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If these compassionate souls are so concerned about job losses, perhaps they should focus on the job-market effects of AI and automation?
When huge swathes of the population are steadily becoming useless it does tend to reduce their wage-negotiating power. Gloating articles like this are to be expected.
My parents always told me that being a landscaper was one of the few professions where you can make good money without needing a college degree.
There are quite a few trades that you can learn on the job and make good money. I don't want to sound like Mike Rowe (I'm not that eloquent) but for sure, college isn't for everybody.
I went to college but wasn't interested in anything I took until I started taking horticulture and landscape design classes. It has helped me get my foot in the door for interviews but really it comes down to job performance, if you can't handle the long days of outdoor manual labor then it's not a profession to get into. Most of the guys on my crews don't have a college degree but they're making an honest living, without a mountain of student loan debt.
I'm in California where most of the state was forced to take on the $15 minimum wage for restaurant workers. I haven't specifically noticed job loss as a result, but what I do see is many places adding a 5% surcharge to all bills to cover the increased cost. It made eating out significantly more expensive because it's essentially a new large tax you have to pay.