Class and Education

I'm a science major. I very strongly believe that formal education is absolutely required for some jobs- like chemists, or genetic engineers, or doctors, or teachers. My husband added proctologists to that list, and he asked me to specify that. To relegate these jobs to "learn as you go" or even apprenticeships would be not only ineffective, but in some instances it would be downright irresponsible. For these jobs, I think there should be a higher rate of compensation, to counter the cost of the education required, and the time invested in learning a craft. Similarly, I think any tradesman that puts time into learning his craft through apprenticeship should have a high rate of compensation. Craftsmen, stonemasons, electricians, plumbers- they spend years as apprentices and journeyman before they master their craft, and that should be accounted for. In no way, though, should ANYONE receive less respect- all jobs are required for the way we live and work, whether we want to do them or not. We need people to harvest crops and sweep floors and do all the dirty jobs Mike Rowe does, just as much as we need doctors and lawyers and teachers. In the Army, a laundry and bath specialist makes the same amount of money as a laboratory technician or a Patriot missile launcher in the same pay grade, and receives the same respect. I was a lab tech, and spent 10 hours a day in classes to do in one year what George Washington University students do in three years, while a cook spends two months learning how to feed large numbers of people. It's not difficult to imagine why retention of Soldiers in low-density, high-training jobs like mine is very low- we can receive much higher compensation in the civilian sector. We were trained to the Baccalaureate standard- that of a medical technologist- but we were only certified to the Associate's standard- the medical laboratory technician. We had the knowledge and practical experience to make quite a bit of money, but lacked the piece of paper saying we had it. The best I could do was $15 hourly as a lab tech, instead of the $60,000 per annum I could have expected if my Army training had been accredited properly.