Vocational jobs are roaring back into popularity as more college graduates face student loan debt well into their retirement years.

Despite spending the past couple decades overshadowed by white-collar careers, skilled trade jobs are now becoming lucrative to young adults who’d rather “learn as they earn” through paid apprenticeships than go into debt prior to employment.

Case in point, a blue-collar career site called Jobcase has just raised $100 million.

“The company said it plans to use the money to grow Jobcase.com, an alternative for people who don’t feel at home on LinkedIn, the dominant professional networking service,” reported the Boston Globe. “Jobcase says about 25 million users visit its site each month, drawn by an experience that has appealed to people including those without college degrees and those with professions such as retail, hotels, and manufacturing.”

This gives young adults a way to avoid massive debt, especially as more people carry it with them as they get older.

Of course, when people think of this debt, they typically conjecture up a 20-something trying to pay them off, but now Americans 60 and older account for $86 billion of the debt.

Part of the problem is the loose lending standards of federal student loan programs aimed at parents which have no maximum borrowing cap.

Naturally, this leads to a debt death spiral: the loose supply of easy money, backed by the federal government, raises tuition rates, which leads to even more debt for more Americans.

And remember, loose lending standards helped trigger the 2008 financial collapse.

But it’s not just parents who are borrowing money for their children’s tuition; older adults are now returning to college – and are thus returning to debt.

“Could this mean millions of parents and grandparents will default on these loans? Since it is government-related debt, the state will always get its money back: Tax refunds can be seized, Social Security payments can be garnished, and the state adds fees and late charges,” reported Mises.org. “You also cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.”

“But one-quarter of Americans between 65 and 74 are delinquent on other student loan debts — that figure shoots up to half for those 75 and older.”



It’s been said that the U.S. leads the world in toilet paper use, so now busybodies demand we cut down on toilet paper use.

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