Signs that the economy is bad, October 21, 2011 edition.

Here are the signs that the economy is bad for this week. We are mostly looking at college issues, but I will note a few items that came out specifically out of Texas.

• The Marines may be looking for a few good men, but they are not willing to pay for their education. According to this story out The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Marine Corps is seriously slashing the education assistance benefit for Marines.To make matters worse, the Marines are not the only ones doing this. According to the article, other branches are moving in that direction. 
• And the indentured servitude continues for college graduates. The outstanding balance on student loans has reached the one trillion dollars mark. Not that society as a whole gives a hoot since they keep electing people hell bent on slashing funding for education overall. Because at the end of the day, people love to give lip service to the importance of a college degree. They just refuse to help pay for it nor invest in the future by educating our young people. Via USA Today. 
• People now post signs in front of their homes telling would be thieves there is no loot in their homes. That is just what this man in Austin, TX did after having been robbed twice.  At the rate things are going, a few of us may take this idea and apply it. I may as well tell would be thieves not to bother since I don't have much of value in the house as it is now. Not like I can afford it. Via KYTX CBS 19.
• Another one via CBS 19: Texas has decided not to feed lunch to prison inmates on weekends.  According to the short pieces, they are doing it to save some money, and the prisoners will still get their nutrition and needed caloric intake. I am not sure if I should really see this as a sign the economy is bad, or just Texas being cruel to prison inmates yet again. 
• And finally for this week, this one hits close to home. Houston Baptist University's campus paper, The Collegian, reports their library is "likely to lose 80 percent of database funds."  This is not just HBU. This pretty much affects any library in Texas that gets database funding via TexShare, and this includes us here. We are already talking about some massive cuts to resources. I will not comment further in relation to my workplace in the interest of self-preservation, but this story does hit close to home. By the way, this story apparently did not make our student newspaper's radar.