[EconProf]

That’s a great piece by Ruben Navarrette from the U-T, who often shows uncommon wisdom in his opinion pieces.
At the risk of offending many parents and their boomerang offspring, I suggest that sheltering their mid-twenties something children at home is doing them a great disservice. Yes it is a great money-saver, but it enables the returnee to be ultra-picky about the job they will accept, avoid the tough choices about living on their own, and dodge the trial and error stumbles that make someone an adult.
It is by falling on our face a few times that we finally take pride in succeeding. When parents, especially mothers, do too much for their kids, they are robbing them of accomplishing success in the face of adversity. Many commentators on this thread have cited the obstacles they have overcome, and done so with obvious pride. Kids need to take prudent risks, be adventuresome, and carve out their own future.
I suggest the new college graduate be given a time limit to stay with the parents, say two months rent free, then market rent for six months for that spare bedroom and no more free food. Oh, and don’t even think about overnight guests!

[EconProf]

That’s a great piece by Ruben Navarrette from the U-T, who often shows uncommon wisdom in his opinion pieces.
At the risk of offending many parents and their boomerang offspring, I suggest that sheltering their mid-twenties something children at home is doing them a great disservice. Yes it is a great money-saver, but it enables the returnee to be ultra-picky about the job they will accept, avoid the tough choices about living on their own, and dodge the trial and error stumbles that make someone an adult.
It is by falling on our face a few times that we finally take pride in succeeding. When parents, especially mothers, do too much for their kids, they are robbing them of accomplishing success in the face of adversity. Many commentators on this thread have cited the obstacles they have overcome, and done so with obvious pride. Kids need to take prudent risks, be adventuresome, and carve out their own future.
I suggest the new college graduate be given a time limit to stay with the parents, say two months rent free, then market rent for six months for that spare bedroom and no more free food. Oh, and don’t even think about overnight guests!

[EconProf]

That’s a great piece by Ruben Navarrette from the U-T, who often shows uncommon wisdom in his opinion pieces.
At the risk of offending many parents and their boomerang offspring, I suggest that sheltering their mid-twenties something children at home is doing them a great disservice. Yes it is a great money-saver, but it enables the returnee to be ultra-picky about the job they will accept, avoid the tough choices about living on their own, and dodge the trial and error stumbles that make someone an adult.
It is by falling on our face a few times that we finally take pride in succeeding. When parents, especially mothers, do too much for their kids, they are robbing them of accomplishing success in the face of adversity. Many commentators on this thread have cited the obstacles they have overcome, and done so with obvious pride. Kids need to take prudent risks, be adventuresome, and carve out their own future.
I suggest the new college graduate be given a time limit to stay with the parents, say two months rent free, then market rent for six months for that spare bedroom and no more free food. Oh, and don’t even think about overnight guests!

[EconProf]

That’s a great piece by Ruben Navarrette from the U-T, who often shows uncommon wisdom in his opinion pieces.
At the risk of offending many parents and their boomerang offspring, I suggest that sheltering their mid-twenties something children at home is doing them a great disservice. Yes it is a great money-saver, but it enables the returnee to be ultra-picky about the job they will accept, avoid the tough choices about living on their own, and dodge the trial and error stumbles that make someone an adult.
It is by falling on our face a few times that we finally take pride in succeeding. When parents, especially mothers, do too much for their kids, they are robbing them of accomplishing success in the face of adversity. Many commentators on this thread have cited the obstacles they have overcome, and done so with obvious pride. Kids need to take prudent risks, be adventuresome, and carve out their own future.
I suggest the new college graduate be given a time limit to stay with the parents, say two months rent free, then market rent for six months for that spare bedroom and no more free food. Oh, and don’t even think about overnight guests!

[EconProf]

Debate about the military-industrial complex will soon be replaced by talk about the education-industrial complex. Higher education is grossly oversold by a cabal of educrats, professors, politicians, lenders, and other vested interests. The rate of return on college degrees is wildly overstated for several reasons:
1. The lifetime ROR data are for past years and decades, and do not take into account the current experience of recent college graduates in today’s job market–which is not likely to improve much in the near future.
2. The ROR studies do not consider the personal characteristics that differentiate college-bound HS graduates from the non-college-bound. The former generally are already somewhat smarter, more ambitious, better spoken, better connected, have more family wealth, etc., on average. Accordingly, their lifetime earnings would be expected to be higher regardless of college. How much of their higher income can be attributed solely to going to college? That is the question never posed to those overselling college degrees.
3. The type of degree granted matters hugely. My daughter graduated from the afore-mentioned Harvey Mudd College in 2003 and has made little money because her major was English (some coursework taken at adjoining Scripps College). Is now starting on a master’s degree in Accountancy to remedy the earnings problem.
In short, college has been hugely oversold by vested interests, and the victims are the indebted-for-life graduates struggling with dashed job hopes.
If there is one thing to be learned from this experience, it is that incentives matter. In the same way that the housing bubble became so big for so long was because the participants all had the incentives in front of them to keep it going (lenders, buyers, RE professionals, Fannie/Freddie, politicians), so also the education industry has grown due to incentives. Professors’ work loads have fallen over the years and their compensation (especially on a per-hour basis) usually exceeds what they could make in the private sector. College administrative staffs have exploded in number and compensation. Campus facilities and dorms are towers of excess. The students and their parents see college not as an intellectual pursuit but as a consumption item (social life, status, etc), with the degree devalued since “everybody has one”…
As a nation, our pursuit of credentials has left us overeducated in the formal sense of having degrees, but without knowledge and introspection in a broader sense. We are now awakening to this and college enrollements will have a much-needed downward adjustment.

[EconProf]

Debate about the military-industrial complex will soon be replaced by talk about the education-industrial complex. Higher education is grossly oversold by a cabal of educrats, professors, politicians, lenders, and other vested interests. The rate of return on college degrees is wildly overstated for several reasons:
1. The lifetime ROR data are for past years and decades, and do not take into account the current experience of recent college graduates in today’s job market–which is not likely to improve much in the near future.
2. The ROR studies do not consider the personal characteristics that differentiate college-bound HS graduates from the non-college-bound. The former generally are already somewhat smarter, more ambitious, better spoken, better connected, have more family wealth, etc., on average. Accordingly, their lifetime earnings would be expected to be higher regardless of college. How much of their higher income can be attributed solely to going to college? That is the question never posed to those overselling college degrees.
3. The type of degree granted matters hugely. My daughter graduated from the afore-mentioned Harvey Mudd College in 2003 and has made little money because her major was English (some coursework taken at adjoining Scripps College). Is now starting on a master’s degree in Accountancy to remedy the earnings problem.
In short, college has been hugely oversold by vested interests, and the victims are the indebted-for-life graduates struggling with dashed job hopes.
If there is one thing to be learned from this experience, it is that incentives matter. In the same way that the housing bubble became so big for so long was because the participants all had the incentives in front of them to keep it going (lenders, buyers, RE professionals, Fannie/Freddie, politicians), so also the education industry has grown due to incentives. Professors’ work loads have fallen over the years and their compensation (especially on a per-hour basis) usually exceeds what they could make in the private sector. College administrative staffs have exploded in number and compensation. Campus facilities and dorms are towers of excess. The students and their parents see college not as an intellectual pursuit but as a consumption item (social life, status, etc), with the degree devalued since “everybody has one”…
As a nation, our pursuit of credentials has left us overeducated in the formal sense of having degrees, but without knowledge and introspection in a broader sense. We are now awakening to this and college enrollements will have a much-needed downward adjustment.

[EconProf]

Debate about the military-industrial complex will soon be replaced by talk about the education-industrial complex. Higher education is grossly oversold by a cabal of educrats, professors, politicians, lenders, and other vested interests. The rate of return on college degrees is wildly overstated for several reasons:
1. The lifetime ROR data are for past years and decades, and do not take into account the current experience of recent college graduates in today’s job market–which is not likely to improve much in the near future.
2. The ROR studies do not consider the personal characteristics that differentiate college-bound HS graduates from the non-college-bound. The former generally are already somewhat smarter, more ambitious, better spoken, better connected, have more family wealth, etc., on average. Accordingly, their lifetime earnings would be expected to be higher regardless of college. How much of their higher income can be attributed solely to going to college? That is the question never posed to those overselling college degrees.
3. The type of degree granted matters hugely. My daughter graduated from the afore-mentioned Harvey Mudd College in 2003 and has made little money because her major was English (some coursework taken at adjoining Scripps College). Is now starting on a master’s degree in Accountancy to remedy the earnings problem.
In short, college has been hugely oversold by vested interests, and the victims are the indebted-for-life graduates struggling with dashed job hopes.
If there is one thing to be learned from this experience, it is that incentives matter. In the same way that the housing bubble became so big for so long was because the participants all had the incentives in front of them to keep it going (lenders, buyers, RE professionals, Fannie/Freddie, politicians), so also the education industry has grown due to incentives. Professors’ work loads have fallen over the years and their compensation (especially on a per-hour basis) usually exceeds what they could make in the private sector. College administrative staffs have exploded in number and compensation. Campus facilities and dorms are towers of excess. The students and their parents see college not as an intellectual pursuit but as a consumption item (social life, status, etc), with the degree devalued since “everybody has one”…
As a nation, our pursuit of credentials has left us overeducated in the formal sense of having degrees, but without knowledge and introspection in a broader sense. We are now awakening to this and college enrollements will have a much-needed downward adjustment.

[EconProf]

Debate about the military-industrial complex will soon be replaced by talk about the education-industrial complex. Higher education is grossly oversold by a cabal of educrats, professors, politicians, lenders, and other vested interests. The rate of return on college degrees is wildly overstated for several reasons:
1. The lifetime ROR data are for past years and decades, and do not take into account the current experience of recent college graduates in today’s job market–which is not likely to improve much in the near future.
2. The ROR studies do not consider the personal characteristics that differentiate college-bound HS graduates from the non-college-bound. The former generally are already somewhat smarter, more ambitious, better spoken, better connected, have more family wealth, etc., on average. Accordingly, their lifetime earnings would be expected to be higher regardless of college. How much of their higher income can be attributed solely to going to college? That is the question never posed to those overselling college degrees.
3. The type of degree granted matters hugely. My daughter graduated from the afore-mentioned Harvey Mudd College in 2003 and has made little money because her major was English (some coursework taken at adjoining Scripps College). Is now starting on a master’s degree in Accountancy to remedy the earnings problem.
In short, college has been hugely oversold by vested interests, and the victims are the indebted-for-life graduates struggling with dashed job hopes.
If there is one thing to be learned from this experience, it is that incentives matter. In the same way that the housing bubble became so big for so long was because the participants all had the incentives in front of them to keep it going (lenders, buyers, RE professionals, Fannie/Freddie, politicians), so also the education industry has grown due to incentives. Professors’ work loads have fallen over the years and their compensation (especially on a per-hour basis) usually exceeds what they could make in the private sector. College administrative staffs have exploded in number and compensation. Campus facilities and dorms are towers of excess. The students and their parents see college not as an intellectual pursuit but as a consumption item (social life, status, etc), with the degree devalued since “everybody has one”…
As a nation, our pursuit of credentials has left us overeducated in the formal sense of having degrees, but without knowledge and introspection in a broader sense. We are now awakening to this and college enrollements will have a much-needed downward adjustment.

[EconProf]

Debate about the military-industrial complex will soon be replaced by talk about the education-industrial complex. Higher education is grossly oversold by a cabal of educrats, professors, politicians, lenders, and other vested interests. The rate of return on college degrees is wildly overstated for several reasons:
1. The lifetime ROR data are for past years and decades, and do not take into account the current experience of recent college graduates in today’s job market–which is not likely to improve much in the near future.
2. The ROR studies do not consider the personal characteristics that differentiate college-bound HS graduates from the non-college-bound. The former generally are already somewhat smarter, more ambitious, better spoken, better connected, have more family wealth, etc., on average. Accordingly, their lifetime earnings would be expected to be higher regardless of college. How much of their higher income can be attributed solely to going to college? That is the question never posed to those overselling college degrees.
3. The type of degree granted matters hugely. My daughter graduated from the afore-mentioned Harvey Mudd College in 2003 and has made little money because her major was English (some coursework taken at adjoining Scripps College). Is now starting on a master’s degree in Accountancy to remedy the earnings problem.
In short, college has been hugely oversold by vested interests, and the victims are the indebted-for-life graduates struggling with dashed job hopes.
If there is one thing to be learned from this experience, it is that incentives matter. In the same way that the housing bubble became so big for so long was because the participants all had the incentives in front of them to keep it going (lenders, buyers, RE professionals, Fannie/Freddie, politicians), so also the education industry has grown due to incentives. Professors’ work loads have fallen over the years and their compensation (especially on a per-hour basis) usually exceeds what they could make in the private sector. College administrative staffs have exploded in number and compensation. Campus facilities and dorms are towers of excess. The students and their parents see college not as an intellectual pursuit but as a consumption item (social life, status, etc), with the degree devalued since “everybody has one”…
As a nation, our pursuit of credentials has left us overeducated in the formal sense of having degrees, but without knowledge and introspection in a broader sense. We are now awakening to this and college enrollements will have a much-needed downward adjustment.

[EconProf]

Here is a cheap solution. Do you have any friends who are long-time landlords? Ask them to look over your rental application(s), look for red flags, call applicants and ask follow-up questions, etc.

[EconProf]

Here is a cheap solution. Do you have any friends who are long-time landlords? Ask them to look over your rental application(s), look for red flags, call applicants and ask follow-up questions, etc.

[EconProf]

Here is a cheap solution. Do you have any friends who are long-time landlords? Ask them to look over your rental application(s), look for red flags, call applicants and ask follow-up questions, etc.

[EconProf]

Here is a cheap solution. Do you have any friends who are long-time landlords? Ask them to look over your rental application(s), look for red flags, call applicants and ask follow-up questions, etc.

[EconProf]

Here is a cheap solution. Do you have any friends who are long-time landlords? Ask them to look over your rental application(s), look for red flags, call applicants and ask follow-up questions, etc.

[EconProf]

Robert Prechter is interesting because he emphasizes history, the importance of mass psychology in analyzing market trends, and the big picture. And yes, he has been wrong frequently, but that is partly because he has the courage to be specific in his forecasts and does not use weasel words to give himself an escape hatch in the future. He is worth listening to for preparing for unlikely “black swan” events. However unlikely they may be, they are so catastrophic that we should behave and invest as if they just might happen.

[Author]

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