Signs that the economy is bad, September 19, 2011 edition

Welcome to another edition of "Signs that the economy is bad" here at The Itinerant Librarian. I ran a bit late this week, but better late than never. Overall, as of late, I am seeing that it is not a good time to be a college student (last time we had some posts related to college students as well). To be honest, I do find a bit hard to advise young people to go to college with a straight face given the cost and the very high possibility they could end up unemployed anyhow. At any rate, here are this week's signs:

• Libraries turn to advertising to make up for tax payer funding. Via Snellville Patch. 
• Via The Washington Post,  the bad news continues for the college crowd. It turns out that college graduates are the fastest growing group in bankruptcy filings. That would not have anything to do with society's overall commitment to keep cutting down college funding, would it? Or the fact that college students are pretty much forced to get more oppressive loans if they want an education? 
• As the middle class continues to vanish (and we could do a whole big commentary on that), advertising and marketing folks find they have to adjust in order to entice the increasing numbers of poor people with less income. That, or try to catch the dollars of the few remaining rich. Via The Wall Street Journal.  
• Even religious bigots are having a hard time keeping workers. Focus on the Family is laying off more workers. Donations seem to be down. Maybe people are finally figuring out their behavior and actions spouting hate, bigotry, and ignorance are not acceptable in civilized society.  Via The Advocate.