College graduates complaining that the government or the economy robbed them of a paycheck have become a familiar internet spectacle, and the stories are piling up. Viral TikToks show recent grads lamenting that their degrees didn’t translate into the promised salaries, while others report getting shut out of entry-level roles even as job listings sit live online. One clip that blew up captures this frustration perfectly: a young woman recently saying she’s stuck in service work after graduating and drowning in debt.

Let’s be blunt: many of these young people made choices with predictable consequences. Parents, schools, and trendy campus counselors sold the fantasy that any degree equals a golden job, but reality looks different — especially for broad liberal arts pathways that don’t pair study with internships or marketable skills. There are multiple anecdotes of liberal arts grads struggling to find work in their field and moving back home while mom and dad subsidize student loans and living expenses.

Meanwhile, the service industry has been sending a loud market signal: experience and hustle often pay more than a diploma with no practical training. Some restaurant jobs now pay competitive wages and tips that exceed entry-level corporate offers, which is why many graduates find themselves choosing the server’s station over unpaid internships. Viral posts and reporting have highlighted servers at casual chains pulling surprisingly strong hourly pay, underscoring that real-world value is sometimes learned on the floor, not in a lecture hall.

So why the hand-wringing and blame directed at the government? The truth conservatives keep pointing out is that free choices have consequences — and the choices made about majors, internships, and nights spent networking matter. Plenty of employers want demonstrable skills and experience; a diploma by itself, without internships or demonstrable work, rarely lands a top job out of the gate. The lesson here is not that the economy is rigged against youth, but that youthful entitlement and poor planning are expensive.

We also shouldn’t ignore the role universities and the loan system played in this mess. Colleges marketed degrees as the pathway to easy success while tuition and student loan packages ballooned, leaving many graduates carrying six-figure expectations and four-figure debts they cannot service immediately. Stories of students racking up massive debt and returning to service jobs are not just embarrassing; they are a policy failure that rewards bad incentives and punishes prudence.

The conservative answer is practical and unapologetic: restore the value of work, promote vocational and technical education, and stop funneling everyone through the same expensive degree mill. Encourage apprenticeships, community college certifications, and real on-the-job training that lead directly to paychecks and stable careers. Families and communities should teach young people that ambition paired with skill-building beats victim narratives and calls for government bailouts every time.

Hardworking Americans know what matters: responsibility, resilience, and readiness to start at the bottom and earn your way up. To the grads upset at making less than expected — take a job, get experience, pay your debts, and stop waiting for the government to make your bad choices right. This country rewards grit more than complaints, and it’s time young adults learned that lesson before the next tuition bill arrives.