nfgo……..
You point out very important things:
“so many learners are coming out of Kollel with little or no skill in the high-earning professions”
Today, high earners are in highly specialized professions. Medicine, law, technology,etc.
Gone are the days of the post WWII boom, when American Jewish businessmen/women could make substantial livings as small manufacturers/retailers and repair people. My great grandfather manufactured Neckties in NYC, My Grandfather (his son-in-law) , manufactured dress shirts, other sons in-law made suits, coats and ladies garments. My father’s generation opened regional clothing store chains and sold the products manufactured by the family.
Today, most manufacturing is done overseas in huge cheap labor factories. You can’t start a business on the cheap. Independent regional retailing chains have been gobbled up or destroyed by the national chains. Regional department stores no longer exist. Low internet pricing has destroyed the advantage some independents had (providing individual service).
I may be the oddball here…because I chose to live out of town (as I was raised) and sent my kids to Yeshiva, but insisted that they go on to college and professional schools (both boys and girls) in order that they be able to provide for themselves and their progeny.
This is not to say that I would not support a son or son-in law while learning if he desired…BUT unless we have a substantial Baal Batim class our institutions will not survive.