A couple of articles on impoverished academics:
- “This college instructor has a Master’s degree — and she’s still living in poverty”
- “The Rise of the Hyper Educated Poor”
Adding some weight to what a (PhD professor) Sinophile friend says is an old Chinese saying: “Poor as a professor; dumb as a PhD.”
Reminds me of this: http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2012/11/hipsters_on_food_stamps.html
That story on the college instructor was seriously depressing.
I like how the commenters are always quick to accuse the instructors of studying something useless. What were they supposed to do? Get a PhD in Science? bwahahaha
How about: http://cheekyscientist.com/leave-academia/
I sort of feel bad for Brianne, but only a little bit, because she made a lot of really bad life decisions. Having a one-night stand with a much younger man and then going through with the pregnancy was one. (i doubt that the father is paying child support. Brianne should’ve hooked up with a wealthier, more stable man.) When she went back to school, she studied speech therapy; perhaps she could have gone for a teaching credential and taught high school English. At least in the public schools, she would have tenure after a few years and have a benefits package.
Still, she’s in her mid-thirties, so it’s not too late for her to turn things around.
It all depends on what “hyper educated” means. Show me someone who has 7 years of college and can tell you about the intricacies of ancient Babylonian lesbian pottery and I will predict unemployability. Show me someone who has 7 years of college and can program working machine vision algorithms on FPGAs and I will predict not only employability, but complete mobility. It all depends if you wasted that 7 years or not.