For the first time in US history, the younger generation will not gain more wealth in their lifetime than their parents. As Scott Galloway points out, Millennials are the largest percentage of full time workers in the US, but economic growth has been slower than for their parents at the same age. Furthermore, Millennials hold…
For many of today’s kids, experience is often confined to playdates, organized sports, tutoring sessions, afterschool homework centers, and summer camps—all structured programs where the young rarely risk failure or rejection and are often rewarded no matter their engagement or achievement. As a consequence, the youngest generation are fragile, unpracticed at navigating life when it…
In February 2020, approximately 165 million people were employed out of an approximate civilian population of 250 million Americans. In the economic recession of March 2020, 20 million jobs were lost. Since then, in the interim 12 months, only 10 millions jobs were re-created, leaving 10 million people still seeking employment. Of that 10 million,…
Many soon-to-be college graduates—in a time of economic upheaval and pandemic induced doubt—fatalistic and full of dread can relate to the most recent college student-produced meme. Currently, unemployment and underemployment of new college grads is increasing, and gateways to employment like internships and other extracurricular activities are drying up or are suspended at closed or…
Two income families have become synonymous with modern parenting. Yet, in the recent COVID-induced economic disruption, when women are more likely to be unemployed or underemployed than men, the family dynamic may also be shifting. ….by April [2020] the COVID-19 crisis had created a 3 percentage point gender gap in unemployment. A similar gap emerged…
Since March 2020, nearly 37.4 million people, or 90% of all student loan borrowers, stopped making payments under the loan forbearance provisions of the CARES Act. Additionally, all student loan interest has been suspended for the past eight months. However, since the current $900 billion stimulus bill does not extend the forbearance of student loans,…
For many higher education institutions, like the University of California (UC), the fiscal losses are growing as the health emergency extends, precipitating the need for a tuition increase. As reported in a December 12 Los Angeles Times article: Systemwide, UC took a $2.7-billion financial hit between March and October — about 6.5% of its $41.6-billion…
In the current economic backdrop, where the median view of economists predict a near 5% year over year decline in GDP (total amount of goods and services produced in the American economy) for 2020 (officially a recession), where both initial and continuing unemployment claims stubbornly loom above their longer run average, and though the economy…
“Adulting” classes may likely be the byproduct of a generation raised by “Helicopter Parents”, parents who don’t encourage self-sufficiency as their kid matures. Many students’ sole responsibilities have been managing schoolwork and extracurriculars, punctuated with the occasional “clean your room”, yet rarely do students I advise have part-time jobs. And, until the shelter-in-place, when school…
As the Class of 2020 commences, into what economic state do they commence? As reported by Courtney Weaver in the Financial Times on May 28, 2020: With US unemployment at its highest level since the second world war and the country still grappling with the economic fallout of coronavirus, university graduates are watching start dates…
Currently, students at 25 different universities are suing for fees and tuition refunds. Students’ sentiments can generally be summized in the language of the Cornell students’ lawsuit: Students have been deprived of the opportunity for collaborative learning and in-person dialogue, feedback, and critique. The remote learning options are in no way the equivalent of the…
The above chart depicts that the wealthiest and upper middle class have not only regained their wealth previous to the 2008 recession, but gained greater wealth, at the expense of the middle class and poorest classes. And, now, middle class and poorer families are facing an even greater economic downturn that has yet to be…
Educators and students, participants in the Modern American Educational Industrial Complex, are mere glimmers of the Jeffersonian ideals of “essential merit”, which historian Joseph F. Kett defines as: …merit that rests on specific and visible achievements by an individual that were thought, in turn, to reflect that individual’s estimable character…’Merit’ was that quality in the…
Graph courtesy of The Wall Street Journal Current college students, many who find themselves at home though would rather be finishing their school year on college campuses around the country, will be confronting along with their older colleagues who graduated college in 2019, 2018, a possibly more complicated problem that of protracted unemployment. In addition,…
Dear The College Board CEO David Coleman: After viewing your live cast on Daily Homeroom with Sal [Khan of Khan Academy], I respectfully request responses to my questions regarding the 2020 Advanced Placement (AP) exams, as well as my concerns about your replies regarding current high school students’ and their families’ worries. In stating that…
