The American Dream Deferred

The post The American Dream Deferred appeared first on WhoWhatWhy.

This is the second of a five-part WhoWhatWhy election autopsy. Read the first part here.

While much has been rightly made of Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, he tapped into the sense of outrage felt by tens of millions of Americans whose economic circumstances have long been in decline.

For decades, as a nation, our institutions emphasized just how essential a college degree was for a successful life. And both parties assured Americans that their children would have a productive place in this globally integrated marketplace — if they spared no expense on higher education.

So, to secure degrees, they, and their children, took on hundreds of billions of dollars in debt. Millennials saw college debt explode from $260 billion in 2004 to $1.36 trillion.

In all too many cases, those college degrees turned out to be virtually worthless in terms of helping graduates land employment that paid well enough to keep their student loans current. 

Read more http://whowhatwhy.org/2016/11/22/american-dream-deferred/