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Comment by goatslacker | Hacker News Reader

Post high school education is overrated. In fact the American school system won't really prepare you to face the reality.

Yes it seems like the need for these "average" jobs are decreasing but in the end it will all balance itself out and there will be new areas that would need to be filled.

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It absolutely isn't overrated for many fields. Software is something of an exception, but I also think even coders usually benefit from formal training, which they're not really going to get in high school.

What's overrated is the "pick a degree, any degree, you get to call yourself 'educated' in four years!" mantra. The difference between the US and (what I hear of (so probably stereotypical)) Germany is that in the US you're told from a very young age to go to college to "get an education". In Germany you're told to go to college to "become a competent engineer".

I really disagree with you that it will balance out, that everything will be alright, and that the 40-hour work week will keep on going. I'll defer to the other comments on this page for reasons why.

I believe new opportunities will open up. Change will come. There are plenty of needs that will surface somewhere and it's up to the "average" to adapt to fill those needs.

Those that don't adapt or resist the change will be the ones that suffer the most. This is a pattern with many things in life.

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