class Warfare" video.

@gertrudewest4535 Tuition and fees at a state university used to be so low that a full-time summer job paid enough to save up and pay for an entire year. Kids worked and saved up, and studied harder, and managed money better, and had pride. Gee. What happened?
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@James Herndon Please don't buy into the "college produces SJWs" nonsense. The most common major in the US is Business, and has been for decades and decades. More people major in Financial Engineering than in various "Gender Studies"-type fields, which is a rare degree -- and probably leads to some decent jobs in advertising or fashion merchandising.
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@eminentbishop1325 YES! Finally, a reality check!
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@James Herndon P. S. I was stunned, actually, by the rigor of these classes. There is a crisis in higher education employment, so you can be taught by someone who went to U. of Chicago or Yale at a no-name state school. That's where you have to look. These people are underemployed, true, but if they take you under their wing, they can help you. Not to mention that the classes themselves are on a level, and can benefit anyone, in any job. It's not straightforward anymore, I know. Strategize.
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@Ryan Navas Maybe that's a cover story? Consider that. Sort-of like putting Kamala Harris on the ticket. Look up the Financial Engineering major, see what that's about. (Ever heard it mentioned on the mass media? Right, now you're getting the picture.) I think that is what will have even more undue influence than the SJW posing and preening.
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@brianhillis3701 This is always the story you're told, and it certainly has a grain of truth, but state schools did NOT have to lose tax revenues and force up prices to build football stadiums, luxury dorms, and sports complexes. It was a choice. The VAST majority of students have vocational majors, and have for decades. What do you think the single most common major is? Business, of course -- and it has been, for decades. Then come all the health-related majors, with Nursing at the top. A Business degree, without either enough accounting to pass the CPA, or enough advanced math to understand finance in depth, is USELESS. Those are people who hate to read and can't write, and don't complete a year of calculus. Of course they don't speak a foreign language unless they learned it at home. A Business degree without rigour is a demonstration of docility -- nothing more. It also signals that your parents weren't very imaginative, and worse yet, weren't rich. The oligarchs look down on that. Oh, the irony!
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@brianhillis3701 Well then you do know. But you also must know that labor markets change, sometimes rapidly. I remember when the "tech bubble" burst right around the same time as the 9/11 attacks, and Computer Science majors were unemployed. Come 2003, fresh grads with the same degrees were preferred over those who had worked part-time at Staples since their 2001 graduation, selling computers. Graduate into a serious recession, you risk not catching up for a decade. So, what to do? Going back to school, with more debt, sounds completely insane, but . . . Well. What would you tell your son or daughter? I would not want a Computer Science major to settle for Staples, that's for sure. I'd give them as much money as I could, and have them take a night class at some high-prestige, expensive joint! You play it as it lays. :/
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@James Herndon Well, if you ever go back, find the right classes with the right people. You will be very bored and get As easily, but you don't have to be surrounded by fools while making the BA official. It could be a spare-time hobby, LOL.
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@brianhillis3701 I agree with you 100% about the hypocrisy. Looking at the whole picture, though, I think you are putting most of the blame in the wrong place. I've met baristas with Business degrees. Plenty. You must not talk to the people who serve your coffee.
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SO many talking points about "Gender Studies" and so forth, when Business is the top major, and has been for a couple of generations, and "trendy" majors are extremely rare. A student with trendy major who can take great photographs and design a web page will get hired to do fashion merchandising long before a Business major will. Say, did you know "Financial Engineering" is a major? Look it up. Wow. I sure do wonder what those people have in store for us. Like the IT people who are looking forward to robotics, and a post-human world? At least read up on what they say. I don't believe their nonsense, but getting a perspective on THEIR lack of human feelings and values is sobering, as is the fact that they do not want for good jobs. IOW, wake up.
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@brianhillis3701 A luxury, like a beach house, is comparable to a necessity, like an education? Because both are pleasant? Does a beach house greatly enhance your productivity, for life? This is why I want to emigrate. The prevailing culture is incompatible with a humane existence, and will be for as long as I'm likely to be around. No one outside of the English-speaking world ever says these things, and most of the English-speaking world has evolved. Your stoking of endless envy will ruin you. Don't look now, but the BRICS educate their children. They don't first say "yours and mine." They start from "our."
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@brianhillis3701 Asia just signed a massive trade deal, you know. In Europe, they are talking about it and analyzing it. Maybe you missed the import of it. Y'know, the big picture.
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@brianhillis3701 How about no education if you or your parents can't pay for it? Why give anyone's kids something for nothing? It's not my job to feed and clothe your kids. Well, I don't want to send them to school, either. They're your kids, not mine. Same for health care, including for your elderly. If your kids want lobster tail, should I pay for lobster tail? Same for calculus. If you don't like it, buy a farm.
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@brianhillis3701 Yup, starting with kindergarten. No more Mr. Nice Guy.
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@michigandersea3485 Your post stayed on my mind for several days because it is brilliant. Your daughter is very lucky to have you as a father and she is going to be one very happy young lady someday. What really strikes me about your plan is that high school was supposed to prepare everyone for a good job. That's what it was supposed to do -- and it once did. Bravo for not being passive in the face of deteriorating education. Once she has that solidly in place, why not major in art history, if it's truly her passion? Exactly! One other thing that struck me, living outside the US for five years, and later teaching as a community college adjunct (not my main job), is that people really underestimate what good decisionmaking, planning, and most of all hard work can do. Too many people believe in some sort of inborn talent, and think things should be easy, or the person must not be "good" at them. This is so wrong. They completely underestimate what an extra 30 or 40 minutes a day can do, when practiced over a period of many years. That's the difference between not understanding math and breezing through introductory calculus. I'm serious, it really is.
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Well, to be fair, if you read books, you are elite. Just look around.
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@James Herndon Well, I took some night classes in graduate-level English at a no-name state school -- the cheapest in our region, not incidentally -- and had outstanding classes. We read Shakespeare's histories, and Holinshed's Chronicles, which Shakespeare used as a basis for those plays. Absolutely brilliant stuff. No one who has read the Henriad will miss a double cross in business, or life, ever again! It sounds like you suffered with some real idiots around you. I'm sorry that happened. Find better classes. They exist.
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@James Herndon Wow. You sound like a University of Chicago person. I don't know what night school options, or special certification, or alternatve education stuff they offer right now, but I can't imagine your liking anything below that level. I mean, if you ever need the piece of paper to make it official. Chicago (the city) is the best kept secret for higher education. Everyone knows about either coast, when SAIC is where the single most influential dean of the Yale art school got his MFA. "What can a person do with an ART degree?" Well, the only real rags to riches story I know was an art major, who went into advertising but later was sorry to have spent his whole life in that field. I know someone who graduated from SAIC this year, a former (nearly lifelong) Marine before that. Started his own business and has a new job right now, plans to open his own gallery some day. And has made art during the pandemic shutdowns. Also knows how to set up cable and Internet, weld, and make furniture by hand. He's a good actor, too. He's a doer. Some of the schools in Chicago are world-class, and the ambiance is generally more sensible and serious. Maybe NYC has as many options. I doubt that anywhere else in the States is comparable. A lot of schools have become a four-year camp for the immature, true enough, and they don't even teach free discussion. BUT there are ways around that. Lots!
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It's that they're all trying to dupe you. The best way for them to get an advantage for themselves and their own family after they've graduated is to dupe others into not getting a degree.
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@ladycatfish2896 Who do you think gets into top law schools and MPA programs? And how common do you think something like Chicano Studies is? How common is someone who becomes fluent in Spanish from studying really hard in college? These types of degrees are rare, and often lead to careers for that very reason. Laura Ingraham/Rush Limbaugh talking points have colonized brains all over the country. If only education could do something about that.
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@Alexa M Exactly. The most common major is Business and has been for many decades. The next most common group of majors are all health-related, with Nursing at the top. Business is pretty useless without enough accounting to pass the CPA, or enough advanced mathematics to comprehend advanced finance. Gender Studies majors are very rare, and can lead to a career in fashion merchandising, as do various communications and creative writing degrees. No Business major can compete.
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Already has.
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@dennismitchell5276 This is true as well.
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