12/21/09 Baltimore, Maryland – We’ve found a unique indicator of what could be a bursting bubble in higher education – yet another sector of the economy where government meddling has driven up costs across the decades.
Short story: Mamas, don’t let your babies don’t grow up to be language or literature professors.
The Modern Language Association forecasts that new faculty positions for teachers of Dreiser and deconstructionism are down 37% from 2008… and the 2008 figure was down 26% from 2007.
“Students thinking of going to graduate school in English should understand that right now their chance of landing a job that provides them a livable wage is 50-60%,” the MLA’s Rosemary Feal tells The New York Times. “What I often hear from grad students is, ‘I had no clue it was this bad.’” Especially if their concentration is 20th-century American literature, where a single opening gets up to 400 applicants.
We don’t say this just to snicker at the job prospects of humanities students. (Indeed, we have a soft spot, having majored in philosophy.) Again, we suspect this is an early sign of a bursting bubble in higher education – where costs rose at an even higher clip than housing for much of the last 25 years. Like all good bubbles, it must come to an end. The 32% tuition increase at the University of California system could be the sign of higher education’s final “blowoff rally.”
(Oh, and now they’re talking about a 1% tuition tax to help reduce the state’s budget deficit. You can’t make this stuff up.)
Addison Wiggin
Addison Wiggin is the executive publisher of Agora Financial, LLC, a fiercely independent economic forecasting and financial research firm. He’s the creator and editorial director of Agora Financial’s daily 5 Min. Forecast and editorial director of The Daily Reckoning. Wiggin is the founder of Agora Entertainment, executive producer and co-writer of I.O.U.S.A., which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, the 2009 Critics Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature, and was also shortlisted for a 2009 Academy Award. He is the author of the companion book of the film I.O.U.S.A.and his second edition of The Demise of the Dollar… and Why it’s Even Better for Your Investments was just fully revised and updated. Wiggin is a three-time New York Times best-selling author whose work has been recognized by The New York Times Magazine, The Economist, Worth, The New York Times, The Washington Post as well as major network news programs. He also co-authored international bestsellers Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt with Bill Bonner.
The Daily Reckoning is your premier source for making sense of the news Washington and Wall Street generate. Each business day, The Daily Reckoning calls on its stable of world-class writers and thinkers to show you how to get ahead.
Start your 100% FREE subscription to The Daily Reckoning today and you’ll get a free research report, “How to Survive the Fall of Social Security.” Simply enter your email address below to get your free report and join over 495,000 worldwide Daily Reckoning subscribers!
We Respect Your Privacy and We will
Never Share or Sell Your Email Address
