Top 3 things that give your life meaning.

In terms of the working world, I don’t know what the good alternatives might be. Some professions like law and public accounting require exams and continuing education. The IT industry has many different certifications with differing levels of acceptance.

I don’t know if AI will make things better or worse. Making people take job entrance exams will probably create a lot of questions about the tests fairness and cultural biases.

I think to a large degree we use degrees as a sort of status signal. I’m thinking of those stickers people like to put in the rear windows of their cars to advertise their college affiliation.

It's interesting. After all those years where employers wanted to know that I had a degree before they would even discuss a job opportunity with me my current boss never asked or cared during the interview process. He was only concerned with what skills and accomplishments I had from my last job. We had several conversations about my thoughts and opinions relating to the job at hand and how I would handle various different account issues that are likely to come up in the day to day work activities and my responses revolved around real examples from my last job. It was only after I'd been offered the job that HR got involved, asked for a copy of my resume and went about verifying that the 4 year university credential on my resume was one that I'd actually obtained. But I couldn't have gotten the previous job which gave me the relevant experience for my current job without the degree, despite the degree having nothing to do with the work at hand at that job or the current one.

I have a college degree and a DD 214. Guess which one provided me the greatest value.

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Originally Posted by Alan

I have a college degree and a DD 214. Guess which one provided me the greatest value.

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I only put in seven years, so my DD214 gets me half off on a pizza every Veterans Day and a flag for my coffin. Of course, I couldn’t have gotten a commission without the degree.

As to potential employers, maybe 60% viewed being a USAF officer as a positive and 40% saw it as a delay to the start of my “real” career. Some few seemed to have a visceral contempt for all things military, but that seems to have declined over time.

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Originally Posted by LDAHL

If you find the step-up in basis on inherited securities to be ethically problematic, you can always send the Treasury Department a check.

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That wasn't my point. My point was that if Jeppy wants to be angry about government giveaways there are plenty of more worthy causes than the student loan forgiveness program, which at least has reasonable intentions behind it. Me getting a big tax break because I won the birth lotto probably doesn't benefit society nearly as much as student loan forgiveness.

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Originally Posted by Alan

I have a college degree and a DD 214. Guess which one provided me the greatest value.

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If you worked for the government, both. You get more for pension as military service counts.

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Originally Posted by frugal-one

If you worked for the government, both. You get more for pension as military service counts.

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In my case, the state pension plan didn’t count military service, but did allow me to buy those seven years at the current value of what contributions plus investment earnings would have been. Whether that turns out to be a good deal will depend on how long my wife and I live.

Ul, my last comment on the Vietnam war. It’s called murder because they weren’t killed by soldiers. They were murdered on their own base by civilians that they employed to work on the base. Try and go 13 months only half sleeping.

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Originally Posted by Teacher Terry

Ul, my last comment on the Vietnam war. It’s called murder because they weren’t killed by soldiers. They were murdered on their own base by civilians that they employed to work on the base. Try and go 13 months only half sleeping.

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I think that is called guerrilla warfare. That was what Vietnam was. Were they Civilians or were they Viet Cong? Also, if those attacks were so rampant that no one on base could sleep, then why would the US Military continue to employ them? This story of yours is fishy.

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Originally Posted by jp1

That wasn't my point. My point was that if Jeppy wants to be angry about government giveaways there are plenty of more worthy causes than the student loan forgiveness program, which at least has reasonable intentions behind it. Me getting a big tax break because I won the birth lotto probably doesn't benefit society nearly as much as student loan forgiveness.

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Be careful. Seriously. Jeppy could develop a creepy obsession with you too.