For how many generations have parents told their offspring that a college education would virtually guarantee economic success in life?
Well, not in Obama’s economy. All part of his hopeless change.
Our perspicacious IBD colleague Jed Graham has been studying the latest labor force data. Here’s his eye-opening finding:
“For the first time in history, the number of jobless workers age 25 and up who have attended some college now exceeds the ranks of those who settled for a high school diploma or less. Out of 9 million unemployed in April, 4.7 million had gone to college or graduated and 4.3 million had not.”
So, in his grand transformation of American society into something radically different that Obama won’t really define until safely after his reelection, there’s much less point to continuing on into higher education, especially at those hilarious tuition prices.
Some of us paid less for our entire first house than a current year’s tuition at universities that know they can jack the prices annually because Obama will increase the subsidies too. Sweet deal for the schools.
According to Graham’s findings, the best path to follow for employment now seems to be a two-year college degree; forget the high-priced, high-faluting universities. In April, the two-year college grad unemployment rate was 6.2% for those over 25. The high school diploma with zippo college was 7.7% in the same age group. And the college rate was 8%. (Quick, edit that degree out of your resume!)
You know, I hate to say it, but Judge Smails, conservative cartoon though he be, had it about right: the world needs ditch diggers, too.
And if the Obama administration inadvertently helps break the scam that higher education has become — the idea being that you need it to get a job, but the debt it forces you to incur guarantees that you’ll spend most of your working life servicing that debt, making you a kind of indentured servant to the liberal elite and their populist scheme to dilute the value of a college degree, just as their ideology has diluted the value of a college education — well, then more power to them.
Telling, though, isn’t it, that they only time this Administration does anything positive for the country, it’s because they’ve so seriously fucked up their Utopian promises that things just kinda work themselves back around to sober reality…?
We’re seeing that happen all over the place lately.
Hey, isn’t that what Santorum said because he hates children and wants them to be poor and stupid?
What?
That $80K student loan to major in The Life of the Three Pre-op Transgender Pigmies in Borneo didn’t translate to marketable job skills?
Shocker.
I don’t know that this is an indictment of Obama has much as the state of higher education in general.
And further evidence that it is a really shitty investment that we don’t need to be subsidizing.
Getting a M.A. was the worst decision I ever made. Getting a B.A. was the second worst.
My grandfather was a ditch digger and he provided a great living for his family. The world does need ditch diggers.
College is what you make of it. The problem is that kids think a degree automatically puts them at the top of the stack. NOPE. Now you just get to be in the stack. Getting a job is still entirely about who you know and who will vouch for you. AND HOW WELL YOU INTERVIEW. And entitled children don’t interview well.
And getting a liberal arts degree is a complete waste of time. Technology courses / degrees seem to hold some value. But these idiot liberal kids who get marketing degrees (I have a PR degree, I can knock them) or enviornmental WHATEVER thinking they are going to get a job making six figures for green peace are STUPID.
getting a liberal arts degree is a complete waste of time.
I have to throw the bullshit flag on this. A liberal arts degree is very malleable and can be used in many applications. Generally persons who have a liberal arts degree interview well, have large vocabularies, can examine ideas from many points of view and make good managers. (I do not hold such a degree, fwiw.)
Bachelor’s degrees are building blocks and not necessarily an end in themselves. Tech degrees are all well and good if that is what you enjoy. I fucking hate it. I hate computer programming, higher mathmatics, and accounting. I’d jump off a tall building if those were the only jobs available.
But we should note the effectiveness of the progressive or positivist project leigh, for it was precisely the elimination of the classical liberal arts — in favor of the modern technological society that they’d set out to accomplish. And what d’ya know! They’ve been successful beyond their wildest dreams, inducing exactly those people who’d most benefit from such an education to take up arms to repudiate it!
Oh, and on that score, evidently Roger Kimball has a new book.
Depressing, ain’t it?
Many people hate what they don’t and cannot understand.
Without the disciplines like computer programming, math, etc, there would be no tall buildings to jump off of.
I understand them just fine, crank-y. I just am bored to tears by it. I appreciate the work that folks like you do and am grateful that you enjoy it.
Respect cuts both ways.
Excuse me (or not) if I don’t believe you. I stand by what I said.
Alright. I understand them enough to know that I would never chose to make a career of it.
I dunno, cranky. I understand art history just fine, but that doesn’t mean I wanna be a curator. Hell, I have a degree in Physics, and I’ve learned that I don’t wanna be a physicist.
I don’t think it matter much what you major in, anyway. I’m a number-cruncher with, as mentioned above, a Physics degree. My best man is a database guru in a logistics group, and his major was Journalism, for crissakes! Lovely bride majored in English, and she’s a senior analyst at a financial services firm.
I understand that anecdotes aren’t data (Physics!), but in all our cases, hiring and promotion hinged off of what we knew, and what we could do, much more than what our majors were.
If it ever happened that a Postmodern Transgressive Transgendered Basket-Weaving major spent four years learning good work/study habits and gaining a well-rounded appreciation for classical learning and critical thinking, I think he or she or it would have no problem finding remunerative work. (Probably not in basket-weaving, but that’s sort of the point.)
But then, I realize that Jeff already made that point better than I when he distinguished between a degree and an education.
Jeff already made that point better than I when he distinguished between a degree and an education.
This. My ex-husband is a brilliant systems analyst and has been since the early 80s. He is also incapable of tact, humility or good judgement when interacting with other humans. The examples are myriad, but I will spare you.
Do you hate art history, Squid? Do you hate physics? I doubt it. Leigh, however, expressed hate for IT-type work.
I would not want to do art history because the idea holds no interest. I would not want to do physics because my physics knowledge pretty much stops at Newtonian mechanics (Mechanical Engineering). I don’t hate either discipline, though I think the former is next to useless as it creates nothing.
Leigh says stuff like this all the time, and then back-tracks when called on it (“hate” became “bored to tears”). Mostly I ignore it, as her opinion holds almost no weight for me even when I agree with it. However, this is one of the few times that I’m pointing out that her signal to noise ratio is not very good.
It’s very un-Christian of me, I know, and perhaps G-d will tell me of his displeasure. I’m truly not a very good person.
So, again, many people hate what they don’t understand. That has yet to be proven incorrect.
This sort of thing is exactly what I’m talking about, cranky-d. But since my opinion doesn’t matter to you, I’ll not say anything else.
i hate math cause math likes to wait til I’m on the phone then it jumps out of nowhere and tries to trip me up
OK then…as the resident dumass ( no degree, just intelligence ) I’d like to interject between Cranky and Leigh.
Newtonian mechanics I get, IT? hell, I can’t even post a bloody link. We all have our likes, dislikes and specialties. Is there anyone else here that can strip down and rebuild a LS7 or LS9?
My point is that you two are talking crap to each other, and you both have way more in common than you might think.
“Judge Smails, conservative cartoon though he be, had it about right: the world needs ditch diggers, too.” I think Mr. D will agree to the value of a properly dug ditch, (correct side of the string and to spec ), is thing of beauty. Of such, foundations are made. And of these foundations, tall buildings constructed. Upon which Leigh ascends.
The only compaint I would have is that this isn’t just Obama’s economy. It is his economy but also the economy of every congressman and congresswoman (and past president) who thinks you can spend with impunity as though the reckoning can always be pushed off until after the next election.
Blitz, given the proper patience, an adequate enclosed space, a complete Chilton’s manual and the necessary tools and an ocassional helping hand yes. Just don’t put a time limit on when it needs to be completed.
Out of work In-store Santa
Ability to reassure customers despite unreasonable demands
Ability to remain ‘jolly’ amidst crying,screaming and occasional
bouts of incontinence
Bring ‘festive ‘mood to any and all workplaces
Good with horned animals and some children