"The business of America is business."

"If a businessman does what he thinks will keep his business making money, it is good for his employees and by extension his society."
-TV news personality

For small businesses, the statement is easily self-evident.
We applaud small business owners who help their communities by providing goods/services and employment.

For corporations, it's a whole 'nuther ballgame.
Corporations seem to help communities by building factories or offices and hiring locals en masse.
Of course, as we saw with General Motors, the corporate jobs become a part of the booming community's foundation, so when the inevitable layoffs come (once again en masse), the community founders in a sea of unemployment.

A businessman who "does what he thinks will keep his business making money" by cutting employees' wages to ludicrous levels, denying health insurance or other benefits, or simply laying off huge numbers of people, all the while making record profits for himself, does a huge injury to the community, and to society.

Especially when all of the corporate businessmen get together and realize they can enrich themselves dramatically by universally adopting the above policies.

Which is what has happened.
Thus the economy sinks, unemployment skyrockets, and even those who HAVE jobs can't get by without federal aid or incurring debt.
All while those corporate businessmen rake in huge profits year after year and just keep getting fatter.

Occupy the Faculty Lounge

Seems the Occupy Wall Street crowd is also going after colleges.
It seems like what's being demanded is simply a return on the investment.

We've created a culture in which college is treated as the only possible path to a happy, fulfilling adult life.
I've been told on several occasions that "it doesn't matter what your degree is in, just GET ONE."

Especially by my parents.

My mother graduated in 1978 with a BA in Music Education.
Her first post-graduation job was as a secretary for a branch office of Coca Cola.

She had never been a secretary, never worked for Coca Cola, and didn't know anyone at the branch.
But she had a degree.

Her competition was a lady who had several years of secretary experience, worked for Coca Cola at another branch office, and had several friends at the office my mom was shooting for.
But she had no college degree.

My mom got the job.


Now to me, that sounds like a horrible business practice, hiring due to an arbitrary education which (on the outside) has little or no connection to the actual job rather than due to experience and promoting within the company.

But that story and many others have been dangled in the faces of my generation since we were kids, that the time and [massive amounts of] money required to get a degree will pay for themselves eventually.


I don't think the government should be responsible for arbitrarily handing out high-paying jobs to Gender Studies majors, but more of the federal budget should definitely be funneled into Pell Grants.

College tuition has risen drastically in the last twenty years, while Pell funds stayed stagnant.

More incentives to wait to start college would help as well, especially for kids who aren't mature enough to handle living on their own right out of high school.

Internships, work-study jobs that expose students to the real world while helping them earn general education credits, and on-the-job training from actual companies would all help that process.

Waiting longer and being pickier in choosing school and degree would help lower the number of college dropouts.
Or, God forbid, the kid learns from these programs that he/she doesn't actually need to go to college.

Also, colleges should be required to make public their graduation rates, not just enrollments.
Too many schools have turned into freshmen factories, trying to get as many people in the door without any kind of support for them once they're in.

I wouldn't mind some counseling prior to enrollment as well, if only to ask the prospective college student "Why are you here?"
Some need to be reminded that they are adults, and should make decisions based on their own thoughts and feelings rather than peer or parental pressure.