We Just Don’t Need That Many Graduates (In Arts)

Mean. But not far wide of the mark...

We are always told that the British economy needs graduates to survive. It does. But those who advocate such a line typically gloss over the fine details.

When you put degrees under the microscope, and the fact that in each year that passes the number of overall graduates continues to soar, the equation no longer adds up.

In the globalised economy, Britain needs to stay competitive. There is no alternative any more if we want to sustain the trend of rising quality of life for all.

To stay competitive, Britain does indeed need highly-educated, highly-qualified and highly-skilled graduates. But not just graduates in any old tat. Golf course management, no. Politics? Not on your nellie. These courses simply do not provide a marketable skill distinctive from each other. The result is an agglomeration of graduates, ostensibly highly-educated and qualified, but with nothing really that makes the big employers get excited.

The achievement of Progress (TM) from one generation to the next invariably comes from breakthroughs in science and technology. Such talent can almost always only come to fruition via a pathway of education. The road to the future is paved with the efforts of physicists, chemists, biologists, mathematicians… doctors, researchers, engineers. It doesn’t come from the accountants, the lawyers, the stockbrokers, the bankers, the lobbyists.

There is always a requirement for leaders, creative/critical thinkers, and visionaries. There is always a need for people to teach the scientists of the future. And there is always the need for a huge amount of other people to support this technocratic visionary society. And lest we not forget the need for cultural stimulation, in stories, music, paintings, sculptures and so on. But how many of these need a degree?

Of course, this argument ignores the obvious, that university is not all supposed to be about what you can offer an employer, and it would be a loss if we were to focus purely on economic output all the time. It’s supposed to be about the love of learning, and about the sheer joy of indulging in your specialist field. And getting drunk along the way. It is as much of a development as a person as it is finding your niche in the workplace. I don’t deny any of that.

But my worry is this.

The system now is designed to put young people on a degree course. Any degree. It doesn’t matter. A degree will guarantee you future earnings. It is your passport to a golden career. That’s what I was told eight years ago.

Schools and careers advisers are selling something that no longer exists. Back in the day when a much smaller proportion of the population had a degree, just having one was a sign of quality for an employer. A shorthand that allowed them to think you were worthy of a job. Now so many more people have them, employers have to drill down that much deeper.

And that means your general arts degrees in English, history, and the newer fields of business studies, politics, etc. no longer open the doors that they used to.

There simply isn’t the graduate jobs market that we think there is for them. And it’s raising a whole generation of people who are feeling pretty let down by their elders, who we trusted, and were supposed to have known better.

Mix all that with a little recession…

To Generation Y, The Big Society Is A Tough Sell

It seems our invitation has some rather large strings attached...

It seems the “launch” of the Big Society press exercise is going to be nothing more than a guilt trip.

In reality though, how can it be anything else? The world has moved on. Communities are fragmented, populations moving around all the time, and mistrust of neighbours is a rather common occurrence, just because we don’t know who they are.

David Cameron can hardly legislate to change any of that. You can’t pass a law that makes people have a cup of tea with their neighbour, or attend the Reverend’s village fête, perhaps baking some cupcakes for the hungry attendees, or sticking a bottle of unwanted generic gin in the tombola. It’s all very rural England, don’t you think?

Society is moribund and has been for some time, certainly amongst my generation. Our idea of society, sadly, is what it can do for us. We’re a generation that feels pretty shafted in terms of unemployment, dodgy education systems, ridiculous house prices, and seeing most of our taxes go to finance massive deficits run up by our elders or going as election bribes to the oldest generations. As such, we’re a bit a bit suspicious of “society”. We truly are Thatcher’s children.

Now we are getting some different mood music. First, we’re being told that what we get in return for being members of this society is going to be cut, at precisely the time most of us are going to start using it in child benefits, child tax credits, NHS and education systems, etc.

Then we’re being told that money is not sufficient – that, instead, we need to get involved. Our time, precious enough already due to work and stupid amounts of commuting, is going to be called upon as free labour because the government can’t afford to pay people to, for example, clean up the parks or beaches any more.

I’m painting a picture of a rather selfish generation. Maybe we are. Forgive us, but we’ve been brought up that way. Capitalism did win, after all.

The worst aspect of all of this is that who is actually listening? When the reputation of politics is at an all time low, and the power of the politicians to compel us to be better members of society is almost non-existent, how will it be possible to achieve this grand Big Society?

It all sounds nice, harking back to a bygone age of community spirit. Maybe it would be nice to see some of that again. I would like to give something where I can, but it’s a tough sell. And if it’s just a cynical exercise in cost-cutting, then you won’t see any of us for dead.

Over to you, Mr Cameron.

It’s A Good Job We Don’t Need Newborns!

Hilarious!

In the latest in a string of attacks on the youth, and the whole concept of having children in the first place, the older generations are going to keep pulling that ladder up:

The government is to speed up plans to raise the state pension age for men to 66, possibly by as early as 2016.

Ministers will also raise the option of extending it further, perhaps to 70 and beyond in the following decades.

The default retirement age of 65 – at which workers can be legally axed by employers – is also set to be axed.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said this would stop people being “cast on the scrap heap” and would help “reinvigorate what retirement means”.

One of the benefits of a compulsory retirement age is that it allows for labour market turnover. When youth unemployment is in a bit of a pickle, combining with how difficult it is for young people to differentiate themselves from their peers, it doesn’t seem to make sense to make it even harder for them to get a start in life.

Most employers are generally happy to keep on using current staff when they retire, and with that option now going to be encouraged so the state doesn’t have to pay out its pension just yet, it’s going to lead to a very pissed off younger generation…

We young’uns (and I’m, for now, still one of ’em) are more than a little tired of being asked to bear the brunt of the decisions of our betters. We have been shit on by the state for the last decade, being experimented on with dodgy A-Level reforms; asked to suffer a diluting of the education we’ve been undertaking, and then, to cap it all, had to foot the bill: not only with massive student debt, but with unachievable house prices, a disastrous jobs market and a national debt burden that will cost us much higher taxes from here into eternity.

There’s something perverse about the way we treat the youngest and all future generations. We ask them to bear the burden of the current society’s failings. Long after the older generations have gone, it is future generations, who do not yet exist, who are asked to solve all our problems, whether financial, technological, biological and now environmental.

But why should we even bother bringing new people into the world? Given the mess that they’re going to inherit, and  we’re not even going to give them a chance to get a job – as we’ll all be too busy working until we drop dead on the shop floor, or slumped in front of our office computers – it seems wholly selfish, self-indulgent and cruel.

There’s just one little problem with this plan…

Dear Generation X…

Let The Good Times Roll!

Thanks for your postcard from Spain! Glad you made it there safely. Where is the cruise off to next? I look forward to your next missive from the Carribean!

Just thought I’d let you know how things are back at your place. Don’t worry, I have been feeding the cat, but she doesn’t really like the Tesco Value cat food that I’ve been buying. What the hell do you feed it on?!

Anyway – I hope this doesn’t come as too much of a shock to you but I thought I’d admit that I’m looking to find somewhere else to live. It’s been great lodging with you and all that, but I feel I need some space of my own.

The only problem is that my search isn’t going so well. I can’t find anywhere decent to live on a reasonable budget. I know this must be totally alien to you. After all, you’re all sorted with the huge amount of equity you’ve got in your house (yes, even after 15% house price falls!). Oh, and that tiny mortgage which is currently at historically low interest rates. No need even to fix it because interest rates won’t be going anywhere any time soon!

But when I go into the bank I get told I need to raise a 20% deposit. On a £100,000 house (not many of those around in most parts of the country) – that’s just not feasible. And it’s so hard to save up for a deposit because of how much rent I have to give you. Yes, I know it’s all inclusive (apart from food, I can just about afford that!) – but I was wondering if there’d be any chance you could reduce it to give me some breathing space to put some money aside?

I just need to get away. After all, you know what they say about renting: it’s dead money. If only I could get a mortgage then it might actually work out better for me – the mortgage payments would actually be lower than what I’m paying you!

But these banks are such tight bastards. I think they forget that we own most of them, and those we don’t have us to thank for rescuing their sorry arses from the destruction of capitalism as we know it (and now they can go back to rewarding each other handsomely for swindling the taxpayer of its cash without any give on their side!). I know you had to delay the start of your cruised because of that little problem with the Icelandic banks, but at least Alistair Darling got your money back!

The other problem is the jobs market. Maybe I’d be able to get a lower deposit on a mortgage if I was earning more. But you know times are hard right now. Oh, wait a minute, you don’t.

Still, at least my student debt can only rise by the rate of inflation. I got the statement the other day: I owe them £20,000 and haven’t yet paid a penny of it back. Maybe I never will. Just as well that doesn’t show up on my credit check, eh! But I guess this is what happens when you graduate in the middle of a recession. Great timing on my part, I’m sure you’ll agree! Still – you didn’t have to pay tuition fees, so what do you know! Thanks for pulling up the ladder!

Yes, I know you didn’t think Tony Blair would do that either. But we didn’t think he’d do a lot of things. Still, it wasn’t just you that voted for him; he did con the whole nation after all (well, some of the nation, anyway). Yes, even I was happy when he got elected, but I was only young at the time. Young and naive. Maybe you should have known better?

Better go. The post’s just arrived. There seems to be a few letters for you. One of them is from the Premium Bonds. Another £50 win again?

They say the sun shines on the righteous.

Looking forward to your election as Supreme Pontiff. That Benedict bloke will have nothing on you!

See you soon,

Generation Y