Poverty And How To Get There

From the article on which Mr. Thompson is commenting:

I had, yes, a college degree and a coveted unpaid (because of course it was unpaid) internship at a public radio station.

"Coveted" unpaid internship? Things have certainly changed. When I was finishing my accounting degree in 1972, I coveted jobs that paid. The fact that Hannah Brooks Olsen covets an unpaid internship may have something to do with the fact that she's mired in poverty (and will soon own several cats).

"This is not about a lack of fiscal responsibility."

Confining oneself to useless and expensive education is far from being fiscally responsible.

Need I say the employer is the only entity that has authority to ask for a specific education.

Hmmm reminds me of the pizza delivery guy who bought a BMW can't pay for it with his tips.
Lady I know paid for 4 years of University her Daughter has a Journalism degree, whoopee.
Maybe she could hook up with the pizza guy, just sayin'.

Hannah Brooks Olsen wrote her article for Everyday Feminism, a website where logic and reason go to die. 'Nuff said.

She reminds me of the following Purolator ad from a few years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcoDV0dhWPA

I started my post secondary education in 1970 and the college was full of kids like me who had no clear idea of where we were headed. The dif then was that I could earn enough to pay for my 'experiment'. Our safety net was that if it did not work out there were a multitude of jobs in forestry, mining, finance, real estate etc.

The desperation of higher education today is that the economy is basically flatlining. Opportunity is far more limited. In my time it would have encouraged caution and a more critical thought process in taking on debt. At $1.3 trillion in student debt in the USA it does not seem to be the case. Canada is little different.

Disruption is 'the theme' of todays world. It is happening everywhere and has serious ramifications in job opportunity and family incomes. The Turdeau and Trump elections are fallouts.

Let us see now.

Never had much to do with the education system for some time.
It may be difficult to comment on the current state of the classroom.
From the “newspaper” reports every so often you can gather information in a manner similar to the movie where Redford gathered intelligence from books, newspaper columns and other such.

So it can be said then that the schools of all grades and levels tell the students that they are going to change the world. Not learning much about the way the real world and commerce works they of course have no idea what they want other than change the world even if they screw everything up. Because.

In spite of all the esotericism and free lunch consumers, the commerce is essential to the human existence. Those that go to school everywhere should learn about investment, work, income, costs, surplus and profit. They should learn to choose what they want to do to make a living, not to choose their favored hobby and expect that all the rest should be down with their program.

As was mentioned here many, many times before, most of them think that the meat is made in the supermarket, power simply comes from a wall receptacle, the gas comes from the nozzle. Of course on those single parts they correct, the hard part is, where the product actually comes from, they seem to have some difficulty with.

Look at the engineers, they know early from technical schools that it is up to them to decide how to make a living. If they are energetic they can really make gold. If they put their mind to it they can change the world for the better. They are those that make the world go around and know stuff. It is why they are despised by the would be intellectual class.
If they ask government for subsidies, they are finished. As soon as you get free money, you are in decline.
Heh, I know being in pension, though we, the retired paid for our pension. If things go as they are, from bad to worse, the snowflakes will die of hunger in the cold of the night.

How is it that assumed superior people, in their own mind, think that somebody else is owing them a living? They must have been told in school, even though the school did not do hardly nothing for them to make half decent living.
Complaining that being so high in their alleged sophisticated self-esteem is not working out because they have to buy second hand clothes or other such complaints, does not bode well for the education they got or their intellect.
That is not necessarily saying that some have just bad luck, though to dwell on it will not make it any better.

It is obvious that these types want pity and well-paying jobs, not for merit, they want it because they want it.

Some will learn, others will station in the Vancouver down town east end or whatever it is that they call it.
Politicians, warm and fuzzy do-gooders and other assorted hangers-on that get on the gravy train will be very happy, they will have control over those cultured demoralised praising their lifestyle, giving them free hits.
What’s not to like.

The poor snow flake could have saved herself $65,000 in debt and still equally abused her self worth by using a library card or e-books without the coveted plaque. She might have accidentally stumbled across something useful to read in the process. Most Liberal Arts graduates are "living" Darwin award nominees and a select few could become future Liberal Canadian Prime Ministers or NDP Premiers.

The formula for monumental Millennial college debt includes the following variables ...

1. Obama's Federal takeover of student lending - and subsequent "easy money" policy
2. Lowering of academic standards at every grade level in the US
3. Lowering of college admission standards - thru affirmative action and similar programs
4. Artificial inflation of college costs - read: huge jump in professor salaries, etc.
5. The rise of single-parent families and "it takes a village" (the State) substitution for family
6. The expansion of Social "Science" majors of every description and invention

To reduce this formula to its simplest terms ... Dumber and dumber students + easy college admission + easy money + useless fields of study = personal and societal disaster

When I was a poor student, from a single-parent family, I made it to and through college on a very different formula:

1. Academic excellence (not perfection ... excellence)
2. Modest academic scholarships
3. Modest "poor people" scholarships - then known as a BEOG (basic educational opportunity grant)
4. "Other" scholarships - from various private entities
5. Two years at a Junior college - because it was CHEAP (still is)
6. Total personal denial and deferred-gratification
7. A job every summer ... never needed to work during school
8. A "real" major
9. Parental help $ = 0

My guess is that college students used to be (on average) much smarter than students today. My generation of students could actually do math ... and could actually understand simple concepts like "interest rates". And despite being a member of the most pampered generation in history (Boomers), we were a lot more mentally tough than the snowflakes we spawned. The snowflake generation is simply pampered-squared. Most of them have never had to "struggle" for anything. If it isn't handed to them, they just won't make the effort. Thankfully, I raised my own 3 Millennials to be self-reliant. Even though I paid for their "Spartan" education (they went to Jr. College too), they received top grades, in solid subjects, and knew they would be working at Starbucks had they violated our agreed-upon rules. All of them received degrees from top public Universities and had exactly -0- college debt. They each received a European vacation (read: backpack thru Europe and stay at Hostels) as a graduation gift, then returned home to find outstanding first jobs ... that they found on their own with no help (other than editing/review of their resume's). We have simply "enabled" too many kids by granting what they believe is a "free" college education. Poor choices enabled by stupidity never turns out well out here in the cold-cold Darwinian world.

More: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/nov/28/snowflake-insult-disdain-young-people?CMP=share_btn_tw

I have recounted (on this site) my own experience of putting my youngest son toward a viable career path after he graduated from high school.

These are the bones of the advice I gave him. I told him that he should select a profession, get very good at it, and the financial rewards would come. I told him to forget about finding something that he loved but, rather, find something that he thought he could be good at. If you are good at something, chances are you will find that it automatically brings satisfaction.

The next condition was that he had to get his professional training without actually being on a university campus. I think university campuses have become, in the biblical sense, "dens of iniquity." That is to say, a corrupt institution and, therefore, inclined to be a corrupting influence.

Next, he had to get his training while living at home and he had to work during the summer. No summer vacations!

The upshot of this counselling was that he picked accounting as his chosen profession. He attended Capilano College and picked off most of his first three years of accounting courses. He did this in two years by not squandering his electives. The balance of his courses were taken through his professional society and correspondence courses through Laurentian University.

He did work during the summers at a local fish processing plant and graduated, not only debt free but had 10 grand in the bank. I only charged him a hundred a month for room and board.

At the end of all this he ended up with an Honours degree in Business Admin. with a finance major. He is now 41 and has twenty years of accounting under his belt. In addition, he has risen to the rank of VP of Finance at his company and earns a salary well into the six figure range. And he remained a good conservative.

But the story doesn't end there. When he was looking for a wife I told him to look for a woman with a good heart who was working on a career in business. I told him that such a woman would probably identify with being a liberal but to pay no mind to it since women don't understand politics anyway.

She is of a similar age and rank and earns only slightly less than my son does. They have two lovely daughters and my wife and I are enjoying being full time grandparents. Life is good when you work hard and make sensible career choices.

Ah, but the story doesn't end there, either. I have two older sons, 55 and 53 years old respectively. One is a welder and the other is a machinist and they are both self employed. And here is the kicker: they both earn as much or more than my youngest.

@Blackfox, excellent example of good parenting.

she would have been more successful working her way up through McDonalds. useless degrees are available at every university in the country. learning how to work and produce something other than bafflegab is very important.