After listening to this interview I wanted to tell Dan, he is not alone and I am glad he kept his chin up.

I am 30 and since graduating from college 9 years ago I have had the same feelings he had. Our parents told us, study hard, be a good worker, get into a good college and you will have a better life. That is no longer the case, in fact we are worse off than our parents. There are fewer jobs, the cost of living has increased faster than salaries and we have thousands in student loans to pay that our parents did not.

I hear people say we need to do a better job educating our kids for the future. What future? It took me years to find a respectable job, one which actually required a college education. With a struggling economy all businesses and employees are learning to do more with less. If fewer people are required to do the same amount of work how many jobs are going to be available for all of these well educated kids?

Only 6 short months ago, I had a job, but it was a job that I was humiliated to tell people I had. It required no college degree; in fact, it probably did not even require good high school grades. That was disappointing and degrading. It wore on me and my confidence suffered. Now, thankfully, that has changed, but if so many of us 30 something’s are in that same boat now, why should we think it is going to be any better for those younger than us?