Saturday, February 15, 2014

Destitute Ivy Leaguer: The Series Begins



by Dr. Ellen Brandt

After much deliberation about how to proceed, I've decided to try basing this series at Blogger, in order to take advantage of a Google+ landing page and the ability to utilize Google's Community structure.

I intend to set up various discussion groups based on specific parts of what we are trying to do: an ambitious plan to restore the financial and professional solvency of the large contingent of Under-Employed "Best and Brightest" graduates of Ivy and equivalent universities, in the U.S. and around the world.

Ivy and equivalent grads over age 50 are now at the highest risk in perhaps 80 years of falling into a veritable abyss of poverty and desperation. Like Baby Boomers from all backgrounds, despite belonging to the best-educated, most skilled, and healthiest generation in human history, Boomer Ivy grads have suffered through three or four decades  of global economic turmoil which has seemed pretty much calculated to hurt us more than those of other generations: downsizing, outsourcing, managerial shrinkage, the hollowing out of both manufacturing and small business, and housing crises and market crashes on a regular periodic basis. 

But we are no longer the only generation at risk. Those fortunate Ivy grads belonging to Gen-X or the "Baby Bust" - fortunate because there were relatively few of them - are now moving into their mid-40s, the current line of demarcation in the U.S. and other developed nations between being lionized and being tossed into the economic gutter.

And many Millennials are less well-off than they had hoped, saddled with student loan debt that earlier generations had far less of and faced with the real possibility of becoming the last bastion of support for the generations ahead of them, if something is not done - fast! - to help those generations recoup their (i.e. OUR) financial fortunes.

The Ivies and equivalent universities need to be at the forefront of efforts to help down-and-out "Best and Brightest" grads for any number of reasons, which we'll talk about in the next blog.