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.