Graduation? No Thank You

Our latest reading, “Nickle-And-Dimed”, summarized the journey one writer took to find out what it was like to live as a member of the low-wage workforce. While her story was intriguing and stark, the shock factor, for me at least, no longer has its effect. By that I simply mean that while my generation is coddled in the arms of the world’s best medicine, technology, and advancements, there remains a parallel growth of the gap between wealth and poverty…a growth that can no longer be ignored. From my isolated “college bubble” perspective, reading about people who work two full time jobs and raise a child on 7$/hr can be objectified by blaming it on a lack of education or poor personal decisions. Yet, knowing what I now know about social reproduction, I am beginning to understand that this problem is not an individual or group problem, but is instead a major social issue. But when does this issue become real for you (fellow college people) or me? I will tell you. It becomes real when scholarship, grant, or loan money stops automatically depositing itself into your bank account. It becomes real when Ivy League graduates with 4.0’s can’t find employment in the field for which they trained so long. It becomes real when the waters of unemployment burst your perfect college bubble. Welcome to reality.

" It doesn't make any sense: They went to school for four years, and then they come out working at McDonald's and Payless. That's not what they planned” (Kessler CNN, 2009).

This was the last sentence in a 2009 CNN article about a recent college graduate who sued her alma mater because she was unable to find a job upon graduation. Granted her GPA (2.7) could have been a little better, but other than that, it seems like many current collegiate seniors are scrambling to either get into some kind of graduate school to defer loan repayment or fight like dogs for employment that is well beneath their qualifications. It’s funny how fast individual troubles turn into social issues once enough bad things happen to good people. So why is this a social issue? Frankly, because current policies serve to reinforce the mirage of success in America. When I was younger I was always told that going to college was mandatory, not only because it would help me support myself in a stable career, but also because knowledge is power and college, supposedly, provides this power. But now, much like those little processing fees that start to show up on your phone bill, those promises start to lose their integrity. A college degree alone is no longer sufficient. You can have all the knowledge you want, but if you want to make the dough you must first shell it, time, or both out in hopes that your next degree will enable you to grasp hold of that little piece of success. My only problem is, if our current economic plan exacerbates this problem at a rate faster than I can achieve a Master’s or Doctoral status, what’s next? How can I trust the promises that come with obtaining a professional degree if those made about earning a college degree faltered? But, if I settle for a job that is below my qualifications, that job may soon become a career and I may be left behind in the dust, in the world of living paycheck to paycheck.

Ask me if I want to graduate college now…no thank you. First let me see how/when this economic storm will pass.