Once again, June has come and gone–and, with it, an annual rite of passage for tens of thousands of college students: Graduation.
That occasion when young innocents formally leave the academic nest to make their way into the harsh realities of the work
Among those harsh realities: The average college graduate faces a debt loan of more than $29,400.
Click here: Average student loan debt: $29,400 – Dec. 4, 2013
But wait! There’s something even more demoralizing awaiting these “heirs of tomorrow.”
The discovery that, for all the “we hire only the brightest” rhetoric by employers, having a college degree actually means little to most CEOs.
A new report from the Center for College Affordability and Productivity concludes that nearly half of the nation’s recent college graduates hold jobs that don’t require a degree.
In short, many of the jobs they hold aren’t worth the price of that diploma.
From that report:
Increasing numbers of recent college graduates are ending up in relatively low-skilled jobs that, historically, have gone to those with lower levels of educational attainment. This study examines this phenomenon in some detail, concluding:
- About 48 percent of employed U.S. college graduates are in jobs that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) suggests requires less than a four-year college education. Eleven percent of employed college graduates are in occupations requiring more than a high-school diploma but less than a bachelor’s, and 37 percent are in occupations requiring no more than a high-school diploma;
- The proportion of overeducated workers in occupations appears to have grown substantially; in 1970, fewer than one percent of taxi drivers and two percent of firefighters had college degrees, while now more than 15 percent do in both jobs;
- About five million college graduates are in jobs the BLS says require less than a high-school education;
Click here: Underemployment of College Graduates
But the future isn’t completely bleak–at least not for women willing to transform themselves into glorified babysitters for obscenely-rich families.
Consider a recent post on Facebook by AC Connections, which describes itself as “a nanny and household placement agency.”
Under the headline, “Growing Nanny Industry Is Enticing More College Graduates,” the ad/article begins:
“As more college graduates leave school and struggle to find work, they’re turning to the nanny industry.
“Many working moms love the idea of a highly-educated, experienced nanny providing individualized care for their children in their own homes. But it can come with a substantial price tag.
“In this challenging economic climate, more college graduates are finding a little spoonful of sugar in the burgeoning nanny industry.
“These ‘modern day Mary Poppinses’ are educated, experienced, and in increasingly high demand.”
The International Nanny Association claims that the average salary is about $16 an hour.
The ad asserts that “highly qualified and educated nannies in certain locations can make $100,000 or more each year. It’s not uncommon for nannies to start out with salaries comparable to entry-level finance careers.”
Click here: Growing Nanny Industry Is Enticing More College Graduates
Besides the money, says the ad, there are other reasons for becoming a nanny:
“Many love working with children, want a chance to use their college education, or enjoy the role of caretaker.”
“A chance to use their college education”? As in cleaning up spills, changing diapers and feeding baby food to infants?
So if you’re a college graduate who can’t convince an employer within your chosen profession–such as pharmacy or engineering–to hire you, there’s always the Mary Poppins option.
Or some similar menial “career” that caters to the indulgences of the American plutocracy, for whom $16 an hour amounts to a Snicker’s candy bar for the fast-disappearing middle class.
It should be enough to make you hesitate before signing up for a loan to cover the average $57,000 cost of a public college education.
Or an even larger loan to cover the $132,000 cost of a private college education.
But if you’re still thinking that “employers really respect that degree,” consider this: Job recruiters spend exactly six seconds examining your resume.
According to The Ladders research, recruiters spend an average of “six seconds before they make the initial ‘fit or not fit’ decision” to interview you.
Not hire you–just meet you. You’ll still have plenty of chances to get shot down during or after the interview.
Click here: What Recruiters Look At During The 6 Seconds They Spend On Your Resume
According to the study, when scanning a resume, recruiters looked at the following items:
-
Your name
- Current title and company
- Current position start and end dates
- Previous title and company
- Previous position start and end dates
- Education
American employers should be legally compelled to hire as responsibly as college students are expected to pursue an education.
Until this happens, those young men and women thinking of committing a big chunk of their time and going into massive debt to pursue a college degree should think twice before doing so.
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AGGRESSORS AS VICTIMS: PART ONE (OF TWO)
In History, Military, Social commentary on July 21, 2014 at 11:43 amOn June 22, 1941, three million soldiers of Adolf Hitler’s Wehrmacht charged into the Soviet Union, destroying or capturing one Red Army after another.
The Fuehrer, ecstatic, had waited decades to launch this invasion: “We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down.”
That expectation proved to be false.
But then Hitler made a comment whose truth should still be noted: “At the beginning of each campaign, one pushes a door into a dark, unseen room. One can never know what is hiding inside.”
Adolf Hitler
Such proved to be the case in his campaign to destroy the Soviet Union.
By December 1941, the Wehrmacht had killed 360,000 Soviet soldiers, wounded one million, and captured two million more. Red Army losses totaled around 3.4 million.
In six months, German troops and their allies had advanced 600 miles and occupied more than 500,000 square miles of Soviet territory.
And yet, in the end, Operation Barbarossa—the code name for the invasion—proved Hitler’s fatal mistake.
By the time Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, Germany lay in ruins and the Wehrmacht had suffered 85% of its losses on the dreaded “Eastern front.”
Similarly, the militant group Hamas opened hostilities with Israel on July 7, apparently confident that it could defeat the awesome power of an unleashed Israeli Defense Force (IDF).
In June, 2014, three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and murdered. Israeli authorities suspected the culprits were members of Hamas, the terrorist organization that’s long called for Israel’s destruction.
In a desperate search for the missing teens, Israeli forces killed 10 Palestinians, injured 130 and arrested 500 to 600 others.
Hamas, in turn, began launching rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip, which it has controlled since June, 2007. By July 7, 100 rockets had been fired at Israel.
Israeli planes retaliated by attacking 50 targets in Gaza.
On July 8, during a 24-hour period, Hamas fired more than 140 rockets into Israel from Gaza. Saboteurs also tried to infiltrate Israel from the sea, but were intercepted.
A Hamas rocket streaks toward Israel
That same day–July 8, 2014–Israel launched Operation Protective Edge, a full-scale military attack on Gaza.
Hamas then announced that it considered “all Israelis”—including women, children, the elderly and disabled—to be legitimate targets.
On July 8, Hamas—acting as though it were laying down peace terms to an already defeated Israel—issued the following demands:
Only then would Hamas be open to a ceasefire agreement.
Egypt offered a cease-fire proposal. Israel quickly accepted it, temporarily stopping hostilities on July 15. But Hamas claimed that it had not been consulted and rejected the agreement.
Palestinians continued to blithely launch hundreds of rockets at Israel—but went into ecstasies of grief before television cameras when one of their own was killed by Israeli return fire.
The mindset displayed by Hamas reflects that of the Wehrmacht during the titanic battle of Stalingrad, which lasted from August, 1942, to February, 1943.
German soldiers at Stalingrad
This mindset was vividly captured in the diary of Wilhelm Hoffman, one of the 150,000 Germans who died in the battle.
The document reveals how a would-be conqueror can quickly turn from arrogant euphoria in triumph to self-righteous anger and self-pity when faced by unyielding opposition.
July 29, 1942: The company commander says the Russian troops are completely broken, and cannot hold out any longer. To reach the Volga and take Stalingrad is not so difficult for us. The Fuehrer knows where the Russian weak point is. Victory is not far away.
August 10: The Fuehrer’s orders were read out to us. He expects victory of us. We are all convinced that they can’t stop us.
August 12: We are advancing toward Stalingrad along the railway line. Yesterday Russian “katush” [small rocket launchers] and then tanks halted our regiment.
“The Russians are throwing in their last forces,” Captain Werner explained to me. Large-scale help is coming up to us, and the Russians will be beaten.
This morning outstanding soldiers were presented with decorations. Will I really go back to Elsa without a decoration? I believe that for Stalingrad the Fuehrer will decorate even me.
August 27: A continuous cannonade on all sides. We are slowly advancing. Less than 20 miles to go to Stalingrad. In the daytime we can see the smoke of fires, at nighttime the bright glow.
They say that the city is on fire. On the Fuehrer’s orders our Luftwaffe [air force] has sent it up in flames. That’s what the Russians need, to stop them from resisting.
September 5: Our regiment has been ordered to attack Sadovaya station–that’s nearly in Stalingrad. Are the Russians really thinking of holding out in the city itself?
We had no peace all night from the Russian artilery and aeroplanes. Lots of wounded are being brought by. God protect me.
September 8: Two days of non-stop fighting. The Russians are defending themselves with insane stubbornness. Our regiment has lost many men from the “katyushi” [Soviet multiple rocket launchers] which belch out terrible fire.
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