By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
New Yorkers are used to Mayor Bloomberg trying to nanny them with laws about soda sizes and smoking, but now the billionaire has taken to dishing out career advice. Speaking on his weekly radio show on Friday, Bloomberg suggested that ‘so-so’ students might want to consider going to trade school and becoming a plumber as a better economic bet than obtaining an expensive undergraduate degree. ‘The people who are going to have the biggest problem are college graduates who aren’t rocket scientists, if you will, not at the top of their class,’ he said.
‘Compare a plumber to going to Harvard College - being a plumber, actually for the average person, probably would be a better deal.’ Bloomberg’s reasoning is that plumbers make a good living without having to pay off college loans.
‘You don’t spend... four years spending $40,000, $50,000 in tuition without earning income,’ he explained. The fees quoted by the mayor are typically those for elite schools, many students could get a good education at a much cheaper university, but the mayor said being a plumber had other advantages too. They don’t have to worry about their jobs being outsourced or being replaced by computers. ‘It’s hard to farm that out... and it’s hard to automate that,’ he said.
The mayor went on to claim that ‘a number’ of studies conclude that plumbers start their careers with less debt and higher wages than their peers who attend college. Mark Kantrowitz, an expert on college financial planning, told the Daily News that the Bloomberg is partly right. College is a good investment for many students because it can improve their chances of faring better financially over the long haul, but ‘not everyone has to go to get a college degree to get a good job,’ he said. Bloomberg has repeatedly used his power to pass laws in Manhattan that are initially met with outcry before becoming largely accepted.
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New York mayor Michael Bloomberg tells 'so-so' students to skip college and become plumbers
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