I went to the University in the US. I actually learned a great deal and found the experience, in terms of education, largely enlightening and largely "educational". I did not however, find it to help me in life in general. In fact, I'm doing the exact same things I was doing pre-owing-everyone-I-know-even-just-in-paper, except now with debt. Personally, I learned a lot of things. However, there seems to be no place to use this education in the huge way I was informed I'd be able to, unless of course, I choose the route of further academia. Fine. I like school. I love learning. I love mental challenges. I love the idea of pushing ideas beyond known limits... hell, I even... I love deadlines. You know what I don't like? Debt.
In the last year or so I've discussed undergraduate debt with many people from many universities and it always comes back to the same issue... we're screwed. The US economy is not hiring. You can't get a job at Burger King due to "over qualification" and you can't get a job in your undergraduate field due to "more experienced individuals" (AKA so many people advanced have been laid off in their fields that they can get non-entry level applicants to work for half the price). So our option? More school. More loans. Make that artificial economy grow!
I'm no economist but I have to wonder... this is going to have to hit a wall, right?! Universities are going to have to be more selective, right?! I went to SUNY's "Ivy" Binghamton and I have to admit, I don't know how 1/2 the students got in: "like" abuse is rampant, the focus on getting to school in pajamas was the norm and most disturbingly, the arguing over test grades was tolerated. REALLY? This is higher education? Is it so easily bought and owed? OWED being the hard part for those of us that speak proper english, wear actual pants to class (yes, we got up that early), and when we didn't do as well as we liked, contacted the professor about extra credit as opposed to arguing the professor's ability to grade vs our failure to READ. (No seriously, the world famous Walden Bello taught a class I took my last year at Binghamton Slobiveristy and I was EMBARRASSED at my peers...) Spoiled. But hey, it's all on credit and all too expected, which isn't really anyone's fault... or is it?
The really screwed up part [a later post will address the actual student populous and the lack of "give a damn" about their education or their lack of feeling grateful for the opportunity and why I understand that yet am disturbed by it] here is it's all paid for by credit. Either the parents of, or the student, have borrowed money to do it. A few are luck enough to have parents that actually paid for it via check and in full. Even those people however, rarely work jobs along with their education and take out loans in some form for living. After the four years (and I admit, with summer, it only takes 2.5-3-summer costs more), you owe a reasonable hunk of change.
Let me remind the reader, this is a public school. It doesn't even touch Cornell, Columbia, etc...
Let me also state, I grew up poor. Paying for school for me meant working full time and taking classes full time the entire time I was in school. It was tiring, but I appreciated it.
Phase II: you graduate and without an actual "in" ( a family connection, a friend connection)... you are screwed. You could have been the most brilliant student with the best questions ever and you really... You get to work long and/or awkward hours to: get by and job hunt. I'm lucky, I have a great job I have worked throughout my education, with great people, that kept me. Yet, it has a limited association with my degree and honestly, when I budget for a few months: I just pay my rent, utilities and student loans. You know what that means? I don't do shit to keep the economy going because all I can do is keep my debt from standing on my face and stomping it's feet. Which sounds strangely like the stress of the last bubble burst: mortgages, in terms of money to spend and life to live and eventually in terms of the realization you bought more than you can pay for... It all sounded so nice in the beginning...
What I'm trying to say here is, it's unsustainable. We'll never own houses, we'll never buy anything with our own hard work. We'll buy credit. We'll use up our efforts just to get buy- and then use- faux money to get by some more and be stuck in this cycle forever.
I'm not suggesting all college graduates get a job. I'm suggesting admittance into college is more competitive, it costs less [let's face it, it's the new high school diploma... or it was in the 90s and now it's the second decade of the new millennium... and no, I didn't use spell check to spell that word you lazy asses. I can actually spell... and read], and higher degrees than "Bachelor" should be harder, more challenging and more specific in the way this degree was in the 60s, 70s, 80s.... I also suggest the US develops a new labor market so everyone doesn't have to go to college per se, but can actually produce goods and services at a fair rate. Let's face it, we can't all be academics. Someone needs to make the tools we use, the food we eat, create the infrastructure to get us there and enforce the societal laws necessary to make this all work.
Eh change...?
Either way, wait 4 years. No one has jobs. Everyone is getting more loans for more school. Eventually... this bubble will burst. I don't think it's so far off... and I don't think the US economy is prepared for putting us all in jail for debt. Or maybe it is. We do rank no. 1 in the world for jailing people...
to be cont.
In the last year or so I've discussed undergraduate debt with many people from many universities and it always comes back to the same issue... we're screwed. The US economy is not hiring. You can't get a job at Burger King due to "over qualification" and you can't get a job in your undergraduate field due to "more experienced individuals" (AKA so many people advanced have been laid off in their fields that they can get non-entry level applicants to work for half the price). So our option? More school. More loans. Make that artificial economy grow!
I'm no economist but I have to wonder... this is going to have to hit a wall, right?! Universities are going to have to be more selective, right?! I went to SUNY's "Ivy" Binghamton and I have to admit, I don't know how 1/2 the students got in: "like" abuse is rampant, the focus on getting to school in pajamas was the norm and most disturbingly, the arguing over test grades was tolerated. REALLY? This is higher education? Is it so easily bought and owed? OWED being the hard part for those of us that speak proper english, wear actual pants to class (yes, we got up that early), and when we didn't do as well as we liked, contacted the professor about extra credit as opposed to arguing the professor's ability to grade vs our failure to READ. (No seriously, the world famous Walden Bello taught a class I took my last year at Binghamton Slobiveristy and I was EMBARRASSED at my peers...) Spoiled. But hey, it's all on credit and all too expected, which isn't really anyone's fault... or is it?
The really screwed up part [a later post will address the actual student populous and the lack of "give a damn" about their education or their lack of feeling grateful for the opportunity and why I understand that yet am disturbed by it] here is it's all paid for by credit. Either the parents of, or the student, have borrowed money to do it. A few are luck enough to have parents that actually paid for it via check and in full. Even those people however, rarely work jobs along with their education and take out loans in some form for living. After the four years (and I admit, with summer, it only takes 2.5-3-summer costs more), you owe a reasonable hunk of change.
Let me remind the reader, this is a public school. It doesn't even touch Cornell, Columbia, etc...
Let me also state, I grew up poor. Paying for school for me meant working full time and taking classes full time the entire time I was in school. It was tiring, but I appreciated it.
Phase II: you graduate and without an actual "in" ( a family connection, a friend connection)... you are screwed. You could have been the most brilliant student with the best questions ever and you really... You get to work long and/or awkward hours to: get by and job hunt. I'm lucky, I have a great job I have worked throughout my education, with great people, that kept me. Yet, it has a limited association with my degree and honestly, when I budget for a few months: I just pay my rent, utilities and student loans. You know what that means? I don't do shit to keep the economy going because all I can do is keep my debt from standing on my face and stomping it's feet. Which sounds strangely like the stress of the last bubble burst: mortgages, in terms of money to spend and life to live and eventually in terms of the realization you bought more than you can pay for... It all sounded so nice in the beginning...
What I'm trying to say here is, it's unsustainable. We'll never own houses, we'll never buy anything with our own hard work. We'll buy credit. We'll use up our efforts just to get buy- and then use- faux money to get by some more and be stuck in this cycle forever.
I'm not suggesting all college graduates get a job. I'm suggesting admittance into college is more competitive, it costs less [let's face it, it's the new high school diploma... or it was in the 90s and now it's the second decade of the new millennium... and no, I didn't use spell check to spell that word you lazy asses. I can actually spell... and read], and higher degrees than "Bachelor" should be harder, more challenging and more specific in the way this degree was in the 60s, 70s, 80s.... I also suggest the US develops a new labor market so everyone doesn't have to go to college per se, but can actually produce goods and services at a fair rate. Let's face it, we can't all be academics. Someone needs to make the tools we use, the food we eat, create the infrastructure to get us there and enforce the societal laws necessary to make this all work.
Eh change...?
Either way, wait 4 years. No one has jobs. Everyone is getting more loans for more school. Eventually... this bubble will burst. I don't think it's so far off... and I don't think the US economy is prepared for putting us all in jail for debt. Or maybe it is. We do rank no. 1 in the world for jailing people...
to be cont.
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