The Indian and his insatiable appetite for the college degree • Hacker News Board

Re: The Indian and his insatiable appetite for the college degree

#91

Post by rayiner » Mon, Sep 30, 2013, 6:33 PM UTC

Loughla wrote: post #83

rayiner wrote: post #62

So my family is from Bangladesh. My aunt and uncle moved to Toronto. My cousin wants to study business and get an MBA, but his parents want him to study electrical engineering. I didn't get it, until I realized its all about risk aversion. An engineering degree is a secure path to the middle class. A business degree isn't, and entrerpeneurship certainly isn't. The business degree might have a higher potential reward,…

I find it fascinating that engineering is now seen as a secure path to middle class. When I was in college, construction was a secure path to middle class, and engineering was something reserved for folks who wanted to make 300k, but work 80 hours a week, a decidedly not-middle-class work ethic.

There are two distinctions here: between America and India/Bangladesh, and between then and now. Construction or industrial work in South Asia was never a secure path to the middle class. Education has long been the way forward in those countries. In the U.S., skilled blue collar work was considered a path to the middle class, but those days are long behind us.

Today, in the U.S. engineering presents a secure alternative to liberal arts degrees and living with one's parents, just it has historically presented an alternative to manual labor in South Asia.

Re: The Indian and his insatiable appetite for the college degree

#92

Post by pratik661 » Tue, Oct 01, 2013, 3:39 AM UTC

itsbits wrote: post #59

All entrepreneurs are not successful..Not just India but every where middle class families force their children to study well and do a corporate job rather jump to the place where success is less than 20%..

20%? In a country as business friendly as the USA, only 10% of businesses last over 5 years. India is a rougher business environment so I would assume the rate of success is way below 20% (probably 5%)

Re: The Indian and his insatiable appetite for the college degree

#93

Post by pratik661 » Tue, Oct 01, 2013, 3:42 AM UTC

auctiontheory wrote: post #37

eksith wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your unwillingness to accept reality doesn't make reality any less real. Plenty of talented people who have been fortunate enough to have parents that didn't trample their dreams (and potential) have gone one to become successful in their own right without the aid of a degree.

Obviously my humor is wasted on HN.

If I wanted to see idiotic pun threads/snarky irrelevant comments I would go to reddit. I don't want to be rude but I want HN to be a site for serious discussion on mostly technical topics.