With all due respect, I think you're missing the point. I did not mean to imply that the individuals you were referring to were of the "slacker intellectual" va

With all due respect, I think you're missing the point. I did not mean to imply that the individuals you were referring to were of the "slacker intellectual" variety, I merely used the English Lit major example as a reference to the original article. (Personally, I wouldn't classify those people I know as slackers to begin with. Comfortable != Slacker) The point is, if the education you received doesn't improve your ability to provide for yourself, then something is either wrong with the education you received or the approach you're taking to the job market. Let's take the first of those possibilities. I know individuals who are working on very focused topics; things like "The anharmonic instabilities of zwitterionic heterocycles and their effect on fragmentation patterns" (I just made that up, so don't bother Googling it). For these individuals, if they can't secure a post-doc studying Mass Spec, or an industry position in a Mass Spec lab, then they're screwed! But really, is that the job market's fault?If your education is not sufficiently broad, then your education is broken. What about the second option? What if you get out of school and there are no opportunities? Well, who was supposed to provide those opportunities? The Government? Yeah well, guess what...the government doesn't care so much about science and research any more. Really, though, whose fault is that? I have the same issue with biologists who moan and groan, "whine" even, about the Intelligent Design movement. They always want to view the poor understanding of evolution by the general public as being the fault of the general public, rather than a failure of scientists to adequately explain themselves and their work. If you can't get a job doing hard science, why not look for work as a science writer? Why not start up your own science outreach program? I'm sure there must be a market for "traveling science shows" (I used to be part of one in high school). The only way such opportunities wouldn't exist is if the population is just so apathetic to knowledge and learning that they can't even be bother to listen when you break things down for them. If that's the case, go somewhere else! Highly educated Americans are going to have to start thinking of overseas as a viable job market. What America has is a glut of educated individuals, and small demand for them. Trust me, there are plenty of places in the world where those positions are reversed. Why not "Scientists without borders"? There's already Engineers without borders...