Why Do People Look Down on Arts/Humanities Graduates?

BillyHaelyRaeCyrus

Posts come up here about rental issues, home buying issues, cost of living etc and all the comments are "upskill", get a better job.

The reality is most working people in Ireland and Dublin earn less than 50k per year. The reality is a great deal of people in their 20s and 30s with degrees earn under 40k. The reality is that essential jobs earn 30k and less. The reality is that half of people under 30 live at home as they simply cant afford to move out. The reality is that literally hundreds of thousands of professionals in their 30s and 40s live in house shares because they cant even afford to rent alone never mind buy. The reality is that housing is totally out of reach and is causing massive social issues in our country.

Most people dont work in tech, most people dont work for multinationals. People earning 70k+ are literally the top 15%, the upper middle class. 85% are below that.

Please stop shaming people for renting, having low salaries, or gasp living in Dublin without working for a small group of multi nationals.

Emblematic

I think the problem is that you are equating advice to upskill with looking down on someone. Sometimes that is simply the correct advice.

BillyHaelyRaeCyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121492401#Comment_121492401

The correct reply is to question why we have a country in which the majority are struggling and only the statically top salaries can give a decent standard of living. Yet before 2008 if you worked you could get on in life and not live month to month

Anaki r2d2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058326813/why-do-people-look-down-on-arts-humanities-graduates

What has this post got to do with people with arts degrees?

Your heading and the main body of your post are not related.

BillyHaelyRaeCyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121492450#Comment_121492450

Because people are looked down on for earning the salaries that arts graduates earn and when they complain about being unable to survive they are disrespectfully told to study tech. The economy should be made to work in the interest of all working people and not just big tech and finance, but somehow thats a view massive amounts here disagree with

BurnsCarpenter

I don't think most people look down on arts graduates but there's no denying it's not the most useful for a successful career. God knows I struggled for years in low paying jobs after graduation before, yes, upskilling by doing a hdip and getting into tech.

But you're right that the current situation stinks. The average wage should give a decent standard of living and the possibility of home ownership.

Anaki r2d2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121492462#Comment_121492462

Ah I see.

Life is full of choices. You can pick a vocational course and study engineering, IT, medicine, etc etc and hopefully earn good money.

Do a trade and earn good money most of the time, maybe not 2008 to 2012.

Do a teaching degree and have solid income. Nursing Garda etc

A degree in Peace study, women study, pop music. Maybe not the best way to spend your time and money. University is an investment in yourself. Invest wisely

BillyHaelyRaeCyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121492486#Comment_121492486

Teachers, nursing like journalism, media and countless other roles are not enough to be able to have a home in Dublin if your single.

Working people should be able to have a place to live. Its extreme disrespect, to the point of let them eat cake or the Victorian workhouse, to think the situation in this country is any way acceptable. Which tech people do believe on these boards

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121492462#Comment_121492462

How do you make the economy work for everyone, and who should make it work for everyone?

Emblematic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121492413#Comment_121492413

This would be a better opening post imo, rather than the stuff about people with arts degrees being looked down upon which is largely irrelevant to the question of life getting hard for people generally.

The answer to the question of life getting harder, is that we've been focusing on purely on GDP growth and keeping multinationals happy that we've forgotten to balance other factors that make things affordable for ordinary people. We haven't been building enough property and we've been objecting to build to rent developments which might increase rental supply. In terms of immigration, we've overemphasized the skills needed by multinationals and not society as a whole. Demand for housing has greatly increased without the corresponding supply of housing.

BillyHaelyRaeCyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121492495#Comment_121492495

How did it work before? Are you arguing the economy should not work for everyone?

Padre_Pio

People look down on arts degrees because they're perceived as being easy and there's no clear career path for most of them.

It's the course you do when you don't know what to do.

lbunnae

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058326813/why-do-people-look-down-on-arts-humanities-graduates

Oh god **** off. Nobody shames anyone for renting. You need to see a doctor.

Kermit.de.frog

Such degrees outside of a handful of academic roles are not only pretty worthless to individuals but also add no productivity wealth to the economy like services or manufacturing do.

BillyHaelyRaeCyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121492503#Comment_121492503

When I did mine everyone I studied with knew they wanted to do it. Everyone also got 420+ points in the leaving cert, it was at the time higher points then Science or Computing (2010) and close to Law. It was simply what the people who did well academically in history, English, languages etc did in college. Plenty of people with high grades don't enjoy maths or have any interest in science.

Now they all make average wages of 40 - 60k in teaching, civil service, marketing and pr, journalism etc. Locked out of home ownership though and when they talk about people say its deserved for studying a non STEM field. Business grads are in the same field salary wise. I know accountants lockd out of home ownership as well

eightieschewbaccy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058326813/why-do-people-look-down-on-arts-humanities-graduates

This is such nonsense, you're told on a frequent basis that nobody is judging people for renting. I have an arts degree btw. Did choose to move field but view it as a pretty valuable course in spite of what some think.

Emblematic

@BillyHaelyRaeCyrus: they all make average wages of 40 - 60k in teaching, civil service, marketing and pr, journalism etc. Locked out of home ownership though and when they talk about people say its deserved for studying a non STEM field. Business grads are in the same field salary wise. I know accountants lockd out of home ownership as well

That's because housing has got very expensive to rent or purchase, not because people look down on those with degrees that are not economically in demand. There's always been a looking down on those with arts degrees but it is not the cause of things getting economically difficult for graduates of whatever type.

Anaki r2d2

OP, I think your title is click bait.

BUT, I do understand the sentiment of your post however. It does suck that most single people couldn't afford to rent or buy in Dublin.

But, No one I know looks down on anyone. Wether they have PhD a MSc, a MD a BA or a Masters in Bugger All (MBA).

You can choose to work like a dog in university and afterwards to get a decent income. Or enjoy university and maybe don't have the same income.

Or feck university and do a trade, earn as you learn, don't be burdened with debt. Life outside dublin.

There is a big old world outside the M50! They still need plumbers in Cavan town

Royale with Cheese

I have an Arts degree. The only thing I've ever used it for was to get into a post grad course in IT so I could end up working in tech.

I'm rich now 👍

KaneToad

The biggest factor in your financial "comfort" in adulthood is the socioeconomic level of the household you grew up in. Hard work doesn't always result in financial comfort.

Also people often confuse education with job training. The arts/humanities are just as important as STEM for advancing economies & societies.

Topgear on Dave

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121492413#Comment_121492413

Pre-2008 was not a land of unicorns and rainbows with everyone having a wonderful standard of living, Iv no idea who has told you this.

BillyHaelyRaeCyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121492716#Comment_121492716

I was alive you know. Everyone working was able to get a home. People thought it was a crisis that they had to buy in Lucan. Renting was not the norm nor living at home

Topgear on Dave

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121492722#Comment_121492722

I had rented for a decade at that point and it was totally normal.

Leg End Reject

This is just another thread by the OP who thinks anyone who rents is regarded as a loser, apparently all his family look down on him for it.

OP, you've had numerous threads closed on this topic, time to let it go.

purifol0

Many Arts grads go on to become teachers. This is a problem for students, parents and tax payers as the teachers unions can claim there arent enough teachers so their pay must go up, when the reality has been that we have a tonne of them that cant teach Math,physics, chemistry and also funnily enough Home Ec.

Whats also bollocks is that there are many in this thread claiming tech is the way to go for big salaries. Gardai on average earn more than the average IT industry worker. Nurses made an average of 65K last year. Teachers, again most with arts degrees complain about not earning enough to buy a gaff in Dublin on a single salary while literally working half as much as someone in a standard 40 hour week!

Note these professions are all public sector and so have job security, defined benefit pensions and big unions.

Sod all STEM grads get any of that, multinational or not.

BillyHaelyRaeCyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121492824#Comment_121492824

My issue is on my salary from my main role and a side hustle I earn 52k and cant buy a house in Dublin so Im stuck in the rental hellscape. And when Ive asked for advice on housing people say I should have studied tech if I wanted a basic standard.

Taking from what I hear from people online I would assume all stem workers are 75k+ since they all seem to support the status quo in Ireland and therefore must be home owners

Dav010

Inferiority complex.

BillyHaelyRaeCyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121492859#Comment_121492859

Im a renter in Ireland, the country that marks success by number of bedrooms you own. Of course I feel inferior, not just inferior, I feel I have failed worse in life than imaginable

lbunnae

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121492873#Comment_121492873

You have. Without a shadow of a doubt.

purifol0

Helluva difference renting and sharing. People aged 30+ are now housesharing, of course these are mostly foreigners so you dont hear about it on RTé. Irish adults in similar situations can often just move home and save.

Men however are shamed for this. Just because women have successful careers now, doesnt mean men get to get out of their gender roles. If you are still living with the folks, expect to have limited success on the oul dating apps the older you are. Dont expect sympathy.

Dav010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121492873#Comment_121492873

Go to a mirror, look at yourself, and then give yourself a good slap.