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24 Reasons Why Millennials Are Screaming Mad About America's "Unfair" Economy
Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
Do you want to know why Millennials seem so angry? We promised them that if they worked hard, stayed out of trouble and got good grades that they would be able to achieve the "American Dream". We told them not to worry about accumulating very high levels of student loan debt because there would be good jobs waiting for them at the end of the rainbow once they graduated. Well, it turns out that we lied to them. Nearly half of all Millennials are spending at least half of their paychecks to pay off debt, more than 30 percent of them are living with their parents because they can't find decent jobs, and this year the homeownership rate for Millennials sunk to a brand new all-time low. When you break U.S. adults down by age, our long-term economic decline has hit the Millennials the hardest by far. And yet somehow we expect them to bear the burden of providing Medicare, Social Security and other social welfare benefits to the rest of us as we get older. No wonder there is so much anger and frustration among our young people. The following are 24 reasons why Millennials are screaming mad about our unfair economy...
#1 The current savings rate for Millennials is negative 2 percent. Yes, you read that correctly. Not only aren't Millennials saving any money, they are actually spending a good bit more than they are earning every month.
#2 A survey conducted earlier this year found that 47 percent of all Millennials are using at least half of their paychecks to pay off debt.
#3 For U.S. households that are headed up by someone under the age of 40, average wealth is still about 30 percent below where it was back in 2007.
#4 In 2005, the homeownership rate for U.S. households headed up by someone under the age of 35 was approximately 43 percent. Today, it is sitting at about 36 percent.
#5 One recent survey discovered that an astounding 31.1 percent of all U.S. adults in the 18 to 34-year-old age bracket are currently living with their parents.
#6 At this point, the top 0.1 percent of all Americans have about as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent of all Americans combined. Needless to say, there aren't very many Millennials in that top 0.1 percent.
#7 Since Barack Obama has been in the White House, close to 40 percent of all 27-year-olds have spent at least some time unemployed.
#8 Only about one out of every five 27-year-olds owns a home at this point, and an astounding 80 percent of all 27-year-olds are paying off debt.
#9 In 2013, the ratio of what men in the 18 to 29-year-old age bracket were earning compared to what the general population was earning reached an all-time low.
#10 Back in the year 2000, 80 percent of all men in their late twenties had a full-time job. Today, only 65 percent do.
#11 In 2012, one study found that U.S. families that have a head of household that is under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent.
#12 Another study released back in 2011 discovered that U.S. households led by someone 65 years of age or older are 47 times wealthier than U.S. households led by someone 35 years of age or younger.
#13 Half of all college graduates in America are still financially dependent on their parents when they are two years out of college.
#14 In 1994, less than half of all college graduates left school with student loan debt. Today, it is over 70 percent.
#15 At this point, student loan debt has hit a grand total of 1.2 trillion dollars in the United States. That number has grown by about 84 percent just since 2008.
#16 According to the Pew Research Center, nearly four out of every ten U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 40 are currently paying off student loan debt.
#17 In 2008, approximately 29 million Americans were paying off student loan debt. Today, that number has ballooned to 40 million.
#18 Since 2005, student loan debt burdens have absolutely exploded while salaries for young college graduates have actually declined…
The problem developing is that earnings and debt aren’t moving in the same direction. From 2005 to 2012, average student loan debt has jumped 35%, adjusting for inflation, while the median salary has actually dropped by 2.2%.
#19 According to CNN, 260,000 Americans with a college or professional degree made at or below the federal minimum wage last year.
#20 Even after accounting for inflation, the cost of college tuition increased by 275 percent between 1970 and 2013.
#21 In the years to come, much of the burden of paying for Medicare for our aging population will fall on Millennials. It is being projected that the number of Americans on Medicare will grow from 50.7 million in 2012 to 73.2 million in 2025. In addition, it has been estimated that Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars over the next 75 years. That comes to approximately $328,404 for every single household in the United States.
#22 In the years to come, much of the burden of paying for our exploding Medicaid system will fall on Millennials. Today, more than 70 million Americans are on Medicaid, and it is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.
#23 In the years to come, much of the burden of paying for our massive Ponzi scheme known as Social Security will fall on Millennials. Right now, there are more than 63 million Americans collecting Social Security benefits. By 2035, that number is projected to soar to an astounding 91 million. In 1945, there were 42 workers for every retiree receiving Social Security benefits. Today, that number has fallen to 2.5 workers, and if you eliminate all government workers, that leaves only 1.6 private sector workers for every retiree receiving Social Security benefits.
#24 Our national debt is currently sitting at a grand total of $17,937,617,036,693.09. It is on pace to roughly double during the Obama years, and Millennials are expected to service that debt for the rest of their lives.
Yes, there are certainly some Millennials that are flat broke because they are lazy and irresponsible.
But there are many others that have tried to do everything right and still find that they can't get any breaks. For example, Bloomberg recently shared the story of a young couple named Jason and Jessica Alinen...
The damage inflicted on U.S. households by the collapse of the housing market and recession wasn’t evenly distributed. Just ask Jason and Jessica Alinen.
The couple, who live near Seattle, declared bankruptcy in 2011 when the value of the house they then owned plunged to less than $200,000 from the $349,000 they paid for it four years earlier, just as the economic slump was about to start. Jason even stopped getting haircuts to save money.
“We thought we’d have a white picket fence, two kids, two dogs, and we’d have $100,000 in equity,” said Jason, 33, who does have two children. “It’s just really frustrating.”
Can you identify with them?
Most young Americans just want to work hard, buy a home and start a family.
But for millions of them, that dream might as well be a million miles away right now.
Unfortunately, most of them have absolutely no idea why this has happened.
Many of them end up blaming themselves. Many of them think that they are not talented enough or that they didn't work hard enough or that they don't know the right people.
What they don't know is that the truth is that decades of incredibly foolish decisions are starting to catch up with us in a major way, and they just happen to be caught in the crossfire.
Sadly, instead of becoming informed about what is happening to our country, a very large percentage of our young people are absolutely addicted to entertainment instead.
Below, I want to share with you a video that I recently came across. You can find it on YouTube right here. A student at Texas Tech University recently asked some of her classmates a series of questions. When they were asked about Brad Pitt or Jersey Shore they knew the answers right away. But when they were asked who won the Civil War or who the current Vice-President of the United States is, they deeply struggled. I think that this video says a lot about where we are as a society today...
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Listen.
Oh boo hoo. The poor young Americans. China and India took all your jobs.
STFU!
I have Chinese and Indians coming to me to fix their problems. So you STFU
Once those kids get fed up...
There is one more class they need to take.
http://www.ruckus.org/section.php?id=82
# 25
http://www.forbes.com/sites/eamonnfingleton/2014/11/12/obama-in-china-taking-candy-from-a-baby/?partner=yahootix
Millennials are screaming mad. Try to imagine my baby boomer terror.
Until further notice avoid their parent's basements.
They see the fruits of drug dealin, gamblin, gunrunni', or pimpin. Why should we play by the rules if the Corporate fucks are breaking them with every opportunity to make a commish? Join the revolution, and tell The Man to go fuck a turd.
Work hard at a job you hate...just like me. End up working until you can't anymore, and then become dependant on your offspring. Yeah.. or.. ? Invest in stawks! Sign up a ROTH! Buy a fucking house! Might as well just come out and say you fucked us for your pension.
Thanatos: "...Once those kids get fed up...
There is one more class they need to take..."
Classes are over-rated and nobody can afford them. I suggest that this free manual available online would be of more practical value.
Paver,
Think it through.
A car is way too dangerous for most of these tards.
90% of them won't read the manual and 1/2 of those will self-fratricide (they will find a way) on the first day.
It'll be a Goat Rodeo with landmines and laserbeams.
I just want to be at least far enough away to wonder - what the fuck are those idiots doing over there?
Follow the link, it's actually fairly good stuff (for Bezerkely)
Thanatos - It was suppose to be sarc. I wouldn't expect them to get past unfolding the bipod. I seem to remember Eotvos and Coriolis calcs requiring many of those squiggly number things. They would never be able to figure out how to use it until there's an iPhone app. Which is all well and good because lead is the most inhuman of ways to fix anything.
That certainly wasn't a slight on Ruckus - I'm always delighted to see intelligent activism. I'm just grumpy that anyone has to use activism again. A couple of hundred years ago some old dead guys put a lot of time and effort into a scheme that got rid of the need for much of it. A lot of other dead guys fought to defend that scheme over the years. I missed the part where it was conned away from me (I blame the drugs).
http://www.shooterapp.net/
I'm going to get a faster and less error prone calc from an app. And before "battery herr derr", ever had a pencil break out in the field or do calcs when it is poring rain with no sleep for 3 days? Shit sucks yo. A lot of you also seem to forget these millennial are also ex-military with combat experience, so I think they can operate a SAW or M16 with at least basic proficiency. Hell, when I was in we still played with M-2 50 cals from WWII with manual headspace and timing.
I am so sick of this age war. We all have the same damn enemy!
I'm a millennial and I do think there is a generational difference between boomers and millennials, mainly, that we grew up with the internet.
I could sit here and blame the baby boomers for their consumerism, reefer madness drug war, propaganda culture and everything else they have passed down to us. But they could blame their parents, and they would blame their parents, and so on and so on. It doesn't really get you anywhere and individuals need to take responsibility for their own lives and actions. Boomers and Millenials alike.
I think it doesn't matter what has happened to you, it only matters what you do about it. There will have to be sacrifices for all generations.
I have to say that the Shooter app is absolutely amazing, exi1ed0ne. I honestly had no idea that an iPhone one actually existed.
Despite the snark, eveyone would have killed (literally) for one of those back in the day. No pencils - stone wheels were all the rage back then. It took five guys just to haul the ballistics computer around. The plus side was that you had an awesome high-terrain defense. The wheels pick up a fantastic amount of kinetic energy on the way down - they could take a bad guy's head clean off without skipping a beat.
Nice Man! I kinda got ya. reply was more for others... Don't want to encourage bad bahavior.
Sounds like I am in your cadre.
Sadly... There are numerous iPhone ballistics apps:
iSnipe is one I have seen..There are dozens of them.
really us gen Xers were warned that SS and mediscare was a scam and I tried to warn my stepson see I was warned and did not bring a child in this world I hoped I could help one that was here but the dumb fucker just wants to have fun and not work, get high and thinks I owe him something. So I kicked him out of the house so maybe he will see that nobody owes anyone anything. if man dosnt work he will not eat unless he wants to beg o bummer for food and drugs. I say this country needs a depression to wake it up. go ahead and give me thurs down but I can see exactly what's happening and asleep I am not Tired though I am FUCK the milenials applied rotten BRATS
Boss Man born in 1967...er...ok. You kicked your step son out of your banker owned, mortgaged house and call that shit manhood? You're a fucking pussy. Man up and be A DAD. You're the fucking cancer that rot's the household. Only out for pussy and 'yours'. You think you 'earned' everything/anything? You can own what's coming. How 'bout that?
....well, actually he is a gen x'er....
So am I at age 51
Wiki ....Generation X, commonly abbreviated to Gen X, is the generation born after the Western Post–World War II baby boom. Demographers, historians, and commentators use beginning birth dates ranging from the early 1960s to the early 1980s.
Wisegeek: Generation X, sometimes abbreviated to Gen-X, is a term used to describe the people born roughly between 1960 and 1980. It is sandwiched between the Baby Boomer and Millennial generations.
What's this "we" shit? I never said any such thing!
well wikipedia is wrong.
the Boomer birth years ended in 1964 last I saw.
No a real Dad will teach you to be a self sufficient man ... whether it makes him popular or not. And to be fair he chose not to have his own children.
Screw that. The words that turn the argument in his favor is "get high." No way it's party time in anyone's household unless it's at the owners discretion. His house, his rules. Bounce the pampered little shit out in the streets, see how it turns out.
"Do you want to know why Millennials seem so angry? We promised them that if they worked hard, stayed out of trouble and got good grades that they would be able to achieve the "American Dream". We told them not to worry about accumulating very high levels of student loan debt because there would be good jobs waiting for them at the end of the rainbow once they graduated."
Mmmm..no. I told them:
- do your math
- "women's studies" is a revenue stream for the college....not for you
- if you vote for the Kenyan, don't bitch to me when the economy sucks air for 8 years due to the business costs
Awesome comment it is kinda amazing that a Kenyan is related to all presidents except for one. America is ruled by one family by a fake two party system. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq0IhChPuYI
"You're angry because you got lied to? Is that why my chicken dinner is drying out in the oven? Hey, they lie to everyone. They lie to the fish."
The millenials voted for Obala enmasse like the fu**king drooling libturds, progressives and Democrats.
The best part about that is more Boomers voted for Obama than did millenials.
"The best part about that is more Boomers voted for Obama than did millenials."
Mmmmm.... no. Pretty much....completely no.
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/elections/how_groups_voted/voted_12.html
AGE %total Obama Romney18-29 19 60 37
30-44 27 52 45
45-64 38 47 51
65&over 16 44 56
"The millenials voted for Obala enmasse like the fu**king drooling libturds, progressives and Democrats. "
They are the fucking drooling libturds, progressives, and Democrats. See the demographic breakdown above.
Those are percentages, not totals.
Boomers outvoted young people by a wide margin because old people always vote more than young people. So even if percentage-wise the Boomers broke for Romney, because of the sheer number of people in that group who voted, they're the reason Obama won.
If anything, young people are much less responsible for the collapse of this country because A) they haven't been voting nearly as long as the old fucks who spent decades getting us into this mess, and B) hardly any young people vote.
"Boomers outvoted young people by a wide margin because old people always vote more than young people. So even if percentage-wise the Boomers broke for Romney, because of the sheer number of people in that group who voted, they're the reason Obama won"
If you would like to provide an age breakdown per age group by number of votes rather, I'm sure we would all be eager to see the totals.
45% 18-29 turned out in 2012 vs 51% in 2008
66% 30+ turned out in 2012 vs 67% in 2008
There are about 76 million boomers and about 80 million millenials.
You got it McMolotov. Reality is a bitch ain't it but that doesn't change the facts.
There's a difference in % of cohort versus number of voters. A larger number of boomers voted for Obama than did Millenials. That is a fact.
Popular vote for Maobama by age range. Unfortunately, the age ranges have generational overlap.
18-24 8,372,053
25-29 6,088,766
30-39 11,860,409
40-49 12,177,532
50-64 16,693,367
65+ 8,930,190
edit: these are 2012 results
Indeed, and if they had only voted for Romney, things would be all better, right?
Your comment reeks of red vs blue mentality. Many millenials voted for obama in 08 because they were voting for a percieved outsider who was agaisnt coperate bailouts, corruption, torture, the war agaisnt our rights etc. We were told that was who he was. And we were naive enough to believe him. His actions showed the sham for what it was but was. john mccain was any better? I know the consensus here is that ron paul was the best among the three and i have little disagreement on that matter but most young people werent aware of him in 08. Ronslimited success in 2012 is an example of a lot of millenials who voted for obama for the above reasons switchin to libertarian candidates because of obama hypocrisy.. Live and learn I suppose though you cant really fault us for our youth and idealism. However misplaced it was.
Seems like Im ramblin but fuck imma post this anyway.
Fair enough on the Kenyan, but perhaps Republicans could come up with more inspiring candidates than Mitt 47% Romney, John "that one" McCain, Bush 3.0, or Bob Viagra Dole. Republicans have failed to achieve a popular vote majority in 5 of 6 of the last Presidential elections. I don't hear that being discussed much around here.
Well then, your promises were wrong and therefore your parenting skills are shit.
Sort of what you would expect from self-absorbed Bomers.
Go back where you came from, rug monkey.
Listen.
Boo hoo. Who's your VP? Dummy Americans. Texas Tech dummies. No wonder. Ha!
BAng EQ...
"Who's your VP?"
They gave us Biden so nobody would shoot Obama
What do Texas Tech and TCU students have in common?
They both applied to TCU.
Fuck you Bangalore. You are the zh running joke. I am certain many here would not shed a tear when you depart. Your comments add nothing to the discussion. Fuck off.
Listen.
You mad bro? lol.
No , we're not mad. It's just frustrating when everyone knows what a douche bag you are except you.
Listen.
O God, give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed,
The courage to change what can be changed, and the wisdom to know the one from the other.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer
dude - just leave.
Or do I have to translate into Bollywood dialect?
You are without question, the worst poster since Robotrader. Keep it up.
It's always amusing when someone who's entire life is built around EU/US fund flows propping up his shithole which pretends to be an "emerging economy" feels an urge to speak about how progressive India & Chinese productivity gains are vs. the Japanese/German/US tech they pirated. If you are so comfortable in your future world dominance how does that the current retrenchment in the tech sector offshoring (and Bangladesh layoffs) square with that outlook and contrast that with the Abenomics euphoria.
I will assume you will now sputter some ZOG nonsense, so I'll cut to the chase. You're a penny trader, pretending to be a qualified opinion, stinking up ZH, mostly for our comedy. Now do your part for global warming and find someplace to die. If you can not even do that properly, we will be more than accomodating to watch you slowly starve and fuck off when BRIC beta trades reverse, like the "asian flu". You know, for the lulz & shit. I give you about 1 more year before you and your seat on a Bhopal pump & dump desk shrivel up and die.
Fun fact: Everyone thought the generation from 1910-1937 was weak and out of touch. Go back and read the WSJ. How many of them post-1960 were called soft. Do you call Carl Ichan or Buffett soft? How about Mobius. Laugh it up shit head. It won't be so funny when the GATA trade laws start to buckle or the raiders start to dissolve the P.Pills & if the Petrobras case wins.
Listen.
Keep dreaming ratboy. The joke is America. Known world wide, except in America as evident in above video.
But please take it out on me, just to show your own ignorance. lol.
According to your own government babu’s statistics, 54% of Indians take a shit completely in the open out of doors. Another 27% lack plumbing, but at least have plywood, cardboard or corrugated metal walls that offer a modicum of privacy when they drop trou or sari. Even the Times of India has run front page Government announcements asking Indians to refrain from taking a dump on city sidewalks, like in Delhi and Mumbai, and no doubt your Bangalore. Putting those statistics to the population, and assuming one-a-day, that is a billion public or semi-public unsanitary defecations a day, 365 days a year.
Holy shit! You can start another cult, build a gawdy place of pilgrimage, and become spiritual leader in the Temple of a Billion Defecations, when your call center job gets re-outsourced.
Indian letchers and gang rapists (with Sachin Tendulkar retiring, gang rape has usurped cricket as the National Pastime) love to lay in wait in the rural fields for young girls, especially Dalits, who go out to do the needful. Sometimes when the rapists are done, they hang the girls and light their bodies on fire, which seems to be a kind of marriage rehearsal in the land of get-me-another-dowry. Now your government is offering HUGE money, 1400 rupees ($23) for female sterilization. The catch---doesn't big money always have a catch---is the docs suck and 13 poor women, so far---have gone to give Ganesh, Krishna, and all the 3.3 million gods a piece of their mind.
Yes, you have much of which to be proud. In that Eden of yours no wonder you have so much time to criticize other countries and cultures.
Listen.
Americans excrete(#1 and #2) in their water, give that water to their government who then takes out the solids adds chlorene, flouride, and other chemicals and then sells it back to the dummies who just gave it to them.
Then those stupid Americans drink and cook in that very water.
Ha! You can't make this up.
The long term heath effects cause cancer but that's a bonus to American GDP, Obozocare, the ultimate death tax, cancer.
Don't let those Indian girls fool you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhSmzpHk8ok
I hate to tell you how to run your temple, but you could claim that the defecate is Holy, kind of like that sludge known as the Ganges, and make bhindis out of it. Or make it a lunchtime favorite, call it ?auca Vindaloo. Guaranteed Delhi Belly, which means more offerings for your temple. How's that for re-hypothecation!
Of course you would have thought of this all on your own. That's the kind of cutting-edge innovation that spews daily from your land.
Listen Chindit.
I didn't realize but after all these years you've been hiding your feces fetish from the Zero's. A coprophile, who would have known?
Just trying to be culturally sensitive and speak of matters of which you and your people are the unquestioned experts.
And not that I can tell you how to run a schlock temple, but since the monkey boy and the elephant head are already taken, I suggest you make your deity a horse's arse head, as a quick check of The Layman's Guide to 3.3 Million India Deities (on CD from Shiva Baba Ram & Sons Productions, Plc) says nobody has dibs on that. Get your chant down, and you could become one with your deity, though I suspect a layman couldn't tell you apart now.
Double post….damn Indian ISP
Sunana.
Get on this and fix it, Bangalore!
On another note, Bangalore Equities, I work in Bangalore. I've worked in the US, Europe, and Middle East, trust me, this place has some of the least productive and poorly educated and poorly motivated professional class people I have ever worked with. That said, it is better than the rest of India, which seems to be much worse.
One of the traits you see in India is the desire to elevate your greatness beyond all conceivable logic when the obvious facts on the street dictate otherwise (not to mention the open sewage and trash on the streets). This is currently reflected in the Indian Space Program, a curious priority in a country that has 400 million people without electricity and 600 million people without toilets creating massive public health problems, not to mention a painful shortage of deep water ports and essential infrastructure. Much of this can be related to the fact that in most other countries, most people in MoEF (the environmental ministry) and the union representing the national coal company would be either in jail or had their bodies dragged through the streets Fallujah-style, but here in India, everybody just looks away and moves on.
I see Indians that find it easy to criticize other countries, but it is absolutely appalling the abject failure to persistently address the country's own profound problems. Allowing such poverty to persist where changes would be simple economically but merely political difficult is a profund moral failure of the Indian political class and Indian culture.
I believe your country's ancestors would be embarrassed and shocked as to what this country has become.
you have connections in bangalore? AWESOME
please tell your pals to stop calling my house and telling my kids my computer is sending out error messages. They know better, but the your dipshit pals are annoying as hell.
Well you got them, can't argue that,,, But you didn't 'take' them. They were given to you and others who were/are willing to work for next to nothing, in nations that don't care about their environment whether land, sea or air. The corporate oligarchs are raping you and yours and your thanking them. Might have a change of heart when your family and friends start dying of noxious diseases and cancers. Good luck.
Americans paid for the factories and transfer of skills and still are. Today on ZH an article about how America will cut carbon emissions by a large amount by 2025 while China said they might start cutting if economic conditions allow it. More American jobs will now go to China due to cheaper energy and labor.
Until Americans decide to stop these shenanigans, this will continue until we too, will be willing to work for pennies a day. The millennial's problems are just the first symptons of what's in store for Americans who refuse to act to end it. Right now the issue is being ignored,,, pretty soon though.........
Listen.
"pretty soon though".
You give them too much credit. They will look to .gov for a solution and you know how that ends.
It's a country of dependents who long ago lost it's will.
I can't say I disagree with you... but here's to hoping!
LOL....This coming from the country that had the Congress party in power for two thirds of its history. The pot calling the fucking kettle black. LMAO.
BE, your country is the world's biggest sewer and you can thank Nehruvian socialism for that. Go ahead, blame another country for that. Pretty tough in an autarkic Nehruvian system.
Listen.
Fuck off already. I'll take 100 Jawaharlal Nehru's over 1 Barack Oblather any day.
LMAO. Nehru destroyed your country. Everytime I see an Indian taking a piss on the street in broad daylight, I'm going to put a little Nehru statue under his tiny, tiny dick.
It's true, btw. Indians have some of the smallest penises in the world. See below:
http://www.targetmap.com/viewer.aspx?reportId=3073
It is so simple...get some fucking assets morons.
.
.
.
sarc off
Oh guess you can't get any assets if all you have is EBT, subsidized housing and sit on the couch.....Anyone heading to Fergusen for the announcement...should be quite a show of the uninformed populace looting and destroying their city.
"Sadly, instead of becoming informed about what is happening to our country, a very large percentage of our young people are absolutely addicted to entertainment instead."
I don't care how angry you are bro. Action speaks so much louder than words. Time to put down that 'joy' stick, shut off Halo 37 (or whatever your addiction of choice is) and hit the streets. It's 'your' turn to turn up the heat.
If I moved to Alaska because I don't like the heat, does that make me a loser ... ?
Regards,
Cooter
P.S. I did try though; Veni, vidi, defeci!
98% of the Navy NON-OFFICER graduating class from bootcamp HAVE COLLEGE DEGREES.
They're probably trying to entertain themsevles between deployment to draft dodging cokehead freeloading hippies' wars. If they're not getting paid, play all day for all I care.
hit the streets. It's 'your' turn to turn up the heat.
It's not your father's America anymore. Ever since 9/11, peaceful protests have been handled with increasing force and protestors looked upon as terrorists. 6,000,000 cases of mortgage fraud were committed and the FBI ignored them all. Yet the FBI found the resources to infiltrate and annihilate the Occupy Movement.
Peaceful protests equal terrorism in a fascist, police state. The only change permitted in such a state is one that favors the few.
“Occupy” meets the Occupation
When a riot squad from the New York Police Department destroyed and evicted the “Occupy Wall Street” protest encampment at Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan, department leadership drew on the anti-terror tactics they had refined since the 9/11 attacks. According to The New York Times, the NYPD deployed “counterterrorism measures” to mobilize large numbers of cops for the lightning raid on Zuccotti. The use of anti-terror techniques to suppress a civilian protest complemented harsh police measures demonstrated across the country against the nationwide “Occupy” movement, from firing tear gas canisters and rubber bullets into unarmed crowds to blasting demonstrators with theLRAD sound cannon.
Given the amount of training the NYPD and so many other police forces have received from Israel’s military-intelligence apparatus, and the profuse levels of gratitude American police chiefs have expressed to their Israeli mentors, it is worth asking how much Israeli instruction has influenced the way the police have attempted to suppress the Occupy movement, and how much it will inform police repression of future upsurges of street protest. But already, the Israelification of American law enforcement appears to have intensified police hostility towards the civilian population, blurring the lines between protesters, common criminals, and terrorists. As Dichter said, they are all just “crimiterrorists.”
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/12/from-occupation-to-occupy-the-israelificat...
"Ever since 9/11, peaceful protests have been handled with increasing force and protestors looked upon as terrorists."
While I agree things are different now..........does anyone else remember embedded provocateur agents, the tear gas, brass knuckles in the back of the police detention bus or truck, kicks in the balls and batons to the head by jack booted police and 3-4 days in a cell until the cops decided they didn't want your stinking ass around anymore and they released you like I do when 'peacefully' protesting in the 70's and early 80's?
It's wasn't a tea party back then and it isn't one today. And in the 70's I heard the 60's were even worse.
If you needed any proof that the US has become a fascist, police state since 1980, you need just one statistic:
Federal Prison Population Spiked 790 Percent Since 1980 (to 2102)US population is up 38.4% from 1980 to 2012
Listen.
America needs to Israelify American LE. How else to keep the slaves in order and optimized for peak economic performance.
Pfffft. Old Andy Griffith ain't goin to increase GDP.
Learn to write English you friggin queer. When posting a comment DONT WRITE LISTEN. we read it - we don't L-I-S-T-E-N.
Lawyer’s Lament
So, you were a criminal lawyer,
just part of some huge disaster
requiring a unique mass of solution
that will never happen.
You break your back,
a hero of justice,
and the only good you can do
is kibbles and bits.
It is a sad thing.
A lump of concrete and steel,
tinseled with razor wire,
for storage of the prosecuted,
is no Valentine to Humanity.
Yes you did ya bastards and thats why this Millennial is just going to keep on stacking away! I got time on my side and they don't! HA!
trust me, my generation is more mad about faggots not being allowed to marry than the economy.....
but but but they have iphones.
Our national debt is currently sitting at a grand total of $17,937,617,036,693.09. It is on pace to roughly double during the Obama years, and Millennials are expected to service that debt for the rest of their lives
Our unfunded liabilities are $130 trillion to $244 trillion. Millennials will get hardly any Social Security or Medicare. They will have to work until they drop - if they can compete with the ever-cheaper and far more capable robots. Dystopia is an understatement for the future that awaits the Millennials.
Yes, it will double but they voted for him in overwhelming numbers, so clearly the thing to do is throw open the borders for moar cheap labor for them to compete against!
That and moar eduakashumin, thats the ticket ;-)
To be fair, open borders do accelerate killing off Americans via diseases thereby reducing future liabilities. WAD?
...not sure if I want to know the answer to that question
"That and moar eduakashumin, thats the ticket ;-)"
We clearly need more "Latino Studies" programs in public universities, so that the incoming wave can enjoy 4 years of free publicly funded beer while studying something self-affirming.
We already have beaucoup Women's Studies and Black Studies programs. It's discrim'nation.
How can they prepare for the job market if they're not self-affirmed?
"...while studying something self-affirming."
LMAO!
Yeah.
That is too real.
Sorry if they believed the media propaganda on TV and online about jobs and 'book learning.' I know it's hard to beleive that hospital blood drawers don't get paid $75k a year and that a Social Science major doesn't 'rake in the dough.'
They need to broaden their reading to include blogs like ZH and many others to figure out the real story. They need to work in real jobs like auto repair, construction, air conditioning repair, etc to learn what the real world is like. This is the New Merikan CVulture and they need to understand the real truth how to 'get ahead' in this fraud-soaked, politically corrupt, PM-manipulated, zero interest rate, antibiotic-saturated, 'every-child's a winner', "my Leroy/Johnny can do no wrong," affirmative action, wide open border w/ massive immigration, diverse society.
This is the New Merikan Paradigm.
I feel sorry for them while at the same time I have a lot of hope for them but they have much more bullshit to wade through than I ever did.
For example, the net is a wonderful thing (IMHO) and they've grown up with it without much suspicion of it. By now they are beginning to understand they can't trust everything they have read on the net (and the media in general) as they compare their lives to what was promised it would be only 5-15 years ago.
Look at that remarkable exchange between...Which is worse, Chindit and one of our resident trolls, Bangalore.
If there was only Bangalore as the point of reference to go by, the observer would think they might be inclined to slit their wrists in the bathtub or move to India where everyone lives in buildings that look like the Taj Mahal...lol.
But thanks to those older & wiser than them, more experienced in life than them, they begin to see the broader picture. And to be sure not every Indian is like the American bashing Bangalore who in one sentence can call them "stupid" and controlled and in the next tell them to give up all hope of thinking for themself...just most of them ;-)
Dystopia? There's also a good chance that when my generation finally figures it out we burn this system to ash and stick you old fucks with the bills you dumped on us. Im looking forward to the collapse because it will allow someone my age to avoid the exact future you're imagining...
"Dystopia? There's also a good chance that when my generation finally figures it out we burn this system to ash and stick you old fucks with the bills you dumped on us."
When the shit hits the fan, I'm going to fry in a trash can full of peanut oil the first Millenial at my door bitching about why I'm supposed to pay for his degree in Robert Mapplethorpe Studies.
You dont understand the power of technology do you? When your check bounces or fails to buy a sawdust loaf of bread the cities of the world will burn, not just in the US but the world. ISIS is the new growth model comeing to a location near you.
The milenials will understand that there is no future, only death. We are experienceing a end of life event right now. The ocean is dieing, no plankten no people, understand?
Enjoy what you have while you have it. None of this will last vary long.
Yes that's the spirit! Hate each other. Do not find common ground and strength via numbers against the real people deserving of the spike in your pitch forks.
"Yes that's the spirit! Hate each other. Do not find common ground and strength via numbers against the real people deserving of the spike in your pitch forks."
Absolutely. You pay for your Women's Studies degree. I'll pay for my Engineering degree. Fair is fair. We each ho'd our row.
+1 for the Robert Mapplethorpe ref.
You are making a point that has to be examined.
Why should Millenials continue to buy into the system?
- This is the Old Political Science question of what is Legitimacy in a Government??
- Is Voting every two years enough to Legitimize a National Government?
- If NOT, then what else can be offered to the Youth of America??
- Perhaps this is motivation for Reforming Expensive Health Care, the Existing Social Security System, and... Reforming the US Banking & Corporate Power System through mandatory Audits for Standardization and Prevention of Usury
- US Power Structure Must answer to the People
Since when do people actually enjoy working
Will believe it when I see it.
Same as the Swiss.
I didn't lie to them. We didn't lie to them. Obama did though and is still more than willing to continue with the charade assisted by the media who can't retreat from the deadly embrace of this narcissist and his transformational talk of America.
In reality, pols, crats and banksters don't lie, any more than any conman or grifter does. They just tell you what you want to hear.
Ignorance resides not in the lie, but the believing of the lie.
An American, not US subject.
"They steal your wealth via taxes and "printing," and post goons in your neighborhood to terrorize and rob you. But then you allow them to tell you who the enemy is."
To some extent your success is somewhat linked to what year you were born in.
Like... anyone born after 2001 is... completely fucked . . . the only job they will ever get is a pizza delivery man and by then you will need some bullshit 8 degree in "food transportation" to qualify working for Dominos.
90% of the jobs out there should require
No Credentials
No Certificates
No Licenses
That job will be open only if the drones need a controller.
Its just sad, you see old people who don't even speak english with 1.5 Million Dollar houses, 65,000 Cars No Debt Retired
1) They have no concept of how to turn a TV on
2) They hardly know how to put a lightbulb in
3) They don't understand any mail that gets placed in their mail box
4) They don't know how to do anything.
But they came here 50 years ago and quite literally pretended they were plumbers and made a life doing something they happened to be good at.
Now
If you reversed their age, took a time machine, plucked them from 1965 or something, and brought them to current time.... they would pretty much not be able to do the same thing.
Meanwhile kids with degrees in engineering aren't qualified to flip burgers.
Idiots who didn't know how to tie their shoes built the country.
Geniuses with tons of degrees can't even keep it from falling apart because they are quite literally not allowed to by law.
It will be one hell of a show when that switch gets pulled.
Plot: increasing Complexity in Laws, Taxes, Rules, Banking, Exchange Markets... While Decreasing Education, Sense of History, Sense of Truth, Sense of Highest Principals, Sense of the Primary Law & Principals in the Land.
Well, ... and also Increasing Corruptions of all Institutions while Control & Power Concentrate with the Money Trust.
No, No, don't get up. Nothing Serious.
""They have no concept of how to turn a TV on, put a lightbulb in, any mail that gets placed in their mail box"'
--- All are useless, non-paying skills. I understand that YOU think they are mandatory but obviously they are not.
You need to figure out what that person did - what are the PAYING skills and jobs, and do those jobs.
Do not do what you were TOLD, what you BELIEVE, what you WANT, do WHAT PAYS.
Obviously getting an Engineering Degree and trying to work in the USA does NOT PAY. So perhaps that degree would pay in another country, paired with your USA education and citizenship?
I was with you on some of these points but where you start picking out "entitlements", known in other developed countries as the social safety net, you lost me.
The biggest problem with our system is that we let banks create our money supply and allocate wealth with fractional reserve lending. The answer is debt free fiat. The IMF took another look at The Chicago Plan a couple years ago, a plan suggested by economist Irving Fisher and others in the wake of the Great Depression. It calls for debt free fiat and an end to fractional reserve lending. The great implosion of wealth that would most likely occur upon transition could be made up with government spending, first in the form of a citizens dividend, which could be used first to pay off loans. Thats the quick and dirty.
The demonization of the poor and disparagement of a social safety net, which should be available to citizens of ALL ages, and should including universal health care (where health care costs would be significantly lower like those in the rest of the developed world) is neoliberal propaganda.
Folks should realize that in a closed banking system, there is in practice no real fractional reserve; all loans are effectively redeposited and any shortage at Bank A (who made the loan) can be borrowed in the intra-bank market from Bank B (who recieved the deposit).
This means a loan is always made if the bank think they can get paid back (and sometimes the officer just wants the commission) without any real limit.
So, be sure to add that as a caveat when you cite our fractional reserve(less) system.
Regards,
Cooter
In this paper the guy assumes that TCP includes a Debt Jubilee, even after admitting it was not included in the IMF's 2011 Chicago Plan Revisited Working Paper. I think it would be much fairer to have a citizens dividend that must be used to liquidate debt first. Other than that, this guy does a decent job of describing how the stock/flows would work:
http://monetaryrealism.com/banking-in-the-abstract-the-chicago-plan/
Something for nothing is worth exactly what was paid. Something paid for by others is either a gift or theft but seldom appreciated.
As a college student I was a great believer in the social safety net. I believed that it would provide the safety needed for people to take risk, create the opportunity of advancement. Living life I came to realize that life with risk concealed or deferred actually leads to destructive behaviors....malinvestment, whatever. As we see with bankers and fund managers, when you gamble with other people's money you take chances without regard to losses.
No, I believe in private charity where the people who provide the safety net can decide who deserves help ...or not. Not government who takes involuntary funds to subsidize behaviors that in many cases are destructive. Say no to ALL forms of entitlements. Just the term entitlement implying anyone has the right to anothers wealth, assets or life is a abhorrent to me.
While you were growing up, robotics weren't replacing jobs, adding to the economy with structural unemployment. We need to rethink the idea of jobs to be sustainable and fair to future generations.
In a radical reorganization of the monetary system, liquidity will be needed. Any moral hazard connected to providing a citizens dividend would be far smaller than the continual propping up of corrupt banksters, imo. I*can't trust the elites to give us their charitable crumbs when they are tempted to look around at the poverty and say "let them eat cake".
Renaming the safety net "entitlements" was a neoliberal trick to ease the way to neufeudalism; you bought into the trap. imo.
http://politicalirony.com/2011/09/13/entitled-to-vote/
I don't need to read 24 reasons to know that the US sucks. Any place that's ruled by nanny staters, Jews, Marxists, yuppies, etc. and caters to wetbacks and niggers because the rulers like to use them as a weapon against us is a de facto shithole. I say this as a millennial myself.
This post reeks of NSA.
"The Third World War must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences caused by the "agentur" of the "Illuminati" between the political Zionists and the leaders of Islamic World. The war must be conducted in such a way that Islam (the Moslem Arabic World) and political Zionism (the State of Israel) mutually destroy each other. Meanwhile the other nations, once more divided on this issue will be constrained to fight to the point of complete physical, moral, spiritual and economical exhaustion…We shall unleash the Nihilists and the atheists, and we shall provoke a formidable social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to the nations the effect of absolute atheism, origin of savagery and of the most bloody turmoil. Then everywhere, the citizens, obliged to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate those destroyers of civilization, and the multitude, disillusioned with Christianity, whose deistic spirits will from that moment be without compass or direction, anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to render its adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Lucifer, brought finally out in the public view. This manifestation will result from the general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time." 4
Uh, no, that's just the way I see things. What you quoted sounds like a means to deflect away from the Zionists who have this nation, and indeed all Western nations, in their death grip. Keep your eyes open and you'll notice these aliens in the government, media, finance, and other institutions of power in proportions that far out way their proportions in society.
What he quoted was a piece of a letter supposedly written by Albert Pike in the 1820's.
It was a letter predicting and explaining the coming three world wars.
Albert was a high level Illuminati, Freemason and some say Occultist.
In any event, this whole exterminism meme is not new and I have seen it enough times in different places to not be totally dismissive of it.
I guess the point is that Zion... Shmion... Once a berzerking Nihilist splits your skull with a wood maul, Or you find yourself engaged in risky acts with Lucifer as he shows you the light...
Well, OK maybe you could thank the Zionists..
It's all funnier by the day in a very fucked up sort of way...
the Illuminati ARE the Zionists.
the Zionist book isn't the Torah, it's the Talmud. they worship the father of lies; the first murderer.
they are STILL trying to set up their temporal kingdom, when Christ CLEARLY stated that His kingdom is NOT OF THIS WORLD.
I'm in Generation X. What an attitude like "Jews, Marxists, yuppies, etc. and caters to wetbacks and niggers", those of you who think this way can f**k off and die, or simply just be slaves to Gen X, who know how to be enterpreneurial and create value. That is where this is headed for the next 20 years.
What I see out of the Millenials is that somehow, despite being raised during the Clinton and Bush years, is that there is no apparent desire to be entrepeneurial. They just want to work for some large company and be coddled all the time and get big benefits packages. This is like getting up the first thousand feet of Mount Kilimanjaro, deciding it is too hard, and wishing the mountain was shorter. Too many trophies for participation must be the answer to this.
Why should anyone be entrepreneurial any longer? The government is just going to take the lion's share and let you, the man who put in countless hours, have what little is left. If this was 1900 I would agree with you but today some bureaucrat always is breathing down your neck. Regardless, I do agree with much of what you said, but then again this generation has had loads of crap shoveled into their heads by Jew owned mass media like MTV (Sumner Redstone), to name one instance.
How the fuck they even got in the university, they are so fucking dump, dump like wall(((
It's easy to get into most universities, they don't exactly learn how the world works either or develop skills which allow them to create real value. Notice there were no computer science or electrical engineers in their shaming video.
ok, i paraphrase -how they even complete school??? You can't do it if you don't know anything about your history, you go 2 or like in usa F and stay to second year or do you have schools in USA???0_0
<< Notice there were no computer science or electrical engineers >>
But numbers make Little Jonny's head hurt.
Millennials are going to get angry and politically motivated .... Once they finished watching game of thrones episode 30 season 12
Hopey dopey changey nopey.
They just need to follow Yellen's advice and get some assets. Problem solved.
I suppose one approach to getting all of those assets would be to kill all of the Baby Boomers. There's an idea.
So soon after the election? The drums of class warfare being beat? What we have here is someone's agenda. Not sure who's, but someone's.
Millenials are fucked, my advice is to save your hard earned pennies and find refuge in another land. Better to be free than to be a debt slave.
If I were a 'Millenial', just starting out right now, I'd probably go the "Walter White" route.
Millenials are fucked, my advice is to save your hard earned pennies and find refuge in another land. Better to be free than to be a debt slave.
Id rather keep fighting here in America... the debt slavery is global brother.
Hello all;
First post. Been lurking for 4 years.
As a millenial, I weep for my generation.
do something then. here's a start- quit crying like a little bitch...
Now that's an appropriate welcome to fight club.
Wendigo...welcome to the forum. Seriously, DO SOMETHING! Out of the upcoming crisis will come fantastic opportunity. I would love to see your generation think this way rather than wallow in their own shit.
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs. -Thomas Jefferson
thanks for selling us millenials into slavery to finance your selfish, narcissitic, hedonistic, immoral lifestyles.
Who exactly sold you? Who is it that you are blaming for the state of the economy? Are you talking about banksters and elites? Inequality is growing for all of us. We've been gamed by the best and the brightest and have have been disenfranchised by the duopoly for decades.
Dear Millennials,
Your wealth and future were stolen by the FedRes, and are being held hostage behind a wall of goons called police, military, and soon the ReadyReserve.
Please send anything else of value that you may have to Israel via your local FedRes branch offices, often called a bank. Don't hold back, as then they'll have to send the goons to mash you for lack of support.
An American, not US subject.
Note: Read up on Zionism and Zionists, if you dare.
Millennials are the "Like me" generation. Social media and video games are all they care about. Oh, I left out cell phones. I ought to know, I still have 2 at home.
Not all of us, robnume, not all of us. Some of us read books and consult alternative sources to contrast the prolefeed dosed out by the MSM. If you think it's frustrating seeing the majority of the Millennial crop, imagine being in my shoes when they're the same age as you.
I feel like Winston Smith in dealing with this self-inflicted hellhole. I will not comply, and I hate Big Brother.
as a millenial in the work force, stuff like this makes me giggle a bit because it just shows how weak American talent is and why our youth are out of work..the asian and indian kids that go to school here who study real stuff are the ones who get the jobs that are out there. they aren't going to these kids, especially from this school.
i dont think the world is coming to an end very soon, things will keep plugging along so i have to make the best of it and enjoy whats left of our way of life. things would get better if there were a real collapse and "reset" but the TPTB and the masses are not ready for this type of thing.
im embracing the chaos as only the fittest will survive and im expecting my life to make drastic turns like moving to another land if i have to seek opportunity.
If my fellow Millennials know what's good for them they'll find a way to escape this nightmare and leave the country.
"finding a way" is the issue. Trust me, since 2007 I promised myself that I would escape.
What is with your attitude?
Leave. You seem to have saddled your mind or wallet with encumbrances. Leave them behind.
If you don't think Social Security will be around, then getting 10 years of earnings to qualiify won't matter to you ca. 2055.
Leave, and yes it is that easy. Stop spening all monies. Cancel your cable, internet and mobile phone bills. Sell your car, cancel the auto insurance, sell everything on eBay, and move.
You are under 30 years of age. It should take you no longer than 3 months to leave North America, and if your Confucian Family Values are one of the reasons why, ignore your family and just go.
Really, what is with you? Leave. Tomorrow.
where are you headed?
I'm still researching but I'm leaning toward Singapore.
Mellenials lied to themselves! They bought all the socialism shit. They really thought free healthcare and free college was free. They were clueless and were used.
When Gruber called Americans stupid he was talking about mellenials, not the smart young and middle aged people storming the townhalls outraged over the Obamacare fraud.
Now the idiot mellenials are getting out of college and have to live in Realville. The cost of socialism is huge debt, no jobs, no money, no future, hollowed out ecnomy. They were told it was all free and just greedy people stood in the way. They believed it.
Ant the tuition they paid with borrowed money went to pay Profesor Gruber's (and his ilk) salary.
Precisely. And the gubmit would love nothing more than to start a generational war where all the problems of one gen are caused by another and vice versa.
70+ years of the educational systems systematic destruction is bearing fruit, compounded by parents that don't parent.
Anyone who started college in 2009 had to see the handwriting on the wall. There are a limited number of majors that still lead to productive employment|: petroleum engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, nursing, finance, general business, accounting, and a several others.To start out in 2009 and major is something stupid like psychology, sociology, anthropology, ect. Is just beyond rational understanding. At some point you have to play the cards that you are dealt. Two years at a junior college followed by two years at a good state school in an employable major leads to a career and minimum student debt. Is that so hard to understand?
true..but heres the thing, even those jobs are paying very, very low wages.
ive had head hunters come to me with financial analyst type roles that pay 40k a year, if that.
even if youre debt free, costs of living are a bitch as well..especially if you're in a high cost of living area.. (hence why many states in the northeast are experiencing exodus)
Petroleum engineers start at close to $100,000, with solid gold benefits as well.
Lost,
Your general description would have been correct six or seven years ago (and hindsight is 20/20, of course), but it does not quite hang together that way anymore. Nursing is a bust-out right now; way too many people went into that field and its already overcrowded (and the work, from what I hear, is increasingly shitty). Petroleum engineers will not be so handsomely compensated when the fracking boom goes belly up. MBAs face a similar problem to the nurses: way too many of them, and their degrees are increasingly watered down to worthlessness. And finance? Well, we can pretty much forget about the financial sector after the next systemic hiccup a la 2008.
But the idea of going to a CC for two years and then a state school is still a good one, if you know what it is you want to major in. However, in a world with no real growth, there is no guarantee of high-paying jobs for anyone, whether they graduated or not, from a productive major or not. In such an environment it makes little sense to even go to school in the first place.
I meant someone with a masters in finance working in a corporation, not the 'financial' industry. As for nurses all three large health care centers near me, one university two not, are actively looking for nurses. They prefer two years experience but are hiring local nursing school graduates and training them. MBA degrees are worthless (I have one); I agree there.
Petroleum engineers seem pretty bulletproof right now; I don't think fracking has much to do with it. The failure of the wind farms, tide farms, solar array farms, and harnessed butterfly wing farms to make a dent in needed energy requirements makes them golden. Marine engineering (off-shore platform work) is also very big now. There are ways to survive but going to a small, expensive, liberal arts school and majoring in linguistics ain't gonna cut it.
I get what you're saying, Ft. Walton, i really do. But once upon a time, university education was about learning to think, and then applying that disciplined mind to the workforce as you specifically train yourself to your vocation. Though that's largely an abandoned view among my drinking, partying, Japanese Art History studying peers.
But for what it's worth, I studied a classical liberal art (philosophy, undergrad in 3 years with loans, then grad debt-free). I did it to train my mind, get grounded in Western civilization and knowledge so i could better understand the world we live in now. I took Greek and Latin like they used to do way, way back in the day. I took Logic, Ethics, Epistemology. Learned to take apart stupid arguments. Learned to manage my time and read economically. No, I didn't do a STEM path. Yes, I expected to be poor. And yet, here I am, almost 30 years old, married with a kid, owning a house, saving wisely, living frugally, busting my ass and working an Analyst job earning in the mid-50s. So despite your overgeneralization, my skills were more than transferrable. Yes, we need skilled people in those high-paying fields. But God help us all if we gain an army of those, with no one left to think and communicate clearly.
I may be an exception to the rule. But we're out there. There are still a few of us left who believe (and live) that education need not be merely a straight path to a secure career. It's historically been a fresh-cut path toward growing into a complete human being.
There are multiple reasons for getting a college degree. Getting an education in a field of interest is one, becoming a productive citizen is another. The reasons need not be mutually exclusive. Perhaps the answer is to encourage double majors? I am happy for you, I really am, but there are millions with your educational background that are badly hurting right now. Also hurting are the small liberal arts colleges that awarded them the degree. The little brothers and sisters saw what happened to their older siblings who bought the liberal arts mantra and now are in serious financial trouble in today's career environment. The younger siblings are taking a pass at the smaller expensive schools and going to State U.
Oh yeah, I agree with you there. And admittedly, I can't say that I'd encourage my son to do what I did by the time he's old enough to go to college. By then, I'd at least say to do the 2 year Community-to-transfer to a State school route (or perhaps online self-guided learning, if the quality goes up and the price goes down, which I think it will, as the student loan/university bubble bursts). I have no illusions that the kind of experience I had could ever again be easily replicated, especially the way things are headed now. Which is why I'm taking it upon myself to pass down as much of that ancient knowledge to my own kids as I can. Lots of us are stacking silver; I'm stacking old books.