Nonsense John, today's college graduate is more in line with the high school
graduates of the fifties. I hired enough of your "highly educated"
graduates to be more than a casual observer.

They knew every thing there was to know about political correctness, liberal
thinking, and how to bitch if they were not given everything on a platter
the day they hired in.

I assigned an engineer the task of designing a simple serial interface to a
piece of equipment. He told me "we didn't cover that in school". Today A's
are passed out to everyone, in some schools, so as not to make the others
feel bad.

Give me an old time ham or a Navy trained technician, at least they had the
basics. Many of today's graduates are over paid at minimum wage.

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
Fred:

Yes. But those were simple times when much of what we take for granted
today
loomed before us as dark mysteries...

Things are much more complex these days, BS, MS, PHD's are much more
common per
capita and the general knowledge of the common person on the street is
magnitudes greater than the times you are speaking of.

No longer are people with a bit of knowledge in such demand.

Our colleges turn out highly educated individuals in vast numbers which
stagger
the imagination. Indeed, seats in colleges are filled far too quickly,
leaving
no room for those not fortunate to gain entrance.

It is quite possible the person you see before you in a lowly public
service
position has a degree.

Across the board, +25% of all college grads are working at or near minimum
wage
in a field outside their course of study--five years after they graduate;
I
suspect this figure, which the colleges themselves claim, is rather low...

John

"Fred W4JLE" wrote in message
...
The same day I took the test for General, I also took and passed all
requirements for a first class Phone with RADAR endorsement. The
engineer
administering the test told me if I wanted to take a really tough test,
the
amateur extra was the most difficult given by the FCC.

Unfortunately at that time one had to wait a year to take advanced and
two
years to take the Extra. I would sure like to see them reinstate the
time
requirements so some of these young bucks could get a little seasoning
before advancing. Today you can get it all in one day. Then armed with
your
brand new Extra; proceed to E-Ham and ask questions in the Elmer
conference
that could be answered by an old time novice.

"Ham op" wrote in message
...

The required level of knowledge for a license today is significantly
poorer than 40 or 50 years ago.