President Obama congratulates a group of college grads
APPLE VALLEY, Ca – Houston, we have a problem. College graduates are leaving school saddled with student loan debt, shaky futures and, most importantly, can’t find decent jobs. Scary. Very scary. Megan Thomas, contributor to MSNBC.com, wrote an excellent article that chronicles the experiences of MBA graduate Michael Barreto; who was subsequently forced to move back home with mom because he couldn’t find work. . “Right now I’m just trying to find any sort of full-time work that would allow me to live on my own and save money for the future,” said a disappointed Barreto.
Here’s more depressing news: the economic forecast calls for darker clouds, heavier thunderstorms, and hail with no sunshine in sight. Why? Job outsourcing, in addition to dwindling consumer confidence and sweat shops, practically ensures an extension of our nation’s economic downturn. A couple weeks ago, Geoffrey Heathcock (a.k.a. Professor Rock) provided some key information involving the “Consumer Confidence Indicator.” The data was not good. As of June 2010, consumer confidence dropped roughly 9.8% with unemployment remaining close to 10%. Scary. Very scary.
Ok, I know what you’re thinking. Why is he raising points about employment and consumer confidence? It’s simple. Many of us are encouraging our children to attend college directly after high school. However, there’s one teeny-weeny problem. Right now, the average grad student accumulates approximately $100,000 in student loan debt. If the trade off is a $12 per hour job at Starbucks, does it really make sense to push higher education? Employers claim college grads are inexperienced and generally unprepared to be productive inside the workplace. But I was always under the impression college provided such experience.
Let’s be frank. The system is broken. It’s time for legislators to get off their keysters and implement the repairs necessary to rejuvenate the economy. This includes curtailing job opportunities overseas, providing incentives for domestic manufacturers, and revamping the college education system to provide graduates with the experience necessary to gain top notch employment after school. Otherwise, we’re headed for a cliff like Wile E. Coyote. Somewhere, the Road Runner is laughing. “BEEP BEEP!”
Wayne Hodges, an MBA from St. Mary University, is the Editor-in-Chief of MassAppealNews.com. He is also a candidate for Kansas Senate District #7, an adjunct professor, and legislative intern with the Kansas Senate.
Comments
nice article dogg. this just gives kids a reason not to go to college. my cousin got a degree and he works at walmart barely makin minimum wage. this country rapes you one way or another
what do you expect???? mexicans takin all the jobs
hodge maybe we should tell our kids to IGNORE college and work a 9-5.
making $12 an hour aint so bad when you dont have student loan debt.
we settin our kids up for failure
just want to say i enjoy your articles and the stuff you write about. alot of people can relate to student loans and no jobs. this is a very well written blog post
Hodges great article with great points! My grandson got his Masters last year and he still cant find good work. Now students loans are starting to pile up on him. We need to bring our jobs back to the US where they belong. We tell our kids to get a college education then they get out of school and cant find a job. Something is wrong!
great article Wayne!!!
Outsourcing alone can not be blamed. Other reasons include automation, computerization, extraction of more work from less people, elimination of lots of middle layer jobs from US in the name of efficiency, etc.
Of course, college has become a business and that needs to change. Colleges and employers/businesses should work together. However, the politics in universities does not let that happen. So, we are stuck for the most part with an outdated education system that does not prepare graduates with good experience.
Nice article.
We wonder what happened to the economy? I know where it is.
Sallie Mae gave the for-profit schools incentives to prefer only them and got the schools to bloat enrollment to lure in Federal funds.
The schools bloat their enrollment with marketing, lying, deceptive tactics working hand in hand with Sallie Mae and other lenders. They targeted with sub-prime lending. They target people that are from single parent families with programs geared toward interests or bloated fields.
They fill the students with crap they don't need. Through deals with book companies, software companies, and computer companies, they find ways to tack more on your loans at a discounted rate to themselves. Telling you that you need to live in their bottom of the barrel dorms. There are so many different ways they manage to bloat out the loans the students sign for.
(to be continued)
The Goverment should round up all the Tacos and all the Sand-Fleas from the Middle East and send them back where they came from. This would open up many jobs for the REAL AMERICAN.
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The for-profit schools hide private loans under the guise it was coming from Sallie Mae's federal arm. Rushing the students along, confusing them with lots of paperwork and lots of lies to fill seats to keep the Federal (and private) money flowing. They send students in droves to the FASFA website to apply for money the school can get into without having to do any work for the students.
Students either finish school to under-employment or drop out and get handed the bills for student loans higher than most peoples rent/mortgage payments.
Obama got the student loan federal funding pulled, now Sallie Mae is stuck under the bulk of their sub-prime racket loans that they have their collection companies harassing those same students without regard for the FDCPA.
Students can't get afloat because student Loans are exempt from Bankruptcy due to Sallie Mae and other lender lobbyists.
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So now the banks get the bailout and can run off to Europe with your money and the students and the tax payers are left paying the bill.
This won't change until we get our consumer rights back again. Gamblers can blow all their money in Vegas and get loans and then get them written off in bankruptcy court. Yet, we students gamble on our future and lose no matter what.
You want to know where the economy went? In AL Lord's and other education type CEO pockets.
But don't worry, you might see your money again after they buy a golf course or your favorite baseball team.
Welcome to the future generation ruined already by corporate greed. All of this ruined because we wanted to expand our future but now we're trapped in a debtors prison because companies decided to capitalize on it.
Why are there 10 million illegal aliens holding jobs with all these unemployed Americans? A job painting at $15 per hour is better than no job at all. A job as a maid at a hotel at $10 an hour is better than no job at all. I'll tell you why. The Democrats know that new immigrants vote Democratic about 3 to 1. And Republicans are getting big checks from the vegetable growers and the chicken pluckers who want unlimited cheap labor.
Damn our politicians. Hats off to the people of Arizona.
graduates should be the one CREATING new jobs. not be jobseekers.
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