Iron Fist of Capitalism: The Empty Cliff

[cyu]

http://news.yahoo.com/1-2-graduates-jobless-underemployed-140300522.html

53.6 percent of bachelor's degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed, the highest share in at least 11 years.

they were more likely to be employed as waiters, waitresses, bartenders and food-service helpers than as engineers, physicists, chemists and mathematicians combined. There were more working in office-related jobs such as receptionist or payroll clerk than in all computer professional jobs. More also were employed as cashiers, retail clerks and customer representatives than engineers

After earning a biology degree last May, the only job he could find was as a construction worker for five months before he quit to focus on finding a job in his field.

"I thought that me having a biology degree was a gold ticket for me getting into places, but every other job wants you to have previous history in the field"

"Everyone is always telling you, 'Go to college,' But when you graduate, it's kind of an empty cliff."

[blake 3:17]

Haven't heard the Empty Cliff before, but seems right.

[cyu]

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-04-08/news/31309346_1_student-debt-student-loans-tuition-and-fees

When students first began enrolling in college in large numbers in the 1950s and 1960s, the social bargain was well-understood. States subsidized public two- and four-year institutions, keeping prices low enough that parents could afford to pay out of pocket or students could work their way through school. This arrangement held for several decades.

As late as the early 1990s, most undergraduates did not borrow.

Even as the percentage of classes taught by tenured professors declined, new spending on administrators more than filled the gap.

average tuition and fees at public universities increased by 80% from 2001 to 2012. During the same time period, income for households at the 60th percentile of earnings shrank.

As soon as you stop going to school, the bills come rolling in, regardless of the unemployment rate. And if you can’t pay them back, your college doesn’t care, because they got their money up front.

there’s a good chance you’re going to spend most of your 20’s in a state of indentured servitude to a lender or an employer you hate but can’t quit, because the loan bills — undischargeable in bankruptcy, thanks to industry lobbying — will follow you to the end of time. Literally: The Washington Post has reported that $36 billion in loan debt is held by people over 60 years old.

[ckaihatsu]

I guess it's "progress" to be in indentured servitude to academia rather than to a robber baron....


(8^p

[Comrade Jandar]

Shoot. I thought this thread was going to be about Tony Cliff.

[Lynx]

Apprenticeship training for a trade is a better investment as it costs less than going to college, university, etc.