The American Dream is dead and you can thank the unsuspected villain -- student loans. How do you look a new graduate in the eye and say here take this low wage $15 per hour job to pay off $80,000, $90,000 or worse $100,000+ in student loans. Basically, student loans have turned professionals (recently graduates) into indentured servants. So who's to blame? You know who...the other guy. It's always the other guy. The GOP blames the Dems for financing students that don't stand a chance. Meanwhile, the Dems blame the GOP for holding jobs over the heads of students with six figure student loans. So who's telling the truth...well the truth of the matter is that there's a little truth to both positions. At the same time, how is it that bright intelligent new graduates are walking around with "will work for food" signs while Big Corp execs get golden parachutes for running the housing market in the ground? Gee let's ask Bank of America (purchaser of CountryWide Mortgage), maybe they know something. Book em' Danno!

Maybe it's due to 2012 being an election year or maybe it's simply due to rising demand for products and services. Whichever is the case, it looks like the private sector is getting the message about jobs. That is especially true when we are talking about some 325,000 new jobs for the month of December 2011. That's an impressive number. For those of you wondering why... well the economy needs to add at least 150,000 new jobs just to keep up with the in surge of new graduates into the economy.

When you consider the enormous student loan debt that the average student is carrying these days (more than $35,000), it just makes sense to make sure new graduates have available jobs. On top of that, there are some 14 million or so unemployed across the country that still need jobs. You do the math, at a rate of 325,000 new jobs a month, it would take over 5 years to absorb those currently unemployed. Of course, that's assuming that at the same time we do not add any more unemployed to the mix.

It's hard to see how a pace of 325,000 new jobs (or better) can be maintained. Small business which account for more than 50% of the hiring have access to less than 50% of available bank capital to expand and grow business demand. Sounds like a classic catch 22. At least for now a few hundred thousand new hires can rejoice in the fact that it seems like the private sector is getting the message about jobs. That sure is a great way to start off the New Year. Let's see if that momentum continues.

The economy is weak, policy is in flux and unemployment is high, what should you do? Go back to school, maybe, or skip the college degree and go for the OJT (on the job training)? Depending on who you're talking to the answers may support each of the questions asked - mutually exclusive of course. So which one is which? The right answer depends on the situation. For a spotty career track or just recently getting started on a career journey, it may be a good idea to head back to the blackboard and get some schooling in while you can. This of course is especially true if you're currently out of work. What do you have to lose?

For some, the OJT route is a better option. Why? well for starters the cost of going back to school for a degree. Last i heard, it wasn't free, despite all the ads almost suggesting that the Feds are giving away money to go back to school. Make no mistake about it, considering the student loan aspect is a wise decision. This of course, is why OJT is in a lot of times more valuable - both in terms of money and time. You get real world experience doing it -- versus the classroom which is often well behind what the workplace is actually doing. On the flip side, it almost like a conundrum, you need to gain the experience "on the job" but you need to have the experience to "get the job." Yep - that's a classic catch 22, that apparently is even worse these days as employers get more and more leery of hiring the long time unemployed. Now to throw one more monkey wrench in the equation, even if you started work on a college degree today, would the economy be better 4 years from now? Who knows. It's a gamble - not quite like Vegas but a gamble none the less. Bottom line is that you're going to have to sit down and weigh the pros and cons (for your situation) as far as skipping a college degree and going for training on the job. That's perhaps the best way to see what's what rather than a knee jerk reaction to unemployment or paying for school.

We have been hearing for a while now about the job crisis in the USA. Now we're hearing more and more about the relationship of jobs and education or more specifically the lack of jobs in relation to education levels. Is there a relationship or just politics as usual? Incidentally just the other day a University of Phoenix rep stated "right now there are 3.3 million unfilled job openings across the US." The pitch was made as part of the current push from the White House to fund education and schools. The specifics of the 3 million plus jobs was not stated, so there isn't a way to "fact check" the statement - not directly anyway.

So what type of jobs are we talking about and what type of education is required? Who knows? So what should we do? Go on a massive spending binge to upgrade the public school system, coast to coast and offer student loans to everyone? If that is the suggestion, it's probably why some Tea Party zealots want to abolish the Department of Education. While being #14 worldwide, in terms of education, is nothing for the USA to brag about, going on a trillion dollar education spending spree isn't the right idea either. Sure some spending is necessary on education, but that should be done for people who want to learn and have the capacity to do so. Let's face it, some people are just born losers and more spending isn't going to fix that. On the other hand, for those that have potential and can't reach that potential due to the inability to go to college or poor public school conditions than maybe coming up with a "measure and allocate" plan is the way to go. The bottom line is that, if the lack of jobs is following depressed education levels than let's reinvest in sensible ways but spending a bunch of money on those who don't want to succeed is akin to buying snake oil. Zero value.