generation limbo: 20-somethings today, debt, unemployment, the questionable value of a college education

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/stop-smiling-parents-sold-article-1.1057524

http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/177_63/us-bank-student-lending-cfpb-1048016-1.html

withholding transcripts is nothing new! a lot of state schools in the western US will withhold information abt. any completed credits/coursework if students are in any way non-compliant/not current with their bills. a friend of mine basically ~ completed ~ a degree to which she has no access b/c she cannot pay for some back credits, and the university "sold" them to a collection agency that settled w/ a family member of hers.

She left school and is now working full time for $13,000 a year.

Um, wouldn't this be nearly impossible? She'd have to be making minimum wage in either Arkansas or Wyoming.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._minimum_wages#State

um, that is about what i make working full time

freelance?

contract plus per diem

sucks

in any case, I think the current press narrative about the cost of college is kind of a double-edged sword. On one hand, yes, we need to make people more wary of taking on student debt. On the other hand, there's a risk of people just throwing up their hands and giving up when college education still is, at the right price, a means of economic betterment. Like it would be sad to see a young person who actually has a lower cost alternative just give up on the whole thing out of frustration.

yeah. a lot of this may have to do with fact that a four year degree is TOTAL OVERKILL for most jobs, and a two year professional/associate's degree (more practical, less expensive) is somehow devalued.

well there is overkill in the 'the skills gained in the process are not necessary to do the job well' but a 4y degree might not be overkill in a market flooded w/ 4y degrees

true. as a longer trend (if i had my druthers...) i'd see a (paid-for) two year degree return as the prerequisite to most entry-level positions, and a four year as entry to professional fields.

the problem is there's not really a way to say 'hey everyone in the country, start hiring 2-year degree people' - as long as there is no drawback to hiring someone w/ the most education possible. there is no central bank to fight credentials inflation.

no comment. http://www.xojane.com/it-happened-me/it-happened-me-i-was-rejected-food-stamps

she hasn't crossed the border of true poverty in the USA, yet. if she does, she'll be in deep, horrified shock at how poor she is.

well depending on how many student loans she has, she might in some ways be 'more poor' than a lot of 'poor' people

it happened me i was rejected food stamps

I like how the comments degenerate rapidly into a discussion of the relative merits of various iphone plans and carriers.

yeah if you want to make 'don't have a smartphone' a requirement for food stamps that is prob going to affect more people than white hipsters

xp

Her article mentions her accountant, and her savings account, and her eating food prepared outside her own kitchen. But the truth is, she should reapply at once, because one of the charming ways our government discourages poor people from seeking government handouts is to reject their applications on any pretext.

I'm not saying she's wrong to expect better, only that she is learning what poverty is like in this country, and it is not easy or pretty, or even-handed. Our safety net is designed to be mean-spirited, close-fisted, punitive and degrading. She's being put in her place for having the gall to ask for help. Soon this treatment at the hands of the government will cease to amaze her.

yeah and this would be totally lol if she were a hardcore republican or something, but I'm pretty sure she didn't need convincing that this is a shitty country for poor people?

it isn't that she needs it, but it is what she's going to get regardless

well yeah there's just no need for clover's 'I'm not saying anything but I'm secretly happy that it's hard for a white girl w/ an iphone to get govt benefits of any sort'

I didn't say that. Don't be an ass.

the way everything in that is phrased, it's not very sympathetic

seriously, i feel bad that she has very little money, and i wish her the best in improving her income and caloric intake. happy, cap'n save-a-blogger?

yeah if you want to make 'don't have a smartphone' a requirement for food stamps that is prob going to affect more people than white hipsters

― iatee, Wednesday, April 11, 2012 6:56 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

how have old people not figured out yet that plenty of homeless kids have smartphones as their only link to the world outside the underbelly of the overpass

sure that just didn't seem like your original tone dude

look these types of articles come off badly because there is some element of 'I'm poor..but I'm college educated but white, so is this okay?' when their argument should really be 'I'm poor, fin'. if she convinced some other poor person to go try and get money for vegetables than yeah, I don't think it matters if the tone of the article is a bit off.

Her article does highlight some of the ways in which people in New York city are fucking crazy though. For example, contrary to prevailing standards, $15 for brunch actually is a lot of money!

poor people make stupid decisions everywhere in america, like buying cars and houses, it doesn't matter, poor people are still poor

if you believe the government should help poor people then the discussion ends there not on how much this girl gets to spend on brunch

I mean I guess it's sort of a sick joke the universe plays on liberal arts grads that THE place to be for low-paying creative industry jobs is also a place that gives you the implied message you should be dressing and eating and living like a rich person, and that you can do so while working in exactly the field you want to work in and pursuing your passion! But still.

I dunno, that's about what I'd expect from any run of the mill place serving brunch in D/FW. So if you're saying brunch vs. no brunch, yeah, that's a lot of money. But brunch vs. brunch anywhere else, not much difference if any.

I had breakfast at Waffle House and it was $10 w/ tip this morning. Hard to get cheaper than Waffle House before you settle into drive-thru fast food territory.

if you believe the government should help poor people then the discussion ends there not on how much this girl gets to spend on brunch

― iatee, Wednesday, April 11, 2012 3:49 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

In theory, sure, except you're only going to be able to define the threshold of "poor" based on ability to consume, and you can't really do that without examining the consumption.

had breakfast at Waffle House and it was $10 w/ tip this morning. Hard to get cheaper than Waffle House before you settle into drive-thru fast food territory.

― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, April 11, 2012 3:51 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Wait what if you can't find breakfast for less than $10 you are definitely doing something wrong.

McDonald's bacon egg and cheese combo is over $6 now.

2 eggs, bacon, hash browns and OJ for less than $10 sitting down (with tip) is a unicorn IMO.

Well then I live down the street from a unicorn.

Also this might seem like splitting hairs, but there's a pretty big difference between $10 including a presumably more than 20% tip, and a $15 check.

In theory, sure, except you're only going to be able to define the threshold of "poor" based on ability to consume, and you can't really do that without examining the consumption.

well there are two ways to define poverty, absolute and relative, and most americans are only relatively poor, but you don't even have to 'examine their consumption' you can just draw a line in the sand

yeah but that line in the sand has to be based on "enough money to buy x, y and z"

no it doesn't, it's a statistic

lol

http://binary-services.sciencedirect.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0165168405003610-si171.gif

IT'S A STATISTIC, QED

fuck I do not want to get drawn into this btw

are you sure

"I owed $15 (FIFTEEN DOLLARS) for my meal + tip"

would also wager that her brunch bacon was better than what I got at Waffle House

ok but iatee by your own definition the girl in that blog post is not poor then so she shouldn't get food stamps end of story

I mean don't you think the current poverty line is too low, and problematically defined?

yes, and mostly because it uses an absolute measure

http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_m25k309cui1qzsvqyo1_1280.png

hey look almost all americans have almost everything, nobody is poor

http://i.imgur.com/7Umll.png

oh wait nvm

I don't see brunch on your graph