Vauxhall

[AronSearle]

but the Uk is always going to have a workforce including lesser or uneducated people (not everyone can get a degree)

Firstly the idea that people need degrees is a rather sad disease in modern culture.

We give people 13 or so years of free education, yet this is producing vast numbers of people with no useful industrial skills, that is a big issue.

isn't it better to keep these people employed, even if the government had to subsidise manufacturing

As you point out, we do this for agriculture.

And we have a very large deficit. And we have recently had people complaining about the large scale abuse of these subsidies.

Subsidising manufacturing to the point of employing an extra 500k+ people, would be a major economic drag to the rest of the economy.

The problem with subsidising "anything" is that the successful productive parts of the economy have to pay for it, making them less successful and productive.

I'm not saying we should just stuff the "uneducated" and low skilled workers, but throwing more money at it is what we have been doing, hows that worked for us so far?

The problem as I see it is a failing education system, it has produced a "lost generation", this is a whole other discussion however.

 

[andyandy2]

The comment about everyone getting a degree was meant "tongue in cheek"
personally I think degrees have been de-valued over recent years, soon the only thing guaranteed with a degree will be starting your career (at Mcdonalds) in debt.
In a similar way so have school exams, if the pass rates are ever increasing, to me it means one of two things, the children are being taught specific things to enable them to pass the exam, or more likely the exams are to easy.
A lot of the above is because of so many do gooders nowadays, you can't hurt little Jimmy's feelings by failing his exams, or not giving him an opportunity to get a "degree"

I can see the problems with subsidising any industry, with agriculture the big problem is rich landowners are now paid large sums for growing nothing (countryside stewardship schemes)
But in effect aren't we subsidising the long term unemployed, its still the "workers" who fund the benefits.
We have reached a stage where the whole work ethic is wrong, kids are growing up and have never seen mum or dad go out to work, what precedent does that set for them.
At least by keeping people employed it avoids that, there is somehow a much better "feel" to a community where everyone is employed

Rant over

 

[snico]

What is the point of a degree these days in the working world....its almost impossible to fail even a masters degree!

The majority of students are now from overseas, and there are students passing degrees that cannot even write a sentence themselves in English.