A recent Pew Research report shows that the American middle class is disappearing. Most Americans are no longer considered middle class anymore. The wealth gap in this country, a gap that continues to grow, has already broken all records. In short, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
Data also shows that, despite the fact that many American college students enter their adult lives by taking on tens (and sometimes hundreds) of thousands of dollars in debt for the promise of a good job with better wages when they graduate, in reality, they are starting out making barely more than the average college graduate made nearly 40 years ago.
Male/female pay gap aside, in 1979, the average male college graduate started his new job at $20.61 an hour.
In 2011 according to this chart, that wage averaged $21.68, just a few cents over a whole dollar more. In 2014, the amount only increased to $21.86 (and 2015 data isn’t out yet, obviously).
But what does that 2014 dollar really buy these days? Because the price of everything has gone up a lot more than a dollar.
Let’s just look at the differences between the two years in the price of a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk.
(Sources: Inthe70s.com, NationMaster)
So a college graduate, starting out his adult life as a debt slave, might make a whole $1.25 more an hour these days, but a loaf of bread costs nearly $2 more than it did in 1979, and milk is $2.26 a gallon now. Go ahead and figure this up for everything the average person buys in order to get by in daily life and… well…
You get the idea. Inflation has increased 244.24% since 1979.
And all this, despite the fact that in 2008 it was reported that college tuition fees have increased in the U.S. a whopping 439% since 1982!
Unless a person has rich parents who pay for college, taking out loans is about the only way most college students can even afford college. Over 70% of Americans have some sort of student loan debt, which now exceeds total credit card debt in this country. The average student loan debt is $33,000. The student loan debt bubble has grown to over $1.3 trillion in this country. It’s one of the main reasons more college students and graduates than ever are still living at home with their parents.
And the reality is, the jobs for grads just aren’t there. This study is one of many which shows that the growth of supply of college-educated labor is exceeding the growth in labor market demand for college-educated labor.
The jobs simply are not awaiting all these college graduates, as evidenced in this chart here:
Twice as many people (or more!) are looking for jobs in most sectors than there are jobs available in those sectors in this country.
And currently 48% — that’s nearly half — of America’s college graduates are working jobs that do not even require their college degree. The proportion of overeducated workers has grown substantially since the 1970s; according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, some 5 million American college grads are working jobs that require less than a high school education.
So why are so many young people still taking on gargantuan amounts of student loan debt just to pay thousands more a semester to get a college degree for a job that either doesn’t exist or ultimately isn’t going to even help them pay all that student loan debt back, let alone be able to afford the basic necessities to live on?
Hope.
That’s the only reason I can figure. The promise of the American Dream. It’s a dream because the reality is, it simply does not exist.
And in other news, long-term unemployment in America is now at an all time high…
Melissa Dykes is a writer, researcher, and analyst for The Daily Sheeple and a co-creator of Truthstream Media with Aaron Dykes, a site that offers teleprompter-free, unscripted analysis of The Matrix we find ourselves living in. Melissa also co-founded Nutritional Anarchy with Daisy Luther of The Organic Prepper, a site focused on resistance through food self-sufficiency. Wake the flock up!
Sounds like the nwo agenda 21 or 2030 is working.No one will own anything and the serfs will gather food for the parasitic overlords.
They are following the societal trends of the 1970s, and are somewhat helpless to do otherwise. With the Likud party of judaism in control of the USGov and a semi-Moslem occupying the POTUS slot, the citizenry of the US exercises little if any voice in U.S. governance.
TRY one answer – – LAZY – – expecting every thing to come form the Government or MOM amd DAD . ///////
SEMPER PARATUS
“The Good Shepherd(Jesus) of souls opened his arms to all, rejecting none, and with universal love coaxed the world to follow him on the path to liberation through the example of his spirit of sacrifice, renunciation, forgiveness, love for friend and enemy alike, and supreme love for God above all else.”
Are you a writer of fiction, 33 ?
“Remember, O man, that all which exists
is only another form of that which exists not.
Everything that has being is passing into yet other
being and thou thyself are not an exception.”
College is not the place where you go in order to develop the capacity to “think and question”, at least it isn’t these days. Once upon a time, maybe. Now it is merely a place where you go to get the same information, and perform for a grade, so that you may hopefully get a job that is similar to sitting in a classroom. Apprenticeships would have been better in order to gain that capacity of thinking and questioning, along with securing the work ethic necessary to perform a particular job. Unfortunately they’re kind of illegal.
Also I would like to mention that you do not create wealth for yourself by just working a good job, you have to create something new, that is highly needed in order to do that. A process which is more often than not denied to the majority of American citizens, due to lack of land, free time(you know to come up with the idea) and understanding of how the world works. Possibly due to all that time spent in school learning a bunch of “facts” that are not synonymous with learning how to become a creator, philosopher, scientist, etc..
In other words our systems of education fail to allow people the self discovery necessary to become great people who are capable of creating wealth, or even the ability to think and question.
Right On!! In ALL you say! Especially the part about sharing costs and responsibility when living with someone. And why should universities require $$$ to “round us off” in education when Life itself does that!!?? 🙂