Yesterday as the show came to a close I already knew what sort of a rant I was going to go on today.  This story, The Ph.D. Now Comes With Food Stamps came to my attention.  After a quick read I didn’t know whether to cry or scream.

You’ve heard me say it many times.  The words aren’t mine, they came from a wonderful writer by the name of Og Mandino.  It was one of his three basic rules for a fulfilled life:  “Use wisely your power of choice.”  The other rules, as best as I can remember, were “Proclaim your rarity,” and “Go the extra mile.”  It’s the importance of good decision making I’ve focused on for decades.

Now let’s look at the heroine of the story about people with graduate degrees on food stamps.  Her name is Melissa Bruninga-Matteau.  Yeah … hyphenated.   She teaches part-time an Arizona college and is buying her food with stolen money – she’s on food stamps. 

Oh!  You want to take me to task on the “stolen money” bit?  The money this lady is using to buy food came either from you, through taxes you have paid, or your children, from taxes they will pay to cover the debt incurred by our federal government.  That money was taken from you by force.  It was seized.  Stolen.   Someone with a “SNAP” care in their wallet or purse is a recipient of stolen goods.  Harsh?  Yeah … but that’s the reality, and I’m not the guy to sugarcoat it.

Back to Melissa.  Not only is she on food stamps, she’s on Medicaid as well. And guess what?  She has a graduate degree from the University of California!  A Doctorate!  She is DR. Melissa Something-Something.  How much college does that take?  Seven years?  Add that to her pre-college days and you have 19 years of education and she’s on food stamps?  On welfare? 

Well maybe this is where that “use wisely your power of choice” thing comes into play.  So she has a Ph.D.  In what?  Medieval history, that’s what.  Nineteen years of education, and this lady can tell you whatever you want to know about medieval history.  Call a headhunter – call some career placement specialist – look at the want ads --- tell me when you see the job postings for someone well versed in medieval history. 

The medieval history doctorate isn’t Melissa’s only problem.  She’s also fat.  Sorry, but that’s a choice also.  When it’s a buyer’s job market out there employers are going to try to avoid their own bad choices … and more often than not choosing to hire a corpulent job applicant over one with a more normal body size can lead to additional medical expenses and lost job productivity.  But we’re not through with Melissa.  Tattoos.  Not the tattoos you can’t see, like a tramp stamp, but tattoos on her forearms .. .at least the forearm you can see in the picture.  I’m guessing an ankle tat as well.  Like it or not, tattoos are not generally positive signs for prospective employers.  Well --- if you’re applying for a welding job, maybe --- but not someone with a doctorate looking for a professional position. 

How long does it take to get through nursing school?  Three years?   Out of high school, three years in nursing school, and you’re off to a pretty damned good and well-respected career.  Three years of nursing school vs. seven years to become a Doctor of Medieval History? 

Then there’s community colleges.  Do you know that almost all graduates of community colleges and technical colleges have jobs waiting for them when they get their two years under their belts?  And … they make almost the same to start as graduates of four-year colleges.

Choices, folks.  Make those choices carefully.  Degrees in medieval history, English, gender studies, film studies and other such fru-fru pursuits aren’t going to cut it in today’s economy.  Neither will downloading babies you cannot afford to raise.

Here are some excerpts from the story … don’t you feel sorry for these people?  Yeah … right. 

• Michael Bérubé, president of the Modern Language Association, says that he and his wife, Janet, qualified for WIC while they were in graduate school in the late 1980s.
• "It was great. It paid for Nick's baby formula and food, and was just the kind of social-welfare program liberals should defend," he says. "It was a temporary leg up until we were paid living wages. Janet's mother also gave us her Social Security checks, so here's another cheer for the idea of social welfare."
  Why did these people have a baby that they clearly couldn’t afford?

• "A big part of what we do in graduate education is foster this sense of vocation and teaching for love and passion for what you do," says Mr. Bousquet, who is also a contributor to The Chronicle's Brainstorm blog. "We socialize people into accepting the coin of reputation as status capital. Some people are so deeply socialized into the regime of payment by way of status that they are essentially trapped in it for life."
  Said like a true leftist who doesn’t value wages or understand the concept of supply and demand

• Thirty-nine percent of all welfare recipients are white, 37 percent are black, 17 percent are Hispanic, and 3 percent are Asian, according to data from Aid to Families With Dependent Children. The majority of the dozens of graduate-degree holders on aid who responded to The Chronicle questionnaire are also white.
  Two things to point out: While blacks aren’t the majority of welfare recipients, they also only represent 12.9% of the population.  Also notice that few Asians are on welfare – a culture of education and self-respect.

• Kisha Hawkins-Sledge, who is 35 and a black single mother of 3-year-old twin boys, earned her master's degree in English last August. She began teaching part-time at Prairie State College, Moraine Valley Community College, and Richard J. Daley College of the City Colleges of Chicago while in graduate school, and says she made enough money to live on until she had children. She lives in Lansing, Ill.  "My household went from one to three. My income was not enough, and so I had to apply for assistance," she says. She now receives food stamps, WIC, Medicaid, and child-care assistance.
  Again, why is this woman having children that she cannot afford!  We should not feel sorry for these people because their “hardships” are completely by choice.