Dear Collegiate Editors,
During the November 10th Presidential debate, Senator Marco Rubio asserted that “Welders make more money than philosophers. We need more welders and less philosophers.”
Senator Rubio’s first claim, that “welders make more money than philosophers,” is demonstrably false.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median income for welders is $37,420 and the median income for philosophy instructors is $63,630.
Additionally, according to Payscale.com, the average first-year salary for college graduates with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy is $42,200, higher than the median income of welders, again $37,420.
In a February 22, 2014 interview in the New York Times, Laszlo Bock, the Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google, spoke for many employers when he described what Google values most in new employees. In ranked order, Google looks first for “general cognitive ability” and “the ability to process on the fly,” then “emergent leadership,” then “intellectual humility,” and lastly “expertise.” Philosophy does not have a monopoly on these characteristics, but it does prioritize and cultivate them in ways that make philosophy graduates attractive to a wide number and variety of employers in a fluid economy.
Lastly, aside from the employability and income of philosophers, Delta students who aspire to graduate school in any field may also be interested to know that among all undergraduate majors, philosophy majors score the highest on the GRE, the graduate school entrance exam. Similarly, philosophy majors score near the very top on the LSAT, the Law School Admission Test.
We need both welders and philosophers, but we also need accurately informed Presidential candidates.
Darci Doll, Instructor of Philosophy
Linda Plackowski, Professor of Philosophy
Kirk Wolf, Professor of Philosophy
