Hey editors, how about a companion story on how much perks and pay increased for the elitist universities.

I´ve got 5 part-time jobs right now--and they´re so p/t that I still don´t leave the house some days! Two jobs use one of my master´s degrees. The other three don´t even require a GED.

All this "worker´s paradise" needs now is a union: the Dilettantes, Baristas, and Social Science Majors Local LXXIV.

Foreward, comrades! "We are the ones who´ve been waiting our tables!"

This is exactly what´s happening in Ecuador. University grads, mostly under or unemployed, creating a glut. Average salary here $318 per month in the private sector, if you start in a govt job, $545. The grads are trying to get out of the country for better opportunities.

My nephew has a master´s degree and can´t find work in his field. So he works on a golf course. At least he´s working.

No direct mention of how many of these superfluous degrees are in fields which produce no marketable skills--Women´s Studies, Black Studies, Hispanic Studies, and the like. My nephew has a degree in Golf Course Maintenance. He has a job, but he damned sure didn´t need a four year college degree to qualify for it. I think the Universities, like many others are running a huge scam just so they can grab our money which flows like water from Washington.

This article highlights two problems. Yes, we are subsidizing costs to create unneeded college grads. Not everyone needs a college education.

But the second point is that our high schools are devoted to producing 100% college grads. The training programs for skilled, non-college jobs have disappeared. Even the few that are around often are now part of the junior college systems, requiring the college-level English and math courses that stymie many people with learning disabilities who could still become great skilled workers. And internships in the skilled trades are few and far between.

I am astonished to read want ads. Everyone wants trained labor, but no one is willing to offer training. Even for things that can be trained relatively quickly, such as driving a forklift or being a personal caregiver in an assisted living center. And then they wonder why they have trouble finding workers.

#5 and #6 are right on. You can add sociology, psychology, almost anything that ends in ology except the ones concerning medicine. Any major that concentrates on ethnic groups, journalism and even (gasp) English does not bring in big bucks. Vehicle mechanics, electricians, plumbers, air and heat technicians and FFA should be taught in high schools more than college prep for a lot of students.

And have you tried to get a plumber, electrician, etc lately who shows up on time, has a clean truck, wears clean clothes?? Oh, and actually knows what he/she is doing??

Even the electrical unions are advertising for new employees and they provide 100% training.

Met a 20 yr plus kid yesterday who is a car salesman; $50 K a year. His degree is useless; but he works 24/7.

Manufacturing companies, auto shops, body shops, the trades are all trying to get qualified people. The problem is the sweeties want to start at the top, get time off and they want to know how much vacation they get.

We got a glut of everything these days, except gumption. If these underemployed college grads had any sense they´d start and build their own businesses. For some these small jobs are part of the Peter Pan lifestyle.

Perhaps if people could retire there would be more opportunities for younger workers. Thanks to age discrimination laws, an Alzheimer´s patient can´t be fired. This is a rare situation but happens. People delayed marriage and childbearing so one has to work longer to fulfill college marriage and other responsibilities. The price of everything has gone through the roof so people can’t afford to retire. And the cost of kids increases the debt load on parents (college, and more). The fact is our goobernment has abandoned our kids and focused on adults (surprise, guess who gets to vote). And thus the opportunities are now geared to the older folks and not so for younger folks. All thanks to the elite socialist engineers in our goobernment.

Probably 75% of these ‘educated’ ninnies don’t know which way to turn a nut on a bolt…and, what’s more, they think they are above learning.

I remember high school ‘shop,’ where we learned to run a table saw, weld, operate a drill press. We had a shop teacher who would let us bring our cars in and teach us how to do tune-ups. Just imagine!

Just what I want to hire, a bunch of morons with political crap between their ears and no actual skills...yea, gimme more!

Meanwhile illegal invaders Pedro and Juanita are taking the lower paying starting jobs Americans used to do.

Good points from the herbivore. I suspect There are two explanations for the lack of training programs. One, universities would have to hire teachers who can actually DO something, not just talk about it. Two, the goonions consider training programs for skilled trades THEIR exclusive province, and do not wish competition from colleges.

I´m in an Engineer and one of the reasons for lack of skilled workers is the lack of pay. $10 per hour is not good pay for a voc tech school grad in electronics. We have had electronic techs leave to go work at Walmart for more money. I´m not the boss so I can´t fix it. Even the younger engineers aren´t getting paid enough to have made their degrees worthwhile. I predict many will eventually go to other countries where standard of living is getting higher.

On the other hand. Most of the college graduates are in degrees which have no marketable value in the first place.

Too many have lost track of the notion of education. A liberal education was never meant to be a meal ticket, it was an education. In the age of landed gentry, that was just fine. It was an age when young ladies of good families went to finishing schools, which were hardly to be confused with vocational schools. Heaven forbid!

Times have changed. Today’s liberal arts degree is a vestige from the past. Like the liberal educations of the fine gentlemen of yore, it is noble thing, but hardly useful for paying the rent. In today’s world, it is suitable for an avocation, but not a vocation.

And to further add to the lost luster of liberal arts education today, the pollution of the true liberal education by political ideology and dogma has besmirched the its reputation across the entire enterprise.

A good professor of mine used to tell each freshman class, “First, get a good liberal education, then a suitable vocation.” It’s still good advice.

Our colleges are graduating people with no logic skills, no basic coping skills, no sense of the business world and some with no ability to adapt. I´d rather have someone who has been in the real world trying a stint at self-employment rather than a college grad with any degree in humanities (except philosophy) or most of the fluffy business degrees. My daughter is working with a nut-job with an MBA from Harvard, who is totally clueless. This person cannot understand why all the theory she studied doesn´t fit the company´s needs. My daughter with an MBA from TX A&M and military experience will keep her job -- can´t say the same for the Harvard elitist.

The problenm is made worse by substandard college graduates which unfortunately is all too common. College for many has become a remedial program for a poor high school education. For others its a continuation of a carefree high school lifestyle with better parties and a bigger allowance. Most of these kids will never achieve the momentum needed to have a career regardless. For those who have taken college seriously, but have opted for arts programs of dubious career value, they have the learning skills to redirect themselves and build a career, but its sketchy at best. Run of the mill college gradutes have simply taken over administrative and clerical jobs sharp college graduates used to do.

#19, it you´re a Rodney Dangerfield fan, watch "Back To School". Thornton´s got the answer to why the Haaavard grad can´t cope.