When "the City's staff" engage in a coordinated, concerted effort to drive from Dunwoody those citizens they find unacceptable, is this you?
Or what about the kind of fidelity to honest government wherein a City Manager claims public review sessions were held yet the City Clerk responds to an open records request with "no record of any meeting". Is this you?
Or perhaps the commitment to public safety displayed by an apparent policy of shoot-to-kill for traffic offenses. Is this you?
Then there is the questionable ethics of a five million dollar pot-sweetener land deal using City taxpayer funds. Is this you?
Or the corporate welfare that manifested itself as a sweetheart deal between the City acting as a land developer and a nearly bankrupt home builder to ensure the builder's financial well being. Is this you?
And the botched closed-door "executive" sessions resulting in over a hundred thousand dollars of useless expenses which also cost the City Attorney his job and convinced a sitting member of Council to decline a bid for re-election. Is this you?
The shameless grubbing for grants that transformed a one hundred fifty thousand dollar site-appropriate nature trail into a million dollar interstate lane without any public vetting. Is this you?
Incessant "scope creep" that some are now calling intentional? Is this you?
The zealous militarization of a yet-to-be-proven competent police force that already shows a propensity for selectively harsh enforcement and (ab)use of deadly force. Is this you?
Or the constant hiding behind anonymizing labels and titles when there is legitimate need to address controversy yet leaping to the forefront to take credit or grab a pay raise. Is this you?
When you elect a Council and Mayor who sit by and watch these deplorable actions taken in their name or worse yet applaud them then THIS IS YOU.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Thursday, September 12, 2013
City Of Farmhouse, Georgia
It's been five years since the incorporation of the City of Dunwoody and coincident with the re-write of the city charter a movement to spin-off a new city is gaining steam. This city which is tentatively named the "City of Farmhouse" would encompass the area shown in the map below.
As an experiment in local control the City of Dunwoody has convinced many citizens that more is better. As in "more local". Hyper-localism is a new model for urban government but is one that has taken hold throughout the Pacific Northwest and has been readily embraced by local Farmhousers and cyclists alike.
The proposal for this new city is expected to be submitted in the next legislative session with a referendum vote in the following year. Proponents have already formed the two obligatory non-profits with one to "educate about" and the other to "advocate for" the new city. A proposed "viability" report was recently submitted to the Carl Vinson Institute in an envelope that also contained thirty thousand dollars and it is expected that this report will be issued on CVI letterhead shortly.
There has been some concern from those who will remain in the City of Dunwoody regarding the departure of Perimeter Center and the associated tax base but this is virtually identical to the complaints expressed by DeKalb when Dunwoody was first formed and this argument is expected to carry as much weight now as it did then. There have also been complaints that this move dilutes minority vote by carving out an almost exclusively non-minority city but others point out that this has a non-dilutive effect on the remaining City of Dunwoody and will in fact increase minority concentration there.
This new City will be up and running in less than three years but to get there everyone's help is needed. There will be several "virtual town hall" meetings via interactive webcast and Parks, Police and Roads Tasks forces are already spinning up.
Exciting times. Become an agent of change!
The proposal for this new city is expected to be submitted in the next legislative session with a referendum vote in the following year. Proponents have already formed the two obligatory non-profits with one to "educate about" and the other to "advocate for" the new city. A proposed "viability" report was recently submitted to the Carl Vinson Institute in an envelope that also contained thirty thousand dollars and it is expected that this report will be issued on CVI letterhead shortly.
There has been some concern from those who will remain in the City of Dunwoody regarding the departure of Perimeter Center and the associated tax base but this is virtually identical to the complaints expressed by DeKalb when Dunwoody was first formed and this argument is expected to carry as much weight now as it did then. There have also been complaints that this move dilutes minority vote by carving out an almost exclusively non-minority city but others point out that this has a non-dilutive effect on the remaining City of Dunwoody and will in fact increase minority concentration there.
This new City will be up and running in less than three years but to get there everyone's help is needed. There will be several "virtual town hall" meetings via interactive webcast and Parks, Police and Roads Tasks forces are already spinning up.
Exciting times. Become an agent of change!
Monday, September 9, 2013
What Problem Are You Trying To Solve
Back at the little cabin in the woods where TOD goes to sharpen knives, clean guns and partake of poteen there have been many conversations about "what are they doing and why are they doing it". These are almost always philosophical debates around the mysterious goings on of movers and shakers hereabouts excepting one rather pointless debate about the relative merits of Wicked Edge and Edge Pro systems and while that was called a draw other discussions always veered into the muddy ditch of ambiguity. Inspired by the clarity of thought only poteen can bring and immune to blessings of short term memory loss so often found at the bottom of a bottle of that most potent of potables an epiphany descended. When trying to determine a plausible answer to the aforementioned question it was revealed that you counter-intuitively need the answer to another question:
Now you're beginning to understand City Hall, Decatur, the Gold Dome and why they are all so much alike.
Understanding the problem/solution relationship goes a long way towards understanding "what are they doing and why are they doing it". If you apply this filter to political rah-rah sessions, stump speeches and most of the documents finding their way from "The Staff" thru "The City Manager" to the City Council you'll waste a lot less time figuring out what is really going on. Inevitably the real problem they are trying to solve revolves around their own acquisition of power and money which has little relation to their vaguely stated "cover problem". This clarity of understanding won't make you happier but you'll have a lot more time to be miserable. Hence the poteen.
There is another important truism wrapped up in the problem-solution circle of life: if you have the solution, you own the problem. That's a whole other problem.
What problem are they trying to solve?This may not seem particularly clarifying unless you understand a few TOD-Truisms[tm]. First is that here in TOD-land "where there is no solution there is no problem" which may seem to intertwine the definition of problem and solution. It does not. It simply means that encountering an unpleasant circumstance or a suboptimality does not a problem make. It may make a situation. It may make a conundrum. Not a problem. For a problem demands solution and this means that a problem has a finite lifetime ending its existence as a problem when the solution is identified and implemented. Of course this makes problems (and by implication solutions) abhorrent to politicians and the bureaucracies they so adore since implemented solutions and hence solved problems undermine the very reason for their existence.
Now you're beginning to understand City Hall, Decatur, the Gold Dome and why they are all so much alike.
Understanding the problem/solution relationship goes a long way towards understanding "what are they doing and why are they doing it". If you apply this filter to political rah-rah sessions, stump speeches and most of the documents finding their way from "The Staff" thru "The City Manager" to the City Council you'll waste a lot less time figuring out what is really going on. Inevitably the real problem they are trying to solve revolves around their own acquisition of power and money which has little relation to their vaguely stated "cover problem". This clarity of understanding won't make you happier but you'll have a lot more time to be miserable. Hence the poteen.
There is another important truism wrapped up in the problem-solution circle of life: if you have the solution, you own the problem. That's a whole other problem.
Thursday, September 5, 2013
The Beat Goes On, The Beat Goes On
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brainIn a concerted effort to ensure that the melanin endowed know upon which side of the city limits they belong our Boys In Blue (or at least one) has offered an object lesson to one of Dunwoody's small business owners with a traffic stop for equipment violations that escalated into a failed drug bust. So just how does a non-moving violation of such substance that it is later dismissed become a street art performance of a scene from the movie "Crash"?
La da da de de, la da da de da...
It's hard to say. What the officer should have done is finish the paperwork on the non-moving violation and send the man on his way. Sadly this is not what happened.
One version claims that the officer looked at the guy and immediately concluded that he's a drug offender and asked to search his vehicle--a request that was denied. This resulted in what is said to be an illegal detention until an "indicate on cue" dog* was fielded by a neighboring police force and successfully sniffed out an empty cashew container.**
Perhaps that's true. Perhaps this officer is the product of the harsh life he faces in keeping Dunwoody's mean streets clean. In an effort to limit perceived damage to the reputation of the force some now say he's a 'roid-ragin' rogue and his home should be checked for HGH and the like. Of course that would require a SWAT team since we know he's armed. But perhaps he's no singular rogue cop.
Others say this is just part of the Department's concerted effort to troll for seizable assets. Today's lengthy and laborious process for contesting a seizure means that almost all property taken is effectively taken permanently and without reasonable due process. If cops want it then it's theirs. All they need to do is find a spliff. Doesn't really matter how it got there.
Still others claim this is just another face of the racial purification effort ongoing in The Wold. Simple case of DWB***---a most serious offense in and to Dunwoody. Given that the "offense" occurred so close to the current target of other City purification efforts there might be substance to this assertion. Catch 'em coming in and show 'em the way out.
Of course this officer's Brothers In Blue stand firmly behind him and have exonerated him of any wrong doing. No surprises there. The unwilling party in this street side improv drama is less than pleased and has filed suit claiming his rights were violated---an assertion with which the proverbial "Reasonable Man" would probably agree. If it goes to court we'll find out how effective the Police Departments tactics are at aiding and abetting City Hall's racial cleansing agenda.
Grandmas sit in chairs and reminisce
Boys keep chasing girls to get a kiss
The cars keep a going faster all the time
Bums still cry, "Hey buddy, have you got a dime?"
And the beat goes on, yes, the beat goes on
And the beat goes on, and the beat goes on
The beat goes on and the beat goes on
The beat goes...
*They're not really "drug dogs" anymore, if ever they were.
**There is damn little a dog won't do for cashew.
***Black or brown, it doesn't matter.
Monday, September 2, 2013
The Pogrom Marches On
Two of the apartment complexes originally slated for eradication in Dunwoody's failed Parks Pogrom have filed a federal fair housing suit against the City accusing the City (thru it's much lauded "staff") of harassment and discrimination. One might dismiss this as a desperate legal tactic by businesses attempting to preserve their right to unfettered profitable operation. One would be mistaken.
Or so says Dunwoody's own Municipal Court Judge Rick Powell who swatted down nearly one hundred citations because the City failed to follow procedure and give proper notification. Is this mere arrogance with the City holding itself above its own procedures? Is it indeed harassment and discrimination that is a natural fall back position for a City determined to push those people out when more direct measures failed?
Or is it selective enforcement?
If this is selective enforcement then all the Citizens of Dunwoody and not just those renters along the PIB need to be very concerned. Selective enforcement such as picking off speeders on Chamblee Dunwoody often falls into the category of "worst first" due to limited resources. Like all other operational necessities even these situations must be closely monitored. Situations like the Chicken Ban have our City Staff instituting a policy of "enforce upon complaint" offering code enforcement as a big stick with which to beat your neighbor. More importantly it is well down the slippery slope of "we'll punish who we want when we want and to whatever degree we want".
When City Staff use selective enforcement to advance their own agenda and an unvetted, unsavory agenda at that then it is past time for our elected officials to step up, step in and put a stop to this. And we need to make sure they do. First because it is wrong--plain and simple. And if that isn't enough consider what you'll do and what recourse you'll have when they come after you.
Or so says Dunwoody's own Municipal Court Judge Rick Powell who swatted down nearly one hundred citations because the City failed to follow procedure and give proper notification. Is this mere arrogance with the City holding itself above its own procedures? Is it indeed harassment and discrimination that is a natural fall back position for a City determined to push those people out when more direct measures failed?
Or is it selective enforcement?
If this is selective enforcement then all the Citizens of Dunwoody and not just those renters along the PIB need to be very concerned. Selective enforcement such as picking off speeders on Chamblee Dunwoody often falls into the category of "worst first" due to limited resources. Like all other operational necessities even these situations must be closely monitored. Situations like the Chicken Ban have our City Staff instituting a policy of "enforce upon complaint" offering code enforcement as a big stick with which to beat your neighbor. More importantly it is well down the slippery slope of "we'll punish who we want when we want and to whatever degree we want".
When City Staff use selective enforcement to advance their own agenda and an unvetted, unsavory agenda at that then it is past time for our elected officials to step up, step in and put a stop to this. And we need to make sure they do. First because it is wrong--plain and simple. And if that isn't enough consider what you'll do and what recourse you'll have when they come after you.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Something About Bert
No, not Bert of Bert and Earnie fame, but the current Bert of Georgia transportation fame. We all remember Bert Lance and his involvement during the Carter Governor years, but now we're talking about Bert Brantley who is a top bureaucrat in our nascent Tollway bureaucracy. In a recent AJC article exposing research concluding that the I-85 Lexus Lanes really are Lexus Lanes our new Bert offers some prize quotes.
First he blasts the research done by Southern Environmental Law Center declaring the study "flimsy". Well of course the study is flimsy Bert. That would be because you and your bureaucrat buddies refuse to a) publish detailed information or b) do the study yourself. In fact, we'll wager you don't publish the data at all but use the formality of Open Records requests to dissuade acquisition of the information.
When it is suggested that marching forward on other tollways in Georgia should be gated by understanding the impact of the I-85 HOT lane which was intended to be a pilot program for just that purpose Bert drops this jewel:
What we have here is another government agency with a hidden agenda and if past behaviour is any indicator of future behaviour then this agenda is intentionally hidden because it is largely about moving public money into well connected private hands.
Thanks Bert for all you do.
First he blasts the research done by Southern Environmental Law Center declaring the study "flimsy". Well of course the study is flimsy Bert. That would be because you and your bureaucrat buddies refuse to a) publish detailed information or b) do the study yourself. In fact, we'll wager you don't publish the data at all but use the formality of Open Records requests to dissuade acquisition of the information.
When it is suggested that marching forward on other tollways in Georgia should be gated by understanding the impact of the I-85 HOT lane which was intended to be a pilot program for just that purpose Bert drops this jewel:
"...there's still plenty of time to learn as we move forward. Do you sit back and do nothing?"Wow Bert, really? So why did you wait on commissioning the detailed data analysis? Is that because it is a foregone conclusion that you're going to "move forward" with these other projects come hell or high water? Why weren't you giving routine weekly reports on the details of lane usage beyond peak pricing? We're one eighth into the twenty first century now Bert and it has become painfully apparent that everyone who wants to has access to and can leverage real time analytics. Oops. Isn't that exactly what the HOT lane operation does to dynamically adjust the fares--real time analytics?
What we have here is another government agency with a hidden agenda and if past behaviour is any indicator of future behaviour then this agenda is intentionally hidden because it is largely about moving public money into well connected private hands.
Thanks Bert for all you do.
Monday, August 26, 2013
Welfare Mommies
Conjures a potent image, eh? Makes you think of some pregnant ne'er do well surrounded by four other kids including a pregnant teenage daughter. A woman with no visible means of support 'cepting Unca Sam yet sporting the kind of manicure that make you wonder how she can even use that smart phone.
Now imagine how pissed you'd be to learn that only those who receive this welfare are afforded the opportunity to vote on matters concerning the operation of the program from which they benefit. In effect you only pay the bills but you don't actually get a vote. Pretty pissed you betcha.
When you consider that public education costs around $10K per student per year then that family of five or six down the block is as much on the dole as your imaginary welfare queen. And the bit about disenfranchising mere payers into the system? Well, that's happening. Right here in DeKalb.
Recently a group of parents came together to vote in favour of establishing a charter cluster. Several things made this interesting including the fifty percent plus one majority required to go forward. But that was just counting votes.
What is more interesting is how votes were apportioned. As this vote was structured the parents were merely "trustees" of their children's vote. And only for those children who could attend a school in the cluster even if they are not currently attending. So, a parent with four children eligible to attend get's four votes. Those with children in college, under age or simply blessed with bareness get no vote. Notta.
Some are calling this a "Mommie Brigade". We'll just call it the largest entitlement program in America.
Now imagine how pissed you'd be to learn that only those who receive this welfare are afforded the opportunity to vote on matters concerning the operation of the program from which they benefit. In effect you only pay the bills but you don't actually get a vote. Pretty pissed you betcha.
When you consider that public education costs around $10K per student per year then that family of five or six down the block is as much on the dole as your imaginary welfare queen. And the bit about disenfranchising mere payers into the system? Well, that's happening. Right here in DeKalb.
Recently a group of parents came together to vote in favour of establishing a charter cluster. Several things made this interesting including the fifty percent plus one majority required to go forward. But that was just counting votes.
What is more interesting is how votes were apportioned. As this vote was structured the parents were merely "trustees" of their children's vote. And only for those children who could attend a school in the cluster even if they are not currently attending. So, a parent with four children eligible to attend get's four votes. Those with children in college, under age or simply blessed with bareness get no vote. Notta.
Some are calling this a "Mommie Brigade". We'll just call it the largest entitlement program in America.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Vote With THEIR Money
DeKalb County Schools seem to be doing an upstanding job of pissing folks off lately and while this is causing a lot of consternation and whining in the blogosphere not much is really getting done. Why? Because, to quote Dr. Phil, the whiners don't understand their "currency". And their currency is simple: money.
Ironically parents in DeKalb actually control that money. Not by way of the local taxes, but by way of the state funding. You must understand that each and every child, sleepy or rested, hungry or full, stoned or sober arrives with significant state funding (figuratively) in their book bag. And parents can take that money away by simply withholding their child from school.
A sick-out is a short-term shout out not likely to make a significant dent in the County budget especially given the return to "creative" accounting so what we need is something better. We need homeschoolers. If everyone who can homeschool, and many more can than you might think, took that simple step they would send forth a powerful, lasting message.
They are just getting cozy with their smoke and mirrors budget so now is the time to act and it only needs to last one semester--though you may find you like it and simply never look back at the hell you've been putting your children thru. And if concentrated pockets of parents take this path they can share the work load across families. And the cost is no more than filing some papers, a few good books and a fast internet connection. This is simply not as daunting as some believe.
Thurmond makes no effort to hide his disdain for Dunwoody and much of the rest of North DeKalb. It is time for those folks to eliminate as much of his funding as they possibly can.
Money talks...Thurmond walks.
Ironically parents in DeKalb actually control that money. Not by way of the local taxes, but by way of the state funding. You must understand that each and every child, sleepy or rested, hungry or full, stoned or sober arrives with significant state funding (figuratively) in their book bag. And parents can take that money away by simply withholding their child from school.
A sick-out is a short-term shout out not likely to make a significant dent in the County budget especially given the return to "creative" accounting so what we need is something better. We need homeschoolers. If everyone who can homeschool, and many more can than you might think, took that simple step they would send forth a powerful, lasting message.
They are just getting cozy with their smoke and mirrors budget so now is the time to act and it only needs to last one semester--though you may find you like it and simply never look back at the hell you've been putting your children thru. And if concentrated pockets of parents take this path they can share the work load across families. And the cost is no more than filing some papers, a few good books and a fast internet connection. This is simply not as daunting as some believe.
Thurmond makes no effort to hide his disdain for Dunwoody and much of the rest of North DeKalb. It is time for those folks to eliminate as much of his funding as they possibly can.
Money talks...Thurmond walks.
Monday, August 19, 2013
Fight Or Flight
The days drift byThe recent trend in the Blogosphere of the Wold is to assign monikers to teams involved in our little skirmishes, or at least deprecating ones to those holding the opposing position and this seems like fun so for the purpose of this diatribe we shall do the same. In the first corner the formerly retired champion making a comeback is the contingency known as "More Dunwoody Than You" aka "Mo Wood" and in the opposing corner the young upstarts, Dunwoody's collective agents of change, our very own Cheese Hunters extraordinaire, the "Jeezer Cheeser".
They don't have names
None of the streets here look the same
And there's so many quiet places
Smilin' eyes match the smilin' faces
And I have found me a home
I have found me a home
You can have the rest of everything I own
'Cause I have found me a home
What has Mo Wood back in the ring facing Jeezer Cheeser is a skirmish over a skirmish, specifically the "Battle for Dunwoody". Mo viewed the conflict between Dunwoody and Dekalb in simple terms with clearly stated, limited objectives much like Stormin' Norman in the first Gulf "war". Once the City was established and our taxes stayed here payin' for Police, patchin' potholes and pavin' parks they considered the war over. Job well done, but more importantly, job DONE.
Jeezer, young and hotheaded was more like Patton and seems in it to never win it, to never say that the last battle is fought and won, but to slog on in a never ending campaign to battle against what he sees as the forces of evil. By and large this means anyone who wants to keep Dunwoody a sleepy little Bettendorf. Just a bit too quaint for Jeezer. Plus Jeezer is a fighter and is itchin' to take all comers.
Mo's position has the merit of simplicity: Mo "bought into Dunwoody" when it was a sleepy bedroom community and though Jeezer cannot believe and will have none of it, actually LIKED it that way. Mo's complaint with DeKalb was the same as his issue with Jeezer which is that DeKalb and now Jeezer want to take away the life Mo has vested interest and much money in.
Jeezer is the more complex creature even to the point of incredible. It isn't clear how Jeezer got to Dunwoody, given there were no real secrets about the "Dunwoody sense of place" but we'll go out on a limb and suggest that Jeezer has close family members held hostage who will be killed should he leave the Wold. We're romantics like that.
Now Jeezer is promoting himself as the next new thing, heavy emphasis on "new" as Jeezer is an evangelist for the inevitability of change. Jeezer has clearly never been to Darien CT where the good folk living there have kept the clock rolled back to the mid 1950's. That fine existence proof notwithstanding Jeezer is hell bent on change, his change and not just for himself but for Mo and everyone watching from the stands.
But Jeezer is facing Mo's rope-a-dope and wearing himself out. Even in these early rounds many of his formerly ardent supporters are losing hope and more importantly faith in his mission and his tactics. They are asking of themselves the same question others are asking of Jeezer: if the hostage story isn't true, why fight--isn't flight the most efficacious option?
And many are seriously considering that option. Upon finding that Dunwoody isn't their nirvana, not the Hell's Cherubs Home of Cycling, not the tree-hugger's paradise, not the neo-urban funk capital and certainly not a haven for folk-artsy folk who take their Hippocratic Oath of Ecology VERY seriously they are voting with their feet. And what's to stop them? Dunwoody fared better than most in the recent real estate crunch and as it turns out there are many places nearby in the Metro area that actually ARE what Jeezer wants to force Dunwoody to become. So a brief analysis of "time left on the planet" vs "fight for something I can migrate to" is leading many to the path of migration. Maybe Dunwoody is Smart after all.
Most of the people who retire in Florida
Are wrinkled and they lean on a crutch
And mobile homes are smotherin' my Keys
I hate those bastards so much
I wish a summer squall would blow them all
The way up to fantasy land
Yeah they're ugly and square, they don't belong here
They looked a lot better as beer cans
Yeah, and that's why it's still a mystery to me
Why some people live like they do
So many nice things happening out there
They never even seen the clues
Whoa but we're doin' fine, we can travel and rhyme
I know we been doin' our part
Got a Caribbean soul I can barely control
And some Texas hidden here in my heart
Thursday, August 15, 2013
More Isn't Always Better
The American way of life seems based on the notion that if some is good more must be better. Certainly this has been adopted by educracy who advance the notion that everyone absolutely must have a college degree and an advanced degree where ever funding permits. No brains required.
Turns out reality doesn't support these notions of overfunding higher education. A couple of articles in the Atlantic warrant a read and expose the farce.
We've been hearing, mostly from those with a vested in interest in convincing us, that we just do not have enough PhDs and that furthermore we don't have enough home-grown PhD candidates and are therefore forced to import and arguably increase our import of foreign degree candidates or holders. Sadly the job market strongly disagrees with the premise that the more advanced the degree the better the job prospects and the higher the pay. And this problem exists for the STEM fields where we have technology rock stars like Bill Gates promoting the notion that we need unlimited H1B (and H2B) visas because we're not pumping out enough highly trained tech talent. Where is he when newly minted PhDs are being forced into un- and under employment? Why isn't he waving six figure job offers under their noses?
Anecdotally a recent Ga Tech graduate with a freshly minted EE PhD found work very hard to come by. Being resourceful he updated his resume removing mention of the PhD in favour of his Masters degree and started work at IBM within two months. Making over six figures.
Corporate America may just not hire you if you're "over educated" but academia eats their young. In the world of higher education a PhD in Mathematics (the truly universal language) is most likely to get you a job as a "post-doc", academia's term for "wage slave". That's assuming you get a job at all. Then there is the path split between teaching and research. If you're inclined to teach then that advanced degree in Math might get you a university job, perhaps even tenure track but you'd be very fortunate if it commands a salary much over $50,000. If you're research oriented your prospects and pay are better, but only if you walk in the door with funded research in your back pocket.
So why is it that academia promotes this scam? Mostly because there is much upside and little or no downside. Professors with tenure are not really impacted by the fact that fresh graduates add to the burgeoning pool of the over-educated and underemployed. In addition no one really cares that these new grads would dramatically undercut tenured salaries as these professors have their "job for life" and are not subject to the kind of cost-benefit evaluation used in the corporate world. College administrators are adherents of the "grow or die" philosophy and are incented to expand their department without much regard to what happens after the student stops paying tuition.
So at the end of the day we're educating too many folks to an unnecessary degree and wasting resources to do it.
Turns out reality doesn't support these notions of overfunding higher education. A couple of articles in the Atlantic warrant a read and expose the farce.
We've been hearing, mostly from those with a vested in interest in convincing us, that we just do not have enough PhDs and that furthermore we don't have enough home-grown PhD candidates and are therefore forced to import and arguably increase our import of foreign degree candidates or holders. Sadly the job market strongly disagrees with the premise that the more advanced the degree the better the job prospects and the higher the pay. And this problem exists for the STEM fields where we have technology rock stars like Bill Gates promoting the notion that we need unlimited H1B (and H2B) visas because we're not pumping out enough highly trained tech talent. Where is he when newly minted PhDs are being forced into un- and under employment? Why isn't he waving six figure job offers under their noses?
Anecdotally a recent Ga Tech graduate with a freshly minted EE PhD found work very hard to come by. Being resourceful he updated his resume removing mention of the PhD in favour of his Masters degree and started work at IBM within two months. Making over six figures.
Corporate America may just not hire you if you're "over educated" but academia eats their young. In the world of higher education a PhD in Mathematics (the truly universal language) is most likely to get you a job as a "post-doc", academia's term for "wage slave". That's assuming you get a job at all. Then there is the path split between teaching and research. If you're inclined to teach then that advanced degree in Math might get you a university job, perhaps even tenure track but you'd be very fortunate if it commands a salary much over $50,000. If you're research oriented your prospects and pay are better, but only if you walk in the door with funded research in your back pocket.
So why is it that academia promotes this scam? Mostly because there is much upside and little or no downside. Professors with tenure are not really impacted by the fact that fresh graduates add to the burgeoning pool of the over-educated and underemployed. In addition no one really cares that these new grads would dramatically undercut tenured salaries as these professors have their "job for life" and are not subject to the kind of cost-benefit evaluation used in the corporate world. College administrators are adherents of the "grow or die" philosophy and are incented to expand their department without much regard to what happens after the student stops paying tuition.
So at the end of the day we're educating too many folks to an unnecessary degree and wasting resources to do it.
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