Sentences to ponder, job market edition

Surrounded by labor history and anarchy books, thrift-store furniture and a male pet rabbit named Mrs. Crackers, Katchpole noticed an e-mail from an outfit called SumOfUs and read it aloud…

She has heavy student debt and does not know how to pay it back; in the meantime she has become an activist against Bank of America’s proposed debit card fee.  She doesn’t have a full-time steady job and her story is here.

She majored in art and architectural history and spent her summers interning at art museums.  Here is more:

She and her boyfriend — a law firm paralegal working against the proposed AT&T and T-Mobile merger — spend their days living frugally. They have no television or car. They rarely eat out. They just bought a tub of 48 random beers for $15 at a grocery store.

She has sent job applications to Planned Parenthood, the Center for American Progress and SEIU but has heard nothing. She is fretting that a grace period for her student loans ends in December.

I should stress that I am sympathetic with some of her choices (not the tub of beer), and you can read this as reflecting some strengths of American higher education.  Still, not all liberal arts students have her organizational and media talents, and this kind of story goes a long way toward explaining the current job market malaise for the young.  Even she is having a hard time finding remunerative work and getting on a career track.  Furthermore, she doesn’t seem to be striving for that.

As a capital theorist she is less than qualified.  Here is her take:

“I don’t know what I am going to do!” said Katchpole, a freelance account manager at a political consulting firm called Winning Over Washington. (Its main client is the progressive group MoveOn.org.) “I am going to have to defer my loans. I have no idea. Why should I be expected to pay them off now? Why are colleges charging interest on that stuff? Give us a break. Really.”

Bohm-Bawerk forget to include her in his commentaries on sundry theories of interest.

I wonder if she has considered moving to Nebraska or North Dakota?  Probably not, I am sure she will get a job right here in Washington, D.C.

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