Email any comments to hgonzalez@auspicemedia.com and we'll be posting them every few hours. Thanks. Read more on auspicemedia]]> http://www.auspicemedia.com/news/18/bursting-the-college-bubble 2010-08-29 00:14:08 By Hector Gonzalez General http://www.auspicemedia.com/

I was chatting on Facebook with a buddy of mine the other day. The conversation was a lens into the world of college debt, my friend Roman talked about his frustration- he can't find a job, lives with his parents and has a heavy debt from college loans. He's an archetype of this generation in many ways; he's in his late 20's, has visited Japan, Philippines, Mexico.. etc- the type that is generally informed about current issues and indy music, and yes, a college graduate who can't figure out how to pay his student loans.

It may seem counter intuitive to say that college is not worth it since, hey, it's about the education right? But yes, even though it is about the education and the values obtained through out your college experience, it would be naive to say that your college education is not mostly, if not completely, about establishing a good career and making good money. Having said that, the general attitude amongst 20 something year olds with degrees who are: 1) unemployed, or 2) employed but getting paid very poorly, mostly working in a sector that they didn't go to school for, or perhaps juggling two jobs, is that things will eventually get better once the recession clears up. But, here is an interesting question that may need some serious analysis: What if college debt itself was a contributing factor to the recession? What if it is the recession?

I decided to Google it. I typed the words 'is college. . .', on the search engine and immediately Google gives me the exact words that I'm looking for on it's suggested query, it's on the top of the list, 'is college worth it?'. It's a hot topic. There are hundreds of articles. Somewhat of a fore site of what's to come.

Student loans have now exceeded credit debt loans for the first time in history at $830 billion dollars. But unlike credit or mortgage, student loans are unforgiving. They will be with you until the day you die if not paid off.

Jack Hough, the associated editor for Smartmoney.com gives an analogy during an interview with Fox Business comparing the mortgage bubble and stock bubble to that of a coming college debt bubble.

John Stossel of ABC 20/20 argues that most college graduates would already by successful even without the degree simply because they are already from the smarter student pool. It's those who are in the low 40% tile in high school who go to college that are in most trouble, getting a BA in 8 years instead of 4, getting in a lot of debt, who may not have the natural wit of getting a high paying desk job.

Andrew Hacker, a professor at Queens College, and Claudia Dreifus, a New York Times contributor and Columbia University Professor, in early August, published the book Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids. "Bachelors level vocational education is, I dont want to say a fraud, but close to it," Hacker said. The authors write about college tuitions more than doubling since the previous generation but providing lesser education. Mainly because the college industry is getting greedy making it common practice for university presidents to get paid million dollar salaries.

That craziest part about this scenario is that unlike mortgage debt or even credit card debt, where there is a certain amount of responsibility that falls on the lender- that might have been 'irresponsible' for buying a house they couldn't afford or maxing out a credit card when they had no money to pay it back. But what type of responsibility lies on a college graduate that did exactly what they were suppose to do, went for the top education and now is in debt for $120, 000 dollars with out a decent job. It brings our fundamental values as Americans to an even more questionable state of mind. In some ways even surreal, like . . .was I being lied to all along.

Based on the July 2010 BLS data for the unemployment rate, the numbers look like this,

Less than a high school diploma: 13.8% High school graduate, no college: 10.1% Some college or associate degree: 8.3% Bachelor's degree or higher: 4.5%

It's perfectly clear that people with degrees have the advantage in the job pool, but there are some concerns that these numbers do not address. For example, how many college graduates are employed but juggling jobs or in a job field where they cannot afford to pay off their college debt. Also, what about students who graduated with a BA, tested the waters in the job market, found no jobs so they went back to school living off their loans just to live as oppose to learn. Jack Hough believes that these numbers are deceiving. Hough believes that it's not about your job, it's about your lifetime accumulated wealth, so while you might have the job you also have the $100,000 dollar debt, as oppose to someone with no degree, a decent job, and who could accumulate wealth much faster simply by saving and growing in their trade.

The fundamental issue besides the debt factor, is not 'if college is worth it', because of course education is immeasurable simply by it's virtue, but the real issue at hand is, was college education overly amplified to this generation when they were in grammar school. The whole conversation teachers and counselors gave about getting a college degree in order to be successful made it a standard as oppose to a virtue of excellence, as was the case with the previous generation where only the exceptional went to college.

Now one might argue that in whatever job market, good or bad, a college graduate will always have the upper hand. But Joe Lamacchia, author of 'Blue Collar and Proud of it', argues that the demands are not in the white collar sector. He says it's actually the opposite. He talks about demands for electrician jobs, and machinery, amongst many others, jobs that average at a salary of 45,000 a year. He argues that part of the problem is that we need to go back to manufacturing and building things.

Sure the engineer, doctor and lawyer are going to have jobs, but those are only a few career options that traditionally have also been held by the top of the American educational pool. The larger majority of college graduates major in degrees that don't apply to any particular trait, such as Humanities, Art, or even History, making them not as valuable in the current job market.

Email any comments to hgonzalez@auspicemedia.com and we''ll be posting them every few hours. Thanks. ', '2010-08-29 00:14:08') Read more on auspicemedia.]]>

I was chatting on Facebook with a buddy of mine the other day. The conversation was a lens into the world of college debt, my friend Roman talked about his frustration- he can't find a job, lives with his parents and has a heavy debt from college loans. He's an archetype of this generation in many ways; he's in his late 20's, has visited Japan, Philippines, Mexico.. etc- the type that is generally informed about current issues and indy music, and yes, a college graduate who can't figure out how to pay his student loans.

It may seem counter intuitive to say that college is not worth it since, hey, it's about the education right? But yes, even though it is about the education and the values obtained through out your college experience, it would be naive to say that your college education is not mostly, if not completely, about establishing a good career and making good money. Having said that, the general attitude amongst 20 something year olds with degrees who are: 1) unemployed, or 2) employed but getting paid very poorly, mostly working in a sector that they didn't go to school for, or perhaps juggling two jobs, is that things will eventually get better once the recession clears up. But, here is an interesting question that may need some serious analysis: What if college debt itself was a contributing factor to the recession? What if it is the recession?

I decided to Google it. I typed the words 'is college. . .', on the search engine and immediately Google gives me the exact words that I'm looking for on it's suggested query, it's on the top of the list, 'is college worth it?'. It's a hot topic. There are hundreds of articles. Somewhat of a fore site of what's to come.

Student loans have now exceeded credit debt loans for the first time in history at $830 billion dollars. But unlike credit or mortgage, student loans are unforgiving. They will be with you until the day you die if not paid off.

Jack Hough, the associated editor for Smartmoney.com gives an analogy during an interview with Fox Business comparing the mortgage bubble and stock bubble to that of a coming college debt bubble.

John Stossel of ABC 20/20 argues that most college graduates would already by successful even without the degree simply because they are already from the smarter student pool. It's those who are in the low 40% tile in high school who go to college that are in most trouble, getting a BA in 8 years instead of 4, getting in a lot of debt, who may not have the natural wit of getting a high paying desk job.

Andrew Hacker, a professor at Queens College, and Claudia Dreifus, a New York Times contributor and Columbia University Professor, in early August, published the book Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids. "Bachelors level vocational education is, I dont want to say a fraud, but close to it," Hacker said. The authors write about college tuitions more than doubling since the previous generation but providing lesser education. Mainly because the college industry is getting greedy making it common practice for university presidents to get paid million dollar salaries.

That craziest part about this scenario is that unlike mortgage debt or even credit card debt, where there is a certain amount of responsibility that falls on the lender- that might have been 'irresponsible' for buying a house they couldn't afford or maxing out a credit card when they had no money to pay it back. But what type of responsibility lies on a college graduate that did exactly what they were suppose to do, went for the top education and now is in debt for $120, 000 dollars with out a decent job. It brings our fundamental values as Americans to an even more questionable state of mind. In some ways even surreal, like . . .was I being lied to all along.

Based on the July 2010 BLS data for the unemployment rate, the numbers look like this,

Less than a high school diploma: 13.8% High school graduate, no college: 10.1% Some college or associate degree: 8.3% Bachelor's degree or higher: 4.5%

It's perfectly clear that people with degrees have the advantage in the job pool, but there are some concerns that these numbers do not address. For example, how many college graduates are employed but juggling jobs or in a job field where they cannot afford to pay off their college debt. Also, what about students who graduated with a BA, tested the waters in the job market, found no jobs so they went back to school living off their loans just to live as oppose to learn. Jack Hough believes that these numbers are deceiving. Hough believes that it's not about your job, it's about your lifetime accumulated wealth, so while you might have the job you also have the $100,000 dollar debt, as oppose to someone with no degree, a decent job, and who could accumulate wealth much faster simply by saving and growing in their trade.

The fundamental issue besides the debt factor, is not 'if college is worth it', because of course education is immeasurable simply by it's virtue, but the real issue at hand is, was college education overly amplified to this generation when they were in grammar school. The whole conversation teachers and counselors gave about getting a college degree in order to be successful made it a standard as oppose to a virtue of excellence, as was the case with the previous generation where only the exceptional went to college.

Now one might argue that in whatever job market, good or bad, a college graduate will always have the upper hand. But Joe Lamacchia, author of 'Blue Collar and Proud of it', argues that the demands are not in the white collar sector. He says it's actually the opposite. He talks about demands for electrician jobs, and machinery, amongst many others, jobs that average at a salary of 45,000 a year. He argues that part of the problem is that we need to go back to manufacturing and building things.

Sure the engineer, doctor and lawyer are going to have jobs, but those are only a few career options that traditionally have also been held by the top of the American educational pool. The larger majority of college graduates major in degrees that don't apply to any particular trait, such as Humanities, Art, or even History, making them not as valuable in the current job market.

Email any comments to hgonzalez@auspicemedia.com and we''ll be posting them every few hours. Thanks. ', '2010-08-29 00:14:08') Read more on auspicemedia]]> http://www.auspicemedia.com/news/17/the-unheard-argument 2010-05-17 00:00:00 Hector Gonzalez General http://www.auspicemedia.com/

It seems nearly impossible for this commentary to not be interpreted as being racist towards whites, or un-patriotic given the current political climate America is now faced with regarding immigration. Especially when the new trend among conservative whites is to pull the reverse racism card when people of color begin to gain collective power and in doing so questioning the rationale behind the Arizona immigration debate. It seems pointless for me to give the whole rationale about some of my closes friends being white, or the whole roll out about this article not being un-patriotic because America is about growth and change, in which such commentaries should be welcomed and encouraged and not the other way around. Truth be told, some of my closes friends are white and this article is about growth and prosperity for America. Also it is important to recognize that even though you have white folks on the conservative right, you also have them on the progressive left.

There is a conversation regarding race that Obama has avoided for the sake of the support from conservative whites. But underneath it all, it is inevitable that the conversation regarding racism is something Americans will have to confront. Immigration will be the platform, and if we are honest, and all voices are heard, it will expose itself and be crystal clear..there it is, Arizona's new law on immigration is racism.

Why the Arizona's stance on immigration is racist is not a conversation that should be based on the fundamental nature of an undocumented immigrant being in America illegally. That is a narrow point of view that is boxed in within the four corners of this nation. This is assuming that we are being honest with ourselves. In fact, it would be inappropriate to base the argument solely based on the obstruction of an immigrant crossing the border because, that is not where the argument begins. As the white American expresses his resentment towards the undocumented immigrant from Latin America, he has made a fundamental mistake in the art of war. As he has to fuel his resentment by understanding his past and lineage as a white American, he has failed to understand the past of the 'immigrant', as the immigrant also has a past and a lineage.

Let me explain..

Where the Argument Begins
El Salvador had a massive exodus during the 1980's and the early 1990's resulting in 2.5 million Salvadorians leaving the country. El Salvador had a civil war that begin in 1980 and ended in 1992.

The name that El Salvador was giving before the colonialism of the Spaniards was Cuzcatlan, it means, 'The Land of Precise things'. In the 16th century the 'Pipil' indigenous tribe defended itself against the Spaniards in which the Spaniards won and conquered the land. The Spaniards were white, and Spanish is a European language; a common story of the Americas posts Christopher Columbus finding the land full of gold. Columbus was also a white man.

El Salvador didn't gain their independence from Spain until 1811, after being indoctrinated by an Anglo Saxon government and religion. In the 1930's there were indigenous up rises as the indigenous people were being oppressed by the rich class, in which the outcome was the massacre of 30,000 indigenous Salvadorians. This was right around the time of the Holocaust, if we put it into context, it could be argued that this was El Salvador's virgin of white supremacy. In 1980 after much political climate a full blown war is then initiated between the FMLN on the left and the ARENA party on the right. When put into context, the battle was nothing more than a product of the Cold War, a chess game match between the White supremacy of the western world and the White supremacy of the eastern world using poor uneducated Central Americans as pawn pieces. The FMLN socialist guerillas were funded by the Soviets, and the ARENA democratic party was funded by the U.S.A. To America a victory for the ARENA party would mean that the communist influence in Latin America would be one step closer to being eradicated as it is of outmost importance that Latin America remains democratic in the eyes of America. After 12 years of war and 75,000 dead, El Salvador is left with a broken country in which its repercussions could still be seen today and maybe even will be seen by following Salvadorian generations as it has the highest youth homicide rate in the world. 2.5 million Salvadorian natives end up in the USA, many as refugees seeking political asylum, many hear 'illegally'.

Of course survival was the drive for Salvadorian immigrants, but survival was not the orchestrator of their destiny. In fact the choice of staying and dying or leaving and being an immigrant is hardly a choice at all, especially when you don't have a choice to dictate the political climate of your own country as in the choice of war was mostly dictated by the U.S and the Soviet Union. Furthermore, it could be argued that even if El Salvador wanted to change the direction of it's country, the U.S. would quickly intervene as anything alternative to a capitalist democracy is demonized in the psyche of American's. A clear example is the Contra movement In Nicaragua funded and supported by the U.S. whose objective was to over through the ruling Sandanista party. Another example is the invasion of Panama In 1989 where US troops overthrew the president Manuel Noriega as he showed resistance towards allowing US troops to train in military exercises as he believed it was a violation of the sovereignty of his country. But these are just a few examples, as each country in Latin America has it's own specific history with the U.S. The most unique being Mexico who shares it's borders and had to face off with Spain, France and the U.S.

In a bizarre way, it might be hard for the average American to conceptualize the idea that, a native of Latin America doesn't need to be an 'illegal' immigrant to be oppressed by an American, in fact he might even be more oppressed by Americans by staying in his own native country, just like the example of the 2.5 million Salvadorians who fled for their lives.

In the current dialogue about immigration, where the 'anti- immigrant' movement fuels it's anger through the internet and youtube videos, and laws; within that conversation where does the immigrant get to decide his destiny? It appears that Arizona law makers are deciding it for them, and amongst returning to their native countries, American's are also deciding their destiny for them.

When put into perspective, the argument often used, "why don't Mexicans fix their own county?", it is fundamentally a flawed one when your realize that the U.S is actually running the show.

Scapegoating
As far back as I can remember in my education, it was implanted in my head that: 1) I could become anything that I want to be 2) That education would take me there. As grew up and I thought about it more and more I came to realize something. If the objective Is to become educated in order to avoid manual labor, what would happen when everyone was being educated? Would the educated person still be doing manual labor?

As the average American thinks about labor in the context of 'illegal' immigration, he concludes that 'illegal' immigrants are taking the jobs away from Americans, not realizing that there is a polar opposite conversation that is just as striking, what about college students not finding jobs due to an over saturation of college degrees. Would we then argue that a college student can't find a job because it has been stolen by an 'illegal' immigrant.. of course not.

It use to be the case that people who went to college were the ones on top of their class. Everyone else worked the coal mines, factories, farms or whatever it was that their town offered. College meant a standard of excellence and not of meritocracy, and yet now college no longer means a standard of excellence, it actually means meritocracy.

It would be naive to present an argument that our unemployment rate is based on too many people having college degrees but, there is something to be said not about college degrees but more about dreams and possibilities that will never be actualized. I mean, how many Psychologist do we actually need? Or Engineers? Or Historians? Or Sociologist? And yet they graduate by the thousands and thousands each year, and they all did what they were told to do since they were kids, and for many of them there is nothing there. For many recent graduates that I know firsthand, they are working at dinners, installing cable or working at Wal-Mart.

Furthermore, even as Americans are getting degrees for high end jobs, the fact that just like there is cheaper and better talent in the cheap manual labor force, it is also the same for high end jobs where computer engineers and tech's are being shipped over from India, Russia, Japan and China, doing high end jobs Americans could do except they are doing it for cheaper.

There is also the outsourcing factor where the new assembly line work that once was vehicles and bottle caps, is now computer monitors and ink jet printer: Even these assembly jobs are outsourced to factories in India and China.

The conclusion to this reality is that the whole 'you could be whatever you want to be' thing we were taught in school was mostly an illusion. There is a strong since of entitlement with the millennial generation that feels accomplished working a desktop job, simply because of a college degree, and not because of talent or work ethic, in fact this new trend is an unproductive group that gets paid to go to meetings and take notes, send emails, and surf the internet, producing absolutely nothing. This system could only go so far until it absolutely collapses.

What then of illegal immigrants and the work that they do? 'Illegal' immigrants not only do the jobs that American's don't want to do, they do the work that American's were never even taught to conceptualize of doing.

While the Arizona immigration law supporter argues about 'illegal' immigrants bringing the economy down, he forgets the consumer power of immigrants. For example, it could be said that federal government money is wasted spent on 'illegal' immigrant students, but it could also be said that they also give jobs to teachers, counselors, administrators and so forth. Think about how many schools will be closed down simply by denying 'illegal' immigrant youth an education. For example, there are full parts of town throughout the country that will be completely un inhabited, it's hard to imagine what a real mortgage crisis would look like when thousands of immigrants leave places where they occupy complete sides of town. What about business all across America whose consumers are 'illegal' immigrants. In fact there is extensive studies that prove just that, that 'illegal' immigrants actually boost the economy.

The idea that the persecution towards 'illegal' immigrants is fundamentally based on economy is either a lie, or foolish. Or both. I would argue that it's the first, a lie. The persecution is about the reality that America is shifting into a society where white people are losing power. It's about people speaking Spanish and having people of color all around you. And some of them having no patriotic tie to America, such as 'illegal' immigrants- and why should they, they were never invited to do so.

Lastly, another misconception is that 'illegal' immigrants have contributed to the rise of crime which again is a lie. During the influx of 'illegal' immigrants in the U.S. since 1994 in which the number of illegal immigrants has doubled, crime rates have gone down throughout the country including Arizona.

It's about a psyche that chooses cruelty over sympathy as the racism lies in not being able to see a different way of shaping the world rather than your own. Immigrant folks represent the virtues that we are taught as kids, like it doesn't matter how much money you have, be a hard worker, and it's not about how someone looks like in the outside- it's about how they look like in the inside. They are walking emblems of the archetypes that take hearts and not minds to be able to comprehend, a way that is unfortunately not part of mainstream America.

The Revelation
The American middle class is to some regard the complacency of America and even the world. It is the middle who ignores the real problems mostly because of comfort. In the same context, 'illegal' immigrants are the complacency of Latin America. It keeps the people of Latin America complacent knowing that they have the option of coming to the U.S. or that they have family members in the U.S. who are sending money back home. If you consider that 'illegal' immigrants from Mexico send a total of 25 billion dollars a year back to Mexico, it gives the Mexican people a reason to be complacent. But what if you take that away?

A very likely possibility if 12 million illegal immigrants would be sent back home is that Latin America would slowly start shifting into left political thinking. Besides an economic crisis in America, it would also lead to a global crisis as most nations in Latin America will no longer have an incentive to be democratic. Just as American democracy works in the notion of 'the American dream', for Latin Americans, coming to America as an immigrant is a dream of its own.