dangerousmeta!, the original new mexican miscellany, offering eclectic linkage since 1999.

Dazed (UK): Going to university is officially not worth it, says study.

“The research – published last week – claims that your university degree could be leaving you perpetually out of pocket unless you go to Oxbridge or become a doctor.”

OilPrice: Despite Low Oil Prices, Saudi Arabia Stabilizing Economy.

All I have to say is, New Mexico better unlink revenue from oil and gas, and move into renewables. Like, yesterday.

Buzzfeed: Robert Reich Says The Gig Economy Can Be A “Nightmare”.

Can be!

NY Post: Why millennials are forgoing college for blue-collar jobs.

“Mayancela’s pay package after his five-year apprenticeship as a unionized steamfitter in New York City will be $110 an hour.”

Autoweek: Want to look inside a Ford flathead? Here’s your chance.

Lots of work.

ArtDaily: Annie Leibovitz talks high-fliers and photo phobics at Hong Kong show.

Looks like my office. Almost. I’ve been comparing car prints. Easiest to do with a pushpin on the walls. Wife’s having a fit because I’ll have to patch holes. Little pushpin pricks? Toothpaste.

naked cap: Americans Increasingly Angry With Corporate Desertions via Tax Inversions.

More on offshoring.

Catapult: The Fierce Triumph of Loneliness.

“I moved through these scenes like a ghost yet felt astoundingly whole.” Well-expressed.

NY Times: Priced Out of a Childhood Home.

Not NY, but anyone who grew up in Princeton knows this. My childhood home sold for about $360k in 1996. Sells for over a cool million now. I’d love to be able tell Dad he lived in a mansion ...

Oxford American: Not Yet Lost. [Must-read!]

“We both knew what it felt like to mourn something we had not yet lost.” I call this the read-of-the-month. Wonderfully written, best thing I’ve seen online in ages.

ABQ Free Press: Insurance Rates Headed Up.

“The preliminary rates aren’t yet public and will most likely be adjusted by Franchini’s office, but a source told ABQ Free Press that two insurers are seeking average rate increases of 28 to 30 percent. Another is asking for increases of up to 80 percent, and two are asking for increases in the 3 to 12 percent range.” All the independent contractors of my acquaintance are going ballistic over this. Payment of the penalty and going without, seeking non-exchange out-of-state insurance are being discussed.

The Atlantic: Need Cash Fast? Ask Reddit.

Of note.

The Atlantic: Truck Stop - How One of America’s Steadiest Jobs Turned Into One of Its Most Gru

“This is the experience of many truckers. They are convinced to work as independent contractors by trucking carriers trying to rid themselves of the financial responsibilities of employers and shift the risk of owning and operating trucks to workers.” This is not just in trucking - nearly everyone I know who used to be full-time, are now forced into independent contracting.

The Atlantic: Ta-Nehisi Coates on Homecomings.

“It is true what they say about celebrity—people suddenly don’t quite see you. You walk into a room and you are not a person, so much as symbol of whatever someone needs you to be.” The downsides of being a ‘somebody’.

The Atlantic: The Average 29-Year-Old.

“The median income at 29 is about $35,000. Talk of a steady ‘career’ for most young people is more aspirational than descriptive. Jobs are still temporary for twentysomethings. The average American has had more than seven jobs before she turns 29, and a third of them lasted less than six months.” Jeebus, just read it.

NY Times: Drastic Cutbacks in Illinois.

Not just Kansas.

The Atlantic: Opting Out of Coastal Madness to Live a Low-Overhead Life.

“So it turns out you can get richer simply by moving to where people are poorer. That is horrifying. And some might find it insensitive to praise the virtues of living a middle-class life in a region beset by deindustrialization and poverty, where the low cost of living is enabled, in part, by the difficulty so many have in scratching out a living.”

The Atlantic: Trump’s Plan to Bring Jobs Back From China Misses the Point on U.S. Manufacturing.

“The truth is, even if China blinked out of existence tomorrow, there just wouldn’t be a need for much of the work America lost. While low-skilled labor dominated manufacturing in decades past, automation and computers have made factory floors both tremendously productive and relatively human-free. A revitalized American manufacturing sector would raise employment, but not to the levels seen in 1979—a heyday that economists say is unlikely to be repeated.”

The Atlantic: The Two Contradictory Ideas Many Americans Have About the Economy.

“Many Americans, then, are holding two contradictory ideas in their mind at once: the optimistic belief that their success is in their hands (on display since Tocqueville’s Democracy in America) and the acknowledgement that wages have been steadily stagnating (on decline since the band America).” Dumb reference, that last one.

Dissent: Is Labor a Commodity in Wisconsin?

“Surely if labor (or labor power) is a commodity, it is as Marx and many others have noted a peculiar one. It has sentience, feelings, ideas and the capacity for resistance. It’s not just another bar of soap.”

Pacific Standard: Why Are Americans Killing Themselves?

“Consider that some three-quarters of the eight million jobs lost during the Great Recessions were in manufacturing—the sort of trade that primarily employed white men. And those jobs aren’t coming back any time soon.” No upward mobility, debt bondage, isolation ... how hard can it be to understand?

Inverse: This Community in Sulawesi, Indonesia Keeps the Dead in Homes for Years.

If deceased persons and buffalo sacrifice bother you, don’t watch the video.

The Atlantic: How ‘Concept Creep’ Made Americans So Sensitive to Harm.

“Pathologizing normal experience.” Oh boy, this is the READ OF THE WEEK. Long, but mark out some time to take it all in.

BBC: Oil exporters set to discuss output freeze.

“The world’s leading oil exporters could be finally about to take action following the fall in prices.” Ruh-roh. Hope you didn’t buy any V8s.

NY Times: In Wyoming, Hard Times Return as Energy Prices Slump.

As I’ve warned, when there’s a boom there’s always a bust. The American West is littered with evidence of the previous cycles. Going into one, you’ve gotta chuck most of your earnings into savings. One can escape neither history nor inevitability.