Thanks, Jay, for taking my question. I enjoyed the Sunday article that spurred the online chat today.

Although I have been employed full-time since early 2007, you were correct in that I have experience hearing the "overqualified" comment. Until this most recent recession, I thought that this was due to a unique mix of fine arts academic background and corporate HQ "day job" experience, rather than the traditional "waiting tables" as a second job. Many potential employers didn't cite the subject area of my master's as a hindrance--or my resumé's contents--but simply the fact that I had a master's degree deterred my app. Since fall 2008, neighbors laid off from their finance-sector jobs have encountered this rejection as a candidate for the first time. My sister-in-law--fresh out of her undergrad last January--also encountered this within her sector in a completely different urban area in the U.S., until she landed a job in July.

You summed it up neatly with the statement that lowered expectations are necessary.

It seems cost of living seems so high for the new generation, taxes up the roof, free time wasting apps, rebels downloading free movies and music, that pretty much the only thing needed is a roof over their heads.

Somehow young or old, we've forgotten the principle of money. And that is, how do we genuinely help others (in return we'll use this thing called cash to value ourselves), as opposed to how do we make money? Because the latter leads to the busts and bubbles that we've seen, and if we don't evolve in our awareness, this will just continue. Then if this happens, we can worry about the Resume Race Theory.