Introduction

Today we are going to hear from Charles (Charley) Bobo. Charley is a close and respected friend. More important to the Revolution 2.0™ audience, Mr. Bobo has well researched, strongly held and thoughtfully delivered thoughts about a recent COVID-induced debate: nonessential vs essential work and workers. 

That is the subject of today’s hour-long interview.

Continuing

“I recently heard an interview with Mike Rowe, the host of the TV show Dirty Jobs, discussing his thoughts on the COVID shutdowns. He stated something very interesting when he said, ‘In regards to an economy, every job is essential.’ How incredibly true that is.

Medical workers are essential and the spotlight has been on them for the past several months during COVID. However, without the electricians to keep the power flowing in the ER — without the sanitation workers to keep the hospitals clean — without the steel fabricator who repairs the bed frames — without the assembly worker who sews bed sheets — without the carpenter who expands the need for cabinet and storage space in the ER… where would we be?

For an economy to truly succeed, every person and every job is essential. Not a single person is expendable and the inconsistency of such classifications by the government over the past few months is just laughable. Dog grooming classified as essential but dentistry not? Abortion essential but cardiology not?

College’s Contribution to this Problem:

For more than fifty years, our educational system has promoted the greatness of a college education. However, the pendulum has swung too far in a direction that has brainwashed society into thinking that without college, you’re somehow a failure and will be relegated to the ranks of the uneducated to be an electrician, sanitation worker, steel fabricator, assembly worker, or carpenter (all the positions I just mentioned in the second paragraph). The mantra has become, if you can’t ‘make it’ in college, then you can become a tradesman or skill worker; as if somehow that’s the consolation prize for one’s failure of not going to college.

And I lay this problem at the feet of the governmental education system for two reasons:

First. When the government took over managing the college loan programs in the 1990s, the money became too easy to borrow. Colleges saw this opportunity and have taken advantage of it. Tuition has increased at a rate 200% faster than inflation. Colleges have increased administrators at a rate double that of teachers/instructors between 1987 and 2012. So now these colleges have become very top heavy with fat salary administrators who really don’t educate anyone, but sit in their ivory towers spouting theory and complaining about social injustices.

As a result, with federal loans accounting for much of the $1.5 trillion in outstanding student loan debt and more than a million people defaulting on their loans, taxpayers are paying the bill for a broken system.

Second is the false sense of security kids are promised by going to college. Forty years ago, only about 26% of middle class workers had a degree. Today almost everyone has a college degree (if not a Master’s); meaning the value of a degree is decreasing and becoming a commodity rather than an asset.

As a result, the golden ticket kids are promised rarely leads to their desired job upon graduation. According to the https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/04/53-of-recent-college-grads-are-jobless-or-underemployed-how/256237/ (U.S Department of Labor), 53.6% of college graduates under the age of 25 are unemployed or underemployed. And a lot of that has to do with degrees that produce nothing in an economy, such as gender studies and social justice. There are actually Bachelor and Masters Degrees in these subjects. But what does that produce in an economy? Strife and guilt? I didn’t realize promoting strife and guilt produced anything other than more strife and guilt, but there