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Old 01-20-2015, 10:34 AM
 
28,455 posts, read 85,157,040 times
Reputation: 18726

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Had a doctor's appointment get delayed and this article struck me as very relevant to many considering living in the region -- The Hypereducated Poor - Debt and Higher Education

Quote:
...At the moment, she has $55 in the bank and $3,000 in credit card debt. She is a month behind on the $975 rent she pays for a two-bedroom house next to railroad tracks in a western Chicago suburb, where every 20 minutes a train screeches by. ...
The woman in the article earned a MA in Poetry from EIU and earns only a few thousand per class as an adjunct at Columbia College. I can't help by think that living in a area with a lower cost of living and better support for her son with special needs would make a lot of sense...

Quote:
...Chicago thrilled her. She'd never seen people of so many races and nationalities. She could hear eclectic music night after night: klezmer, Balkan folk music. She even formed her own two-piece band, Mud Show, with a cast of instruments such as an accordion, a bass made from a steamer trunk, a bucket of chains, and a typewriter. "I was making it financially, but I was living as a 26-year-old in the city, with several roommates, hosting house parties with live music, enjoying life," she says. "I had no serious partner and no future plans. I was living an extended youth."
This strikes as applying to tens of thousands of residents of Chicago. The relative of ease of "getting by" on an "extended youth" approach then runs head-on into reality -- the 'borderline academic' track is not really sustainable in a place as expensive as the Chicago region:
Quote:
"Adjuncts can accrue massive debt to support their children, destroy their health, teach at five campuses, in a professional death spiral. Once you've given it your best shot, it's time to move on."
Unfortunately the article says it is all too common for folks that are living on the edge to simply be too burdened to find a better alternative --
Quote:
Tagging along with Bolin at Trader Joe's, I saw how wearing it was for her to try to stay within her monthly $349 food-stamp budget, for which she qualifies only in the summer, when school isn't in session. (She also can apply for about $600 in Supplemental Security disability payments in months when she earns less than $2,000.) ... when so much mental activity is devoted to basic survival, little is left to engage in long-term thinking or to muster willpower—which Bolin well knows. "I need to smoke to relieve the pressure," she tells me as she feverishly rolls her own cigarettes one evening when I take her out to a bar, where she also finds relief in the form of plentiful margaritas. She's self-medicating, she says; other times, she uses Xanax for anxiety. She also takes a daily antidepressant.
I hope that the many young people that are spiraling into this sort of situation understand just how tough things are...
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Old 01-20-2015, 10:51 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh (via Chicago, via Pittsburgh)
3,887 posts, read 5,505,135 times
Reputation: 3107
Chet, this happens in every large urban area considered desirable to live in. This happens in Philadelphia, Washington DC, San Francisco, LA, NYC, Boston, hell...even Pittsburgh. When you are getting advanced (and very expensive) degrees in Poetry, Art, etc., you are risking being massively in debt and not having a job (or one that pays well). This is hardly revolutionary. I'm not saying that people should not pursue these endeavors, but there are definitely risks in doing so. I know you like to go off on tangents about "them kids buying $10 cocktails when they can't afford rent" and the like, but your life choices aren't for everyone. My former classmate who is now a Nurse Anesthetist was living off of student loans in Logan Square while attending school in an apartment that cost him $1100/month. The student loans were enough for tuition, rent, groceries, some fun occasionally, and other random expenses. He sold his car (we are lucky that is an option here in Chicago) since he came from out of state. He even had a $10 cocktail every once and a while when he had more than an hour's break from studying or he wasn't in the midst of a (unpaid) 60hr week in the OR!! He now makes north of $150k/year working in Chicago and is living quite comfortably, easily paying back his school loans each month with lots left over for fun and investment. He sure doesn't live by a "shrieking train track in the western suburbs". Not everybody is the same. We should feel lucky that we aren't approaching the exorbitant cost of living in some of the coastal cities (yet still enjoy a walkable thriving urban city with good public transit, food and cultural amenities galore), where many people are living like the subject of this article.
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Old 01-20-2015, 11:10 AM
 
28,455 posts, read 85,157,040 times
Reputation: 18726
Nothing to disagree with -- there certainly are some folks that do eventually understand that if one wants to live in an expensive city like Chicago and enjoy the things it offers then it makes sense to pursue a career path like nurse anesthetist where six figure salaries are possible.

The article was focused on the experience of a woman from downstate Illinois, that specifically became infatuated with Chicago's diversity and entertainment offerings and is now floundering in a career that has no prospects of providing her and her son with sufficient income to make it with out food stamps / SSI. That is a pretty serious situation. It is not just about $10 cocktails, it is about considering how long one can continue to live an "extended youth" especially when the financial mess of Illinois very likely will make things even tougher for those living on the margins...
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Old 01-20-2015, 12:00 PM
 
Location: Chicago - Logan Square
3,396 posts, read 7,192,878 times
Reputation: 3731
I don't think this has anything to do with "an extended youth", it has to do with being the single mother of a child with severe disabilities and the fact that academic jobs have changed drastically in the last couple decades.

I do agree that cuts (at all levels) make it much tougher for those living on the margins, but I think this article does a great job of showing that people living on the margins aren't always people without an education who aren't trying to find work.
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Old 01-20-2015, 12:01 PM
 
11,973 posts, read 31,712,480 times
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It is a tough world where the old and wise have to live with the consequences of their actions when they were young and dumb. And then we try to impart this wisdom on our children, only to see many of them repeat the same cycle.

Just don't go to architecture school. Try heroin, join a cult, anything but architecture school.
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Old 01-20-2015, 12:02 PM
 
11,973 posts, read 31,712,480 times
Reputation: 4644
Quote:
Originally Posted by Attrill View Post
I don't think this has anything to do with "an extended youth", it has to do with being the single mother of a child with severe disabilities and the fact that academic jobs have changed drastically in the last couple decades.
Anyone with a poetry degree from Eastern Illinois is lucky to have a job in that field. I don't think that was EVER a path to a tenure-track position at Harvard. Or even at Eastern Illinois, for that matter!
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Old 01-20-2015, 12:20 PM
 
1,089 posts, read 1,855,328 times
Reputation: 1151
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lookout Kid View Post
It is a tough world where the old and wise have to live with the consequences of their actions when they were young and dumb. And then we try to impart this wisdom on our children, only to see many of them repeat the same cycle.

Just don't go to architecture school. Try heroin, join a cult, anything but architecture school.
I thought the architecture business had rebounded fairly well...
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Old 01-20-2015, 12:22 PM
 
28,455 posts, read 85,157,040 times
Reputation: 18726
I tend to agree that any professor such as those that seem to have befriended the subject of the article at EIU that actively encourage a MA in a low-probability-of-employment field seem to be complicite in the "extended youth" lifestyle. When the candidate for that MA comes from a family where dad literally worked in tire factory the assumption would be that such a student would need / greatly benefit from some more thorough career guidance / life advice.

I really feel awful for folks in these sorts of situations and I suspect as things get worse in Illinois they will have even tougher times ahead...

Last edited by chet everett; 01-20-2015 at 12:37 PM..
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Old 01-20-2015, 03:26 PM
 
8,276 posts, read 11,876,944 times
Reputation: 10075
Quote:
Originally Posted by Attrill View Post
I don't think this has anything to do with "an extended youth", it has to do with being the single mother of a child with severe disabilities and the fact that academic jobs have changed drastically in the last couple decades.

I do agree that cuts (at all levels) make it much tougher for those living on the margins, but I think this article does a great job of showing that people living on the margins aren't always people without an education who aren't trying to find work.
You hit the nail on the head. Excellent post...
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Old 01-20-2015, 03:28 PM
 
8,276 posts, read 11,876,944 times
Reputation: 10075
Quote:
Originally Posted by chet everett View Post
I tend to agree that any professor such as those that seem to have befriended the subject of the article at EIU that actively encourage a MA in a low-probability-of-employment field seem to be complicite in the "extended youth" lifestyle. When the candidate for that MA comes from a family where dad literally worked in tire factory the assumption would be that such a student would need / greatly benefit from some more thorough career guidance / life advice.

I really feel awful for folks in these sorts of situations and I suspect as things get worse in Illinois they will have even tougher times ahead...
I don't think that the "extended youth" aspect applies here, but I do agree that those professors who encouraged her to pursue this career path have a lot of explaining to do, and a lot to apologize for.
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