Community college is a great deal. But $12-15k for a bachelor's degree, not to mention any hit to income because your work availability is limited when attending school and doing assignments, is not something every person can wave off as no big deal. That assumes the community college offers a four year degree and is within reasonable travel distance (oh, you do have a car, right? Because that college might not be on the bus route you take to work). If you have to move to attend college, you sacrifice whatever job you currently have, plus all the expenses of moving (but apparently we're expecting them to move across states anyway)
Along with that job, we then talk about health insurance. It's great if you are young enough and have parents with insurance that you can be on, but not one of those criteria can be assumed, so if you aren't working a full-time job, you will have limited access to health-care (plus the issues of paying for it if you have access).
Just because some of the high end cost estimates can be undercut doesn't mean there isn't considerable expense and threat.
Here's a question.. why the fuck is college even a requirement here? I'm not saying it doesn't have value. But, if you are creating a startup and are that young, does college even matter at that point?
The fact is, that for many things, a lot of people are perfectly capable of spending a few hours a day on a project above and beyond actually working a full time job. Yeah, people have advantages and others don't. There are risks and rewards. Are you willing to pay them? (you, being the hypothetical startup creator).
In the end, this is how economics works. This is how you make things happen. Nothing is without risk, and anything that is probably isn't worth much to someone that doesn't already have huge means to live without doing it. Creating something is WORK and means not doing something else.
This is the whole point of the discussion here: For many people the risk is dramatically higher or lower than other people. Capitalism suffers if we don't let everyone actually participate in roles other than the menial worker.
That is a given though and you cannot be expected to normalize for it. Someone fresh out of secondary school isn't in the same position as someone in their mid 40's with kids. And isn't the same as someone sleeping on a friend's couch.
Depending on what you are trying to do/build also has varying risk/reward. Want to start a new aircraft manufacturing company? Good luck with that, unless you have multi-billionaire parents. Want to start a new SaaS? you have very little excuse not to start/try.
It doesn't take a lot of risk to try in most cases. All the griping in the world doesn't make someone who won't try succeed. Most excuses are just that. I didn't go to an ivy league school... I grew up poor... meh. The fact is that drive, motivation and effort count for more, more often than anything else given a baseline level of skill, intelligence and aptitude.
Do you also want to normalize professional sports? Let short and fat people play in the NBA?
> The fact is that drive, motivation and effort count for more, more often than anything else given a baseline level of skill, intelligence and aptitude.
I don't know if you've failed to follow the point here or are deliberately trying to avoid it. We're not talking about comparing someone "fresh out of secondary school" with someone "in their mid 40's with kids", and we're not trying to compare someone "with drive" to someone just giving excuses.
Fact is, someone with drive and a baseline of money is far, FAR safer when taking risks in capitalism than someone without. I'm not looking for excuses for myself - I'm looking to reap the benefits of a well-functioning market. A market that enables everyone to participate according to their drive, and doesn't expect that they have to sacrifice, health, education, or future ability to be employable to do so.
Today I see a large number of people of above average wealth and opportunities, plus one or two that had plenty of luck while "bootstrapping" themselves all looking down on anyone unable to participate as if they are simply lazy.
We're not trying to get "short and fat" people into the NBA, we're trying to get the people who have to work 60hr/week jobs to somehow have time on the court. "Drive" doesn't begin to cover the problems.
> Fact is, someone with drive and a baseline of money is far, FAR safer when taking risks in capitalism than someone without. I'm not looking for excuses for myself - I'm looking to reap the benefits of a well-functioning market. A market that enables everyone to participate according to their drive, and doesn't expect that they have to sacrifice, health, education, or future ability to be employable to do so.
What you are talking about will ALWAYS be part of the risk equation, unless you are talking about normalizing everything across all nations in the world and one global government, with a single base income for all? I'm not sure that I would want to live in such a world given all the side effects of such a government/system.
There will ALWAYS be more risks for some than for others. Someone who has two parents that would let them live at home vs. and orphan with no supportive family. You can NOT have that level of equality without tyranny. And even if you did, you'd have already removed any or at least most of the rewards for any innovation.
Edit: looking at your cartoon, I definitely was raised closer to the, "disadvantaged" woman on the right. That isn't to say that some don't have advantages, but that will always be true, and isn't a net wrong. Even then drive and input are far bigger indicators, and removing the rewards of others won't increase innovation.
Along with that job, we then talk about health insurance. It's great if you are young enough and have parents with insurance that you can be on, but not one of those criteria can be assumed, so if you aren't working a full-time job, you will have limited access to health-care (plus the issues of paying for it if you have access).
Just because some of the high end cost estimates can be undercut doesn't mean there isn't considerable expense and threat.