Reply to post: Re: The per captia figures may be better but that's not the point.

Re: The per captia figures may be better but that's not the point.

I'm very glad that you managed to make a difference to your circumstances, as did I, I still think it's harder now and I don't fancy my chances if I was doing it now, hence my original post.

I think I'd find it easier now. Information is cheaper and more accessible. Tuition is cheaper (not all subjects may be mastered within the state education system, even when grants were avilable for uni). Prospective employers are more accessible. The internet means I can produce and sell software 24x7.

it paid for smart kids from poor backgrounds to go to private schools

Good for you, and shame it got shut down. I was never one of the smartest kids but I've always believed opportunities like that should exist. Why waste our brightest minds simply because they;re working class?

Today that degree would be both less likely to be as rigorous and would involve acquiring a debt of at least twenty-seven thousand pounds (9k per year, three years for undergrad)

Or, you could always do a distance learning dgree for about £12k

http://www.herts.ac.uk/uhonline/online-courses/information-technology-online-degree-bsc-hons

The best bit is that you'll be able to work while funding it. Had this been an option when I was young, I would be a very rich man by now, because I'd have bought a nice house back when they were cheap and would have had no university debt (grants didn't cover books, food, rent etc by the time I went).

YouTube videos, really, had you name checked MIT's open courseware, I'd have given you a pass but YouTube by his noodly fucking appendages.

It does, but it also has more practical content than MIT, if you wish to persue a trade or even just repair your own home without having to stump up for a tradesman to visit. I've done a couple of crypto courses online myself and to say they were of a very high calibre would be an understatement.

so you're poor right, your access to the net is likely on a prepay dongle, which is charging you some 15 quid a Gig and you want to learn by watching videos, how about reading, in a library if you can find one, is that too "last gen" for you.

Books are excellent. I'm reading several just now. You missed free wifi off your list though. I frequently used to use it at service stations, shopping malls, coffee shops etc when on call and its certainly fast enough to use the internet for research and learning.

Libraries were a feature of my childhood, adolescence and early career, they are a hollow fucking joke now. So to recap, education more expensive, more data of indeterminate quality until you are clued up enough to filter the bull for yourself...

Libraries still exist, or at least my local one does, though I accept they are a shadow of their former selves... if only people had used them... like say those persuing knowledge to better their situation while on a low income?

Education is not more expensive. £12k for a full BSc degree. It means you can do a BSc and an MSc cheaper than what I ran up in rent while doing my first degree. I see where you're going regarding quality of tuition, but even allowing some falling standards, an MSc has to be equivalent tot he BSc when I did mine, and it was well worth having.

most people derive their income from work, if their work never pays them enough money to allow them to "upskill" they'll at best stay where they are

Even taking minimum wage, you'd only need an additional part time job of 17 hours per week in order to fund the 4k fees while keeping everything you earn today. So work overtime for three years then study for three and you have your BSc. The income increase from that will be enough to fund the MSc and now you're made. Oh, I already deducted taxes from the minimum wage and assumed no assitance at all.

I grafted my arse off, I worked and studied and worked, the effort required to change my life, was *non-trivial* most people can't work like that

I think you're doing most peopel a disservice, or you worked considerably harder than I. I believe most people capable of doing what I did because I've seen so many others do the same.

It's a network and an application layer protocol, not the second fucking coming, with extra cherries.

ROFL. Best description I've heard of it to date. The internet is a vast opportunity and open market for those that wish to use it. I wish I had the motivation to use it properly rather than mostly browsing... I could be getting paid for content (Give me a Guardian OpEd piece and watch the page hits fly while they go into meltdown seeing who can disagree with me the most), or writing and retailing software to do things.

find a functional recipe for black powder online, report back with all your fingers.

In the days before the web I had a small library of these culled from Gopher and FTP. In these post 9/11 times, I'm not even going tot hink about looking for that, sorry. And yes, I destroyed my small library many moons ago before it was verbotten to have such.

In summary, get off your high horse

Yeah... I'm not the one pretending what we did was beyond most people, or that most people are incapable of learning unguided. Anyone can better their situation in the UK, literally anyone without sever disability, if only they're motivated to try.