Post: #51

As an employer I feel this...I just scraped into Gen X rather than Millennial, and boy do I feel sorry for those younger than me.

Thank God that at primary school we were taught these basics over and over again until we could meet a reasonable standard of English and Maths. God knows my younger sister didn't. I got a B at GCSE Maths, she got an A* 6 years after me. I asked her what 10% of 57 was, and she couldn't tell me. Damn, what the hell were they teaching them for her to get two grades above me without being able to do primary school maths?

When I went to university (decent one but not premier league) we were all given 'top up' courses for the first 3 months in English, Maths and IT. I laughed derisorily at these 'top up' questions and exams, as it was stuff I had mastered at 6,7 years old, no word of a lie. I thought it was pointless, but damn, other than maybe 20% of the group they all struggled with maths and English that I had licked by the age of 7! I wondered what the hell the future held for these guys...well, most had dropped out by the final year. Bear in mind this was a specific (useful) business degree at a reasonable but not elite university, and they made me feel like a genius. I consider myself average at maths and fairly good at English, that's all.

I have Millennials working for me, and they are clueless about pretty much everything that isn't social media or meaningless Kardashian-level shit. People with degrees in pointless bullshit wondering why they're stuck working for me (hotels) when they've gotten themselves £35,000 in debt for their oh-so-precious degrees they can't use, and have no idea how to use. Even if they COULD get interviews for their dream jobs they'd fuck up the interviews because clearly nobody has taught them ANYTHING about life. I feel sorry for them for having been lied to, tricked by the establishment that just wants wage slaves, even their parents encouraging their special darling to go to university because they have an outdated idea of what 'university' actually is and does for you nowadays. It's a way of delaying adulthood for most young people, it seems.

Here's some maths for you about the true cost of a university degree:

£9,000 x 4 years (honours)
£3,000 living costs x 4 years
£15,000 a year minimum wage job they're NOT working x 4
x 4 years of no pay rises/promotions, assuming you'd get maybe £2000 over 4 years

True cost of a university degree = £110,000, and that's without adding in the interest from your student loan, which by the time you'd pay it back would be astronomical.

So yes, go to university to do something the economy actually needs such as STEM courses; otherwise learn a trade and laugh as these overeducated idiots look down on you for being 'working class' while you drive off in your Audi while they struggle to get their 20 year old shitbox started.

Disclaimer: No, I am not saying ALL Millennials are like this, but a hell of a lot are and it's getting worse.

Post: #52

(10-22-2016 04:54 PM)Matsufubu Wrote:  So yes, go to university to do something the economy actually needs such as STEM courses; otherwise learn a trade and laugh as these overeducated idiots look down on you for being 'working class' while you drive off in your Audi while they struggle to get their 20 year old shitbox started.

Hear, hear. I remember learning this in high school when my chemistry teacher, a professional engineer with a master's degree, told me that a machine shop owner in the US may make just as much as any other businessman, and not to be fooled by the lifestyle stereotypically associated with a career path.

To take it a step further...
One of my classmates grew up with nothing and dropped out of high school to run his two companies full time. Last I saw him, he lived on a golf course with a Ferrari in his garage.

Post: #53

(10-22-2016 02:48 AM)MajorStyles Wrote:  I've had to deal with government officials lately to resolve some legal issues. Good Lord, it's like Kafka's The Trial. The majority of the people inept, giving out wrong information. And this is for a job that they do everyday.

I had no idea how bad the level of ineptitude was in many government jobs.

It's true. Government bureaucracy is so thick and maze-like that its barely smart enough low and middle level hires don't understand their own areas of responsibility. Not that the office drones care in the first place. When I need to interact with various government offices, especially about claims and entitlements for my own government service, I never get the same answer twice. I've learned it pays to do some research and show up for appointments with a print out of some relevant legal passages pertinent to the situation. Otherwise flip a coin because what you get out of the interaction is random since you're at the mercy of the knowledge-- or lack thereof-- of whichever cubicle serf you're dealing with that day.

(10-22-2016 04:23 PM)ElFlaco Wrote:  

(10-22-2016 09:49 AM)Foolsgo1d Wrote:  Critical thinking of new hires? I guarantee any company has most of its employee's unable to figure out something based on either Maths, English, analytical situations and anything else which has a trick under its sleeve.

I've come to believe that companies do not want employees who are capable of realizing how badly they (the employees) are being screwed.

I've asked numerous people where I live about their employment contracts. Usually they have no idea. They don't even understand their paycheck. They are too intimidated to ask questions.

The prices of big-ticket items are advertised in monthly payments. Deals of 'no interest payments for X months' draw them in. Credit card interest rates are astronomical. I was offered one for 42% annually. No thank you.

This is the way the elites here want things. An educated populace would sink them.

(10-22-2016 09:46 AM)Guriko Wrote:  This is why I say to some of my friends who believe the 'He should have known it' mantra to cut a kid some slack.

A boy who is nowadays 18 years old is an equivalent to a 14 year old in the past I believe. Sheltered by their parents, by the educational system, hooked on smart phones, computers they are simply dry of any kind of real life experience that would get their creative juices flowing, the hustler part of their brain flaring.

It is evil to entice 18-year-olds to make enormous commitments they barely understand. And it is ironic that colleges and universities, posing as the arbiters of societal ethics, are the worst violators.

A 30, 40, or 50 something year old using some combination of flattery, appeal to emotion, pressure sales tactics, slight duress, and outright lying to have sex with a naive, inexperienced, or less intelligent teenager who didn't understand what they were getting into and wouldn't want to if they knew better would be (rightly) branded an exploiter and a scumbag. Yet most people think that same exploitation is A-OK if it's financial in nature instead. No one bats an eye when little Brandon or Brittney are sold on dreams that the student loan and education industry Shylocks know are a load of shit. The Shylocks know full well that the kids' are gonna struggle financially and most degrees aren't useful for employment purposes but they still play on the desire to learn and the ambition for credentials to suck money out of young people with more ideals than experience. Fuck 'em if they have to live on ramen noodles and live with their parents until they're 30. Just as long as they pay off their debt at the minimum installment.

Post: #54

(10-22-2016 05:49 PM)polymath Wrote:  

(10-22-2016 04:54 PM)Matsufubu Wrote:  So yes, go to university to do something the economy actually needs such as STEM courses; otherwise learn a trade and laugh as these overeducated idiots look down on you for being 'working class' while you drive off in your Audi while they struggle to get their 20 year old shitbox started.

Hear, hear. I remember learning this in high school when my chemistry teacher, a professional engineer with a master's degree, told me that a machine shop owner in the US may make just as much as any other businessman, and not to be fooled by the lifestyle stereotypically associated with a career path.

I do have an issue with the above. CLASSIC liberal arts is important (western literature, English composition, philosophy, history, critical thinking, etc.). The rigorous teaching of such has been stricken from the curriculum of our higher institutions of learning.

I am a STEM guy, but more of my time is spent writing reports, explaining proposals, to people who are not STEM, than I do on banging out calculations. Classic liberal arts gives a man the power to communicate his ideas.

In an almost prophetic sense, it also gives him the power to understand future implications by having a deep understanding of culture, and the past. A case in point: Our Founding Fathers were very deliberate in setting up the checks and balances in our government. Why? Because they knew history and philosophy. They understood the nature of man (strengths, weaknesses, lust for power) and history (how pure democracies committed suicide).

No STEM course can give a man that. This is where liberal arts comes to play. We don't respect liberal art now days, because in reality, it no longer exists.

Post: #55

(10-22-2016 08:42 PM)Hell_Is_Like_Newark Wrote:  In an almost prophetic sense, it also gives him the power to understand future implications by having a deep understanding of culture, and the past. A case in point: Our Founding Fathers were very deliberate in setting up the checks and balances in our government. Why? Because they knew history and philosophy. They understood the nature of man (strengths, weaknesses, lust for power) and history (how pure democracies committed suicide).

No STEM course can give a man that. This is where liberal arts comes to play. We don't respect liberal art now days, because in reality, it no longer exists.

I agree that liberal arts as it was intended a hundred years ago does not exist today. I majored in History and while I got a pretty good education it was entirely at odds with my professors (except for one and Im very thankful for that guy). In fact I did horribly in several of my classes because my teacher's we're wildly political cucks. One was an obese white lady who was a rabid Indian (from India) Marxist. I didn't know what the hell an Indian Marxist was when I was 19 but for some reason she was crazy about them. She taught Chinese History and it was my worst course in university. If I didn't tell her Marxism was the best thing ever, the paper couldn't get higher than a C.

Im not sure what kind of education she was trying to give students, but I didn't learn anything.

Post: #56

I'd argue an exception for Hillsdale. I had a coworker at my internship this summer (MBA program so - 4-6 years work experience level, not undergrad) who had sent his kids to Hillsdale and was very pleased with the program. Apparently studying the classics and classroom debate are still thing there.