How Being Treated as a Child Translates to Adult Life

That is a lot of words and you completely lost me at $200,000 house because you cannot even buy a studio apt for that here.
BUT I think you are saying, that the only way to make a living today is with higher education?
It's *mostly* true but not completely. There are skilled trades that still pay well and will always be needed, they can't be outsourced to another country because they are services needed locally, where people live. Things like electricians, HVAC, various other skilled building trades that are always in demand and you can make a decent living at. You do still need to go to a trade school but it's not like you need a masters degree.
So I would agree that the majority of people with good paying jobs needed to do well in school to get there, but not always. So for a generalization, doing well in school is important in later life but it's not true for every individual.
You are definitely correct that the gap between rich and poor is increasing and the middle class dream is much harder to achieve now. That is very likely to continue in the near future, since 45 is appointing billionaire donors to his cabinet and all his tax reform benefits the richest people and corporations (surprise... NOT). He's not going to do much for poor people.

Not well at all.



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Education IS important, but NOT at the expense of the student's future! Students are taking on a lifetime of education debt to be trained for jobs only to find those jobs went bye-bye like twenty years ago. There are a lot of overeducated and underemployed people out there, and a few crooks and morons making more than they deserve. Someone has to figure out how to pay qualified people a decent wage for things which need to be done or we will ALL be in very hot soup, that is, more than those who already are.

Einstein said "The most important question you can ever ask is if the world is a friendly place.”

If you believe the world is evil, you're screwed. He went on to explain what he meant:

“For if we decide that the universe is an unfriendly place, then we will use our technology, our scientific discoveries and our natural resources to achieve safety and power by creating bigger walls to keep out the unfriendliness and bigger weapons to destroy all that which is unfriendly and I believe that we are getting to a place where technology is powerful enough that we may either completely isolate or destroy ourselves as well in this process.

If we decide that the universe is neither friendly nor unfriendly and that God is essentially ‘playing dice with the universe’, then we are simply victims to the random toss of the dice and our lives have no real purpose or meaning.

But if we decide that the universe is a friendly place, then we will use our technology, our scientific discoveries and our natural resources to create tools and models for understanding that universe. Because power and safety will come through understanding its workings and its motives.”

Not so much in my experience. I ran into a tough spot in college, failed a couple of ridiculously hard courses, got discouraged and basically just dropped out. I've always considered myself to be college educated, just with nothing to show for it. However, I have managed to be fairly successful in my professional career(s). I've found the biggest factors to employment retention is basically just reliability and attitude. I've seen it happen again and again in various employment settings, when the financial chips hit the fan, it's nearly always the folks who regularly call in sick with the sniffles who are given the boot first. I approach work with a nose-to-the-grindstone attitude and ALWAYS show up and on time. None of that requires a lot of education, just discipline. I've never been asked to leave a job. I've left several jobs, but always of my own accord and usually set to the wailing and gnashing of employers. Get your foot in the door and set your own high standard and you should rise within the company, typically. Educational success can allow one to start one's career from a higher rung, but I believe it's work ethic that truly determines how high one will ultimately climb.

''What could one compare this to in the caveman days''?

Well times have certainly changed in this country over the past few decade. It used to be you could earn a middle class income with just a high school education. Now a college degree is required. Also, the cost of living, education, healthcare, gas, rent, ect..... were much cheaper then than it is now. The middle class is slowly shrinking every year due to issues such as this. Eventually, there won't be a 'middle class' anymore. Just rich and poor.

Employers are too freaky picky especially employers that offer minimum wage. They are too worried about looking for the perfect candidate when perfection is impossible to attain. I'm tired of working for others. I wanna support myself by being self employed and even starting your own business costs money. You'd have to take out a loan or something.
Life is a stupid rat race where the vast majority lead average lives and have to psyche themselves up daily affirmations just to make it through the days, weeks, and years til death.