Anonymous wrote:I'm not even going to argue the societal value of having trained historians with someone like you, OP. It isn't a useless job -- in fact, you in particular would likely benefit from some instruction in history. It's a profession that requires years of research, reading, and training. Most who undertake the endeavor intend to teach. (Every university in the world hires historians.) Others use their education in history to provide context and depth to fields like policy-making, law, research, journalism, etc.

People who do nothing more than read a book in their spare time make up the teeming masses of Tea Partiers who think they understand their heritage and use their shallow and misguided conceptions as political weapons.

Recommended reading for you: http://harpers.org/archive/2012/05/0083894

Thank you for this.

Anonymous wrote:If he got a PhD in history, he worked HARD for his $15,000 a year of taxpayer funded stipend. He taught 3+ classes a semester to undergrads who really need to learn history, and probably worked for free assisting his professors in their research. He hoped to get a job teaching full time, but the short-sighted political attacks on education ruined the market for him.

I'd much rather he get the food stamps, than the aforementioned welfare queens who never worked a day in their lives, and never intend to.

This is an important point. Forgive me for not stopping to read the article just now, but OP should recognize that during his student years, this man was probably providing a lot of services to a lot of people with minimal or no direct compensation.

And this is often a problem for recent graduates, even those with advanced degrees. It's a bit exploitative because a lot of companies and especially non-profit organizations are eliminating paying jobs and creating unpaid or small-stipend "internships" to cover so many projects-- even ones that require specialized skills and educations.

History isn't useless. PhDs in many fields generally work in academia, do research, teach, etc. They are subject matter experts despite lacking "other skills." Many history PhD programs require applicants to speak 1 or more foreign languages, and you can bet that someone who completes a PhD program is an excellent researcher and writer.

The sad part is that there are so few teaching jobs for people with PhDs now. My husband has a history PhD and I have one in a social sciences field. We are both employable outside academia but there are many people who deeply want to teach and are passionate about their area of specialty, but can't find jobs. Universities used to have mandatory retirement for tenured faculty but no longer; now you can stay in your job for life until you are doddering and senile. Many of senior tenured professors at major universities haven't published anything in DECADES. So the $50k plus tuition per year we will all pay for our kids if they go to private colleges will cover the costs of many unproductive tenured faculty and the workhorse grad students and adjunct faculty who barely make minimum wage. It's a totally absurd system.

And anyone who believes history is useless is incredibly poorly educated herself.

Anonymous wrote:http://finance.yahoo.com/news/even-a-phd-couldn-t-keep-this-man-off-food-stamps.html

Because pray tell us why getting a PHD in history has any more wealth than just a bachelor's in history. What more does he know that he couldn't have just gone into another more useful field and then bought a bunch of books about Napoleon's exile to Elba and learned about it. I hope he can make a blanket of his degrees.

Who do you suppose researched and wrote those books? Historians, perhaps?

If he got a PhD in history, he worked HARD for his $15,000 a year of taxpayer funded stipend. He taught 3+ classes a semester to undergrads who really need to learn history, and probably worked for free assisting his professors in their research. He hoped to get a job teaching full time, but the short-sighted political attacks on education ruined the market for him.

I'd much rather he get the food stamps, than the aforementioned welfare queens who never worked a day in their lives, and never intend to.

One of my husband's friends is in a similar situation. He has a PhD in 18th century English poetry. He's 39 years old, is married, has a kid, and is on welfare and food stamps. He's never held a job other than some adjunct positions here and there.

Part of me gets it. I don't want to stifle the creativity of our country just because there may or may not be a job waiting for everyone after graduation.

The other part of me, however, wants him to STFU about "the system" and its evils. He's living off the system and then complains that we aren't communist enough to provide him more. Whatever.

But, this doesn't have anything to do with the guy in the article who says "you can't eat prestige." He sounds fully self-aware.

I'm not even going to argue the societal value of having trained historians with someone like you, OP. It isn't a useless job -- in fact, you in particular would likely benefit from some instruction in history. It's a profession that requires years of research, reading, and training. Most who undertake the endeavor intend to teach. (Every university in the world hires historians.) Others use their education in history to provide context and depth to fields like policy-making, law, research, journalism, etc.

People who do nothing more than read a book in their spare time make up the teeming masses of Tea Partiers who think they understand their heritage and use their shallow and misguided conceptions as political weapons.

Recommended reading for you: http://harpers.org/archive/2012/05/0083894

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if he was on food stamps because he made poor decisions and dropped out of high school to smoke pot all day, would THAT be better?

I feel like people shouldn't spend their money on advanced degrees (or even regular degrees) that won't help them get a job, but it's not really my business. Hopefully he'll be able to use his skills to get something and the food stamps will be the short-term safety net they were created to be.

He went to a state university (taxpayer dollars) he's on food stamps (taxpayer dollars). There is no better or worse here, it's all the same fleecing of our dollars. What fucking skills does this guy have? I don't want to know the history of the French Fry when he's taking my drive through order.

So what's your solution? No foodstamps for educated people? Outlaw all advanced degrees? What, pray tell, can we as a society do to address this pressing problem?

And it makes you wonder about a society's values that unless it makes a buck, it's not worth anything.

It's all about the rich man's chance of getting into heaven.

Anonymous wrote:He went to a state university (taxpayer dollars) he's on food stamps (taxpayer dollars). There is no better or worse here, it's all the same fleecing of our dollars. What fucking skills does this guy have? I don't want to know the history of the French Fry when he's taking my drive through order.

Guys like him teach the value of the Constitution, the concept of liberty and justice for the individual without having being born into aristocracy, and why it is so important. Why having power concentrated in hands of the few is bad, how political borders are drawn the way they are, and why the concept of Germany dictating current European economics is so ironic after having gone through World War I and II.

That's priceless.

Anonymous wrote:if he was on food stamps because he made poor decisions and dropped out of high school to smoke pot all day, would THAT be better?

I feel like people shouldn't spend their money on advanced degrees (or even regular degrees) that won't help them get a job, but it's not really my business. Hopefully he'll be able to use his skills to get something and the food stamps will be the short-term safety net they were created to be.

He went to a state university (taxpayer dollars) he's on food stamps (taxpayer dollars). There is no better or worse here, it's all the same fleecing of our dollars. What fucking skills does this guy have? I don't want to know the history of the French Fry when he's taking my drive through order.

if he was on food stamps because he made poor decisions and dropped out of high school to smoke pot all day, would THAT be better?

I feel like people shouldn't spend their money on advanced degrees (or even regular degrees) that won't help them get a job, but it's not really my business. Hopefully he'll be able to use his skills to get something and the food stamps will be the short-term safety net they were created to be.

So, this is worse than the welfare queen who has more kids to get more dole?

You're an idiot.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/even-a-phd-couldn-t-keep-this-man-off-food-stamps.html

Because pray tell us why getting a PHD in history has any more wealth than just a bachelor's in history. What more does he know that he couldn't have just gone into another more useful field and then bought a bunch of books about Napoleon's exile to Elba and learned about it. I hope he can make a blanket of his degrees.