Research Blog 8

Interview

Do you commute?

Yes

Are you taking out loans, are they large, what about scholarships

Yes and no, they weren't too big. (the loans)

Do you have a job?  Where does the money go?

Yes, work only weekends 15 hours total.  Salary goes to the bank, tips I use as spending money.

How much time do you have to yourself?

Commute takes time, but like enough time.  Like 5 or 6 or whatever.

Do you feel stressed out whenever you think about balancing work and study?

I have some support from parents so I'm not too too concerned.
What is your major, do you think you'll be able to make your loan payments on time?

Changed major to marketing, assuming if I did what I'd do now then I'd be able to pay it.  I commute and CUNY is like really cheap, so it's really not too expensive.  Express bus is expensive as shit though fare is $6.50
Plans post graduation?

Get a job.  Game plan is probably through internship with help from the school

Did you feel like you needed to attend college?

Well yeah, you kind of need to go to college since everyone does it.  If you don't nobody will take you seriously.

Interviewee 2

What do you look for when hiring?

We either look for experienced workers who have proved their worth and ability to work diligently, or we look at our interns... Students who have an internship are given a chance and if we like them, then we would be more than happy to offer the intern a job.  Uh anyone can be offered a job, if we like them then we can secure them a job before they graduate.  Work ethic is really important, and while we're biased towards some schools, we are willing to hire from any school if the person attracts our interest.

Are the interns paid?

No, the interns are usually not paid.


Interviewee 3

How much money are you making?  

$21.75  (Canadian)

Is that a lot or a little money?

it's pretty __ expensive up here so not that much

Obviously you're not in college right.  Do you feel like it's important?

Yeah of course I'm not, I'm not going to deal with that __.  There are tons of jobs here that don't need college, world will always needs craftsmen you know?

Do you live alone or do you have your own place?

Dude I live with my family, why'd I rent my own place?  (I ask about dorming)  Honestly it's a waste of money just live at home, no rent and you don't have to pay OR make your own food!  But hey each to his own you know.

The first person I interviewed is a fellow college student, to get another person's thoughts on their loans and why they attend college.  In his eyes most students would attend college if they want to be competitive.   The second person I interviewed is my Dad, who takes part in hiring employees for a major company.  Where better to ask about college grads and internships than someone directly involved?  Answer seems to be an outlier, since many companies make it very difficult to have a secure job, especially before graduating.   The third person is a high school grad in Canada who decided not to go to college.  The culture there seems different, and makes sense.  Not everyone needs to attend college to get something done in life, and also ignore lots of the stigma tied to people who don't go to college.

Research Blog 6

Visual

A graph is a simple way to show how much people are actually burdened by student debt.  The image is taken from the NSNA, which collects info regarding all nursing students in the united states.  The article states that the trends in the nursing profession mirror the trends for all students, so this is can be used as a good estimate for those who graduate with or without debt.  So in the past 4 years over 70% of nursing students have graduated with debt.  The numbers cannot be bent in any way, they are incredibly simple and very straightforward.

 Here's another image, instead of a graph it's a satirical comic, which is pretty accurate.  It doesn't even bring up the potential job or the money that they may or may not earn.  People expect so much more for a lot less.  In turn with people working more hours for less money, companies expect more from their interviewees.  Lots of companies require people to take an unpaid or barely min wage internship in which the person is expected to work as if it was their job, adding even more stress to students who have to juggle work, internships and study.

Literature Review 4

Author
Stanley Aronowitz

Citation
Aronowitz, Stanley. "The Death And Life Of American Labor." Social Policy 44.4 (2014): 49-53.Academic Search Premier. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.

Summary
This reading discusses the lower end employee, protests, the strengths of unions and government.  The potential growth or decline in the American labor market is according to the reading heavily influenced by the policies that the government implement, and how the unions and workers react to them.  It points to many specific stats/cases such as gender inequality in the workplace, and the inability for many people to be unable to properly sustain themselves even though they work.  He focuses on what government policies do that affect these topics, such as the government cutting retirement benefits, and what the people currently working need to do to protect themselves in case unions cannot.

Quotes
"In 2013 half of U.S. households reported having trouble making ends meet, and that is an egregious scandal in the richest country in the world." (51)

"Courts brazenly support employer demands for antistrike injunctions, while employers freely intimidate workers in the job, especially those seeking union recognition; routinely violate the laws enacted to protect worker's wages and hours; and engage in outright wage theft- all because they know that the federal and state governments are lax in enforcement" (51)

"Yet in the past twenty years schooling has become a labor issue: credentials are the first qualification for the new high-tech workplaces and for entrance into the burgeoning army of administrative workers.  Yes, more working class students today do enter some institution of higher education.  But the dropout rate is appalling, because most of these students are forced to work full-time to pay tuition ad support themselves or contribute to the family income." (53) 

Relation
The piece has several points that are directly related to my topic.  One huge reason why student debt is so large is because the people cannot get a good sustainable job post graduation.  The piece discusses how the government is not making it easy to pay off debts, and that simply having a job isn't enough due to the negative influences caused by the employers and government.  It points to the issues of the unions and how they can't or don't do what's required for employee safety, and ties education to the wage crisis, housing etc.

Literature Review 3

Literature Review 3

Citation

Rank, Mark R., Yoon Hong-Sik, and Thomas A. Hirschl. "American Poverty As A Structural Failing: Evidence And Arguments." Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare 30.4 (2003): 3-29. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.

Summary

The reading discusses how poverty is the result of structural failure, or how the government has intentionally or unintentionally set the poor up to fail.  It brings up educational programs set up by the government with the intent to aid people, the struggling market of labor to supply jobs for workers and the difference between wages and increasing living expenses.  It also brings up the contrast, that it's the person's fault that they are poor.

Authors

Mark R. Rank of Washington University, George Warren Brown School of Social Work

Hong-Sik Yoon of Chonbuk National University (Korea), Department of Social Welfare

Thomas A. Hirschl of Cornell University, Department of Rural Sociology

Quotes

"15.3 percent are at jobs in which their earnings will not get their families above 1.25 of the poverty line, and 22.0 percent are eomployed at jobs that will not get their families above 1.50 of the poverty line.  We can clearly see that the jobs one parent family heads are working at are much less able to sustain these households above the level of poverty than that for all families." (Rank, Yoon and Hirschl 12)

"On one hand, poverty has been viewed as the result of individual failings.  From this perspective, specific attributes of the impoverished individual have brought about their poverty." (Rank, Yoon and Hirschl 4)

"On the other hand, poverty has periodically been interpreted as the result of the failings at a structural level, such as the inability of the economy to produce enough decent paying jobs." (Rank, Yoon and Hirschl 4)

Relation to Topic

The idea that it's the fault of the structure (government/corporations) failings that result in poverty is being applied to my paper when regarding student debt through student loans, and the increasing student loan bubble.  The three people use pieces of evidence that mirror the events that are happening today in regards of student debt, and the concepts tie in to both topics.  In the same way that people are poor due to inadequate jobs is the same reason that people cannot earn enough to pay their debts.