Comment by SantalBlush | Hacker News Reader

Comment by SantalBlush | Hacker News Reader

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It's cost shifting, folks. Employers have successfully duped the public into thinking that they are responsible for paying their own training costs before even having a job lined up. That's why the discussion is centered around how colleges can best prepare their graduates for the job market. It's all a red herring; typical four-year colleges were never meant to be a job pipeline, their purpose is to refine and transmit human knowledge, whether or not that knowledge has any direct demand in the job market.

What we have now is a few generations of people who bought $40,000 lottery tickets to the middle class, while hiring managers get their pick of applicants with a wide variety of degrees.

Employers are the freeloaders here, it's time we hold them responsible.

I don't think duped is the right term here. Employers have transparently decided that the potential employees are responsible for their own training. It's not a trick. They just hold all the cards and therefore dictate terms.

Exactly. This is the main problem with it. But how do we fight back against the employers when they hold all the cards?

Start a workers' collective (they're perfectly legal in the US) and run it as you see fit.

You act like this is easy. It still requires capital to get started, and, if it's a threat to the major players, they'll use their even greater capital to squash it. See all the times ISPs have sued small, locally focused ISPs into the ground for trying to offer service. Unless there's a significant amount of capital, frivolous lawsuits would quickly eat away any funds.

A major player faces upstart businesses all the time. They aren't suing them all into oblivion. (The ISP problems are a result of the monopoly franchises granted by the government, and are not applicable here.)

As for needing capital, some business startups need capital, some don't. It depends on the type of business. My own business started with a computer - something everyone has.

As for it being easy, you're right, it isn't easy. It's a lot more work than working for The Man. If you're not willing to put out the work, it's a little unfair to blame others that are.

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