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bearishgurl
Participant[quote=dumbrenter][quote=harvey][quote=flyer]Shockingly, only about 20% of new college grads are getting the jobs they want, where they want them, and the BLS predicts that will not change much in the future.[/quote]
Why is that shocking?
What should the number be?
Personally, I’m not surprised by that vague statistic. Four of five people don’t receive fulfilling careers immediately after obtaining an undergraduate degree? Sounds like real life.[/quote]
Reminds me of the joke about the school where every kid in the school is “above average” compared to their peers int he same school!
But I think the shocking part is the expectations that grads and their parents have after they have been ‘sold’ on the school.[/quote]I’ll have to admit that I’m kind of ‘sold’ on my youngest kid’s school (a CSU campus). I DO think the CSUs have really, really good instructors who are dedicated to the success of their students (even the ones who teach GE’s). The problem is that students don’t take advantage of all on campus that is on offer to them for their really high fees. At my kid’s campus, the fees (exclusive of tuition) are now close to $2K year. Instructors DO have office hours and “free” tutoring is offered on most subjects several days per week in the library. Class sizes have now been reduced to 24 – 70 students with most of them capped at 34 students (even GE classes). Freshman are really coddled to the point where they get priority registration for the first quarter and are registered in all the right remedial ENG and MATH the summer BEFORE their freshman year begins. There is help in person and online for almost any problem, academic or otherwise. If the right help a student needs isn’t available on campus, they will be referred out to the appropriate community resource and an appt will be made for them (ex: problems of students who are single parents). Some campuses today even have mini-hospitals on campus and state-of-the-art multi-level fitness centers with climbing walls and a host of exercise classes, etc. All one needs is that magic student ID to avail themselves of all these benefits.
I really think the CSUs (at least some of them) are now trying mightily to address every concern of a student as a whole person to ensure their success and continuation to earn a degree due to high dropout rates of previous years (due primarily to financial issues, frustration with registration and poor preparation in HS). Their more holistic approach is contributing to the overall success of students in the long haul.
I like some of the smaller public campuses out-of-state, as well (i.e. 4K students). I think it is really cool that the instructors in these campuses get to know as many students as possible personally and walk with them on campus and lunch with them. Two that come to mind have several professors each who retired from the UC and CSU systems and subsequently came to work for these campuses for the more “personal” atmosphere.
If I was young and could have a do-over, I would enroll in the CSU … probably Humboldt State … so I could be out in the woods often, lol ….
“Bezerkely” would be my second choice (courtesy of spdrun, lol). And yes, I could get admitted to Cal. I was admitted to it over 40 years ago with an ACT score of 31 but declined because I “couldn’t afford it” back then (I went to HS out of state).Bad mistake. I could have gone on to law school at Boalt Hall and my life would have been completely different :=0
ParticipantWhy do the Chinese have a “less than optimal” lifestyle in their own country?? Uhhh, let’s ponder on this issue for a minute, people. Methinks they’re making things (everything Americans think they need) strictly for $$ with no regard to what its actually doing to their environment.
Uhh, hello out there?
There is a price to pay for being the top manufacturing country in the world and Chinese citizens are paying for it . . . in spades.
Participant[quote=Myriad]http://www.wsj.com/articles/where-rich-chinese-are-stashing-their-cash-americas-hotels-and-strip-malls-1449556200
Another article about investing in hotels
[/quote]
And the reason the Chinese want/need to get their money out of their country??
This just in, folks:
Uhh, the Chinese living in major cities (no matter WHAT their income level} … umm … have a less-than-quality lifestyle.
Participant[quote=42nate1]Monthly assessment is $350 (water & sewer absorb most of this), and most of the owners would (there are 8 houses in total) would prefer to have an auto debit set up so they do not have to remember to write monthly checks.
With the size, their records are excel based. It’s very simple, so no software involved. I’m an Accountant and got pulled into it and have been doing it for years.
There are 1-2 owners that are problems, and having the money come out of their account would make life simpler from a cash flow standpoint for the HOA.
Seems like this would be a simple issue to resolve, but BofA requires $100k in cash to set up the auto debit, and the companies I’ve found that provide this service say that we either don’t have enough homes to make it worth their time, or they want to provide financial services as a bundle, which the HOA does not need nor can really afford with such a small number of homes.[/quote]
I find that absolutely ridiculous, 42nate1. Is there some way that a bank (or property mgmt co) would take in your small “complex” for 10% (or less) of the HOA dues collected?
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi]. . . There is control up to a certain point.[/quote]
Yes, that’s true. And after a certain point, when we reach a “particular age,” we can’t control it. Many health issues are “hereditary.” It is what it is.Participant[quote=flyer] . . . We can all do our best to make life last as long as possible, but there are just no guarantees.[/quote]
Agree, flyer. In late Oct, I downgraded my Covered CA plan from Platinum to Silver 73, due to my premium going up 20% for 2016. After that, I went in for my annual physical exam and promptly upgraded my 2016 plan to Gold the next day after learning of a couple of troubling issues. My Gold premium for 2016 will be nearly the same amount as my Platinum premium was for 2015 (same carrier).
I fear being hung out to dry with medical bills, etc, if I don’t have adequate coverage. And this is coming from a fit individual who is primarily a vegetarian and has worked out at a gym 3-5 days per week for the past 7 years (when not on the road).
We can’t control everything in life … even within ourselves. And none of us can choose our parents.
Participant[quote=flyer]Have to agree pregnancy is probably the least of most people’s problems today, and having ultimate control in life in any socioeconomic strata (for the short time each of us have on earth) is clearly becoming more and more questionable, for everyone going forward.
Making the most of life as all of us are trying to do is great–making as much money as you can, giving your family the best life possible, etc., etc.–is also great, but I just watched a relative say goodbye to this world, and anyone who thinks they have ultimate control in the final analysis, is, quite simply, delusional.[/quote]
I’m sorry for your loss, flyer. I just lost a vital, very athletic good friend of ~40 years to pancreatic cancer two months ago. He lived 103 days from diagnosis and lost 78 lbs of body weight during that time. He worked FT all his life up to 18 days before his diagnosis, where he was forced to take disability due to intense pain. He was waiting to retire until the last quarter of this year so he could be eligible for Medicare.
It was not to be.
All we have left are our wonderful memories.
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi]If we were talking about life in general, I would agree.
But we’re talking CV North, the home of the tiger parents, the scientists and engineers. People who want ultimate control.
In the past, the judge, or county official or the CEO was more like everyone else. Now we are in the word of big data, API scores, IQ tests, and other numerical objective measures. Njtosd brought up assortive mating in the educated class.[/quote]
Regardless of how much “control” a parent “wants,” it is difficult to “control” all aspects of the life of an 18-year-old. Short of threatening to throw them out or cut them off if they are in college, there is little a parent can do at that point. They just have to hope that their kid is doing what they are supposed to be doing when they are supposed to be doing it and not making stupid life-changing decisions for the worse.
Any parent who feels otherwise (“tiger” or no) is suffering from delusions. Kids who have reached the age of 18 are free to vote with their feet if they don’t like their lives the way they are.
I see a couple of kids in my sphere approaching 18 who just may very well do that. Both have one parent who is a paranoid, delusional hyper-vigilant home-schooling lunatic who has successfully thus far kept them away from their peers as well as all TV, radio, popular music, internet (controlled to homeschool sites only), mainstream clothing and drives them only to pre-vetted families’ homes where pre-arranged approved topics will be discussed.
And no, these “crazy” parents aren’t middle eastern … they are both Americans born in the US who got wrapped up in a “cult” in the past 10-12 years.
The other parent(s) live in the home but are codependents who fear having to pay child support so they are just counting the days …. the whole situation is so sad all around … It’s hard to watch a train wreck unfolding …
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi]Getting knocked up at 19 is not a function of means as much as education and environment.
Assume 2 houses. $1.2 house in CV South and another $1.2 house in CV North. The houses are the same value, but the people living in them have different values. The neighbors and neighborhood are different.
Not that it doesn’t happen, but I’m pretty certain the likelyhood of getting knocked-up up north is lower (yes, I misspoke when I said “I doubt anyone..”). Let see if anyone will tell us us about teenage pregnancies in their neighborhoods. Come on people, let’s hear the stories.[/quote]
Again, accidental young, single-person parenthood has nothing to do with being raised in a well-off household or poor household and everything to do with the young person’s level of maturity and, as flyer stated, degree of self-entitlement. Suffice to say, I’ve seen kids of Navy captains … even the daughter of a Commodore, lol and county official’s (dept head/county mgmt-level) kids become “accidental parents.” ’nuff said … I’ll just leave it at that.
I recently visited cousins’ homes (2) on my recent trip to “flyover country” where they BOTH had daughters (early-mid 20’s) who were living with them in different stages of pregnancy. Both were single (never-married) and for both, this was going to be their first child. Both my cousins in this case were male and semi-retired in their early 60’s. Both were married … one was still married to the girl’s mother. Both had owned their beautiful large homes in the best parts of town (the home their daughters grew up in) for decades. It happens everywhere to people of all walks of life.
You are talking out your a$$ on this one, FIH.
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi]I can see now that you’re a real feminist as opposed to the fake wishy washy ones today. You have a can do attitude from co-parenting to co-borrowing.
You’re lucky that your kids opened their eyes and ears otherwise they could have ended up like some of the neighbors. That’s a reason people don’t want to live on CV South. I doubt anyone gets knocked up at 19 in CV North.[/quote]
Uhh, you might want to ask our friend flyer about this, FIH. Even people raised within the covenant (female AND male) who have no means to support their offspring get “knocked up.” It’s even cushier to live in a parent’s back bdrm there in their expansive home on expansive grounds, with your baby’s crib by your bedside :=)
In my kid’s friend’s sibling’s cases, nearly all of their homes (owned by parents) were worth $800K to $1.2M during the years my kids were in HS with them.
Theoretically, any new mom (teenaged or not) can qualify for a monthly TANF payment for her baby if she does not receive any child support from the father. Her address or her parent(s) ability to support both of them have nothing to do with her eligibility because once she is a parent herself, she has formed her “own” immediate family under the law. Many parents of means with kids who are pregnant or new moms require them to file for the benefit so they will be forced by the county to work for the benefit when their baby reaches four months old. They then demand the benefit be paid into the household to pay for diapers, formula and other stuff for the baby while the mom works. However, it is not enough in any way, shape or form to compensate the grandparent or other relative who is typically caring for the baby while the mom works.
FYI, teenage and young adult parents who can’t support their kid(s) weren’t necessarily raised “poor” and usually weren’t. Most of them (girls) were coddled and too sheltered (IMO) by upper middle-class and even wealthy parents. Hence, their unbridled stupidity in this day and age regarding consequences of sex and use of birth control.
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi] . . . A lot of San Diegans make a living in building construction, even proportionately more in years past. If you stop building, what are people going to do?. . .
[/quote]I’m not seeing this, FIH. I think there were many more tradespeople in decades past than today. Young people have not been encouraged by their HS counselors to go into the trades after HS since the late ’80’s, at least.
We’ve been pushing HS students towards university acceptance for decades … hence most of the “A – G” requirements needed for public CA university entrance are now needed for HS graduation as well.
Participant[quote=Myriad][quote=bearishgurl][quote=joec]In today’s UT:
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/dec/06/tp-home-sellers-look-east-carlsbad-website-taps/
[/quote]I couldn’t find any CFD’s in LA County … anywhere.It has a far more diversified job base and is much better-planned than SD County is. That $599K avg price for new construction represents an attached condo price in 2015.[/quote]
Considering most of LA was built up before the late 80’s, why would there be CFDs?
Oh? I’m curious what way you find LA County better planned than SD County? Certainly can’t be the traffic or the limited public transit east of DTLA.[/quote]Myriad, the massive SGV portion of (Eastern) LA County, where I was looking at RE extensively last year, appears to have been completely built out in ’85 or ’86, depending on city, town to census tract designation (many cities/towns were built out much earlier than that). All their open space has been left intact, and, much like the Silicon Valley, it is extensive …. comprising almost half the land in this region of over 2M people. The County has erected flood control devices on a lot of it, to prevent avulsion. With the San Gabriels in the close or distant background (depending on location) it is spectacular despite the high temperatures there 8-9 months per year. The average SFR lot size there is ~7500 sf compared to SD’s 5000 sf.
Of course, some of the westside cities are much denser, especially the small coastal cities and towns. There hasn’t been any subdivision land with which to build on in more than 35 years in most of the westside of LA County, again, because all their open space was (properly) preserved by previous Boards of Supervisors and city councils.
It is all as it should be.
OTOH, over the past ~25 years, especially, San Diego County and its cities have essentially allowed Big Development to cut off the tops of any hill or mountain which they considered “buildable” (or even barely buildable with extensive rock excavation). In almost every case, the developer and respective city/county partnered to form a “CFD” for the purposes of funding buildings for physical municipal or county services for future inhabitants of that new development. This money WAS used to build the physical buildings used for public service for these outlying areas but did not provide for the extra public personnel’s salaries, benefits and pensions to service those areas. In most cases, city and county staffs have not grown appreciably in the last 15+ years and some cities had to lay off hundreds of workers in 2008-09 (when too many parcels in their jurisdiction were delinquent on their property taxes) and haven’t hired them back to this date.
Hence, we see the bankrupt cities of San Bernardino and Stockton who allowed rampant building as San Diego County cities did but didn’t have the job base and tax base (their parcels had a much lower value) as SD County cities did to support paying for the public services needed by the new population influx of tens of thousands.
All this unchecked rampant growth has affected the quality of life of longtime existing residents adversely by way of perpetually clogged freeways, long lines at public facilities (ex: post offices) and long waits for city services such as tree-trimming, street maintenance and street sweeping, etc.
It isn’t that crowded out in the SGV. Yes, the freeways are congested out there in large part because they have the truck traffic that SD does not and will never have. There are multiple regional and municipal bus lines in the SGV which coordinate with one another and the Metrolink has built several new train stations of late, the newest being within the “City of Industry” (a comm’l subdivision of Walnut, CA):
http://www.metrolinktrains.com/stations/detail/station_id/99.html
The Metrolink connects with Amtrak at Union station in LA and also to regional airports and transportation to LAX. It is an excellent and economical way to traverse most of LA County’s sub-regions. From what I can tell, public transportation is very good around there.
LA County was better planned because the vast majority of it was (very wisely) legally preserved PRIOR to the passing of the Mello Roos Community Facilities Act:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mello-Roos
Hence the residential properties there are worth more money (on an apples-to-apples comparison) then those in SD County. You pay for what you get in this life. I believe the quality of life there is probably better than that of SD if one doesn’t have to commute on a freeway to work.
I feel it is unfair to blame “locals” for clogging SF Bay area and OC/Ventura/LA County roads (as well as roads within the IE). The roads in these counties are heavily used by travelers, both in and out of state to/from their homes in another county/state as well as by thousands of long-haul commercial drivers daily. SD doesn’t have anywhere near as much “traveler traffic” daily because it is located at the bottom of the state and country … that is unless those travelers entering SD County from elsewhere are headed into MX. SD has much less truck traffic than those other jurisdictions as well, for the same reason. The major coast-to-coast trucking companies offload at Vernon (LA County) and bring a smaller rig into SD to stock our stores, UPS, Fed-Ex, etc, here. SD County (along with several other CA jurisdictions) does not permit the entrance of triple tractor-trailers.
We in SD County have LA County to thank for providing the roads and space to do our “dirty work” for us so we can have timely pkg delivery, mdse in our stores and cleaner air to breathe 🙂
ParticipantFIH, by chance, were you raised in LJ (SD)? If so, did you expect to buy your first home there when you graduated from college?
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi]BG, I know you’re strong. And it can be can be done and will be done by some. But not by everyone. (BTW, that’s why I believe the Hispanics are harder workers than their native white counterparts. They are making It work in Cali while the other guys relocate to Colorado Springs).
But shouldn’t we try to build an economy that works for everyone?
I mean look at Santa Barbara, it’s all quaint and all… The priced in natives can pat themselves on the back for buying 40 years ago. But will their kids find a job in the area, even if they go to college? Maybe they’d have better luck working in a hotel.[/quote]
FIH, there is nothing wrong with majoring in hospitality and having a “career” as a hotelier … especially a lucrative one with a large chain offering its employees many perks. Hotel/motel mgmt pays pretty well as does restaurant mgmt and sous chef/head chef.
Being the “motor-lodge queen extraordinaire” that I am (lol) I spend plenty of money on them annually, in spite of my “lowish” income … and I am not alone. And in my younger days, I spent 7-12 nights a year at mainly Sheratons for 12+ years straight at ski resorts.
As to Santa Barbara, it has never been a “starter town” and never will be so why would millenials aspire to buy their first home there? Those “priced in” boomers and beyond who reside there very likely didn’t purchase their first, second, or even third home there … and if they did, it was a dry-rotted crapshack on a substandard lot that needed extensive renovation.
Yes, even in 1971.
To the naked eye, it “appears” to younger generations that CA boomers (and beyond) had everything handed to them for pennies on the dollar and lived their lives and raised their families on “easy street” but nothing could be further from the truth. This group had to live through times in their adult lives of gasoline scarcity, soaring mortgage interest rates, overt (legal) gender discrimination, employer-friendly laws, lack of telecommuting opportunities while raising a family and a host of other conditions causing parents’ lives to even be considered “hardscrabble” compared to working conditions of today. Level of household “income” had nothing to do with it.
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