Looking at this guy you can feel a bit of both sides at work here. On one hand, there's no question our generation has been dealt a worse hand than the one before it. He lists a lot of the stats, but apparently practically any meaningful lifestyle/career statistic you can compare between Gen Y and the Baby Boomers has Gen Y coming up short. On the other hand this guy went through a whole lot of expensive education racking up debt to enter a career where he won't be able to pay it off. I don't blame him though; I know the atmosphere and attitude that lead Gen Y to follow their passions in college and careers when the reality seems like a predatory trap for moneylenders. Yet you see why people would call that entitled.
I've softened on this with age. At a fundamental level, we're giving people who we determine to be too young to drink "free money" to establish their future while also steadfastly NOT pointing out that they're never gonna make that $80,000 investment in an anthropology degree pay off. The system is designed to separate the fool from his money. There's a whole lot more to this than "get an engineering degree and shut up." I got an engineering degree, mostly on grants, and graduated with zero debt. My wife got a full ride for her undergrad. For her doctorate? $200k in debt + 18 months of forbearance = $250k in debt. Here's the amazing thing - if we keep paying income-adjusted for the 360 payments necessary to get that debt forgiven, she'll owe the government approximately $2.2m by the time they retire it. The system is complex.On the other hand this guy went through a whole lot of expensive education racking up debt to enter a career where he won't be able to pay it off.
On the other hand this guy went through a whole lot of expensive education racking up debt to enter a career where he won't be able to pay it off. I don't blame him though; I know the atmosphere and attitude that lead Gen Y to follow their passions in college and careers when the reality seems like a predatory trap for moneylenders. Yet you see why people would call that entitled.
I think that both generations are at fault here. On one hand, the atmosphere that Generation Y grew up in led to the belief that they were invincible and could do anything. On the flip side, though, these people chose to go to college for careers which are obviously not viable to make money, and blame can't lie solely on the generation that raised them.
Maybe. But, consider that colleges and universities are businesses. True, most of them are "non-profit" or "not for profit" but that doesn't mean that they don't make money. Most colleges and universities have big names in several fields attached to them, not for their teaching abilities, which they may or may not have, but for the draw of prestige. Colleges and universities wouldn't offer majors in fields that are less employable if there wasn't a demand for them. To ask an 18 year old kid, especially one that's been sheltered and pumped up their entire life to think about something that could alter the shape of their life as one of their first independent, adult decisions is asking quite a lot, wouldn't you say?
There is always, it seems, an individual and a societal cause in these big social issues. Take obesity, for example. There are an absolutely incredible number of obese people in the country, staggering, really. Yet, there isn't a single one of them who didn't consciously eat the food that has made them fat. However, given that it's such a large problem, it's difficult to believe that anyone chose to be fat, in any rational sense of the word. So there must be something at play beyond just personal choice. Obviously that topic has been beat to death in the media, but I'm not dire anyone has found the answer(s). I think the same applies to college loans. Everyone chooses their major, knowing full well that some are less employable than others. However, when you have so many smart people making such seemingly irrational choices, there has to be greater forces at work. Perhaps this is when regulation is important, when companies find ways to subvert rational decision making, either by coercion, false advertising, addicting consumers, etc.
I haven't read the article yet, but I'm definitely in the camp who blames those people. I may be going out on a limb extrapolating from your comment, but if you go to college for a degree with a very low median salary, and you rack up debt to do it, you can't complain about being poor. (Of course, there are tons of things you can complain about, like health care costs, but that's only semi-relevant here.)
Why should someone be coerced into doing something they aren't interested in just because they won't be able to pay for education otherwise?
That's not what I said. There's no coercion, and there are many ways to pay for education if you're proactive about it. And people who take large student loans are rarely the sorts of people who have made extraordinarily rational choices about their schooling to begin with, in my experience. And above all that, not expecting to be poor if you do make the choice to pursue your particular interests at great cost ... that's delusional.
I'm aware that's not what you said. It's the natural outcome of the perpetuation of your view, though. People can't pursue their interests because they have to be practical instead. Instead they find something that they hope allows them to pay down their student loans and subsequently pursue their interests. They have to do something they would rather not in order to have a shot at doing what they want. I don't think that holds up to much scrutiny. It's not about expectations. It's about the right to do what you want without being coerced into something else to pay for it.And people who take large student loans are rarely the sorts of people who have made extraordinarily rational choices about their schooling to begin with, in my experience.
And above all that, not expecting to be poor if you do make the choice to pursue your particular interests at great cost ... that's delusional.
Monumental student debt with no chance of paying it.
It's debt you have to take on in order to get a certificate that employers will accept. And you're coerced into doing a major that's possibly not what you want in order to avoid decades in poverty getting out from under that debt. I'm not sure how to be more clear.
I understand what you're trying to say, but coercion is the wrong word. you don't HAVE to do any of that. No one has a gun to your head. I'll agree that the system is broken. I won't agree that anyone is coercing you into anything. You may feel pressures from the market, or from your dreams, or from your expectations... but it's not coercion.
Coercion means more than someone having a gun to your head. Capitalism is coercive, for instance.
If you aren't able to do what you want because if you do you face poverty and things that come with it (e.g. homelessness, hunger, etc.) that's the definition of coercion.
I am of the opinion that the dumbest choice an 18-year-old can make short of assaulting a police officer is entering college immediately without first establishing some amount of fiscal security for themselves. I don't see all that much wrong with the Greatest Generation mentality that you have to work in order to have what you want (time, money to pursue your dreams, etc). And I'm not at all sure about the "right" to become a music studies major and magically be well off.
That was captivating! Wow! I could hear him screaming. I was having a hard time breathing out because he was speaking so clearly about the pain of being a modern American. We need more of this: facts about changes, combined with the reasons for anger with the status quo.