I'm not on the Libertarian train. I see it more as workers working themselves to death, in a lifetime of debt for crappy furniture from the company store. The market doesn't always prevail. It'd be like removing all rules from the NFL, everyone starts using 'roids and bringing weapons to the line of scrimmage, but saying, "they'll eventually police themselves." They might, but not for a long time and not until a lot of damage has been done. In my ideal world we'd financially incentivize "made in America" and bring manufacturing back from China. I don't think it'd be as expensive as everyone thinks. The average Chinese factory worker makes about $6/hr whereas an American would cost $15-$20, plus all the environmental regulations, but at-scale, those costs are significant.

Also, every American man, woman, and child is in almost $10k of debt for the CARES Act for money that all trickled up. Like it or not, we're effectively doing MMT right now. I'm not a fan at all. Billionaires don't spend the money they make, effectively not closing the loop so our financial institution hasn't been a closed system for a looonnnggg time. We're really testing Bretton Woods right now, which relies on global buy-in for the USD at a time we're trying to become more isolationist.

A college degree should get you into a six figure job. Maybe not right out of the gate, but in less than a decade.
A person who pursues a worthless degree and a few hundred thousand in debt has no one to blame but himself.

There are some degrees that do not land you in a six figure job, teaching being a good example.

Med school, dentist, vet, lawyer, engineer, scientist, business administration, etc., yes.

Worthless degree = an degree that ends in the word “studies”.

What is Riddle and its students seeing that I'm not????

I am just not that optimistic.


https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/...lanned-for-21/

The investment in new aircraft follows increased enrollment. According to the school, its Fall 2020 incoming class, some 859 strong at Prescott alone, is the “largest incoming class in history.” The Daytona campus saw 1,731 new students, its second-highest enrollment spike ever. Between the two campuses, ERAU has more than 10,000 undergrad and graduate students, also a record.

Our current planning horizon is to grow to 1,200 flight students within five years,” said Parker Northrup, Flight Department chair on the Prescott Campus.

Freshman now, graduating Spring 2024, 2 years as CFI, ready for 121 regional mid 2026. I look at it as a long game for these new students, banking on regionals hiring at 1500 again in 6 years.

If I had to take that bet, over under on 1500 hour pilot hiring at regionals again in 6 years from now, I’d take the under. I wouldn’t take the under if you said 2-3 years but 6, sure.

Then 4 years at a regional, new hire at a major by 2030, just in time for the next downturn/black swan event/etc! jk but not jk

True. I guess I'm so used to the "immediate here and now" mentality, I figured folks looking at the bleak outlook now would be scared away.

Are the aviation programs pushing a really hard PR campaign now?

A much larger % of the student body in the flight program is foreign now. Not sure how that happened, but checking back every once and a while they seem to have boosted the foreign % over the years, vs. decades ago very little foreign.