Replies

Wow. Where do I begin?

"...Alicia Thomas, 20, had it all planned out: career at a nonprofit, married by 24, mortgage by 26..."
Well,gee Alisha. For someone who's going to college, you don't sound very smart. Every single commencement address that I have heard given by Barack Obama or one of his comrades exhorts all of you brains full of mush types to forgo capitalist endeavors and get involved with nonprofit types. If you and all your dimwit friends steer your energies into nonprofit organizations, who you think is going to provide the jobs? Oh, that's right… I know that To all of you, jobs only come from one of two places: trees, or the government.

"...I don't want to invest in something I can't afford, given the economy breaking down," said Thomas, who is majoring in political science at UC San Diego. "I'll be taking smaller steps...."
I don't know Alicia. There's a reason the economy is breaking down, and most likely doesn't have anything to do with engineering or math majors, but I'm going to take a wild stab here and guess that perhaps political science majors might have their fingers in it somewhere. Besides, next to lawyers, political science majors have fallen pretty low on the respect totem pole, not to mention the job opportunity market.

"...Career plans are being altered, marriages put off and dreams shelved..."
When I graduated from high school, I decided 2 things: 1st, that my parents couldn't afford to send me to college. Secondly, I wasn't cut out for college, or ready for college at that point. (If I'd told my parents that I wanted to go to medical school at Harvard, they would've mortgaged everything they owned to send me there, but I wasn't going to take advantage of in that way) so I went into the military. In the military, I readied myself to go to college, and took courses in the things I was weakest in (such as math) and when I got out, I was darn well ready to go to college. I accepted money from the G.I. Bill, I lived at home, put off marriage, and went to a state college. I chose chemistry as a degree, but there were no jobs there at that point. So I found something that I was really interested in (nuclear medicine) and finished my degree in that. They told me that everyone who graduated from that program got a job. When I graduated, there were no jobs. So, I found part-time work in my field, and took some call duty at a small community hospital. I worked as hard as I could, and tried to be the best employee that I could, so that when a full-time job became available, I could go for and be as ready as could be. When that opportunity came some months later, I explained the situation to my current boss, who is dependent on my part-time work to fill his staff. But because I had laid the groundwork, worked as hard as I could, and gave them plenty of notice of my intentions, they let me go with no hard feelings and a good recommendation. THAT is how you manage a unsteady job market. If I could not have taken part-time work in my field, I would've taken part time work outside my field, and worked at that as it were my life's vocation. Even if that meant cleaning toilets, I would've done that. (Granted, the U.S. Navy did prepare me to handle that type of work pretty well, but your mind has to be open to it. Even today, if I lose my job, I will take any job, as long as I can get some pay for it.)

"... Our generation is going to take the brunt of the force of the debt crisis," said Glass, a government major at St. Lawrence University in New York. "It's going to mean fewer jobs, higher interest rates, more debt. "We'll have to sacrifice," he said. "This is a raw deal for our generation...."
Another government major. Now, I don't want to get too down on government majors, because I suppose we need some of them, just like we do need some lawyers. But I don't think we need a plethora of them. As for taking the brunt of the debt crisis, I think that you are being selfish and shortsighted in that estimation. Don't you think that a family of 5, well invested with an outstanding mortgage, car payments, and other types of financial obligations is going to take much more forceful hit from an economic downturn? Don't you think is going to be much more stressful, and difficult for them to figure out how to deal with these types of things, then someone who might supposedly be intelligent enough (such as a government major) who could see that perhaps things are unsettled, don't buy a new house right now, don't buy an expensive car, defer marriage and children for just a couple of more years until the situation is either better understood, stabilizing, or improving? Who would you rather be? To be honest, wouldn't you rather be a newly graduated college student, even one who might have outstanding student loans that perhaps they couldn't afford, but took them because what you need to do now is always more important than what you need to do later? Don't you think that all those changes in government that make these outrageous student loans more available to students with less responsibility and risk might have had something to do, at least in a small part, with the economic problems we are in?

"...The economy has been in sorry shape for so long that it has covered a significant portion of young people's lives. The recession officially ran from December 2007 to June 2009, but with slow growth and high joblessness since then, it doesn't feel much like it ended..."
I have a newsflash here for all young brains full of mush who might be listening more to the propaganda of the dear leader's pronouncements rather than looking around them: the recession did not end. Repeat, it did not end.

"...Anthony Wong, a business major at Palm Beach State College in Florida, said his peers are debating whether to finish school. They complain that an expensive degree saddled with loans no longer guarantees a good salary or even employment. "I think it'll be harder for us to buy homes or apartments or cars — those big life purchases — down the line," said Wong, 26..."
Hey, Anthony: who gave you those guarantees? Just curious, did anyone ever sit you down and hand you an embellished sheet of paper with a guarantee from some entity that you would have a good salary?

"...The job situation could haunt young people for years, said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. More than half of earnings growth over a lifetime happens in the first decade of a career, meaning that early unemployment can depress future wages for life, he said..."
More than half of earnings growth over lifetime happens in the 1st decade of a career? Okay, perhaps that might be true… but it is clear to me this guy could benefit from reading Thomas Sowell's book: “Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy”. I would suggest that for this statement to be true, one has to define the “1st decade of the career”.

"...I've changed my major so many times, not knowing which will help guarantee a stable income, health insurance and the ability to put my kids through college," she said..."It's made me realize that I could have my degree and be networking, but it would still be a challenge to find a well-paying job..."
Hey, Alicia: I can only imagine the quality of what you're learning if you're changing your major so many times on the basis of how much money you project to make. What do you suppose a prospective employer looking over your college record might think? Aren't you a nonprofit types supposed to be making that a back burner issue?

"...Vikram Abraham, 19, thinks many students are overly concerned about economic conditions. He's majoring in economics and accounting at UC Santa Barbara, interning at an investment bank and professes not to be worried about churning markets. "It only strengthens my resolve," Abraham said. "Most of my friends see the market as being terribly volatile, but now might be a valuable buying opportunity." Abraham is in the markets, investing for himself with confidence. He's even making what some could consider risky bets. "As young people," he said, "we have our entire lifetimes to bounce back..."
Just wow. Only the kid named Vikram really gets it here. One single non-brain full of mush out of the group. I'll hire this kid.