Posted on 04/14/2006 6:44:37 AM PDT by Panzerlied
Many 20-somethings find themselves moving home to live with Mom and Dad, just like the movie 'Failure to Launch.' Blame it on the inertia -- and some very real challenges.
(Excerpt) Read more at moneycentral.msn.com ...
I apologize. That post wasn't directed specifically at yours but at the article itself. There ARE exceptions, but I think they should be EXCEPTIONS and not the rule.
I think it is partly because parents today no longer have any "rules" which would make their child want to move out and live on their own. And we can no longer expect teens and twentyers to have any sense of pride about accomplishing things on their own since they have been so pumped up with "self-esteem" regardless of their merit that they feel just fine about themselves.
Back in my day, no women would even LOOK at a man who still lived at home.
You are absolutely right.
The problem is that most of these new graduates are expecting 6 figure incomes the instant they depart academia.
Many jobs are entry-level or internship positions, but what kind of company gives 60,000+ annually to a 22 year old kid with a liberal arts degree?
Here's the problem. It didn't choose properly for education and now it's paying for it.
Higher education is not a finishing school or charm school. Four to seven years of expensive post-secondary work are not intended to make you a better person, or to teach you how to think, or to increase your overall understanding of the world, or any of the other mantras of the liberal arts faculty. If I am going to pay up to $250,000 to fund this enterprise, I expect them to emerge from it with a salable skill that cannot be performed in China or India or an entrepreneurial talent that will allow them to own a house, support a family, and provide for the future at least as well and hopefully better than I have. Incidentally, the construction trades would meet these requirements.
Funny, I had a Master Sergeant working for me (I was a Captain in the USAF at the time) with a Master's and working on a Ph.D. I only had a B.A. at the time . . .
"It's a choice to move home and often something they do out of financial necessity."
Lets talk about the word "necessity"...
Got an iPod? A Car? Did you enjoy your spring breaks down south?
What does studying the history of aborigines prepare you for ???
. . .Civil Service ? Social work, especially in the inner cities ??
(diving for cover, grinning like hell)
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, a ballroom dancer?
How much ya' wanna bet there's gonna be a brass pole in the middle of the "ballroom" where she ends up dancing...
I think that's the way a lot of them think.
I guess they're starting to feel it.
. . .Civil Service ? Social work, especially in the inner cities ???
I was thinking the same thing, and my wife IS a civil-service social worker.
This gets me - why on earth does it cost so much to sit in a classroom, listen to a professor drone for 2 hours, and take the occasional test? There's got to be a cheaper way to get this done, especially given the results highlighted in this article.
I'm still a few years away from that point, but have had this discussion with my (very) rich cousin whose eldest son is graduating HS this year. His son is a very talented artist and wants to go either to an art school or a university to study art. My cousin (self-made entrepreneur) is, obviously, concerned and wants him to study business.
What I proposed was that he let his son decide, but with the following proviso: that if the wanted to study business, cousin would pay the full ticket for four years, but that if he wanted to study art, he would pay some, but the son would have to get a job to pay the rest. You have that lever available to you as well.
The goal of raising a child is not to create a clone, but to create an autonomous individual. It's harder than it looks!
Our is, and we like it.
Daughter just graduated from college with an honors degree in Comp Sci. Got a great offer to work at a major R&D facility near where we live. We asked her to stay at home. We get free house sitting, and she saves a lot of money. Its working out well. Then again, she is doing this by choice and it is beneficial to all of us.
This writes its own jokes.
If you ever figure that one out... please let me know! :)
I think this is a way to help graduation blues. Get a job while you're in school and get experience before you graduate. Makes you more employable.
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