Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Rteacher]

USA TODAY article Jan.24
College loan debt is at an all-time high.
Rental rates are through the roof. Wages are stagnant.
Credit cards are getting maxed out left and right.
In short, this group is getting hit from all sides, and they're strapped - for cash, that is.

In Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead, Tamara Draut takes aim at the root causes of the money troubles that young adults face today... [brief excerpt]:

This group moves between jobs in pursuit of the elusive trifecta: decent pay, ample benefits and the chance to scale the corporate ladder.

One young worker described in the book "bounced" through five jobs in six years. She then did the once-unimaginable and moved back in with her mom to save money.

At 30, she has yet to make more than $35,000 a year in any job. As she states, "When times are down, that's when your car needs tires."...

Reading the many discouraging passages makes one yearn for answers, which don't come until the final pages. Just one thin chapter sums up how to push the pendulum toward economically prosperous days.

Among the suggestions:

• Banding together to back reforms for a better U.S. society - families come first, hard work is rewarded with decent wages, college is more affordable, and first-time home buyers get a break.

• Kicking credit card companies off college campuses, where many cash-strapped students develop bad financial habits due to the ease of obtaining cards.

• Having businesses and the government create a joint trust to fund universal child care and education.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060124/bs_usatoday/youngearnersfaceintensefinancialchallenge

[Rteacher]

Anyone think it likely that any of these proposals will get implemented any time soon while we're still occupying Iraq, contemplating action against Iran, and Republican (and many Democratic) Congressmen are still doing the bidding of their corporate masters?

[Yo!Chingo]

Unfortunately many people who get out of college are bombarded with the idea of the "american dream". Big house, sports car, and designer everything. Instead of saving like our forefathers did, we charge until it hurts and feel entitled to the luxuries. Our society almost encourages this behavior! Look at the magazines or at how easy it is to get a credit card and you'll know it's true.
I remember my 1st year in college... the people sitting at the fold out tables bugging me to get a cc. I didn't...thank my mother for raising me properly. They will never leave the campuses. I think the colleges are in league with em' and probably get a cut.

[doublejeopardy]

What gets me about the credit card companies is that when I was in university, I could have gotten a credit card easily, with my minimum wage part-time job and growing debt-load. But I didn't. After leaving university, landing myself a full-time professional job, they wouldn't give me a card. It took years for me to get a card.

[rapier]

A whole new generation of esl teachers, yeeha

[Yo!Chingo]

Rapier, you just hit the nail on the head! I think one of the posters,Joeduffu, has said as much in a previous post on the board. Western countries will become 3rd world countries if we can't start to control our spending! Can we say trade deficits?!? Hell if our own gov't can't do it, why the Hell will we?

[Rteacher]

I just hope the Korean economy stays strong enough to support EFL teachers for at least a few more years while I save for retirement in India or Thailand...

[Bo Peabody]

I've no shame in the game... so I'm blaming the boomers on this one.

[Rteacher]

I think most of the good baby boomers died young. Although I'm technically a "boomer" I never tried to develop myself economically (because I was a monk...) until the mid-90s - so I'm pretty much in the same boat as the younger generation (except that I'm gettin' too old to work... )