Once you've digested a few of Professor Kershaw's Globe & Mail missives, you almost feel sorry for these kids. They were clearly sold a bill of goods. The "hard work" of attending post-secondary for six or eight or twelve years doesn't pay off like it used to. Where once upon a time that might have given you a leg up on the riff-raff that didn't get into U of T or UBC, now these poor suckers find themselves locked out of the priciest real estate markets. Buying a detached in Toronto or Vancouver is a million +++ undertaking. In that market, you need at least a 20% down, and how is an under-employed PhD gonna pull that kinda coin together in a system where not one in ten doctorates will ever land a tenure track position?
Professor Kershaw is himself not only a tenured prof at a prestigious school, he is an award-winning prof at a prestigious school, so it's safe to presume he's not a complete moron, but he's completely unaware of how the other half lives. That other half is probably well represented in the hundreds of local kids who got high-school diplomas on the strength of their grade four level math skills, thanks to me. Hey, if they got to my gr 10 class with gr 2 skills and gained two grade levels by June, I earned my paycheque and they earned their diploma!
Here's a few facts about the world they live in.
As in Toronto or Vancouver, two people each working full-time in a min wage job, will jointly qualify for a $325000 mortgage. That's worth bupkis in TO or Van, but once you're 45 minutes north of Yonge and Steeles, a whole new world opens up! That mortgage, which wouldn't even suffice as a down payment in downtown Toronto or Vancouver, actually buys you a detached on an ample lot! And under a half million you need 5% down, not 20%.
Check out this stuff on offer now, easily within reach of those two hypothetical min wage earning grads.
Say what? Two storey classic yellow brick on a quarter acre, in a quiet village in Amish country, for $330k ? Or perhaps, on the strength of you and your partner's minimum wage jobs, you would prefer this easily affordable century bungalow.
And if yellow brick ain't your thing, check out this red brick beauty!
Those are just a few of the options available to my students, none of whom have student loan concerns. A quick peek at the Government of Canada Job Bank listings for the area shows 182 jobs, most of which pay well above min wage. And the insurance policy of Amish neighbours in tough times is something Professor Kershaw's students will never find in Toronto or Vancouver!
Professor Kershaw's kids have massive student loans and need help. My kids are doing fine. They're buying homes and starting families. If they have to commute a half hour to work it's a country drive, not a twice-a-day ordeal.
There you have it! Some kids bought the bill o' goods and now they're "generation squeezed"... other kids went straight to "generation live-your-life!"
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