The idea is to hedge against having the government ban the possession of gold and force you to sell.

I had a government job when I took off on my own, I actually switched gears from expecting to be a stock broker to the mortgage business and RE full time.

Having a degree certainly opens ups doors for you and allows you to fall upon a job if needed with much more ease (with a credible degree like finance, accounting, engineering, etc).

Same can happen if a city is surrounded by government owned/controlled land such as a national forrest.

Even though a cliche content is king and if there's a good information on a particular website/blog I will come back often and when the times come I will take action if the agent has established trust and credibility. 

Government is tough on foreign buyers.

This is like a 401k but for government employeesI have 50k in assorted credit card debt.  

By doing this you get to know who in your local market are the serious investors who actively do deals.Once you get your license and you know your market, and now you know who are the real estate players in your market, you can do JOINT VENTURE with credible real estate investors (landlords or flippers).

Sounds like a very intrusive communistic local government .

Now there is only one negative thing to that... which is what if you haven't done your first deal yet and don't have the credibility?