College Degree: Good News, Bad News

Is college worth the effort?Here's one approach
SLATE: TUESDAY, NOV 25, 2014 03:45 AM PST

Robert Reich: College gets you nowhere

[The former secretary of labor examines why a degree no longer guarantees a well-playing job]

This is the time of year when high school seniors apply to college, and when I get lots of mail about whether college is worth the cost.

The answer is unequivocally yes, but with one big qualification. I’ll come to the qualification in a moment but first the financial case for why it’s worth going to college.

Put simply, people with college degrees continue to earn far more than people without them. And that college “premium” keeps rising.

Last year, Americans with four-year college degrees earned on average 98 percent more per hour than people without college degrees.

In the early 1980s, graduates earned 64 percent more.

So even though college costs are rising, the financial return to a college degree compared to not having one is rising even faster.

But here’s the qualification, and it’s a big one.

Reich's complete column can be found HERE.

Robert Reich, one of the nation’s leading experts on work and the economy, is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. Time Magazine has named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written 13 books, including his latest best-seller, “Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future;” “The Work of Nations,” which has been translated into 22 languages; and his newest, an e-book, “Beyond Outrage.” His syndicated columns, television appearances, and public radio commentaries reach millions of people each week. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, and Chairman of the citizen’s group Common Cause. His new movie "Inequality for All" is in Theaters. His widely-read blog can be found at www.robertreich.org.

John F. Kennedy: His Assassination, November 22, 1963

In a brief discussion with students in one of my classes last week, I learned that many could not place the date of John Kennedy's assassination. On the anniversary of his assassination here's a film that can serve as a review, or an introduction to it:

This biography of John F. Kennedy is taken from the official White House government website.  You can also find links to biographies of all 44 presidents at this page.  The History Channel has report on the day of the assassination. CBS presents photographs of the day.

On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the youngest man elected President; he was the youngest to die.

Of Irish descent, [Kennedy] was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, he entered the Navy. In 1943, when his PT boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy, despite grave injuries, led the survivors through perilous waters to safety.

Back from the war, he became a Democratic Congressman from the Boston area, advancing in 1953 to the Senate. He married Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12, 1953. In 1955, while recuperating from a back operation, he wrote Profiles in Courage, which won the Pulitzer Prize in history.

In 1956 Kennedy almost gained the Democratic nomination for Vice President, and four years later was a first-ballot nominee for President. Millions watched his television debates with the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon. Winning by a narrow margin in the popular vote, Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic President.

His Inaugural Address offered the memorable injunction: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." As President, he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get America moving again. His economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II; before his death, he laid plans for a massive assault on persisting pockets of privation and poverty.

Responding to ever more urgent demands, he took vigorous action in the cause of equal rights, calling for new civil rights legislation. His vision of America extended to the quality of the national culture and the central role of the arts in a vital society.

He wished America to resume its old mission as the first nation dedicated to the revolution of human rights. With the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps, he brought American idealism to the aid of developing nations. But the hard reality of the Communist challenge remained.

Shortly after his inauguration, Kennedy permitted a band of Cuban exiles, already armed and trained, to invade their homeland. The attempt to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro was a failure. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union renewed its campaign against West Berlin. Kennedy replied by reinforcing the Berlin garrison and increasing the Nation's military strength, including new efforts in outer space. Confronted by this reaction, Moscow, after the erection of the Berlin Wall, relaxed its pressure in central Europe.

Instead, the Russians now sought to install nuclear missiles in Cuba. When this was discovered by air reconnaissance in October 1962, Kennedy imposed a quarantine on all offensive weapons bound for Cuba. While the world trembled on the brink of nuclear war, the Russians backed down and agreed to take the missiles away. The American response to the Cuban crisis evidently persuaded Moscow of the futility of nuclear blackmail.

Kennedy now contended that both sides had a vital interest in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and slowing the arms race--a contention which led to the test ban treaty of 1963. The months after the Cuban crisis showed significant progress toward his goal of "a world of law and free choice, banishing the world of war and coercion." His administration thus saw the beginning of new hope for both the equal rights of Americans and the peace of the world.

The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The Presidents of the United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association.

This collage remembers the four major
political assassinations in the United States during the 1960s. 

1A: Homeless articles

National Coalition for the Homeless

"Hidden City: New York has more homeless than it has in decades. What should the next mayor do?"The New Yorker, October 28, 2013. By Ian Frazier. 

Child homelessness in U.S. hit all-time high in recent years, new report says. By David Crary and Lisa Leff, The Washingtonw12 November 17, 2013

PCC THEATRE IN LONDON 

Spring Break: March 7-15, 2015

Join Professors Manny Perea and Brian Adler for an exciting week of theatre and sightseeing in London.
You’ll enjoy: 

Four plays

Round-trip flight on Virgin Atlantic

Round-trip airport transportation in London

7 nights at the 4-star Holiday Inn Bloomsbury

Daily Continental Breakfast

Day trip to the historic town of Bath

A tour of the National Theatre in London

Seven-day transportation pass for London tube/bus

And free time to explore London and its environs at your own pace 

Imagine... the British Museum, the British Library, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, the Tate Gallery, the National Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Covent Garden, Harrods, pubs, and fabulous food and shopping!

ALL THIS FOR $3,380!

Accommodations based on double occupancy. Single supplement: $850

Price excludes PCC course fees. Deposit due: December 5, 2014

INFORMATION MEETINGS

Thursday, November 13: 12 noon in C304 and 6 p.m. in C163

Please spread the word. Tell your family and friends! Any and all can come on this trip.

To learn more, please contact Professor Perea (626-585-7496; email: mxperea@pasadena.edu) or Professor Adler (626-585-7643; email: bradler@pasadena.edu)

Four films for Veterans Day from PBS Frontline