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Having a "job" is the way I describe a lot of activities in our culture. For instance, going to school is ONE kind of job. Getting married is a second job and a third job is having kids.........bear with me here. Looking for a job is another kind of "job" as is actually working AT a job. Going to school, even if not necessarily in a degree program is another kind of "job". The reason I share this examination-of-the-obvious is that I think we often lose sight of this fact, and therefore overlook how thinly stretched a person who wants more out of life than just beer and TV can become. From this POV Life quickly becomes a matter of taking from one activity to put into another activity.
The answer I have found is to optimize each activity and learn how to draw a line in one's life. Contrary to what American Marketing tells us, .....no, we CAN'T have it all. What makes this even harder is when someone turns up the pressure in one or more of those areas. For instance, the Work World LOVES it when Unemployment is OVER 7 or 8 %. The reason is that people tend to stay put for fear of not finding another job, they tend to accept more work and longer hours and for less money. OTOH the employees pray nightly for Unemployment to go under 6% because the Market opens up, there are more opportunities, people move around more so there are chances for more up-ward mobility...and...there is a good chance that wages improve. Another place where the temp goes up is in our relationships when an SO wants to tie the knot, wants to have children, wants to buy a house etc etc. Yet another place where the temp goes up is when someone wants more out of their life and the only way to get it is to go back to school or take classes.
My own thought is that people need to stop looking at things simplistic-ly. Our lives are VERY organic and take planning and a longer view. Talking in terms of just "finding a job", in my view, is a very pedestrian approach to a pretty complex subject. I don't think we do ourselves any good service by taking a complex subject and reducing it to some artficially skeletal structure. IMHO.
It's not bad if a) you come from a wealthy or connected family b) train/ed in a high skill and demand field (has to be both and not 1!) c) you've already been in the job market for ages, have crunched asses with the rest, and now can scratch backs d) you're innovative enough (i.e. not average) so whatever is going on doesn't matter anyway or e) have something tangible and are willingly to move anywhere in your country or
And it's in that order.
Outside of the above it's probably still okay for 1) majority of top graduates (interpret that how you will) 2) jobs that have high demand regarldess of skill + a shortage of workers and 3) really good looking social butterflies * taking about the extreme*
after that it's starts falling into neutral, bad, and awful....
they say we humans are creatures of habit, even if the job market, economy has gotten a little bit better, i think all of those frustrating years of job hunting have made some people lose the motivation to look for a job, they are tired of getting turned down too many times, before the recession started, it was almost like as if anyone who walked on 2 legs, had 2 arms, had a pulse and could see, hear, could get a job
Be positive, there are more CEOs than machinists in America. Roughly 500,000 CEOs and 470,000 (+/-) of machinists. Some groups of employers are beatching for 30+ years about "shortages" of the qualified workers and lazy workers who don't want to work, but apparently all that free market BS is just one way brainwashing street for the lower classes. Supply - Demand? Really?
You can't find "qualified" people willing to cut their life span by 10-15 years in order to drive a truck? Free market solution - raise wages & benefits. Real Life Solution - invest tens of millions into marketing, lobbying of governments for "training" hand outs, outright business propaganda and BS aiming at gullible, desperate and uninformed, cut wages even more, boost CEO pay packages and keep, keep beatching. You can't find enough of CNC machinists for $12-19/hr? You demand CC diploma and certifications for something that could be learned on a job in a matter of a few days to get started? You don't want to risk a single penny on training and you are biatching about $30/hr machinists who would rather leave the area than work for you? You claim that it's a duty of government to invest more $ in community colleges and career training for something 100% trivial that could be learned on a job? Isn't that welfare mentality your prepaid talk radio heads lament about?
Owning class (unlike lower classes) know well what wage slavery is about. They know that they hold a ticket for your survival, they know that sooner or later you'll put the tail between your legs and crawl to them begging for anything they are willing to give you. All they need is little bit of "coordination" of efforts and they would wear you down in any wage of their choice, 150% guarantee. And unlike lower classes, upper classes of all states do unite and act out of common class interests. It's just too bad that as of 2012 common upper class interest - return to 19th century, and as persistent they are, we'll be there.
everyone on here should read this again,
and I like the last part, the businesses have their own unions, they are called chambers of commerce, manufacturing associations, etc. they do get together and discuss what each are paying welders, cnc machinists, etc.
but so many poor and working classes do their bidding for them, being anti-union, it's ironic, we have mufti-millionare sports stars that can be in a union,
$60,000 in student loans? My God that is mind boggling!
Hah! I have significantly more than that; however, I also make over six figures and my career path lends me to make quite a bit more than what I do now. Put it this way my last raise was 29k with a 25% bonus. My income has quadrupled since 2008.
My education has been well worth the expense and experience.
"Not sure your point. Average debt at a top 100 schools is under 20k."...
don't understand how this could be because the current tuition / fees at our cheapest state school here is $11,000 (approx.) here this year. x 4 years = $44,000 that is for a state school and does NOT include living on campus/apt.
We have had going on almost 5 years of this "terrible economy where no one can find a job" now and I think part of the problem might be the people. (These are just observations) I am in one of the not so well off areas so to speak, NE Ohio, and have known several people over the past 5 years who have been unemployed at various stages. Everyone of them has found a job, and there are hiring signs in a lot of windows. Granted not everyone is in their dream job, but there are jobs. I can appreciate holding out for the salary you want, but the "there are no jobs at all" crowd might be stretching it a little bit.
Yes, the economy is that bad and it's going to get MUCH worse.
You're right that it's incorrect that there are, literally, zero jobs but there is a surplus of unemployed and underemployed candidates.
"Not sure your point. Average debt at a top 100 schools is under 20k."...
don't understand how this could be because the current tuition / fees at our cheapest state school here is $11,000 (approx.) here this year. x 4 years = $44,000 that is for a state school and does NOT include living on campus/apt.
Top students rarely pay sticker price. They often have parents that make good money also.
Yeah - I should have gone to a good school instead of some barely-above community college institution like Johns Hopkins. And I shouldn't have slacked off and only finished with a 3.5 GPA. Then maybe my student loan debt would not have been so high...
My student loans are also above $25k. Granted, probably about half of my student loan debt was from living expenses, but still things you need to account for. I even worked as a student bus driver and we made better than min-wage.
My stats:
HS GPA: 3.9/4.0 (3rd in class)
Started at 3rd tier university in Detroit in the Honors program because of good financial support for first 2 years. After that washed up, I transferred to a higher tier university.
Graduated from the University of Michigan in 2008 (took 5 years to graduate because I transferred).
I did not receive that much aid once I transferred to Michigan for several reasons. There wasn't that much funding to go around and I was of course competing for such scholarships with some of the best of the best from around the world as I'm sure you were at John Hopkins.
I'm not complaining about the debt, as I do have a handle on it (for now). But I agree with the other sentiments that college expenses are extremely pricey these days and funding for grants and scholarships are not as widely available anymore...even for quality students.
My friend, however, did tell me that she received more aid by going to UChicago than she would have by going to UMich. Maybe something to think about: better chances of receiving aid at private schools than at public schools.
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