Quote from hayman:
This is what I see -- the vast majority appear to be college students or relatively recent college grads. I see all of this as a manifestation of the "College Bubble", similar to other bubbles that we've seen - housing bubbles, stock market bubbles, etc. I forget where on Yahoo I read this (sorry, no references), but the article said that 72 % of High School seniors last year will eventually obtain a 4-year college degree (that seemed a little high to me, but who knows ??).
My point is that less-than-informed kids (and many of their ill-informed parents) have been sold a bill of goods. They are all told that a College degree is the way to get ahead. And many of these ill-informed believe that the more they spend on a college education, the bigger return upon graduation. Well, nothing could be further than truth, unless you are perhaps an Ivy League grad.
Now, reality is starting to hit them in the face. Horrible economy, no jobs after graduation. More importantly, mountains of debt racked up in 4 years.
I'm not poo-poo-ing a college education (I have one, my wife has one, and my 2 oldest kids are in college), but to me, College is the new High School. What I mean is that since everyone is getting a College degree these days, what's the true value, unless you truly distinguish yourself from others with grades, activities, internships, etc.
Lots of these OWS people thought that paying huge sums of money via loans was an automatic ticket to prosperity upon graduation, and now reality has hit them squarely in the face. I do feel sorry for them in regard to finding jobs, but I can only blame them (and more importantly, their parents) for allowing them to put themselves in debt the way they have. And there is no way in hell, that I want to subsidize the bailout of these poor financial decisions that were made. I do not want to pay for the poor financial decision of others (BTW, for what it's worth, I was never in favor of the bank bailouts either, but that is an entirely separate issue.............).
