I am completely on board with those who say the trades, factory work, farm work, and other blue collar careers that do not require are noble and frequently higher paying than the jobs available to the college educated. That being said, it is not really really a comparison that makes much sense because college educations vary so greatly in terms of their ability to prepare their graduates for jobs that pay a lot. Of course, degrees in sociology, English, psychology, history, political science, and other social science degrees do not prepare people for jobs that pay very much. Those degrees do not even remotely compare the the salaries available to those who study anything that involve hard math, physics, and chemistry–STEM degrees.
Based on our own experience, it really does not cost much to get such an education either. Two years at community college followed by another two years at a state university for an electrical, mechanical, or industrial engineering bachelor’s degree, a bachelor’s degree in physics or math do not require a student to accrue a large amount of debt. Even a computer science degree can apply in this context. Even the poorest of students can walk away from that with a small amount of debt that is easy to pay off in a year or two after they start to work whether they go straight to work or on to graduate school. Even better, graduate school for these kinds of students is free. No additional debt needs to accrue. In either scenario, the average graduate from any of these STEM programs will make a whole lot more many over their lifetime than the average blue collar worker. Of course there are exceptions. Not everyone can start their own business–that is different than a blue collar job anyway.
