As responsible students, I am sure you are all no strangers to financial planning, student loans, and the sad reality of credit card payments. No doubt you track stock progress hourly, eagerly studying the debt crisis and drafting solutions you faithfully mail to the Capitol.
What’s that? Your debit card just got denied? You’re overwhelmed with bank statements you can’t interpret? You have no one to co-sign on a loan? For many students, the panic of meeting tuition deadlines and working part time can quickly escalate, prompting desperate measures, like calling your parents.
Maybe you aren’t even in debt. Perhaps your father is one of the countless low-key Pepperdine millionaire parents who just happened to invent something like Dr. Pepper or the X-Box.
Regardless of whether you are drowning in student loans or drive the Iron Man Audi I keep seeing around campus, read on. When we excitedly step off of Alumni field and into the real world, we will soon realize that the U.S. debt crisis is going to dwarf all of our financial woes, and leave us wandering the realm of indefinite unemployed adulthood.
If you’re like me, the constant stress of becoming an independent adult leaves little time to reflect on what’s consuming Congress: the debt crisis. Call it ignorant irresponsibility; I call it prioritizing.
However, having recently come upon some tough times involving a vicious loan shark (my father) and some questionable charges on my “European emergencies only” credit card, I have resolved to educate myself on the national financial crisis, and what it might mean for the future of graduating college students ready to enter the work force.
The current unemployment rate for graduating college students with bachelor’s degrees is 22.4 percent, while 22 percent of their classmates are working jobs that don’t require a college degree. That means only a little over half of recent college graduates have real, grown-up jobs, most of which are paying much less than they should be.
These employment problems are compounded by increasing stress over the debt crisis. First established in 1917, the U.S. debt ceiling was designed to ensure responsible use of tax revenue and the nation’s ability to repay its loans. Nearly 100 times after the original $11.5 billion cutoff, the 2011 debt ceiling was placed at $14.3 trillion. I repeat: the U.S. currently owes over $14.3 trillion. That means that for every $1 of revenue that the U.S. earns, we spend $1.42.
While many were speculating as to why Congress wouldn’t simply raise the ceiling once more, they seemed to be missing the fact that we are TRILLIONS of dollars in DEBT! Congress couldn’t move toward a solution without upsetting someone. Meanwhile, unemployment rates continued to rise.
Thus, panic led to fiasco and stockholders rushed to sell their shares before they lost too much value, perpetuating the cycle already sending us into downward spiral, leading our nation back in a pattern of epic failure.
To summarize: Employment rates already suck; debt makes people freak out and sell their stocks; U.S. economy spirals downward and loses value; employment rates can’t get better; abandon all hope.
In light of the meaninglessness of the bachelor’s degree, many crafty college graduates fancy themselves clever, applying immediately to law school after their senior year, hoping to delay the harsh reality check that Congress has in store. As much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, since the crash of 2008, the number of law school applicants has increased by over 20 percent, simultaneously lessening the value of a juris doctorate and setting students up on 20-year loan payment plans.
Looking toward a life of indentured servitude to my father, I pity those with career paths to consider. We must forge on nonetheless, perhaps switching majors to something simpler, as it will make no difference with the new globalized starting salary of $0.
