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I think, if most people sit down a look at the larger picture instead of a short term 5-10-20 year snapshot, it becomes apparent that there are significant long term structural issues facing us as not only a country but as a global economy as technology rapidly replaces the need for human labor. And until that labor becomes cheaper than the technology the market, absent other pressures, is not going to bode well for much of the population.
So why all the whining on CD about people not being able to find jobs?
1) Because they don't want to work 20 hour weeks, rotating shifts at McDonalds for minimum wage and no benefits, the cost to drive to and from work every day would almost exceed the pay.
2) Because we need to generate at least 150,000 new jobs per month just to keep up with population growth alone. That means only 64,000 true new jobs were added since the rest would be needed to keep up with population growth
When an industrialized nation faces no competition for markets because it's competitors are in ruins --- as was the case in the United States and Canada after 1945 --- it grows fat and lazy. Its politicians use the strength of its currency to run deficits (as in the Sixties) which eventually result in inflation (as in the Seventies). We have yet to feel the full effect of this round of debasement of our currency.
It appeases its labor unions, rather than confronting them. Industrial staffing tends to create relatively soft positions for senior employees not interested in management, and "work rules" become more confining.
It tolerates oversimplification by special-interest groups such as the more strident environmentalists; concern over "parts per million" of possible contaminants s eventually expanded to "parts per billion", because the paychecks to bureaucrats have to be "justified".
But the lean, mean competition is still there, and when the fat has to be cut out; people who expected immediate advancement as "chiefs" have to learn how to be "braves".
The perpetual whiners face a hard choice, they can try to develop a skill that actually commands a good paycheck (no "intellectual finger-painters" need apply, they can find a blue-collar job with reasonable pay; (but it will likely either be physically demanding or not compatible with their imagined suburban idyll), or they can take what's left at the bottom of the heap.
The soft life of the 1950's is not coming back; our neighbors to the north realize this. Canada -- the democracy that works -- functions on a huge pool of immigrant labor. Most of them are clearly excluded from any advancement among professional paths, but their kids are not. That is how the dream of a better life has always functioned.
But any attempt to return to mercantilism -- to close our borders and limit the potential for success to those who were here first or are protected by Big Brother would set us on the path toward real war .. and as author Herman Wouk put it , "Either war is finished, or we are".
Don't believe what this administration announces, they always post cream of the crop numbers around election time. The person who posts these fluffed up numbers should be fired just like those people the IRS and AG should be all fired because there is abuse of power when they are ordered by the commander in chief to snuff out people that disagreed with his position.
That's funny. I know a dozen people who have gotten jobs this year and none of them are low-wage, no benefits positions. I have been offered two of those myself which I declined. And yet, that seems to be "the only thing available." Weird!
I consider myself to have hit a world record for the most application submissions to various area fast food establishments. I've been applying since mid 2010 or so. It's now 2014. Soon 2015. That's 4 years worth of repeated application submissions. The online application system lets you reapply every 90 days. That's what I've been doing and I still haven't heard from them. I can work all shifts and days but they STILL won't call me. They STILL aren't interested.
I put the blame on a horribly corrupt hiring process, and the fact that they get flooded with applications. This is why I haven't been successful.
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