College isnt for everyone, but parents push super hard to get their kids there and I dont know why. I went to a 2 year trade school for diesel engine repair. It was affordable and I could pay my way through with a job at a local pizza chain. Try finding a 4 year college you can afford with that pay-grade.
living in a big city isnt for everyone. I did a stint in Brooklyn once, learning to service buses and garbage trucks. The pay is good but the pace is sometimes insane because thats the pace of the city you live in. Theres a lot of pressure to deliver it right the first time, and i dont regret learning that work ethic, but I didnt find home in that city.
What i can say for the trade i have is that its rewarding and sometimes pays close to cut-rate lawyer money. I dont worry about bills and ive got plenty of cash to hit the pub once a week to see the game. The world needs electricians, plumbers, and even mechanics to keep running. Check out the hourly base pay of most of these trades and try to imagine pulling a little overtime, which is usually part of the trade in salary jobs as well im told. HVAC is also a great trade with endless advancement and opportunity.
Implying that the ordinary person has the opportunity to make more than another person's entire family is -- by it's nature -- a joke. You can't be anywhere near average and make more earn more than 3+ average people. Using a normal distribution, that puts you a MINIMUM of 3 standard deviations above average -- literally the 0.1%. Using the actual income distribution (since it's distinctively NOT normal) -- it puts you in the top 2%. But if you actually work for a living (as opposed to collect returns on investments), it's likely in the top 0.1%.
A state senator is likely to be above average -- as are family members. In general, we don't strive to elect average. We strive to elect excellence.
Maybe it was meant to be a pep-talk. But just because one person dropped out of school and did well, doesn't mean that everyone can do the same. Maybe the OP is a genius. If not, he got lucky. And not everyone can be a genius or lucky.
This isn't a 'meritocracy'. This is exploitative behavior disguised as being beneficial mixed in with a bit of survivorship bias. I've had friends of mine take software jobs paying well the average (as in, 50k and below in an expensive city) thinking that by just working extra hard the company will reward those efforts.
You're not the arbiter of cost efficiency. The company looking to hire you is. When you presume you're worth less than what you actually are, you're opening yourself up to abuse.
What you're describing is in essence the various entertainment industries which take advantage of fresh grads, forcing them into long overtime and for less pay.
I promise you, unless these prestigious schools are able to vastly change their business model, they are going to decline heavily.
No, absolutely not.
Also, my Dad grew up on a shit farm, forced to work for free until he escaped as a teenager. I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Work hard, get smart, get rich, in that order.
As a dropout who learns faster on youtube than in a classroom, and making more than my state senator's entire family, let me give everyone reading this advice: Don't be scared away by elites protecting their jobs in large cities. Come in at 70% of the price, excellent work ethic, and give them a run for their money. Most Americans live in a country that values cost efficiency over credentials. We hold meritocracy above bureaucracy, and it should be celebrated not discouraged.