Letter Re: The Best College Degrees for the Next Depression?

James,
longer this [economic death spiral] goes on, the more it looks like this is going to be at least a decade before normality returns. So, if you’ve got a teenage kid you’re probably thinking, what kind of career (assuming we don’t totally melt down at a societal level) path he or she should take…

I was talking to someone the other day and he told me his kid was studying art. “Oh, I asked, is he any good?” He replied “No, not really.” This family man is spending good money, money that could be put into preparations into a liberal arts education? Idiot.

Even if his son were Michelangelo reincarnated, who is going to pay for artwork in a depression. It’s not like he is going to get a stipend from the Medici family and work on family portraits of the rich and famous.

I’d like to ask the collective survival mind as represented by SurvivalBlog readers, what careers do you think are worth paying money to learn how to do for the next generation? – SF in Hawaii

JWR Replies: Off the top of my head, I think that any of the medical professions would be good choices, especially those related to geriatrics, since we live in an aging society The only notable exception would be cosmetic surgery.

BTW, the Memsahib’s parents grew up during the Great Depression and consequently they told the Memsahib and her sister that they would be willing to pay for their college education only if they wanted to be “teachers, nurses, or dental assistants”–because there would always be some demand for them. No fru-fru art degrees for their daughters!