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GENERATION DOOM
A well-intentioned editorial, especially given the whisper-level attention student debt receives, but indeed there are larger connections to be made -- connections that should largely incriminate one generation for abandoning another.
As I see it:
Baby Boomer (read Government) ignorance and self-interest
+
High schoolers still believing in the American Promise of higher education’s effect of intellectual fulfillment and a secured, quality living
+
Soaring and unabated college costs to jockey for prestige, desirability
+
Extremely profitable and equally unregulated private money lenders running amok
===equals===
A job marketplace that is over-saturated by the annual ejaculation of college grads
+
A newly minted generation of well-meaning, constructive citizens burdened with unmanageable debt
+
A generation taking on spirit-less and possibly sinister careers (to which Fishman alludes)
+
A generation focused on bill-paying rather than civic action
+
An economy silently closing in on death as a generation postpones (or simply writes off) ever owning a home or car, getting married, having children, retiring, etc.
A personal note: I graduated Cornell in 2005 with a BS in biology and a loan debt of approx. $80K. I found my calling as a city hospital nurse, yet with the costs of a nursing degree compounded I can look forward to nearly every other paycheck going to Sallie Mae for the next three decades (I’m questioning the viability of a Masters in psychiatry at this point). I take responsibility for the choices I made regarding my education and career, but before you judge me we must look at the conditions that set us all up for this doom.
To date there are only three, yes three, websites devoted to student debt as an issue. How long can we wait for redemption at this rate?