Lessons To Be Learned From Egypt

The people protesting in Egypt are very similar to the people in the United States, but pushed closer to the edge.

The economy has been full of bubbles, each of them destined to pop. The next bubble to pop will be the education bubble. As of now, thousands are unemployed. A lot of the unemployed are college educated folks, with thousands of dollars of debt in the form of student loans. People are being sold a false dream, being told that when you graduated with those letters next to your name you are guaranteed a high paying job. Unfortunately, that isn't the case in this economy and probably even in a better one. Pretty soon, a seriously high amount of people will default on their student loans and we are stuck in another crisis, a la the mortgage crisis.

Problem is, I don't think any of the higher ups notice the similarities. Colleges are playing the game; allowing more people in to get degrees and they profit from the loans. Looking at places like Remington, some colleges can be considered "diploma mills"--colleges that just churn out graduates quickly so they can rake more cash in. This will certainly lead to saturation of job market. While that could be a good thing, it isn't when less qualified people are entering the market. This is not an attack on colleges like Remington. I'm just saying that they aren't making the situation better.

What is the situation? The situation is that thousands of young, educated people are waking up to a harsh reality. They are unemployed with thousands of dollars worth of student loans and have no way of paying them. They spent all that time, hard work, and energy in college, only to be unemployed and broke. Some occupations, including lawyers, physical therapists, nurses, and pharmacists, are being drowned out with new people because colleges are opening programs and cranking out graduates just to make a quick buck off of our dreams. Naturally, these people will start to feel hopeless and angry. They start to ask, "Where is my job that I was promised?", "Why is my degree so useless?". After being in this situation, they will start demanding things of the government, and if it doesn't supply, then there will be turmoil.

I'm 20 years old and hopefully one year away from pharmacy school. This is the trend I see. I'm somewhat afraid that I won't be able to find a job after I complete my 4-6 years and have my PharmD/Ph.D. This situation could happen relatively soon. Revolution usually starts with the middle class. Right now the bull some of us are being fed is the ammo to start the revolution. Something HAS to be done or the United States could very well turn into Egypt. As for solutions, I don't know. Maybe regulating the schools of the aforementioned professions the same way medical school is regulated (I know most of you cringe at the idea of regulation, but it really is necessary sometimes.). Maybe the banks and corporations should start investing in the United States more instead of just suspiciously sitting on their piles of money ( Why ARE they hoarding money? Something major about to happen? Or just general uncertainty in the economy?). I don't know, but as of right now it seems that the bubble is destined to pop.

And for-profit schools are still lobbying to fight disclosure on how many of their students actually get a job after graduation. A new proposal by the Obama administration would only give funding to colleges that show that they are actually putting their graduates in the work force and are not just diploma mills. Of course Republicans and Democrats in states that have large for-profit schools oppose this. This once again shows the hypocritical nature of Republicans. When people can't pay back student loans who does? We, the taxpayers, do. Isn't that part of being a Republican? Less taxpayer money being spent on things like this? You don't want to pay for welfare, but you will pay for defaulting student loans?