[beanmaestro]

Fine point, but the writing is terrible. Which, unfortunately, undermines the point.

The stats in this article are sensationalistic and mostly unbenchmarked. Comparing numbers from the last three years just proves we’re in a recession. Give us a friggin’ long-term graph, and the data will speak even louder for itself. As it is now, I feel this icky feeling that the numbers were manipulated unnecessarily.

[beanmaestro]

Fine point, but the writing is terrible. Which, unfortunately, undermines the point.

The stats in this article are sensationalistic and mostly unbenchmarked. Comparing numbers from the last three years just proves we’re in a recession. Give us a friggin’ long-term graph, and the data will speak even louder for itself. As it is now, I feel this icky feeling that the numbers were manipulated unnecessarily.

[beanmaestro]

I think the key element missing in education right now is awareness that the student needs to take responsibility for, and plan ahead to make themselves marketable. Too many people pick a field that looks fun, then fail to figure out how to get a job in their field until it’s too late to adjust course.

The English major needs to figure out how she’s going to use a BA to make money before her junior year, so she can tailor classes and internships to be well positioned for tech writing, editing, for-profit blogging, or whatever. The vo-tech student needs to figure out whether he can really get a job he’d be willing to do, for a wage he can live on, before starting the training. The engineer needs to get an internship or a good lab job to have more than a degree on his resume.

It happens that lib arts majors have to be more creative, and take more individual initiative to start up a career. It can work just fine, and they end up happier doing a job they’ll enjoy. The problem comes when the lib arts major ends up with a sociology degree because the classes were easier and more fun.

The other problem is that we’re asking 19 year olds to make those decisions without actually preparing them for the choice. If you don’t want your kids to come home unemployed after college, maybe you should start them thinking critically about careers before they finish high school. If they’re not ready at that time, maybe a couple years of CC or work will help them sort it out without $50k of student debt.

[beanmaestro]

I think the key element missing in education right now is awareness that the student needs to take responsibility for, and plan ahead to make themselves marketable. Too many people pick a field that looks fun, then fail to figure out how to get a job in their field until it’s too late to adjust course.

The English major needs to figure out how she’s going to use a BA to make money before her junior year, so she can tailor classes and internships to be well positioned for tech writing, editing, for-profit blogging, or whatever. The vo-tech student needs to figure out whether he can really get a job he’d be willing to do, for a wage he can live on, before starting the training. The engineer needs to get an internship or a good lab job to have more than a degree on his resume.

It happens that lib arts majors have to be more creative, and take more individual initiative to start up a career. It can work just fine, and they end up happier doing a job they’ll enjoy. The problem comes when the lib arts major ends up with a sociology degree because the classes were easier and more fun.

The other problem is that we’re asking 19 year olds to make those decisions without actually preparing them for the choice. If you don’t want your kids to come home unemployed after college, maybe you should start them thinking critically about careers before they finish high school. If they’re not ready at that time, maybe a couple years of CC or work will help them sort it out without $50k of student debt.

[beanmaestro]

I think the key element missing in education right now is awareness that the student needs to take responsibility for, and plan ahead to make themselves marketable. Too many people pick a field that looks fun, then fail to figure out how to get a job in their field until it’s too late to adjust course.

The English major needs to figure out how she’s going to use a BA to make money before her junior year, so she can tailor classes and internships to be well positioned for tech writing, editing, for-profit blogging, or whatever. The vo-tech student needs to figure out whether he can really get a job he’d be willing to do, for a wage he can live on, before starting the training. The engineer needs to get an internship or a good lab job to have more than a degree on his resume.

It happens that lib arts majors have to be more creative, and take more individual initiative to start up a career. It can work just fine, and they end up happier doing a job they’ll enjoy. The problem comes when the lib arts major ends up with a sociology degree because the classes were easier and more fun.

The other problem is that we’re asking 19 year olds to make those decisions without actually preparing them for the choice. If you don’t want your kids to come home unemployed after college, maybe you should start them thinking critically about careers before they finish high school. If they’re not ready at that time, maybe a couple years of CC or work will help them sort it out without $50k of student debt.

[beanmaestro]

I think the key element missing in education right now is awareness that the student needs to take responsibility for, and plan ahead to make themselves marketable. Too many people pick a field that looks fun, then fail to figure out how to get a job in their field until it’s too late to adjust course.

The English major needs to figure out how she’s going to use a BA to make money before her junior year, so she can tailor classes and internships to be well positioned for tech writing, editing, for-profit blogging, or whatever. The vo-tech student needs to figure out whether he can really get a job he’d be willing to do, for a wage he can live on, before starting the training. The engineer needs to get an internship or a good lab job to have more than a degree on his resume.

It happens that lib arts majors have to be more creative, and take more individual initiative to start up a career. It can work just fine, and they end up happier doing a job they’ll enjoy. The problem comes when the lib arts major ends up with a sociology degree because the classes were easier and more fun.

The other problem is that we’re asking 19 year olds to make those decisions without actually preparing them for the choice. If you don’t want your kids to come home unemployed after college, maybe you should start them thinking critically about careers before they finish high school. If they’re not ready at that time, maybe a couple years of CC or work will help them sort it out without $50k of student debt.

[beanmaestro]

I think the key element missing in education right now is awareness that the student needs to take responsibility for, and plan ahead to make themselves marketable. Too many people pick a field that looks fun, then fail to figure out how to get a job in their field until it’s too late to adjust course.

The English major needs to figure out how she’s going to use a BA to make money before her junior year, so she can tailor classes and internships to be well positioned for tech writing, editing, for-profit blogging, or whatever. The vo-tech student needs to figure out whether he can really get a job he’d be willing to do, for a wage he can live on, before starting the training. The engineer needs to get an internship or a good lab job to have more than a degree on his resume.

It happens that lib arts majors have to be more creative, and take more individual initiative to start up a career. It can work just fine, and they end up happier doing a job they’ll enjoy. The problem comes when the lib arts major ends up with a sociology degree because the classes were easier and more fun.

The other problem is that we’re asking 19 year olds to make those decisions without actually preparing them for the choice. If you don’t want your kids to come home unemployed after college, maybe you should start them thinking critically about careers before they finish high school. If they’re not ready at that time, maybe a couple years of CC or work will help them sort it out without $50k of student debt.

[beanmaestro]

[quote=GH]
I am not advocating 0% tax, since obviously we would quickly see anarchy. California raised sales tax and collects less income. Less products and cars are sold as a result, less income tax is collected and eventually more tax is collected on less sales resulting in a net loss.[/quote]

Red herring. In a recession of this magnitude, a 1% tax rate change will vanish in the noise of other factors. The signal to noise ratio of this point is terrible.

[beanmaestro]

[quote=GH]
I am not advocating 0% tax, since obviously we would quickly see anarchy. California raised sales tax and collects less income. Less products and cars are sold as a result, less income tax is collected and eventually more tax is collected on less sales resulting in a net loss.[/quote]

Red herring. In a recession of this magnitude, a 1% tax rate change will vanish in the noise of other factors. The signal to noise ratio of this point is terrible.

[beanmaestro]

[quote=GH]
I am not advocating 0% tax, since obviously we would quickly see anarchy. California raised sales tax and collects less income. Less products and cars are sold as a result, less income tax is collected and eventually more tax is collected on less sales resulting in a net loss.[/quote]

Red herring. In a recession of this magnitude, a 1% tax rate change will vanish in the noise of other factors. The signal to noise ratio of this point is terrible.

[beanmaestro]

[quote=GH]
I am not advocating 0% tax, since obviously we would quickly see anarchy. California raised sales tax and collects less income. Less products and cars are sold as a result, less income tax is collected and eventually more tax is collected on less sales resulting in a net loss.[/quote]

Red herring. In a recession of this magnitude, a 1% tax rate change will vanish in the noise of other factors. The signal to noise ratio of this point is terrible.

[beanmaestro]

[quote=GH]
I am not advocating 0% tax, since obviously we would quickly see anarchy. California raised sales tax and collects less income. Less products and cars are sold as a result, less income tax is collected and eventually more tax is collected on less sales resulting in a net loss.[/quote]

Red herring. In a recession of this magnitude, a 1% tax rate change will vanish in the noise of other factors. The signal to noise ratio of this point is terrible.

[beanmaestro]

We hired cleaners a couple times, but we weren’t really happy with it. Things got broken, moved, etc, and we had trouble getting the tidying done before they arrived.

Now we occasionally hire friends who are in college for $15/hr. It gives us flexibility to help them clean, or tidy room by room ahead of them, and it’s a lot more fun to have a friend around the house than a stranger.

[beanmaestro]

We hired cleaners a couple times, but we weren’t really happy with it. Things got broken, moved, etc, and we had trouble getting the tidying done before they arrived.

Now we occasionally hire friends who are in college for $15/hr. It gives us flexibility to help them clean, or tidy room by room ahead of them, and it’s a lot more fun to have a friend around the house than a stranger.

[beanmaestro]

We hired cleaners a couple times, but we weren’t really happy with it. Things got broken, moved, etc, and we had trouble getting the tidying done before they arrived.

Now we occasionally hire friends who are in college for $15/hr. It gives us flexibility to help them clean, or tidy room by room ahead of them, and it’s a lot more fun to have a friend around the house than a stranger.

[Author]

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