As far as advanced educations: the education of the person influences the type of job they can get, but it depends on what is going on in the area they live or work. A Master's degree, or some other kind of advanced degree, is a worthwhile investment only if it can be used. When there is limited interest in the area of expertise, then the degree is only worth the paper it is printed on. No general interest or need for the field, no need for the specialist. For example, we presently have a huge need for nurses, but shortage of qualified personnel. Well, back in the 90's when HMO's began calling the shots, they made their money not by providing cheaper medical care: they got the savings by encouraging financial conditions at the medical facilities so that eventually the medical facilities could not afford to keep the numbers of nurses and other medical personnel on hand. Now our country is experiencing a crisis, needing qualified personnel, and there are not enough available because not enough nurses have being trained. Anyone getting into nursing or other medical fields now are responding to the upsurge in need, and will probably fare better than those people who tried to be a nurse fifteen or so years ago. Most jobs, and the demand for the specialties, fluctuate in cycles depending on what's needed or valued. Looking at the big picture this way, there are really no professions that are guaranteed to last.

Looking back, it is easy to say there were too many MBA's or people focused on other financial degrees. But that still doesn't help those people who got the degrees, lost their jobs, and have to find enough food to eat. My MA is in clinical psychology, but the counseling field in general, I've found, is not valued as necessary or important to the general public, even though untreated mental illness costs our economy millions, if not billions of dollars per year in loss of productivity, damage to self and property, and impairment of the up and coming generations. The clinic I work for depends heavily on donations, fundraising, and government grants to keep going. That's not a secure job environment, but it's the best I've got, and for the past five years, I've planned accordingly. That doesn't mean I'm better than the millions of others who are going hungry, only that I anticipated the future employment climate more accurately. It helps us all to work together to help each other get through this downturn. We'll all be stronger for it in the long run.

"I have a master’s degree. I shouldn’t have to do this, he said."

Well, I am going to go out on a limb and guess he doesn't have a Masters' degree in engineering, nursing or any of the sciences. I am going to guess his Masters' is an MBA. If that's the case, he might as well not have gone to school.

I sympathize with the guy a little bit. When he entered school, he looked at our "debt-distorted" economy and it seemed like the most obvious and easy path to riches was to get an MBA or a finance degree.

It was inevitable that this readjustment period would come. But perhaps if we had some leadership from government, this period could have been managed smoothly. Instead we are going to do this the hard way.

To me the food bank is for families who were overwhelmed with medical bills or those that were barely making enough to get by but with the increase in food/gas prices they're unable to make ends meet for their family. Those executives need to sell their fancy material possessions in their house and take a lower paying job – even if it means flipping burgers Masters degree or not.

Annie Kate
Birmingham AL

I just hate to see how it's going to get on down the line if the economy gets any worse...which I think it will.

Cindy...Ga.