Disconnecting a global phenomenon, but still joining some dots.
Jackson Toby's reach rarely exceeds his grasp, but it's still taken me a week to post something about his piece on the Minding The Campus website, "The Revenge of the Unemployed Graduates". A taster:
"Western welfare states promote education as an escalator into the middle class, thereby kindling hopes for well-paid careers for everyone who gets on the escalator. These hopes are more realistic than the hopes of students in Arab universities. Western societies are better at providing good jobs for university graduates, but even Western countries, including the United States, are better at providing educational opportunities - building magnificent new universities and giving grants and loans to students who enroll in them - than they are at growing their economies enough to provide jobs for graduates."
Stepping over some bodies, and kicking a few makeshift tents outside St. Paul's isn't going to get any sympathy votes, but there comes a point when protest becomes tiresome. It's probably that point at which middle-aged irritation at being inconvenienced reaches (very) critical mass, and coincides with sighing at television news coverage of angry young people largely being angry with themselves for not going into banking as a career. What can one do? Persuading some of the new intake that they'd be better off doing apprenticeships seems churlish, however well-intentioned (and downright honest).
The real problem I have with Toby's case (which you can read in full here: http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2011/10/the_revenge_of_the_unemployed_.html) is that he seems ignorant of the nature of modern economies, and how graduates function best within them. For every sidestep, there is - or should be - a spiritual reckoning. In the UK, putting a monetary value on a degree is almost as crass and counterproductive as reminding someone how much their funeral is likely to cost. Is there ever a good or appropriate time to bring that up as a topic of conversation? The trouble is the expectation of life and, by specific contextual extension, a job "worthy" of a graduate.
Going around, screaming at people to wake up, was never meant to be attractive, but that doesn't make it any less necessary sometimes.
"Western welfare states promote education as an escalator into the middle class, thereby kindling hopes for well-paid careers for everyone who gets on the escalator. These hopes are more realistic than the hopes of students in Arab universities. Western societies are better at providing good jobs for university graduates, but even Western countries, including the United States, are better at providing educational opportunities - building magnificent new universities and giving grants and loans to students who enroll in them - than they are at growing their economies enough to provide jobs for graduates."
Stepping over some bodies, and kicking a few makeshift tents outside St. Paul's isn't going to get any sympathy votes, but there comes a point when protest becomes tiresome. It's probably that point at which middle-aged irritation at being inconvenienced reaches (very) critical mass, and coincides with sighing at television news coverage of angry young people largely being angry with themselves for not going into banking as a career. What can one do? Persuading some of the new intake that they'd be better off doing apprenticeships seems churlish, however well-intentioned (and downright honest).
The real problem I have with Toby's case (which you can read in full here: http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2011/10/the_revenge_of_the_unemployed_.html) is that he seems ignorant of the nature of modern economies, and how graduates function best within them. For every sidestep, there is - or should be - a spiritual reckoning. In the UK, putting a monetary value on a degree is almost as crass and counterproductive as reminding someone how much their funeral is likely to cost. Is there ever a good or appropriate time to bring that up as a topic of conversation? The trouble is the expectation of life and, by specific contextual extension, a job "worthy" of a graduate.
Going around, screaming at people to wake up, was never meant to be attractive, but that doesn't make it any less necessary sometimes.