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What kinds of shoujo mangas are you into? Love Monster is really good. Full Moon Wo Sagashite and Beast Master also really good. Right now, I'm reading Black Bird and Billion Girl. It's a pain waiting for those two to update. Btw, I also read my fair share of smut if you want some recommendations for those. sweatdrop But yeah, do you like school dramas, fantasies, tragedies...?

To be honest, I only read manga sporadically. Those two I mentioned are random suggestions, so I might check a few of those out. I'll start with Love Monster since it appears to be finished.

I don't watch any foreign live action shows though. Don't know if I'll have the time sweatdrop


@Skolly: That's cool that you'll stick to this one. Makes things simpler.

You should watch the entire debate on American education or just education in general. I think this clip cuts out how he emphasizes some professions do need these degrees to justify skill, like Engineer, while others need it merely for bureaucracy, like a PhD.

Ironically, I am in that 'degree' buffing category, but I'd have to say that to be where I am, I had no other choice. That said, I think those people you mentioned are very talented and skilled, in addition to being a general exception.

To be fair, the majority of the people in this country will be middle class, roughly 50-75k/year household income. To get this combined amount isn't too difficult with two working adults and some skills, but I still think that those who are loaded with no higher education are fairly rare.

Back in the 70s, this was very possible, but with the trend that the video says, it is less likely to happen each passing year. At some point, a Bachelors will equal a high school degree in weight. As unfortunate as this is, we're definitely moving in that direction.

I love these names I'm getting. xD

I think I might. That little snippet was rather interesting, I'd probably enjoy listening to the whole thing.
I think most professions should be treated like the trades, because you can only learn so much from a book. Have say a semester in school, and then an apprenticeship program to spend time putting all that book theory to practice. I don't care who you are, just because you've opened a book and read how to perform open heart surgery, or rebuild an engine, or have taken a child care course to teach children, it does not automatically mean you're good and qualified.

It's true, the guys who don't even have their high school are naturally skilled at what they do. But at the same time, they've worked their asses off to get where they are, and they've taken a lot of risks that managed to pay off to get where they are. But those guys, while they may not have paid someone several thousand dollars to learn, learned on their own. Kind of a Will Hunting sort of deal.
The thing about those guys, and a lot of guys who do make money is that they all own their own companies, and most of them work with heavy machinery of some sort. But that requires a lot of money, which usually means a very high start up risk, and very high maintenance costs and whatnot. But they also put in very long days, and some of them would have put in more than their fair share of 12 hour shifts with 7 day work weeks. So not only did they have to work harder to get where they were, they had to teach themselves the things they know.
It's kind of like me. I will be making 40k in the next three years and I've never gone to any post secondary schooling. But I'm only 20 years old right now, and I don't intend on simply making 40k the rest of my life. If that means expanding and doing things on my own or changing something up to make a bit more, then I guess that's what I'll have to do. I'm not saying I have to make ludicrous amounts of money. But I would like to pull in 50k on my own when I'm about 26-30 or so.

I wouldn't say that those with no education are rare, but it depends on where you go. When you enter the trades, lots of guys don't have any education, or they have very little. It's becoming more common now for people to get their ticket to do a trade. But that goes back to degree inflation. You're better off simply working and learning on the job than you are going to school to learn the trade. I know lots of carpenters who just learned on the job without a single day in school and they're great at what they do. Then you watch a guy who went to school to learn and he's terrible at what he does.
Mind you this can go both ways, but I've seen more tradesmen that have never gone to school who are good at what they do, than guys who do go to school and are great.

It's one of those things where popular opinion creates fact. And I'd say the reason this is now popular opinion is because most parents that have done the kind of work I do decided they didn't want their kids to work that hard. So what they should do is go to school so they could sit at a desk all day and still get paid well. So now all the kids are doing that because they've been pressured by their parents, which has now caused this degree inflation.

I love the trades. I've had a couple slow jobs like Safeway and Petland before and I absolutely hated them. And then I got a job in construction and on my first day my boss told me to go climb under the roofs (we had them built on the ground and craned them up onto the houses) and pull out a bunch of nails while crawling over the beams and making sure I didn't cut myself on any other nails I had to leave in that were sticking out. And most people when put in that situation on their first day would go "******** this, I'm not doing this job." but I was under that roof doing that with a smile on my face thinking "I'm loving this. I'm actually doing something worthwhile." Because had I not done that we couldn't have craned up the roof.
Now when I was at Petland, I was told to front face the products. Which is basically go to the isles and straighten out all the products people have moved. Now you're supposed to do that every hour because people always screw up the display. WHERE IS THE SENSE IN THIS?! What feeling of accomplishment am I going to gain by doing something like that? It was just something they made up in order to justify paying someone to do the job.
But a lot of people have this preconception in their minds about the trades being "slave labor" kind of jobs. Where you just sweat all day and don't get paid. Which is totally false. Just the labor is like that, but you're a fool if you're labor your entire life.

This is why we should include western stuff to this guild.
Betty Boop: Minnie the Moocher.

@Lil: That sucks. xP

And I was supposed to do this a few days ago, but we should also invite icebrat to the guild.

I guess it's kind of a good thing. At least this way I won't be wasting hours online on anime and manga when I need to be working on my final papers and stuff. I have more than enough to keep me busy until graduation. I really don't need anymore distractions. But, I keep getting on Gaia because I have to have a study break occasionally to clear my head and relax.

Exactly. That's why I'm very comfortable around the 40-50k mark. I could live well enough off 40k, but I could do more in terms of saving with 50k. Like with 40k I could rent a decent place, buy groceries, and have some extras like TV and internet and whatnot. But I would only be able to save (very rough estimation) $25-$50 per check. Again, that's only a very rough estimation, I'd have to examine my spending with such a salary...etc. But with 50k I could have all I want, and still be able to save $100-$200 per check, which is what I would want to do.
Mind you this is all factoring the bachelor life and no kids. I suppose I could do more with a girlfriend/spouse. Less with kids.
But yeah, I'll leave the Bentley's to those who want to go through school for 8+ years and have the payoff later in life. I'm happy being comfortable in my position now, and I know later on I'll be jealous and swear about you people, but I'm okay with that.
...Wait, what am I talking about "later on"? I do that now. xD
I'm 20 years old and I feel like I'm 60.