Posted on 03/18/2012 9:59:30 AM PDT by QT3.14
After graduating from Brown University in 2009 with a bachelors degree in comparative literature and completing a Fulbright scholarship in Brazil, Cassie Owens was left with a few dollars on her stipend and no job in sight. So, Ms. Owens returned home to her mother in Philadelphia.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Reminds me of writer during OWS protest who stated at the first sound of gun fire they would flee in panic to their parents basement.
degree in comparative literature?
How does that translate into the job market?
Part of the problem with these college kids is that they major in subjects which do not lead to a career field.
Why major in women’s studies, for example? Studying women may be fascinating, but how many jobs are there to study women?
Why major in black studies? Where are the jobs for that major?
Why major in philosophy? It may be fascinating to contemplate a philosophy of life, but how many job openings are there for philosophers?
As you indicated, those who fell for the call of tyranny, disguised as "hope and change," are beginning to see the results when there is a full-fledged effort to replace the essential ideas of freedom and liberty for individuals with counterfeit claims.
American citizens, for many years, have been led away from their foundations in freedom by so-called "progressives" who promise only a utopian dream (actually, a nightmare) of equality in misery under a political elite throughout the globe.
Here is an excerpt from a late-19th Century essay, which can be read at the Liberty Fund Library here.
"Freedom is the most valuable of all human possessions, next after life itself. It is more valuable, in a manner, than even health. No human agency can secure health; but good laws, justly administered, can and do secure freedom. Freedom, indeed, is almost the only thing that law can secure. Law cannot secure equality, nor can it secure prosperity. In the direction of equality, all that law can do is to secure fair play, which is equality of rights but is not equality of conditions. In the direction of prosperity, all that law can do is to keep the road open. That is the Quintessence of Individualism, and it may fairly challenge comparison with that Quintessence of Socialism we have been discussing. Socialism, disguise it how we may, is the negation of Freedom. That it is so, and that it is also a scheme not capable of producing even material comfort in exchange for the abnegations of Freedom, I think the foregoing considerations amply prove." EDWARD STANLEY ROBERTSON
Today is the day in America when the battle of ideas between Freedom and Socialism must be engaged by competent, knowledgeable spokesmen and spokeswomen who are presidential candidates.
Who will rise to defent the essential ideas of liberty against a charlatan who promises "goodies" in exchange for votes, and the yielding up of liberty in exchange for freedom from government.
Considering the skyhigh price of food, gasoline, rents, utilities, insurance etc, I would imagine few have any issues with living at home with the folks. If they pull their own weight and contribute, it's no biggy to me.
Try surviving on say, 11 or so bucks an hour in today's America. Those making 23k or so a year, are all but dead if they live on their own...
In fact, I would rather more live with the folks as a family, than contribute more to this corrupt government.
BTW, the cost of everything/economy started failing, while Booosh was still president, bankster bailout, economic collapse etc.
Defend what?
Upwards of 25 million illegal aliens this government welcomed in and is making you subsidize? 25 million illegals who are enjoying all the benefits and freedoms of America without the fear or risk of fighting or dying for it?
I advised mine not to until there are substantial significant changes in government at all levels, as well as dramatic changes to foreign/domestic policies, all propped up by a government which is corrupt to the core. I'm a veteran BTW.
With the high cost of rental properties, crippling student loan debt, and the shortage of entry-level jobs thanks to the recession, this isn’t surprising.
Here’s another point- how much of what’s required to study in high school is useful to the students in the job market?
That’s a good point. In her mid-twenties Cassie Owens finds herself in a position not that much different than where she would have been if she had dropped out of high school.
So, should we do away with knowledge for its own sake and concentrate on job training? Job training is how you see higher education, is it not?
I think that education and knowledge for its own sake is fine.
I am frustrated at discussions of how someone has a college degree, and perhaps has student loan debt, but can’t find a good paying job, or get into a career field.
I think that young people should think about jobs and careers they have an interest in. And they should know that if they major in philosophy, for example, that this will NOT help them get any job after graduation.
If someone has no clue what to do in life, and gets a four year college degree, majoring in a random field, I do NOT have a problem with that. I have the problem when we hear so much angst about how they can’t find jobs after graduation, if they majored in an area which does not lead to a career field.
Very astute comparison you’ve made. She probably would have been better off dropping out and found a job she could have grown in, and have the added bonus of no crushing debt for useless schooling.
I suspect that this is going to become a long term trend in the US, for several reasons.
To start with, there are inherently too many college educated people for the available jobs, that would allow them to maintain, or even achieve through hard work, a standard of living approaching that of their parents.
Add to this an immense level of debt to get this education, that effectively displaces 10 years or more of earnings that would otherwise be used to start a family and raise children.
Finally, the prosperity level of their parents, in many cases, is such that their parents can easily support them, in exchange for “retirement services”, such as being a chauffeur, cook, house cleaner, and other labor.
But this comes under “Amah rules”. In old China, respectable women whose families could not afford dowry, could become “Amah”, in which they would live with another family, and perform light work, like cooking, laundry, and being a nanny. They were not, however, servants as such, and would be treated as a beloved spinster aunt, a member of the family.
However, they could neither date nor marry, nor have children, as a condition of their residence. And this also applies to American children who live with their parents.
Already, Japan has an enormous number of such children living with their parents, caused by economic conditions much like those in the US.
Eventually, conditions will change in the economy, that will make it far more viable for young people to be able to earn a living and start a family on the natural timetable, but those who live with their parents are, and will remain, a lost generation.
Thanks in large part to the bloated and helpful federal government.
Ok here is my answer to your silly question.
Philosophy and comparative lit degrees teach one to write and to think critically. People need to know how to cope with all the dipstick ideas out there and these two degrees will help with that. Otherwise, the people who major say in psychology (the devil’s religion) or sociology (another know nothing degree) will run things. You have picked on the wrong majors.
Now true, math and science will translate into paying jobs quickly, but math and science majors typically have little common sense and wouldn’t know how to run things.
On the other hand, if a given individual attends university purely as a quest for knowledge, it's sort of silly to then complain about obtaining employment as a result, if that was never an objective, now isn't it?
It worked out ok for me.
There's nothing wrong with someone getting a degree in philosophy, comparative literature, etc. I'd suggest, however, that these achievements are probably best attained by going to night school while working a full-time job.
Thanks. One of the things that has amazed me over the years is just how little knowledge and wisdom a lot of people have after getting an Ivy League education and traveling overseas on a Fulbright scholarship.
Degree in Comp Lit, no job prospects, and up to her EARS in debt to liberal Brown University, who decries biz as GREEDY and manipulative.
Brown University, replete with marxian econ PhD’s, USED HER. They DECEIVED HER when she was young and impressionable —NONE of her student debt is dispatchable via bankruptcy and THEY HOPE she defaults...!
The Ivory Tower must BE FELLED —it must fall to the ground.
Educators value high standards, yes? LET THEM LIVE UP TO THOSE STANDARDS.
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