The Econo-Me session featured three MSU teachers and one high school senior from Farmington Hills. They gave brief introductions and then let students start asking questions. From it I learned that certain fields actually have plenty of available jobs in Michigan. There are just no educated workers. From the 1940s to the 1970s, people with little skill could get jobs were they would make an upper-middle class income. Now that those jobs are gone these workers with little education have nowhere else to go. The problems with the auto industry were targeted as the start of the economic downfall. Taxes are often blamed but they are actually lower than the national average. One professor said that being open to different opportunities and relocation is important in finding a job.
American Teen follows around four high school students – a princess, jock, artsy girl, and loner. While the film claimed to be a documentary, some of the scenes seemed horribly scripted and posed. There were some cool scenes where one of the teens would be narrating and a cartoon of what they were talking about would be playing. Also, one of the scenes seemed an awful lot like a scene in Garden State. In both, the main character is sitting down watching what is going on around them while everyone else moves at a sped up pace. The music playing in the background was also similar. However, American Teen was better than I expected and I would recommend seeing it… On DVD.
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