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    PharmaJerkTaylor Berman
    11/10/15 9:57pm

    Anyone who has made an average of $500,000/year for most of the last decade and doesn’t have any cash in the bank should shut the fuck up about all things related to money.

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      chrlyintorontoPharmaJerk
      11/10/15 10:04pm

      All of Marco Rubio’s stars to you.
      Sadly, he can’t count past his 10 little fingers and 10 little toesies, so that’s all you get.

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      nice_marmotPharmaJerk
      11/10/15 11:29pm

      He should become a welder. I hear we need more of those.

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    flamingolingoTaylor Berman
    11/10/15 10:56pm

    Ugh, this argument drives me nuts. Even if welders did make more than philosophers, training more welders isn’t going to magically drive up incomes. In fact, it would do the opposite by increasing the supply of welders and making them cheaper to hire.

    But I guess basic economics is beyond the grasp of your average Republican politician.

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      Lobstertailflamingolingo
      11/11/15 12:29am

      Technically the same thing can be said for a philosophy major as well. Only a very small number of professorships are available in any given field. Are you arguing that we should not train more philosophy Ph.Ds?

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      ABD2021flamingolingo
      11/11/15 1:25am

      I don’t know, there’s a shit ton of welding that will need to be done eventually to fix this country's infrastructure. Maybe Rubio is just laying the ground work for his big government spending plan a little prematurely. (And hey, at least it's not invading another country!)

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    lena dunhams boobsTaylor Berman
    11/10/15 9:53pm

    All this shows me is welders get fucked. Which is also the GOPs fault.

    but he's not wrong. We need more vocational workers. The idea college is for everyone needs to die. Most fucking businessmen don't even need college. And the idea even a mailroom clerk needs a BA is fucking our youth

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      istarilena dunhams boobs
      11/11/15 8:31am

      He’s “right” for the wrong reasons, which in my book still makes him wrong.

      But I fully agree with everything else you’ve written.

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      OpenSourceDWORDlena dunhams boobs
      11/11/15 9:21am

      Lowering society’s education standard is the fastest method of downgrading a society. Try again.

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    UncleCCClaudiusTaylor Berman
    11/10/15 9:52pm

    We need welders, but we also need the philosophers to make our frappucinos.

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      OMG!PONIES!UncleCCClaudius
      11/10/15 9:57pm

      Are you kidding me? Who do you think is passing out all of the anti Christmas red and green cups.

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      SirIanMcKellenIsDangedTerrificUncleCCClaudius
      11/10/15 10:48pm

      Hahahahaaaa, naw, just collecting unemployment. OR AM I, existentially? Hmmmm? I sure showed you all.

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    BobbySeriousTaylor Berman
    11/10/15 9:49pm

    Why can’t the people be happy with being plumbers for the 1%?

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      pillowsBobbySerious
      11/10/15 9:54pm

      Or window cleaners.

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      LumpySpaghettiBobbySerious
      11/10/15 10:01pm

      The engineer on my boat was a plumber, and he told me before his divorce, he was making $250,000 a year being a plumber for the rich. Yeah, I’m happy for him.

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    Jerry-NetherlandTaylor Berman
    11/10/15 9:53pm

    Stand-up philosophers collect unemployment if they can get past Bea!

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      OMG!PONIES!Jerry-Netherland
      11/10/15 9:56pm

      Nah. Comicus wasn’t a real stand up philosopher.

      He was just a bullshit artist.

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      Jerry-NetherlandOMG!PONIES!
      11/10/15 10:04pm

      True, because Bea said so.

      “Did you bullshit anyone this week? Did you try to bullshit anyone this week?”

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    Veronica CorningstoneTaylor Berman
    11/10/15 9:57pm

    What if you’re both?

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      lecomtedArgentalVeronica Corningstone
      11/10/15 10:07pm

      OH shit. Game, set, match.

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      ThatsyouropinionsminionVeronica Corningstone
      11/10/15 10:41pm

      Brilliant

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    EatTheCheeseNicholsonTaylor Berman
    11/10/15 10:01pm

    That’s why Plato advanced his theory of the “Welder-King”

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      Psychopomps: Taking Gawker to the Great Blog in the SkyEatTheCheeseNicholson
      11/10/15 11:21pm

      This needs more φιλία.


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      CleisthenesEatTheCheeseNicholson
      11/11/15 11:00am

      WHAT ABOUT THE PHILOSOPHERS THAT CAME UP WITH DEMOCRACY, RUBIO!

      you gonna weld those checks and balances together, you ragged dick

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    Slippery slope of budget slippageTaylor Berman
    11/10/15 10:17pm

    I’m all for disputing the dubious allegations of politicians, but not with misleading figures like you did. This really should be average annual income of people with philosophy degrees vs average annual income of qualified welders. Since you compared the average professor, who would likely fall into the highest income bracket for people with philosophy degrees, to the average welder, who is typically an hourly employee, and therefore eligible for overtime, which is unaccounted for in the sources referenced, you’ve artificially inflated philosopher income and deflated welder income. Additionally there are way more qualified welders working as weldera than there are people with philosophy degrees working in philosophy. Not to mention, going to a vocational school requires only about 2 yeara, and generally aren’t as expensive as regular colleges. Whereas a masters or PHD in philosophy is 6-8 years amd is going to be quite expensive. So welders spend less over the first 6-8 years after high school, and can actually make money considerably sooner than philosophy professors. So when we factor in the time value of money and the startup costs of both professions, welders are probably more financially stable than philosohpy professors over the long term.

    Regardless of salary, the services provided by welders are more important than those of philosophy professors. Philosophy professors only manage to perpetuate a cycle of training students to get philosophy degrees, who if they’re lucky, go on to be the next generation of philosophy professors. Or they work at a local coffee shop and complain about student loans.

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      TeenaBurnerSlippery slope of budget slippage
      11/10/15 11:30pm

      Median income for a welder is 37k, according to the Dept. of Labor. Starting median income for a Philosophy major is about 39k, according to the Wall Street Journal - I’m using median because some philosophy majors go on to law school and crank up that average. Your average American would rather get paper cuts than slag burns. You also have to take into account that half of any group of prospective workers will be women, and they probably don’t want to be treated like unicorns or interlopers in a profession that is currently 5% female. Additionally, I’m sure you’re well aware that the career arc of a tradesperson is often shorter than that of an academic or office worker, which makes it less likely to produce the kind of long term financial stability you mentioned.

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      shelwoodSlippery slope of budget slippage
      11/11/15 12:21am

      Here’s the thing: most people (mostly men) who get degrees in philosophy are doing so because they come from a comfortable upper middle class background, so whether they use it for a career in philosophy or as their prelaw or whatever, they almost certainly will do better, economically, than the guys (again, mostly men) going into welding as a career. It should probably also be noted that welding is specialized and therefore more highly paid than most trades. (And, like philosophy, tends to be pretty closed to women.)

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    PyramidHatTaylor Berman
    11/10/15 9:50pm

    How much to welding professors make? What about welding philosophers? Asking for a friend who flunked out of DeVry...

    Question for Marco: If you were a welder, how much per month would you have to put on your AMEX in order to make ends meet?

    Silliness aside, I don’t think young Marco has any and real-world contact with either group, so he really wouldn’t know...

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      25% Meaner Godzooks - BACK TO EVENPyramidHat
      11/11/15 11:57am

      A union welding instructor makes in excess of $80K/year.

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