Aram Zucker-Scharff

Subprime loans are making a comeback, and it’s a disaster:

“But if houses don’t become cheaper and wages don’t rise, what is actually achieved by making it easier for people to go into debt to buy them?”

A: Inflation! Making bankers richer! The totally foreseeable detonation of the worldwide economy!

Oh wait…. is this one of those rhetorical questions?

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“The legacy of the Great Recession of 2008 has yet to be fully processed. But one of its most lasting impacts will no doubt stem from the fact that many college students and recent graduates—people who were just starting to build the careers and financial autonomy that would have allowed us “adult” lives—were suddenly faced with an economy in which getting a steady job was unlikely. Even if you were privileged or lucky enough to be able to afford a college education, companies’ increasing reliance on unpaid internships meant that building a career was a matter of being able to work for free after you graduated: Increasingly, only the children of the very wealthy were able to make the choices and secure the entry-level jobs that might lead to “adult” autonomy down the line. As a result, we saved money by living with our parents far longer than previous generations. The financial expense of a wedding—or the responsibility of asking another person to rely on you for the rest of their life—was not something one could reasonably embrace, if one were uncertain about making rent or having a job in six months’ time. Similarly, providing for a child was laughable if you couldn’t even reliably provide for yourself. And buying a house? In today’s market? Forget it.

“My generation didn’t choose childhood. Childhood chose us, or rather, it refused to let us go. We stayed adolescent because post-adolescent responsibilities were never granted to us. We were trapped in Neverland, and sooner or later, we resigned ourselves to just having fun.”

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– Who Killed Adulthood?

“”But if houses don’t become cheaper and wages don’t rise, what is actually achieved by making it easier for people to go into debt to buy them?””

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“The most shocking thing is that many of us don’t even earn the federal minimum wage,” said Miranda Merklein, an adjunct professor from Santa Fe who started teaching in 2008. “Our students didn’t know that professors with PhDs aren’t even earning as much as an entry-level fast food worker. We’re not calling for the $15 minimum wage. We don’t even make minimum wage. And we have no benefits and no job security.”

Over three quarters of college professors are adjunct. Legally, adjunct positions are part-time, at-will employment. Universities pay adjunct professors by the course, anywhere between $1,000 to $5,000. So if a professor teaches three courses in both the fall and spring semesters at a rate of $3000 per course, they’ll make $18,000 dollars. The average full-time barista makes the same yearly wage.

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– Professors on food stamps: The shocking true story of academia in 2014.