Implicit with Getting a Good Job is the necessity of an expensive piece of paper from Brand Name University. This piece of paper, which proves nothing more than the recipient’s adeptness with stumbling through courses, ignoring assigned work, and drinking strong adult beverages without getting caught, can cost upwards of $100,000, and is likely to leave the recipient mired in a morass of debt.
Brand Name debt requires a Good Job to pay it off. It is a vicious cycle.
So, how do we escape this vicious cycle? Marx-like, I propose something of a revolution. During the 1990s and early aughts, the obscure French word “entrepreneur” crept into the American lexicon in a big way. Suddenly, anybody with a wacky idea could be an entrepreneur. “Entrepreneurship” promised a “way out”, a ladder out of the hell of 1960-80 corporate tribulation. Adherents to this quasi-religion, entrepreneurialism, aim to transcend the limits imposed by traditional corporate structure; part in parcel with these limits are barriers to entry: the college degree being chief among them. Why do employers care so much about a college degree when it’s extra-curricular achievement that gets someone hired? The degree is just window-dressing.
As yet, there are few options for those without college degrees to become “successful” with any degree of certainty. There are, however, industries with very low barriers to entry: no college degree is required, and there is less than $350 in startup costs, including leashes, good shoes, and an iPod. Did you know that dog walkers can make over $70k per year? Based on my unscientific Craigslist research, the going rate for dog walkers in the upscale neighborhoods of Chicago averages to about $60/week (at 5 walks per week). Let’s do some math.
Let’s say that the average “walk” is a journey totaling 2.5 miles, which at a zippy walking pace should take about 30 minutes. Let’s also say that at any given time, you’d be walking an average of 3.5 dogs on this 2.5 mile circuit. This works out to (~7 dogs/hour)*($12 /dog walked)= $84/ hour. The average full-time workday is 8 hours plus a commute, which gives the dog walker at least 7.75 hours per day to walk dogs, eat lunch, and snack. If the dog walker works for only 4 hours, he stands to make $420 per day, or $2100 per week. Working 9 months out of the year, a dog walker expects to make $75,600. Working 5 hours per day nets $90,720, nearly twice the pretax salary of the average American.
Ultimately, I’m not suggesting that anyone becomes a dog walker as a long-term career choice. What this does is challenge the validity of an undergraduate degree and popularly-held notions of what it means to have a Good Job. In my opinion, there is no such thing as a Good Job in this traditional sense. Working in corporate hell, with only the slightest shadow of hope that one might rise to the purgatory of middle- and upper-middle management, is an exercise in futility. The collapses of Enron, Lehman Brothers, and many other well-known companies in recent years leave their ex-employees up a creek, so to speak.
Given the choice between a $50k entry-level corporate job and $50k as a dog walker, I’d take man’s best friend any day; given the choice between spreadsheet jockeying and picking up the occasional “leaving”, I’d take the latter; between skinny versus toned calves–do I have to answer these? Careerism is dead.
Jason Rowley is a student at the University of Chicago and his blog can be found here: The Halcyon Days This is his introduction post to Flyover Geeks and you’ll be seeing more of him each week
View Comments (2)
While I am certainly the last person to argue against entrepreneurship as something that everyone should try at least once, I would raise the point that entrepreneurship isn't for everyone.
Starting a business requires several things that many people don't have. The first is business sense. This can only be truly gained through experience, but could be substituted with naturally brilliant business instincts (which are rare but do exist), or through very extensive study combined with a modicum of experience. I've been involved in startups for the last 8 years and am consistently amazed both at how there is always something new for me to learn and how many business fail due to astonishingly stupid mistakes
The second is capital. Be this time or money, it's the primary barrier to entry for 99.9% of America. Most people simply cannot afford to be entrepreneurs. While you make an excellent point about the low startup costs in terms of financial capital - something that is oft overlooked, as starting a business needn't be financially expensive - most people simply don't have the "time capital" to start a business. Unless someone has a huge number of friends with dogs, or was a very clever marketer, it would take a while to build up the dog walking empire you describe (especially in an economy where more people are probably walking their own dogs to save money). The same with any other business. In most all cases, people would need to either quit their day job, or work quite a few hours on the side, at the expense of spending time with their family or relaxing.
The last point I'd make is to the value of an undergraduate degree, since you touch on that as part of the article. As the holder of a diploma from a "Brand Name" liberal arts college, I can say without question that it has added great value to my life. Top colleges often get a bad rap for their expense, but more and more top colleges are working to make their tuition affordable to the people who need it most. For example, Harvard is free for students whose families make under 60k/year, and Haverford recently eliminated loans in their financial aid packages.
Even bringing some debt into the consideration, the wonderful experiences, top professors, and brilliant peers one meets during four years at a top institution can be worth it. We accept debt for cars, houses, and other things. Why not for what can turn out to be four priceless years? I think the real issue here is people who blindly take out 80k+ of loans without any plan of how to pay for it. These are the people who have no desire to work at Goldman, end up there anyways, and end up hating their lives. So there should be a plan, and all resources should be explored, but if someone crosses their Ts and dots their Is and a top college degree is attainable, I think it can be an excellent decision.
I absolutely feel that education is essential but I also recognize that our post-high school education system is overpriced. Most developed countries require affordable, if not free, education for their citizens. If price wasn't an option would you still feel that education is worthless? I don't think so. I agree that one is probably better off starting a business than racking up $100k in debt only because it's highly unlikely they will get a job that pays well enough to pay off the dept in a reasonable amount of time.
I do think a college experience provides two major benefits 1) (obviously) education and 2) contacts. We live in a world where contacts amount to more than hard work and determination combined. The friends and connections you make during college are invaluable after graduating whether you want to start your own business or find a fulfilling career. Many of the recent successful startups were founded by students who were well connected.
In the end, I think education costs need to be reduced and more support organizations need to be created for young people who want to venture out on their own to be entrepreneurs.