I think it's worth thinking about the conditions that could lead to a person seemingly torpedoing herself with an expensive, debt-ridden culinary certificate. Things really have gotten tougher for many Americans over the past few decades. Some people make it extra tough on themselves by refusing to handle downward mobility gracefully and taking the best options available to them. On the surface, borrowing money for culinary school seems like an objectively (very) bad choice, but people are complicated, and I'd be interested in understanding what brought her to this.

Well that is kind of my point. I don't know any engineer that would go to an expensive culinary school as a way to enter another career. I have yet to meet a competent engineer that wouldn't look at the return on investment of something like that. I'm not saying they aren't out there, but the things that make you a good engineer are the very things that keep you from going into debt at an expensive culinary school.

I'm not trying to insult the person who is looking for a new career, but too often I hear these stories about how hard life is for someone, but when you look at the entire story it doesn't add up. In this case, I think there is a reasonable chance that calling her an "aerospace engineer" is an overstatement of her engineering skills. It is possible she is an exception is actually a skilled aerospace engineer, but it seems unlikely or that there is something being left out.

I think, instead of looking at individuals, the trends are more important. Are jobs paying as much? Is there the same abundance of jobs? Is housing more costly? Is debt worse? What kind of debt?

As opposed to just looking at individuals, such as the engineer turned chef, which, I mean, come on. It's a bit ridiculous.