College grad. Unemployed. I feel your pain.
Yeah, hopefully I can remedy the situation without completely compromising all the self/personal enrichment my free time has awarded me. I'm quite certain my human potential isn't going to be realized via working for 30+ yrs so I'm only reluctantly looking for a new job.
WHICH...is another issue I have with the current education system. Personally, I have never and will never define myself by my job/profession. I have friends who do this. They are, first and foremost, "Company X Employee." They are, secondly, "John Q. Taxpayer/Mortgage Payer." Finally and thirdly, they are some pale image of an individual human being with individual thoughts, ideas, or any actual time to reflect on anything happening around them.
I understand financial/career success is an admirable and functional goal. But it's scary to watch how everyone still buys into a system that has no desire to see us reach our actual human potential, but rather a desire to see us pay taxes, buy a house, have a kid, get a new car every few years, and juggle $10-12k in credit card debt. My concern is that the educational system has done nothing to dissuade students from this. Very few professors, most of whom are situated in specific disciplines actually encourage education to serve a purpose beyond adding another zero to your paycheck.
Edit: In fact, Kenneth, I think this might be right in line with your thoughts on how education was viewed 200 yrs ago. The whole "self-pursued endeavor" is absolutely something I agree with, and something absolutely lost on this generation.