One of the things that irks college grads is

there are good paying jobs out there that require little or no real formal education. It just takes a willingness to work and be inconvenienced.

I am a sailor and do OK. It is a somewhat physical job and I go away from home for periods of time. I did advance my career by hitting the books on my own and getting various ratings and endorsements from the Coast Guard. They administer the rules and regulations involving the marine trades.

Still, I am paid what I am paid because I am inconvenienced. I go away from home for periods of time. Family men that do this for a living miss a lot of birthdays, holidays and other things. They sell these things to a shipping company for a larger paycheck than they would get being a 9-5er.

Over the years I have run into a number of people that gripe that they went to college and have a degree or degrees and don't make much money.

That's because they chose a career that was flooded. I know someone that recently griped that they had to get a Master's degree to make a living wage. It's because they chose a flooded career path and they get to go home every night after work.

Teachers gripe about this all the time.

Yet they never seem to do anything about it.

I once offered to get a teacher a job at sea and pointed out that it would be more money than they are making as a teacher.

Their answer was that they were not going to go away from home and be inconvenienced.

I just shrugged and said, "Then you ain't got nothin' to gripe about."

Of course he wasn't placated. He grumbled about how it was unfair that he had a degree and was making what he was. The truth is he probably knew what he was in for when he took the job.

I once had someone ask me what a tugboat skipper made and I told him. It can be a pretty hefty paycheck.

He commented that it seemed like an awful lot of money for someone with no education.

I laughed. "Can you dock a 400 foot oil barge in a 30 knot wind without cracking an egg between the barge and the dock?"

"Well, uhh...uhh..." he replied.

In the real world you are paid for what you can do. I can't do that and as a result I make less than a skilled tug skipper. I didn't point out that the person I was talking to has to wear a tie to work and the Tug skipper as often as not is wearing a ratty pair of sweat pants and flip-flops and maybe hasn't shaved in a week.

There actually are a lot of people out there running tugs with good educations. I routinely sail with guys that got their degrees from state Merchant Marine academies and a number of King's Pointers.

I've seen King's Pointers replaced by high school dropouts and vice versa. What matters is that you can do the job.

Actually to a certain extent this runs into the business world. The late Dave Thomas that started the Wendy's hamburger chain never finished high school. Still, it is generally considered that entering into the corporate business world a bachelor's degree is an entry level requirement, although Bill Gates is a college dropout.

I will certainly admit that an education does open doors but once you get in you have to  produce. On the other hand, having a particularly useful skill means you are very marketable.

One group of people that academicians sometimes sneer at are vocational school grads. What they fail to realize is that most of them are craftsmen. The next step is that they become entrepreneurs and hire craftsmen.

I always get a hoot out of the Harley Davidson set, the successful doctors and lawyer motorcycle aficionados  hold someone that is self taught and can build a custom bike in high esteem. A motorcycle aficionado will pay for the nose for the services of a person that can mold steel into a custom motorcycle fender or build a custom fuel tank. They don't teach those skills in any college I know of.






To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY