This is the forgotten 1981-82 recession allegedly helped along in the US by Paul Volcker, then Fed Secretary. The idea was to create a short shock, then let the system rebound. It did, but it was costly for many people over the long term (job dislocations, collapse of family farms, etc.) In short, the economy was raped before the 1990s-2000s, and seeing how the system operates, it will be again.
I think I graduated into the recovery after this one, which probably helped feed the impression that the academic job market was going to recover any minute, so it was just fine to go to grad school.
And yes, somewhere 3 or 4 years into grad school, I received a letter or two recruiting me to become an investment banker (apparently they thought they could train anybody with the sort of analytical skills suggested by pursuit of a Ph.D., even those in decidedly non-mathematical fields such as English. In my case they probably weren't wrong, but I still don't regret passing up the opportunity).
I graduated in '82 and found a job -- in a deli. No way was I going to move home. But it was decades before I had paid vacations or medical benefits.
So I'm not too worried that my recently graduated son (lit. major; wants to teach high school) hasn't had an interview. He's trading his construction skills (learned by working summers for a relative) for room and board in a collective and alternating his free time between feeding the homeless with Food not Bombs and Occupying Oakland.
I'm very proud of him. But I hope he continues to avoid being arrested, because I think that might harm his chances of being hired as a teacher.
Aaand, instead they all became hedge fund managers and raped the economy. Or Silicon Valley wunderkind. So there ya go.
ReplyDeleteThis is the forgotten 1981-82 recession allegedly helped along in the US by Paul Volcker, then Fed Secretary. The idea was to create a short shock, then let the system rebound. It did, but it was costly for many people over the long term (job dislocations, collapse of family farms, etc.) In short, the economy was raped before the 1990s-2000s, and seeing how the system operates, it will be again.
ReplyDeleteI think I graduated into the recovery after this one, which probably helped feed the impression that the academic job market was going to recover any minute, so it was just fine to go to grad school.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, somewhere 3 or 4 years into grad school, I received a letter or two recruiting me to become an investment banker (apparently they thought they could train anybody with the sort of analytical skills suggested by pursuit of a Ph.D., even those in decidedly non-mathematical fields such as English. In my case they probably weren't wrong, but I still don't regret passing up the opportunity).
I graduated in '82 and found a job -- in a deli. No way was I going to move home. But it was decades before I had paid vacations or medical benefits.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm not too worried that my recently graduated son (lit. major; wants to teach high school) hasn't had an interview. He's trading his construction skills (learned by working summers for a relative) for room and board in a collective and alternating his free time between feeding the homeless with Food not Bombs and Occupying Oakland.
I'm very proud of him. But I hope he continues to avoid being arrested, because I think that might harm his chances of being hired as a teacher.