Pipeliner jobs are the new coal jobs - high paying, with no prior experience or education requirement, but ultimately short-term due to the nature of the work. You can make good money doing it, so long as you're willing to move where the work is, but without any education, if that work ever goes away..... [cue sad coal miner music]
And I wince anytime I hear somebody say a four-year degree is the same as a high school diploma, because its meant to make kids think it doesn't really matter if they get an education. If you want a degree that will ensure you a lifetime of increased income and gainful employment, those are out there for the taking, and there are a bunch of them, but there's one huge problem with them: they're hard.
If you haven't done the foundation work by the time you graduate high school, you're not going to be able to tread water. If you manage to stay in college, you have to downshift to something easier, but now you're in a degree with no skill, getting a piece of paper with no value. In effect, if you're not taking education seriously before college, you won't make it in any kind of legitimate curriculum in college, so be careful what you tell your kids.
