Rebuilding The Middle Class -- First, Help Our Struggling Youth!

Robert,

I completely agree with you. We have, for many years, told our children that they MUST attain a university degree (no matter what it is in) so that they may do better for themselves, but that day of just a general college degree being worth what was it cost have come and gone. Yet, the universities continue to allow our young people to graduate with degrees that are totally unmarketable. I read an article recently by Dr. Thomas Sowell of Stamford entitled "An Ignored Disparity, Part II" . In it, he said:

When institutions of higher learning turn out highly qualified doctors, scientists, engineers and others with skills that can raise the standard of living of a whole society and make possible a better and longer life, the benefits are obvious.

What is not so obvious, but is painfully true nonetheless, is that colleges and universities can also turn out vast numbers of people with credentials, but with no marketable skills with which to fulfill their expectations. There is nothing magic about simply being in ivy-covered buildings for four years.

A decade after graduation, people whose degrees were in a hard field like engineering earned twice as much as people whose degrees were in the ultimate soft field, education. Nor is a degree from a prestigious institution a guarantee of a big pay-off, especially not for those who failed to specialize in subjects that would give them skills valued in the real world.

But that is not even half the story. In countries around the world, people with credentials but no marketable skills have been a major source of political turmoil, social polarization and ideologically driven violence, sometimes escalating into civil war.

People with degrees in soft subjects, which impart neither skills nor a realistic understanding of the world, have been the driving forces behind many extremist movements with disastrous consequences.

These include what a noted historian called the "well-educated but underemployed" Czech young men who promoted ethnic identity politics in the 19th century, which led ultimately to historic tragedies for both Czechs and Germans in 20th century Czechoslovakia. It was much the same story of soft-subject "educated" but unsuccessful young men who promoted pro-fascist and anti-Semitic movements in Romania in the 1930s.

Just because you have a college degree does not make you employable; there needs to be a balance between the "Philosophical Academia" approach where all degrees are the same, and all education being solely for the purpose of getting a job. But just getting a college degree in basket weaving or philosophical rhetoric won't do it anymore.

What you are suggesting is much like what is done in Germany (even tho theirs is more structured). In Germany, at around the 6th grade, you take a series of tests. The tests along with your grades are used to determine what path you will take (Trade school, Technical, School, or University). At around the 9th Grade, you are tested again in order to refine the selection process even further (gotta love their efficiency).This guarantees them a steady work force in all areas and send only those dedicated enough to handle the requirements on to college.

Robert,

we have a lot of unemployed college educated young people these days because they mad some very bad choices when they chose to attend the university. I saw an interview a couple of weeks ago about people that had large amounts of student debt. They interviewed a husband and wife who had almost $200K of student debt between them that they could probably never repay . It was because they had both chosen the field of "Library Sciences" fro their degrees had both attained a PhD. Together, they were making only about $60K Annual. What were they thinking??

I am a principle engineer for a major company. I can't hire enough young engineers because for every electrical engineer we graduate, there are 2.5 jobs available. On the other side of the coin, we had 8 young people over at UNC Chapel Hill that were recently arrested in an "Occupy Everything" protest. they were complaining about no jobs, but their degrees were in History, Philosophy, English, Music, etc. Many of them were complaining about high debt because they had advanced degrees (Masters or Doctoral Candidate).

I fault academia for allowing them to graduate without being prepared to get a gob in something that could support the. The Universities have become places that push degrees that will never come close to repaying what was spent on it.

The following is a link to Dr. Sowell's article if you are interested:

http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2012/01/18/an_ignored_disparity_part_ii

I don't disagree with you, Robert. I don't mean to give up on our youth, but my point is that we cannot force them to see things from "our" perspective. What motivated us, does not appear to be motivating them, so we need to re-evaluate our strategies.

A lot of the problem you describe has nothing to do with policy or strategy, but is rather a change in the way we parent our children and grandchildren.

I have mixed feelings about this. I'm a sub teacher in a relatively affluent district. I see all grades and all economic backgrounds. My observation is that a majority of our children, regardless of economic background, have little interest in what we consider to be "opportunity." I see them as "disconnected" from our perception. I often feel like I'm conversing with aliens in a foreign language - LOL:)

I would agree that some of that "disconnect" comes from the way we parent now, but I suspect attempts to return to "the old ways" will not solve the problem. Times have changed and every aspect of life has been affected. Rather than look behind us, I think we need to look forward, and that will most likely involve some creative thinking and solutions.

I do not believe that we can force people to "take advantage of opportunities" if they do not see those options as a long term opportunity. Telling them it is so, doesn't work, when they look around them and see, that it wasn't so, for such a large portion of the population.

we instill in them the desire to better themselves

Funny thing is, they all seem to like themselves just they way they are:)

At any rate, thanks for the discussion. I don't have all the answers, but I'm glad that people are recognizing that this is an important issue.

"Find a job that you love and you will never work a day in your life"

Unfortunately, the counter-expression to this is "the world needs ditch diggers too." Let's be realistic, if everyone had a job they loved, the world would fail to function. Some jobs are entirely neccessary, but impossible to love.

"the world needs ditch diggers too."

This ditch digger loves his occupation.

Thanks to all these over educated bankers and Wall St thieves, theres a bunch of us that want to get back to it. Everyone keep talking infrastructure but we never see it.

You need to think about the trickle down effect of ditch diggers.

They need equipment and material to provide the need to dig.Ditch diggers stimulate a whole lot of other economic activity besides just shoveling dirt.

How quick people are to judge the worth and contribution of others.

It's just an expression. I assume you are in construction? I am a civil engineer, so I too am eager for infrastructure and land development to take off again.

I'm sure you get my point. Let's substitute "septic tank cleaner", or "floor mopper at the XXX theatre" for "ditch digger".

In society, everyone plays their part, eh?

Even the xxx booth janitor. A repulsive occupation, but it earns the fuel for some poor souls fire.

Something caught my eye from Paying Attention

One thing is no different today than it has always been; there are few individuals that are blessed with a passionate direction in life. Most, even with a college degree, just fall into a career by taking a job. The problem today is there are fewer jobs in which to fall

I know of a Harvard Grad that found his passion in the fishing industry as a fish boat captain.

Did he need that sheepskin to become that?

I wonder if higher education is the answer to success, and prosperity.

I know men that never went beyond the eighth grade in school that are successful, both in wealth, and in that occupation.

This from Robert

Nothing is free and hard work usually pays off if focusedon the right goals.

How right he is!

Yep, Excavation. All facets. There's a bunch of us chomping at the bit to get cracking!

They have got to fix the housing crisis. That is the key to recovery. That was the driver for road building and infrastructure expansion of utilitys.

Repairing the existing infrastructure will not be enough. It will help, but not enough.

("They have got to fix the housing crisis. That is the key to recovery.")

But it's fixed already. When the bubbles broke the problem was fixed.

And now we have to recover… heal… from our over-saturation of surplus houses on the market… and from our over-extending (easy money) on our many equity loans that were based on phony-hyper-inflated values. (but… time heals all)

I can't express how many times I have questioned how so and so can afford to furnish or even heat that monstrous home? Gullible people took the bait and ended on the hook for an ARM that came back to eviscerate them. Prior to the ARM showing its ugly side, they signed up for credit cards to finance enough furniture to make that oversized house look reasonable. It was a recipe for disaster that hurt everybody but the people on the front end of the mortgage. Now contractors, engineers, architects, and everyone else who relied on new home owners to support their business is suffering a drought caused by the banks, who were enabled in making unsustainable offers by a lack of responsible oversight. On top of that, many families lost their homes both as a direct result of a stupid loan decision and as collateral damage from the impact to their employment status. And guess who got the bailout. We had it good during the bubble, without realizing that it would fail to such a huge extent, and that it will never be that good again.

But it's fixed already. When the bubbles broke the problem was fixed.

Dale, I hardly believe that when the bubble popped it ended the housing crisis.

If anything it exposed the dysfunction that caused the housing problems in the first place.

Mitt Romney thinks the clean up should be the wealthy buy these distressed property's, and rent them out.

My only question is, if the renters can cover the expenses, and allow for a bit of profit, why is it impossible for the renters to own?

Maybe a lesson learned through this American Tragedy, is Greed is NOT good.

While entering this, I thought of a guy that really got it, even though he had more money than Gawd, and created wealth and prosperity for multitudes of people, but never moved from the small humble Cape that he shared, with his wife. An Wang.

I'll bet there are a lot of people that would now be satisfied with a humble little shack they could call home.

Our economy, our housing industry, and our entire culture has been stimulated with artificial steroids for a long while now by; Big Business, Big Bankers, Big Pharma, and our very own greedy Big-Ego's. We've been living the 'High-life', on the manic climax of prosperity, and we just loved it… but now…, it's over now.

We're having our intervention of sorts, our 'Reality Check', and the detoxification process along with all the withdrawal symptoms hurt like hell, for most of us anyway. And there are no quick fixes (not counting more drugs and stimulants).

And yet, there are still many savvy business professionals that find ways to capitalize and profit on even our pain and suffering, and bloodshed… but… that's how it goes in a greedy culture. How we do idolize the Rich and Famous.

It's like my mother use to say, "It'll all come out in the wash."

Dale: Re: "Big-Ego's."

"Facebook users upload 7.5 billion photos EVERY MONTH. This raises reasonable suspicions not of terrorism but of narcissism, which is a national problem but not for law enforcement."

George Will, in his column this week

(True regardless of politics)