Graduating to Starbucks

LAST WEEK, author Barbara Ehrenreich gave a chilling address to Haverford College's class of 2007.

She told the graduates, "At the moment you accept your diploma today, you will have an average debt of $20,000 and no health insurance. You may be feeling desperate enough to take whatever comes along. Some of you will get caged in cubicles until you're ejected by the next wave of layoffs."

She continued, "Others, some of the best and brightest of you, in fact, will still be behind a counter in Starbucks or Borders three years down the road."

So, on a day typically marked by tears, toasts and congratulatory gifts, at least one college had a somber brush with reality. Her harsh but realistic rant struck some as insulting, but many graduates found solace in her words. At least one member of the generation ahead of us is willing to take responsibility for the state of the world we inherit.

Year after year, as I see friends graduate from reputable schools and watch all but a select few struggle to find jobs, I can't help but reflect on how horribly my generation has been misled.

Since our first days of grade school, we've been duped. Told that if we worked hard and got into a good college, the world would be ours.

The students Ehrenreich damned to Starbucks and Borders weren't graduating from community college or a second-rate state school. No, Haverford is one of the country's most-respected liberal-arts schools. Almost 90 percent of its students graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, and the middle 50 percent of the class of 2010 scored between 1290 and 1500 on their SATs.

It's a common exercise for commencement speakers to ask graduates to look around at their classmates and see "future leaders of America," or "future best-selling authors." But as 1.3 million graduates join the workforce of a stagnant economy, it's hard to picture these graduates as anything grander than bartenders or third-shift managers.

A study by the Economic Mobility Project funded by the Pew Charitable Trust shows that men in their 30s have a median annual income of roughly $35,000. Thirty years ago, American men in their 30s were making 12.5 percent more, their median annual income closer $40,000 (adjusting for inflation).

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's commencement address at Tufts featured several jokes that garnered laughs while hiding unspoken truths. He talked of "Your parents and relatives, who are sitting out there this morning, beaming proudly, and not even thinking about what it cost to get to this day. Or what happens if you can't get a job and have to move back home."

That joke will be less comical after the parties end and the job search starts up again.

It appears, America, that my generation is stuck with the hazy morning after. We've been dragged out of a deep sleep, and a hell of a euphoric American dream, and thrown into harsh reality.

Parents, counselors and principals alike, they all told us: Working hard, get into a good college - your future will be bright. But all the while they elected leaders who ran up the deficit, leaders who refused to listen to the science community about the dangers of global warming, who refused to take steps to adjust our economy while lifting trade barriers.

So, to Barbara Ehrenreich, I thank you for your honesty.

To the graduates of the new millennium: The cards may be stacked against us, but we're hardly the first generation of Americans stuck with an uphill battle. Our apathy and taste for procrastination must be left by the wayside, because we will succeed. We will, because as Ehrenreich is willing to admit - for us, "it's a matter of survival." *

Brian Till will be graduating from Haverford College in the spring of 2008.