Originally Posted by
notEnuf
don’t think being an ASE mechanic will work for the masses as a way to earn 250K. A more practical route would be a life long progression in education to achieve in a chosen field. That starts with a bachelors degree. Embry Riddle is making those people and in their 20s. Airline pilot as of now is still one of the best gigs and competitively requires a degree even if it is a liberal arts basket weaving theory for the modern age major.
Airline pilot is a great job right now and hopefully it stays that way for a while. Your example is largely out of context though. No one, ever, needs to drop a quarter milly at riddle to become one. You can get the time and, with or without a degree, get to the same point for way under half that. But that’s just one career track and it’s not for everyone.
I also didn’t say or imply that any ASE certified mech automatically makes 250k. Very few do. But for the cost and effort into blowing well into 6 figures for verification of a free reading list (that’s the vast majority of degrees) you could hustle and make way, way more than the majority of college grads doing something real instead.
Your argument hinges on the old and contextually irrelevant “if you go to college you make a million more than if you don’t” trope. Even if true (and I don’t think it even is) it’s only relevant when you take pilots, surgeons, engineers, Madison Ave marketing and law partners etc and all that. Colleges are meanwhile busy churning out millions of useless degrees for prices no one can justify while telling those without degrees that they need to pay for it.
In most cases, outside of some very specific current career tracks, the same time, effort and money applied elsewhere will get an ambitious young adult much farther and earn much more. I spoke to one disenchanted guy who was almost 100k in debt that he spent on a masters in a garden variety European language. Like LOLWUT? Those stories are the rule not the exception now. College is a racket.