It's hard to stay alive in Bartertown if you are less than pragmatic. And that's exactly where we are headed.
Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 10/15/2010 9:40:56 AM PDT by TigerClaws
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Getting a degree used to be a stepping stone to limitless career opportunities. Now it's more of a hiatus from living under your parents' roof.
Stubbornly high unemployment -- nearly 15% for those ages 20-24 -- has made finding a job nearly impossible. And without a job, there's nowhere for these young adults to go but back to their old bedrooms, curfews and chore charts. Meet the boomerangers.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Sometimes it is not as easy as that. People have sick relatives, family ties, not many job prospects as it is. etc etc.
Some of the people on this site are so short sighted and ignorant as to economic basics and reality its not even funny.
Do the math and its easy to understand why 85% move back. For people to not see this is beyond stupid.
maybe because they want to be able to bring girls back to their place to play ;)
lol
I'm 52 and have been where you are. It gets better.
Our oldest just graduated and landed a good job in his field so we expect him to go within the year. They all three work, pay for their books and pay rent.
Life is hard, spoiling them at any age workds against them
I graduated college during the Carter Recession, got a job upon graduation and was laid off after four months. I moved back home for awhile and then moved in with friends before I finally got a job as a telephone operator. It wasn’t anything I had trained for during college but I was running out of lifelines.
Other than a year off to write a book, I have been drawing a paycheck ever since. It was not what I wanted to do or thought I’d be doing but I’ve made my peace over it. Ultimately, having a track record as a good worker is more important than a sheepskin.
I seriously am revolted by many Freepers’ attitudes on a lot of these issues.
Clueless and ignorant does not even describe the attitude of many who sit there at a keyboard mocking young people facing an economic vice squeezing them royally.
Its as bad DU sometimes with the level of stupidity.
The fact is that recent college grads are screwed royally between the cost of living, taxes, school debt, etc. and for people to laugh at them is disgusting and beyond ignorant worthy only of DU or some of the fools at HP.
Yeah, I was surprised too...but it is a major hospital in the Tampa Bay area that laid off, and the other is reducing hours. All these nurses were RNs...I wondered if it had to do with hospitals replacing RNs with LPNs or possibly shorter patient stays, or just simple cost cutting by the hospitals. I know they’ve gone to the 12 hour shift model, that sort of surprised me last time I was in the hospital. For years it was the 7-3, 3-11, 11-7 shifts, now it’s 12 hours. I can’t even imagine how tired those nurses are after 12 hours.
Here’s an interesting thread I found on a nurses site about supposed reasons why there is no nursing shortage in 2010:
http://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/there-no-nursing-502278.html
I had a boomeranger in his late twenties who had left the nest, got a job in construction and bought a house. He lost everything, including his truck, in the housing bust. He only stayed with me a couple of months before he found a job and a place, but he is still struggling to recover. At least he is still young, able to start over and capable of living hardscrabble as a bachelor. It could have been far worse.
My daughter just graduated with a 4 year degree, She living with us and working at Peet’s Coffee Shop. Thanks 0bama.
Don’t you know that TexasFreeper2009 is all-knowing? Bow to knowledge and wisdom, man.
Just wow.
I would have lived in a box first.
I hope you don’t mind my bragging, but I recently sealed a commodities deal and I have other clients backed up. At the moment, I am going to simply pay my way and enjoy the monthly income that comes from these deals. Then get some certifications and THEN my degree.
“This may come as a surprise to you, sir, but those “liberal arts” degrees do have value. I think that a substantial number of people on Wall Street have such degrees. Mine was in political science (I had hoped to go to law school but when the time came I couldn’t afford it) and I got a job as a surety bond underwriter trainee (the firm didn’t hire anyone who didn’t have a college degee).”
I would suggest that today’s job market is very different from when you went to school.
Today, many schools grant degrees where the student has learned next to nothing useful; and many employers are starting to figure this out.
For example, I am familiar with fixed income traders. In 2010, it is hard enough to find an entry level job in finance, and to the extent that a rookie is hired, it is because that candidate had factors that made him stand out. I know that young graduates with degrees such as a BS in Finance (with extensive math) have gone through many applications until finding a job. The chances of a pure liberal arts major (say, history) landing a finance job in this market is just about zero. A Poli-Sci major may need to get a MBA to be competitive.
And another thing: in today’s market, the wide majority (I would estimate at about 90 percent) in this field above the entry level, except for those of older generations (say, over 55) has a graduate degree.
I seriously doubt that you even know what the seven liberal arts are (although I think you will look it up now).
I got one degeee in 1966 and the other in 1975. I am 69 years old.
You are just part of the FR chorus that sings out against those are "educated" in college as opposed to those who are "trained." There is a difference, you know.
That’s not bragging. That’s using your head! Best of luck to you now and in the future.
Ours lived at home and commuted to college. By doing this he was able to save money so that when he did graduate he could move out.
He also kept an “insane” schedule while in graduate school...worked for the college as a TA 2 days a week to earn his tuition, worked the other 3 days at a job in his field, and went to school 3 hours a night, 3 nights a week. It was an awful schedule, but because of that he is able to live on his own now.
It’s kinda tough out in the US right now.
To me, this is no huge surprise, whether children or roommates or what have you, doubling up pools costs and stretches funds.
Which is sort of why I chuckle a bit at Rush when he goes on and on about this happening out here in the rest of America everyday is a kind of economic trench warfare.
Rush is clueless about what most people go through. But at least he is honest.
Well done. It’s not bragging, IMHO. Earning income because of value you provided to a market is completely honorable. My advise (just in case you care) is what I learned from the Bible: one, never fall in love with earning wealth; two, never depend on having a lot of wealth; three, always save some of it; and four, consider it a blessing to be able to give some if it away.
My problem is with the whole concept of college as a training facility, as opposed to providing a country with an educated citizenry. And you touch upon this with this quote:
Today, many schools grant degrees where the student has learned next to nothing useful; and many employers are starting to figure this out.
Don't you see that you have bought into this idea? That "learning next to nothing useful" states succinctly how you see the role of higher education. What a small and limited role that you perceived advanced education to be.
I was simply pointing out that a political science degree was a negotiable commodity, at least once upon a time.
And yes, you could rebut me by my noting that I had intended to use the degree as a stepping stone to law school, which would have given me a profession from which I would benefited economically.
I do like to think, though, that I learned a lot about the society in which I live while in undergraduate school. That was augmented, BTW, by my second degree (in economics).
Gotta run now. That's all I have to say.
Our daughter moved back with us for a few months when she gave up her job in LA. $60K + job was not enough to put up with all the liberal pests. She is now working in Katy TX, and we like having her being within 200 miles of us vs 2,000 miles.
Send your daughter to check out Reno. Reno is desperate for nurses.
Today you can shake any tree in a big city and a dozen unemployed kids with liberal arts degrees will fall out.
I don’t know about NYC, but I do know that when I needed a job, I did the “follow the pay check” plan. Worked for me. Granted when I got out of college, I had a job waiting, paid pretty well too, $112 per day once a month food, minimal housing, clothing and work utensils provided.
85% of college kids did not vote for Obama?
In your immediate social circle perhaps. The fact is:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27525497/
What’s more, young voters may prove to have been the key to Barack Obama’s victory. Young voters preferred Obama over John McCain by 68 percent to 30 percent — the highest share of the youth vote obtained by any candidate since exit polls began reporting results by age in 1976, according to CIRCLE, a non-partisan organization that promotes research on the political engagement of Americans between ages 15 and 25.
I understand your points completely. I often work for a senior executive, extremely sharp, who had a history degree (many years ago), and can cut through mathematical analysis like a knife though butter.
Some degrees are a prerequisite for a license to practice in a particular area (engineering, law, medicine, etc). All degrees, to some extent, help employers solve an information problem—hence the marketability factor of a degree.
Look, it’s not my fault that liberal arts faculty are overrun by left wing loons who no longer teach critical thought and logical discourse. One does not need math to have a logical mind or make a sophisticated argument, take for example Ronald Coase, however, it is the case that to the extent logic is taught at universities today, one is more likely to find it in fields with a concentration of math.
[Please accept my apology if I sound obnoxious, condescending or rude. It’s really not my intent. I have enjoyed the chat very much.]
Generally speaking, it can be a good thing. Family solidarity is a good thing. Depending on each other instead of on taxpayers you never meet personally (in other words on the govt). It can also be a fair tradeoff: you keep me out of credit abyss and bankruptcy court, and I keep you out of Shady Pines.
Not always practical, but I suspect it’s more often practical for all concerned, than any other arrangement.
And you would know that a liberal arts degree is useless because ___I say so____ (fill in the blank).
I didn't say it's "useless." But I do say that it's far less likely to land you a good job in your first years out of college, which was the general gist of the story.
My regrets to hard working FReepers who may be offended. Obviously not every liberal arts major is a Communist, nor is every hard science major a God fearing freedom loving American. But for the sake of the direction of this story, the shoe generally fits. A degree in physics, aerospace or nursing will take you further in your first year after college than something in (for example) black studies or music appreciation.
Edit to my post with the obvious screwup.....
I didn’t say it’s “useless” = I take back the “useless” part,
Fact is, as I penned the reply I didn’t think I’d have said it was useless, but I obviously said it, and it stung a couple of people. Let’s say it’s “less useful” in landing a good job out of college. :)
Unfortunately we didn’t actually tell kids that when they were in high school so they could have made different choices. I fear that old people will be used for fuel when these kids eventually get to reigns of power,
A bachelor's in physics won't take you as far as you think. Even a PhD in the subject has limited job prospects.
I think the Boomers and hippies, not the ones who have held the country together. I don’t think genocide against the old to turn them into soylent green, but I think that once the non-hippie generation gets into power, things are going to be flipped around. I was once in therapy and the volunteer psychologist told me that he (and this is how he viewed me too) that he isn’t going to choose a mate just out of romance, but pragmatic reasons. I think the coming generation is going to be very pragmatic, not idealistic.
My daughter is a mathematician and my son is an engineer, neither of them could find work after graduation. Together they obliterated more than a decades accumulation of my and my wifes frequent flyer miles going to interviews anywhere in the US they could find one.
Ultimately my daughter found a job with a Canadian bank in Montreal, my son however could only find contract work in the middle east.
Please identify their exact academic short-comings that makes them unemployable in this fine country.
Not all of them are deadbeats with weak majors. My daughter graduated with honors from a very prestigious college with a degree in chemistry. She moved back home, already had a solid job lined up. By the time her 9K in student loans came due 6 months later, she paid them off in cash. A year later, she paid cash for a lightly used car and moved into her own place. Our allowing her to live at home that short time helped her establish herself financially. And considering how little we paid for her to go to college, between her scholarships and her working summers, it was the least we could do to help her start her post-college life debt-free.
Good on you for keeping up your work ethic. After the Civil War, I am sure that a lot of Southern aristocrats were impoverished and did stuff they didn’t like or planned on doing. But they did it and got working.
When I get my degree in Virology, I will be giving back by working on those diesases that kill people and curing something.
“Please identify their exact academic short-comings that makes them unemployable in this fine country.”
Are they white and drug free and do not have a criminal record?
It's hard to stay alive in Bartertown if you are less than pragmatic. And that's exactly where we are headed.
It’s less about politics and more of the sense that you have an entire generation that feels as if they’ve been lied to for pretty much all their lives. They did as they were told and got nothing for it while all the lawbreakers seem to have been rewarded.
A. Mom, can you wash these?
Exactly. You put in a nutshell what I was unable to articulate.
Worse, their heterosexual too.
From there they and I looked for employment and once we found employment and established a fixed income, we moved out.........
It wasn't a political thing, it was a financial thing..........
As far as I'm concerned, this is a no news story...........
I wish to apologize for my harsh remarks about you. Looking over what you wrote, I can now tell that you are indeed an educated man...with a lot of patience in dealing with an old coot such as me.
Please forgive.
That, good sir, is one f'n hilarious response. I doff my chapeau.
Technically, you DID say it was useless. I quoted you. And I accept your apology. ;)
Indeed, the professions you list (law, medicine, engineering) do require training and colleges prepare students to acquire the credentials to practice these professions. But it’s not education as I (and others) perceive it. At this point the colleges are playing the role of trade schools. Medicine, particularly, fits this role. It’s high-level trade school.
Your point about the loony-tunes who have taken over the liberal arts colleges is well-taken. I sincerely doubt that I could have endured their preaching to me. Often, the political viewpoints of the college professors I was lucky to have were, for the most part, unknown. No preaching.
In closing, I wish to point out that the explosion, if you will, in the number of students going to college is a direct result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Griggs v. Duke Power Company (1971). The Court held that aptitude (intelligence) tests were discrimatory toward minorities and could not be administered as a requirement for employment. That put an end to employers’ use of these tests to weed out unsuitable candidates. So, they turned to the college degree as a substitute for these tests, believing that a college degree indicated a person had a certain level of intelligence to have mastered a college curriculum.
It was a pleasure to have discussed this subject with you. I did not detect any rudeness on your part.
School in Early 60s: The prospect that a job wouldn't be available didn't even enter our minds. Anyone willing could find a job. Once inside the company hard work and good attendance guaranteed promotions. Showing interest in areas outside your work area guaranteed personal growth. In my day formal education was a plus but the focus was more on the individual’s own efforts and interest in the goals of the company. I went up the ladder in my field after attending only 1 year of jr. college before working but continuing my education all during my working career
One thing with Rush, I NEVER doubt his sincerity, he is not going out of his way to take a shot at people, he really does believe that “boomer rang” graduates should not happen.
Over the years, I’ve grown to like Rush Limbaugh the person more than perhaps I used to, he is a Lion of Conservatism, I sometimes think maybe he would have liked to have had a actual Rush Baby of his own.
Fly them out here and I'll interview them. You'll get my report. :)
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