2d ago

All kids in America should drop out of school at 16 get their GED and then spend the last 2 years working and saving money.

Today in America the GED and Diploma are literally of equal value, you can apply to any job that doesn't require a college degree with just a GED including Government Jobs.

The optimal strategy therefor is simply to drop out after the 10th grade, complete the training in person or online and then take the test and take advantage of living with your parents.

They can't charge you rent, can't force you to buy your own food, they legally can not punish you financially in any way so find a job save up every penny in an interest earning checking account.

You'll earn between $31,200 AND $91,520 depending on the minimum wage. Not including tips above the minimum.

Once turning 18 you can either

a. Go to the local community college finish your general education

b. Stay with the same business and get an apartment

c. Apply to better paying job with your 2 years of experience.

11th and 12th grade are pointless because you 100% have already leaned all you need to and they give you no advantage for finishing.

17 comments

deploma
Man the memes write themselves these days
- Huked on fonix, werked fer me!
  
  Thanks to hook on fonik, I do not no longer know how to not read.
  TEEHEE
- Using spelling errors as your argument.
  I wish the GED was this useful back when I was in school cause I would not have stayed til the end.
  PS: I'm almost certently more successful than you or then you were at 28, Bought a house, having 2 different tenants renting it out.
  
  Are you memeing or did you actually use the "I make more money than you so I'm a fundamentally better person" line as an argument? 😭
  
  Entertaining theory but almost certainly wrong. I make mid-single-digit multiples above the median wage of the US in my native currency. I bought my first place at 24 on my own after paying my own university bill. If you want to pull a shitty appeal to authority you better be 100% sure you're already correct.
  Congrats on your success but don't confuse your success in your limited area with omniscience - you're clearly a bit lacking in other areas.
  
  Damn, I up voted the post because it's a damn good post.
  But you can't be a jerk like that. Ffs man, nobody gives a damn how much money you make, and bragging is never a good look even if money as a metric for success was a talent healthy thing.
Grind culture should start at birth! If you can't get yourself into a mortgage by 16, are you even trying to succeed in life!? /s
You found the right place to post, I'll give you that.
You've made some assumptions:
like nothing worthwhile is learned by anyone in the latter grades, or rather anything you need to know is finished by 10th.
that schools aren't already rushing through things as it is so if two grades are removed something more will be cut out to make up for lost time.
all kids have a household that is open to that arraignment - and before you say it's the law, I don't know if that's true, if it's everywhere, and if it matters if the law isn't enforced. Some kids will get kicked out, threatened for money, all sorts of less ideal situations.
there's room in the market for more minimum wage people. you're now flooding the low wage market with lots of kids, which is already a problem with ones who are just part time or casual labor.
having a kid stop education and then jump back in a few years later can be a setback to their motivation or vision of their future. I'm actually a fan of figuring out if a high school graduate might do better working a bit and maturing if they don't have ideas, but others thrown into retail or warehouse or office might get the idea that maybe this is good enough and why go back to school.
those total wages are funny. Are you assuming a 40 hour week for a 16 year old? Do you know how businesses actually plan out their labor? With so many kids competing, if they all manage to get a job they'll each have 5-10 hours a week. Maybe.
The only thing that I can agree with you in principle is that not every kid should go straight into higher learning, but that takes some evaluation to figure out the best path for each one. And I guess in some aspect I can agree that not as much is learned in school (not necessarily just high school) that could be, but cutting some grades is the totally wrong way to fix that. Even back when schools were better, so many kids went from high school right into college taking remedial courses so they would be at the right level of education. Less grades isn't going to fix that at all.
you can apply to any job that doesn’t require a college degree with just a GED including Government Jobs.
Just because you can apply doesn't mean you'll actually get a half-decent job, especially if you need to stay local to take advantage of your parents' free room and board.
They can’t charge you rent, can’t force you to buy your own food, they legally can not punish you financially in any way so find a job save up every penny in an interest earning checking account.
Are you saying that a 16yo will be able to defend their legal rights against their parents? They might do it voluntarily if they agree with your view and are nice ("they are nice" might be the more important part here), but if they don't, you either have to go along with them or you'll significantly damage your relationship with your parents, which is kind of a bad idea even just from an economic perspective.
- Just because you can apply doesn't mean you'll actually get a half-decent job, especially if you need to stay local to take advantage of your parents' free room and board.
  If you can show that you took a deliberate action to get your GED because you felt that 2 years of work experience, getting yourself a financial safety net and understood that they are the same, you prove to be more valuable than the person who decided to stay in school has little to no work experience and is worse off.
  Companies like candidates who show they're smart, also if it became the norm then no problem either way.
  Are you saying that a 16yo will be able to defend their legal rights against their parents? They might do it voluntarily if they agree with your view and are nice ("they are nice" might be the more important part here), but if they don't, you either have to go along with them or you'll significantly damage your relationship with your parents, which is kind of a bad idea even just from an economic perspective.
  I get that the parents can make it hard and it can strain the relationship but any good parent would support the move.
  
  If you can show that you took a deliberate action to get your GED because you felt that 2 years of work experience, getting yourself a financial safety net and understood that they are the same, you prove to be more valuable than the person who decided to stay in school has little to no work experience and is worse off.
  Doesn't help if there aren't enough jobs available for everyone, which will be especially problematic if every 16yo is doing it. Does the market really demand that much untrained labor?
  I get that the parents can make it hard and it can strain the relationship but any good parent would support the move.
  Lots of kids don't have good parents, but you're claiming that it works for everyone. And frankly, making their kid finish highschool the normal way is not something that I'd revoke someone's "good parent" card over.
Only people who hate the schools are the ones who were bad students.
I dropped out of school at 9 years old, skipped taking my GED all together, entered college at 16 on a full ride, graduated magna cum laude from a fairly prestigious university with a BS in computer science (and two minors), and never had any student debt, all before I turned 21. True story.
Definitely not saying my story is anywhere near typical. And I imagine were I born a decade or two later (I'm barely under 40 now), my story would probably have turned out much differently. But I do think there's merit to the idea of "hacking" your own education.
I mean, it worked for me. Making a decent 6 figure income, supporting a family of four. Never did get a college degree, it only cost me one job. The recruiter told me to get any degree, basket weaving, they didn't care, it was just a requirement.
Over all a college degree hasn't made anyone I've ever worked with a more productive employee. Though often they were more arrogant.
I'd say the biggest challenge would be anyone aiming for an Ivy league, mainly because acceptance would be more difficult. That kind of education is really only good for connections though. The education isn't really any different.

17 comments