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I'm a happily retired electrician; I retired 14 years ago when the hourly rate was $35 bux an hour!!
When there was no work; I didn't sit down and woe is me; I got off my butt and went to the state(s) that had work!!
Plumbers & Electricians are "Journeymen" they have to journey to find work in difficult times and I had to do this every ten years for 40 years time!!
A person can just walk into North Dakota and obtain a real good paying job - IF YOU HAVE skills in construction! 3k per week. But if you have no skills you can still get a job making 1/2 that money but you have to work hard six days a week 12 hours a day - with no excuses.
Need a job - can't find one - enter the military and let them educate you with a great skill that can be used when you get out! It's that simple!
People are missing the point. Plumbing and Electrician positions can only fill so many jobs and the Military comes at a cost to taxpayers.
This is why we are in this predicament. People aren't seeing the big picture.
A paycheck that comes from Tax Payers isn't going to pay for the Social Security and Medicare or Health Insurance now (that it is going to be mandated for all) for the "baby boomers".
I'm a happily retired electrician; I retired 14 years ago when the hourly rate was $35 bux an hour!!
This is about the average hourly wage of a lawyer or engineer today after inflation (deriving this from BLS data and a quick and dirty inflation estimate of about 30%, the actual inflation data is slightly higher so I'm understating my point). You don't see that sort of real wage today for tradesmen except for a few parts of the country (NYC mainly), and then only for people who work with a union which you get into for being someone's son or nephew, not for your skill-set.
The opportunities that existed for your generation no longer do. More people work, more people have degrees, and people who have jobs work longer hours, but, real hourly pay for people working a given number of hours at a given level of education has stagnated for high education workers (except for the very few in top management and finance) and went through the floor for lower education workers.
Young people aren't lazy or less motivated than you were; they simply live in a different world.
This is about the average hourly wage of a lawyer or engineer today after inflation (deriving this from BLS data and a quick and dirty inflation estimate of about 30%, the actual inflation data is slightly higher so I'm understating my point). You don't see that sort of real wage today for tradesmen except for a few parts of the country (NYC mainly), and then only for people who work with a union which you get into for being someone's son or nephew, not for your skill-set.
The opportunities that existed for your generation no longer do. More people work, more people have degrees, and people who have jobs work longer hours, but, real hourly pay for people working a given number of hours at a given level of education has stagnated for high education workers (except for the very few in top management and finance) and went through the floor for lower education workers.
Young people aren't lazy or less motivated than you were; they simply live in a different world.
It's the same damn world with the same damn problems; I didn't get into any union because I was someone's son or nephew ; I had to pass a very difficult test. 1000 people took this test for just 50 job openings.
I studied for this test for 4 years - I came in #33. That's the ONLY REASON I got into the IBEW!!
PREPARATION !! These same unions are still paying very high wages; depending on which state; Not all states are equal. One person said he didn't want to go into the military for an education to learn a skill - that would cost tax payers money; That has to be the lamest excuse I've ever heard in my life.
Nothing more ever need be said about these Jaywalking Allstars mentality.
I went to work full time the day after I graduated high school.. I plannned for this. Schools don't teach you squat about how to prepare for the REAL WORLD.
When I got laid off and there was no work; I created my own job that paid much more; all I did was pick up a camera and learn how to use it. I made much more with my camera than I ever did with my job!
ALL you need to do; is sit down and think and learn how - to use your imagination! One person...took the time.. to look down, and began picking up "rocks" - guess what?? He made millions of dollars selling pet rocks!
I cannot teach you how - to use your imagination!!
Just kidding...my medicare is Canadian- got lots...but as most boomers with a brain will figure out- don't end up in a free hospital when you are old- A young nurse that I had a conversation with said this while holding a syringe of morphine...."This is what we use to get rid of old people" - no joke...so us boomers had better hide in a hole near the end...no one gets out alive..
It's the same damn world with the same damn problems; I didn't get into any union because I was someone's son or nephew ; I had to pass a very difficult test. 1000 people took this test for just 50 job openings.
I studied for this test for 4 years - I came in #33. That's the ONLY REASON I got into the IBEW!!
PREPARATION !! These same unions are still paying very high wages; depending on which state;
I never said you personally got into your union based on nepotism; in fact I didn't even assume you necessarily were in one. That said, open examinations that anyone can qualify to take for positions are rarer than gold in this era. Maybe things are different in Alaska and I'm just not aware of it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SityData
When I got laid off and there was no work; I created my own job that paid much more; all I did was pick up a camera and learn how to use it. I made much more with my camera than I ever did with my job!
ALL you need to do; is sit down and think and learn how - to use your imagination! One person...took the time.. to look down, and began picking up "rocks" - guess what?? He made millions of dollars selling pet rocks!
I cannot teach you how - to use your imagination!!
I know people in photography and video fields. They all hustle to make money and except for the people who get wedding gigs they do not make nearly $35 an hour; and $35 an hour on contracts you have to hustle for is far worse than $35 at a job with benefits. Again, keep in mind $35 an hour 14 years ago is worth over $45 in today's money. Of course, now a large part of the time spent on any given contract isn't the shooting -- it is the after-shooting editing, which has become a lower skill (and thus lower paid) job thanks to software but is still time consuming. Again, different world; what you had no longer exists for the younger generation.
The perspectives between Baby Boomers and Millenials is striking in their respective contrasts.
As a baby boomer I couldn't wait to get out of the house to get my own place to live, my own car and live my own life, even if it meant I had to "rough it" for a few years.
I can't speak for other people in my generation but if I wanted a car, a college education, a place to live or my own material possessions "Mommy and Daddy" was the last place I looked.
That stands in contrast with many Millienials that I see that won't or don't want to leave the creature comforts of home and expect "Mommy and Daddy" to pay for their cars, college education, and damn near anything else they want. I spend a lot of time on a large Midwestern university campus and the number or spoiled, over-privileged, arrogant, whiny brats masquerading as "Young Adults" never ceases to amaze me.
My youngest son lives with mommy, and has a kid, my grandaughter, I have to put my foot up his azz to get him do anything. Hope he learns to support himself and his daughter soon.
I'm a happily retired electrician; I retired 14 years ago when the hourly rate was $35 bux an hour!!
When there was no work; I didn't sit down and woe is me; I got off my butt and went to the state(s) that had work!!
Plumbers & Electricians are "Journeymen" they have to journey to find work in difficult times and I had to do this every ten years for 40 years time!!
A person can just walk into North Dakota and obtain a real good paying job - IF YOU HAVE skills in construction! 3k per week. But if you have no skills you can still get a job making 1/2 that money but you have to work hard six days a week 12 hours a day - with no excuses.
Need a job - can't find one - enter the military and let them educate you with a great skill that can be used when you get out! It's that simple!
Bottom line: YOU have plenty of choices - you just want someone to hand it to you!! That's not work - that's welfare!
People in high unemployment areas are reluctant to move to areas which have higher employment opportunities. Most have the "woe is me" attitude, and would rather lament their bad fortune rather than look for gainful employment.
Another poster was spot on with his assessment that success sometimes results from using one's imagination and exploring outside one's comfort zone. Sometimes one has to take a new career direction and admit that prior career choices were a mistake.
So your using the war as your basis? I feel that its a valid argument. One of the first valid arguments I've heard all day.
We have not had a draft to deal with. However, economically, we have it worse than some of the past generations.
No, I'm not using Viet Nam as a basis. It's just obvious.
Survival is about being fit and being prepared. There's people all over this country who are succeeding. And not just those on Wall St, K St. and in Congress. Apparently, someone has adapted and moved on.
So in a sense, yeah, Baby Boomers had it easier because they had an opportunity to learn to adapt. Apparently all the Millenials got was an opportunity to hope.
No, I'm not using Viet Nam as a basis. It's just obvious.
Survival is about being fit and being prepared. There's people all over this country who are succeeding. And not just those on Wall St, K St. and in Congress. Apparently, someone has adapted and moved on.
So in a sense, yeah, Baby Boomers had it easier because they had an opportunity to learn to adapt. Apparently all the Millenials got was an opportunity to hope.
I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere.
I'm not arguing for my own survival. I'm arguing for the survival of the population as a whole. We can't just keep pushing the unemployment rate.
But a college degree confers SOCIAL STATUS and for this generation that is important maybe MORE important that actually having a damn skill.
BINGO!
That is why most of these idiotic course major's came into being; to lure those who probably shouldn't be taking up desk space in colleges and universities to continue on with an education they probably wouldn't have the ability to use anyway, given their potential.
The gradual dumbing down of education has resulted in those without the necessary dedication and ambition being able to "attend" purely to keep the cash flow coming into the coffers. Graduation comes to most like a deer caught in the headlights - totally unprepared for real life.
Nobodies fault but their own. The world has been sending out all the information they've needed to format a future for themselves but they remained cocooned in the womb's of their mommie's basement and those halls of learning.
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