I've thankfully avoided the worst of the GFC graduate syndrome myself but 50-55k in 2008 dollars is a very generous estimation of earnings for someone with no j

I've thankfully avoided the worst of the GFC graduate syndrome myself but 50-55k in 2008 dollars is a very generous estimation of earnings for someone with no job experience trying to get a first job during a recession. 20-30k is more realistic if you could find work at all. The best I could do was about 20k substitute teaching, and that was very uneven income. If I hadn't been able to live with my parents for three years before scoring a Linux admin job halfway across the country (in a much higher CoL area) for ~48k (and crucially including health insurance so I could get off my parents' plan), I would have been on the street. It's almost impossible to get off the street once you're there. In short, have some empathy. Bad things do happen to good people, and even bad people deserve some dignity in life.