[wfoweoi]

"...I’m making… USD0.65 more than minimum wage."

What was your major?

A common misconception among young people in America seems to be that all majors are equally economically valuable. What you study matters more than whether you have a college degree.

[caseysoftware]

Outside of certain fields - law, medicine, engineering - getting a degree is becoming a pure market signal.

Get a degree from [top tier school] and it probably can be any degree because the school itself is a filter that gets "the best" however they define it. Get a degree from [2nd tier or worse school] and it better be something that demonstrates academic or intellectual rigor.

But outside of a degree, another market signal is relevant experience. Considering the teenage and young adult unemployment rate, that is harder and harder to get.. which means they start their professional/productive years that much later, which means responsible adulthood comes later, which means family, house, etc, etc comes that much later.

Eventually (already?) it can put an entire area, city, region, or generation on a lower trajectory for their lives, negatively affecting everyone.

That is what concerns me.

[jcoffland]

"What would you do if you could do anything with your life." Is such bad advice. Of course most people would like to paint or dance or ride motorcycles.

[galistoca]

I think you're underestimating most people. Everyone knows they have one life. If they were given a chance to really do whatever they want to do and were asked to think about it, they will always decide to go with the decision that fulfills the top level of maslow's hierarchy which is self actualization. The problem is most people live lives without being aware of this, so I think "Do what you want" is a good advice because it at least attempts to make people stop and think about it.

[wfoweoi]

Agree with both of you - it's a valuable thought experiment that everyone should run throughout their lives, and it's also missing the critical check of economic reality.

You can do what you love even if it's not economically valuable... just put your focus on something that is economically valuable and use that as a foothold.