The embodiment of the college degree has become a corporate huckster dressed up in a Forbes-400 suit selling a snake-oil dream to those who are itching for relief.

The ailment is the inherited rash of poverty. We buy it. We’re young and naive, desperate for a better life, for the type of dream this country supposedly trademarked.

To make things worse, the village becomes an extension of the sales pitch. They either believe in the product because it has worked for them or they get c, wishing better for their progeny.

Now we find ourselves in a situation where people with college degrees are not getting the jobs in which they worked toward. Instead, they are settling for warehouse, retail and food-service jobs. These are all fine professions in their own respect but, saddled with crippling debt, they have pushed us back into the same poverty we so desperately tried to escape.

Maybe, it’s time for us all to reflect on how we got here and show some empathy for this disrespected generation.

I would have gladly graduated, acquired a good-paying job, and paid off my loans slowly

We are not lazy. Millennials went to college in droves knowing the road would be hard and long. We have more degrees than any other generation in history.

I attended Kutztown University, studied English Language Arts and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2014. After four years working for Banko Beverage in Allentown I went back to school at Lehigh University to get a master’s degree in education and graduated in 2020.

If you think that a college degree is easy, then you don’t have one. Try forfeiting four years of your life where you work 10-12 hours a day, seven days a week, and have a part-time job on the side.

We are also far from entitled. We just wanted a job after those four years of hard work.