Letters to the Editor
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I object
My kids will graduate from public universities debt free. They have/had the option of studying 14th Century Italian poetry at a fine private college. But they didn't/don't. But in a wider way, what is it behooves us all to wander through our 20's exploring ourselves? What advantage is that?
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you don't have to live in NYC or DC to be an activist
I haven't read the book, but this article makes it sound like the book says you're sacrificing something activism-wise by leaving NY or DC. I've never lived in either of those places, or in Chicago or Boston or LA or San Francisco, but I graduated 2 years ago from one of the most expensive colleges in the country and I think you can be an activist and work for the public good in many other ways and many other places. Perhaps a visit to Austin, TX would do Mr. Brook some good. I've lived here for a couple of years now, and while I can't stand all the "Keep Austin Weird" blather, I do see a significant population of young artists and activists here. We've got the highest cost of living in Texas, but I still live in a hipster's dream of a little house by myself for $525 per month and my $25K per year job gives me plenty of time to be an active community volunteer and consumer of art and culture. I'm even starting graduate school part time in the fall thanks to the education money I got from a year in AmeriCorps.... And what about AmeriCorps? That's what a lot of young American activists are doing these days.
It's damned hard to get a "real" job in an over-educated city like Austin, but it's a great place to wait tables while writing, performing, painting, or advocating for a cause, if that's your thing. That's not really my thing, I'm finding, though. I lived in New Orleans right up until Katrina, and I keep thinking about going back there to really launch a nonprofit career. They're dying for educated, competant people who care down there. I visited for a conference a few months ago and people were practically making me job offers on the spot. Katrina is my generation's chance to step up and show that we can make a difference-- that's where our "activists" belong right now, and even after price gouging and a huge loss of housing units, it's still way cheaper than New York and has just as much character.
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On the other hand...
My SO and I both graduated from four-year public universities with quite a bit of debt. Both of us want to do something big and wonderful with our lives. But what are our options? I'm going to be making about $40k a year at the sort of office job I once swore I'd never take, but someone has to pay the bills. My SO is going for an MFA that is thankfully covered by a graduate assistantship--he won't be making much, but he also doesn't have to pay tuition, at least.
So one of us gets the dream, the other gets the cubicle. And all in all, after five years of college plus grad school for me, and seven years in total for him, we'll scrape by on maybe $50k/year and try to raise a family and prevent our children from ending up in the same situation while we spend the next twenty years or so paying off those years.
It's not just the Ivy Leaguers. They, at least, can expect *good* jobs when they "sell out", jobs good enough to pay for those degrees and then some. The rest of us face the same essential choice with less attractive options. My SO and I wanted to do something to fight against the war, but we have rent to pay, a car payment to make, and it's so sad that those things trump our ideals, but they do.
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You Hit the Nail on the Head
This article strikes at the heart of what I'm thinking about right now. Do I take my Arabic Language experience and a) Get a job with the goverment for modest pay and do work I cannot support b) get a job with a private company in the Middle East, get paid a lot of money (tax free) and do work I probably should not support, or c) Move to the Middle East and do my part to assist the beleaguered people of the region?
As someone in her mid-twenties I will most likely start a family and buy a house in the next ten years. The median home price in my area is over $500,000 and the real estate market here is not slowing down much. I will graduate from college with almost $30,000 in debt. Which option do you think I'll chose?
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I don't know what you'll choose
But in either case is it driven by debt or is it driven a sense of what that debt may get you materially later on, which often is yet more debt.
And FWIW many cities outside the US, are pretty expensive to live in too. Many in the developing world, are at least to standard that doesn't involve squalor. J'Burg and Port Elizabeth and Pretoria aren't cheap. Neither is Amman or Abu Dhabi. Lagos is fairly pricey from the standpoint of living there with a family. So are Abidjan and Accra. Not up there with NYC or Moscow or Hong Kong or Tel Aviv but still....in the 120-140% mean cost of living US national average. Abu Dhabi is twice that. Poorer countries are actually somewhat expensive to live in for the same middle class American lifestyle including childcare, child's education, security, etc. But help is available meaning in Africa it's pretty typical to have a household staff. If that's not to your taste then you're roughing it. Ever chase a Crocodile out of your own pool?
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This hits so close to home it hurts.
At my law school, a well regarded public one, median salaries for starting corporate lawyers are maybe 120,000 and heading higher every year. Government and nonprofit salaries are holding steady in the 40's. Since lawyers tend to have to work in major urban areas cost of living will be high either way. I have a full tuition scholarship but will still have 50k or so combined in debt from fees/living expenses and from my (in-state public)undergrad.
Certainly my situation could be far worse, but I find it hard to believe that after 7 years of post high school education I will have to choose between having a fulfilling job and being able to own a house or offer my children educational opportunities as good or better than mine.