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

How do you ever have sex?

― О боже, какой мужчина (ShariVari), Saturday, June 15, 2013 2:00 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

man it's really sad that our friends in the UK don't get to experience the hilarity that ensues when kids in your freshman dormitory hall try to work around this problem

so many tears

Boys weren't even allowed into the stairwell of my college dorm, much less the actually residence floors. I'm pretty sure no one ever had sex on campus in the history of the institution.

You could be fined actual money for breaking that rule. Which now that I think of it is sort of paying for sex with someone you already know.

The lack of privacy would be terrifying otherwise

One of those luxury places (maybe not quite that lux) opened up just off the campus here. $600/month for a space with three roommates - not sure if your bedroom is shared, but for $20 more you can get an all bills paid apartment that's not too bad. $600/month to share a kitchen among four strangers is insane to me.

The washer/dryers that message you are not a bad idea, though - assuming that the average resident isn't a complete asshole, it should make the laundry room operate more efficiently.

http://thebea.st/10xDYYT

I'm sorry to say I actually have less respect for Warren after that proposal, which strikes me as obvious grandstanding.

also it would do nothing to control the cost of college tuition and might even inflate it further.

ARGH -- JUST -- AGREED -- WITH -- MEGAN -- MCARDLE -- GAG!

I'm finding it really hard to get data to work out whether my feeling that having a degree in the UK is actively bad for getting jobs is correct.

Recruiter during phone interview: 'But they need a people person. Looking at your CV I have to ask if you're a people person?'

cardamon: 'Absolutely, I mean I put a lot of effort into getting on with everyone, any age, whether or not they've got the same interests as me - I think it's important to do that, to make the working day go as smoothly as it can, you know?'

Did not get job. Who knows, eh. Possibly shouldn't have said 'I put a lot of effort into'.

http://www.aeonmagazine.com/living-together/james-somers-web-developer-money/

hopelessness.

aeon is kinda ponderous sometimes but i like it a lot

Correction, June 9, 2013: An earlier version of this essay misstated the terms of the job offer extended to the author in October, 2012. In the previous version, the author stated that he was offered a salary of $150,000. This has been changed to reflect a more complex sequence of events, during which the author was approached by a recruiter about a position paying $140,000-$160,000, followed by an interview, a firm offer of $120,000, and a raise to $150,000 three weeks after the author began work.

not sure what to think about the fact that they bothered to put that in

here's what I think: lol

i thought that was a good piece

http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/06/women-are-more-likely-than-men-to-be-engaged-in-their-jobs/277107/

Most workers hate their jobs or have "checked out," headlined the Los Angeles Times last week about a new Gallup poll, "2013 State of the American Workforce." A jaw-dropping 700 million people--about 70 percent of full-time workers--are emotionally disconnected at work, meaning they only "go through the motions" to perform their jobs or worse: they do things to weaken or sabotage the organization and its mission.

Gallup's June report from its ongoing survey of employee engagement describes three groups of American workers. About one third of full-time employees are "actively engaged"--that is, committed, invested workers. Over half (52 percent) are "not engaged"--emotionally absent and "sleepwalking through their workday, putting time, but not energy or passion, into their work." Another 18 percent are "actively disengaged" from their jobs, hampering productivity--not to mention killing the organization's culture. These people "aren't just unhappy at work; they're busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day, these workers undermine what their engaged workers accomplish."

yesssss

http://www.processedworld.com/History/history.html

Yeah, that's me to an extent. And the thing is, my job kind of requires you to not just go through the motions, so I go through the motions of not just going through the motions.

I'm glad I'm not in a job where it's possible to just go through the motions because otherwise I totally would.

I would say that maybe 0-10% of the time most weeks, and more in a good week, I'm presented with something intellectually challenging enough that I feel motivated and engaged. Which is better than my last job, which was pretty much a pure 0.

c'mon earth-destroying meteor, save us

It's easy to imagine the end of the world — an asteroid destroying all of life, and so on — but we cannot imagine the end of capitalism

"700 million" is a typo, right?

the US census doesn't count slackers, hence its low population estimate for the nation

xp lol! i didn't even know that quote. but he's right

http://www.policymic.com/articles/48829/why-you-should-never-have-taken-that-prestigious-internship

ha treeship

This made me pretty sad
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/22/young-and-isolated/?_r=0

that column describes so many of my peers (and teens who will be entering that world)

= the world

uff.

in orbit's link was cool until the interviewee namechecked ilx fave @umairh :(

aim higher, SK!

also, "tweeting truth to power" is yet another variation of "<something> truth to power" that makes me annoyed

farting truth to power

a wet fart at authority

fart the power

http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20130627.png

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-25/why-are-so-many-college-graduates-driving-taxis-.html

how much is the typical monthly payment on student loans debt in the US? and is it only charged once you start earning above a certain level, like in the UK?

that would be pretty cool

You would think that a student loan program would be designed for maximum benefit to students seeking a post-secondary education, but in the USA the student loan program was designed to let banks hold students as hostages until they squeezed out sufficient profits to pay their ransom or they died trying.

yup, exactly

"how much is the typical monthly payment on student loans debt in the US? and is it only charged once you start earning above a certain level, like in the UK?"

bitter lols

Do US students get tax relief on loan payments, at least?

those are complicated questions to answer. The "typical" payment -- really depends what you mean. Median? Average? Private college? Public college? You'd probably be shocked at how wide the distribution is.

We do have an income-based repayment program that limits the size of your payments when you're below a certain income, but I'm not sure it applies universally.

And I believe the interest paid on student loans is tax deductible but not the principal.

Yeah, the interest is deductible. It's something, but much.

The income-based repayments are specific programs and don't apply to most loans.

Does anyone have links to really good data on the debt loads of recent grads, not just average but distribution, median, etc? I'm in the middle of a really annoying argument with smug older lefty types who don't get what this overblown student debt crisis thing is all about.