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

it's like the economic version of calling your parents by their first name

(unless your parents are struggling w/$, obv)

well yeah. but making your kid pay rent to 'teach them' about 'becoming independent' is, well

i like the unsubtle undertone in that article of blaming young people with jobs for the economy not being better.

i did that after college and a failed 6-mo. stint in DC. it was great. i waited tables, had obscene amounts of fun, stayed out of my parents' hair and they stayed out of mine. i did not pay them rent and basically just slept in the attic periodically, ate some of their food (not much, i worked at a lol health food restaurant and ate there most of the time), and used their phone.

i was also only there for 6 mo., not indefinitely

it's def less stressful when you know there's an end date

i also have virtually no ambition, so doing this was not really a huge crushing disappointment for me

still if my parents lived in the nyc metro region I'd so be cool w/ not helping the nyc rental market rebound, esp now that I don't live w/ my gf anymore

if i didnt have a girlfriend id most likely move back in with my parents

stupid girlfried

correct response is "can I have yours"

oops meant for ows thread

I dont want yr gf I am sure she is nice tho

you cant have her, anyway

we could trade?

lol like i would trade a nyc girlfriend for a NEW HAVEN one

yeah...it's a pretty crappy trade you basically have to half live in new haven, going again today

her apt is a lot nicer and cleaner than mine tho, so it's not all bad

haha no i mean, not judging that dude at all, but the way he says "it's like i'm paying rent...... to myself!!" it sounds as though he thinks he's discovered some magic secret thing

I crashed with my parents for about 4 or 5 months post-college. No big deal there.

i left home when i was 17 and went back a year later for six weeks and then got thrown out with my younger sister. we moved into a flat and quit university and went on the dole and sat around bitching about 'them' for hours on end. most days we wore these full-length, lace-collared, high-necked, floral-sprigged, port-stained, cigarette-singed brushed cotton nighties that our mother had given us for christmas the year before. we were too tired to get dressed until almost evening and also we were scruffs. audience feedback soon taught us to mix some humour and self-deprecation in with the pathos and the bitterness, and to hide our genuine deep sorrow and anxiety. any story featuring getting hit with a snorkel was a guaranteed crowd pleaser; i think the crowd never grasped how much pain a snorkel can inflict upon a teenage girl.

I was wallowing in a depth of sorrow until the inexplicable snorkel reference, then questioned whether I was allowed a moment of levity or if it was a bizarre irony that an instrument of pain should be so ridiculous

of course it's allowed, we were enjoying ourselves immensely, free at last and holding court in our grimy nightgowns.

what is a snorkel?

estela that is a beautiful post

xp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u70xf4i1lgg

what is a google xx-p

I know a snorkel is something you use to breathe underwater, was just wondering if it had any other meaning.

it is also something you use to beat your recalcitrant daughters

it's also something whiney gives to his more fortunate victims

lol

for accuracy's sake, as much as i don't like people hitting their children, 'beat' in this case is somewhat over-egging the pudding.

xp thank you tracer

http://www.epi.org/blog/unpaid-internships-economic-mobility/

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/01/05/essay-new-approach-defend-value-humanities

talks a good talk but not seeing a lot of WANTED: ENGLISH MAJORS job ads, maybe I'm not looking in the right places

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/01/09/010912-news-college-costs-1-5/

Back in the days of yore, before Bangalore, my mad english major skillz made me a good living as a technical writer. Or maybe is was my technical skillz that did it. Any way, it was one or the other.

well, you also weren't a hindoo

nay, nor no vindaloo-sot, neither

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/one-percent-education.html?src=recg&pagewanted=all

Not very insightful or newsworthy imo, the 1% thing is kind of just a hook. Who isn't aware that Harvard et al are full of high-functioning super-keen workaholic children of upper-middle class to upper-class parents? The reason that demographics at elite universities are a demographic issue is not because the top 20 US colleges provide anything like a standard deviation better education than the next 200 colleges; it's the (alleged) resulting insularity of the social networks that develop at those schools. Really tho I suspect that whatever outcome disparity exists between people with BAs from Harvard vs. SUNY Stony Brook—a world-class university according to the usual rankers—looks a lot less significant when you compare students with similar pre-college backgrounds.

http://hechingerreport.org/content/free-courses-may-shake-universities-monopoly-on-credit_7426/

Not very insightful or newsworthy imo

yeah p much

i do love that xp

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/01/23/udacity-and-the-future-of-online-universities/

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/opinion/sunday/the-entrepreneurial-generation.html?pagewanted=all

did this ever get mentioned on ILX? I see some truth to the entrepreneurial spirit yada yada yada, but I don't see it as commercialism and complete lack of rebellion and dissent, I think it's about trying to establish a life outside of the failed system of corporate capitalism, even if it's just a sideline to the job that pays your bills.

yeah we talked about it somewhere. maybe this thread. I made fun of the writer and then dyao said 'no he's cool' and now my gf really likes him because he writes about jane austen and h8ing academia.

dyao said 'no he's cool' (because he had him as a college prof)*

but I agree w/ your general assessment

he is my favourite academia hater

yeah we talked about it somewhere. maybe this thread. I made fun of the writer and then dyao said 'no he's cool' and now my gf really likes him because he writes about jane austen and h8ing academia.

― iatee, Thursday, January 26, 2012 6:05 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i have not read that article but your gf otm

she got her mom his book for xmas!