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The truth is simple. There is an open job and someone will be chosen for that open job. You just have to make yourself competitive enough to be one of those potential people. People here on C-D get jobs everyday...by doing that.
In general, I agree with your posts, but there's an element of 'Let them eat cake' that comes out occasionally and that's where we part ways.
We aren't all on a level playing field in this country. Not everyone has access to the same education you and I had. Or the same amount of information. Not everyone can finish high school, let alone think of going to college. And honestly, not everyone should go to college. We've gotten away from the trade schools we once had, which is a shame.
Those people are valuable citizens contributing to society. If they live in a part of the country where $27K allows them to live the lives they've wanted, then I'm happy for them and they truly are personally successful. Nobody has the right to look down on them as being less valuable than someone who went on to get a PhD.
If they're struggling, and many of them are, that's another issue that deals with economics and the blame doesn't lie with them but with the clowns we have running our government. How can we bemoan the fact that the middle class has disappeared without thinking it impacts those below it?
That isn't to say that everyone falls into the above categories. There are people who do have the good fortune of living in or near major cities, where schools are great, where parents do not need them to work in order to keep the family fed, but choose to do little with themselves so they are employable. We see people all the time who are their own worst enemies by not being self-motivated. There are different situations for each of us.
Speaking of that, some of the hardest working people, a group that routinely put in 12 hours a day, six days a week, without college educations and lives that were not lavish, were farmers. I hope nobody here would call them idiotic slaves for working so hard - since they did so to feed us all.
The answer is somewhere in the middle of "there are no jobs and everyone is flipping burgers and going into the poorhouse" and "things are great and there are plenty of jobs for anyone who wants them."
I don't care if there are enough jobs for everyone. I'm (as we all are) just one person. All I need to know is that there is at least one job open in the fields for which I'm qualified.
I don't understand why people talk about there not being enough jobs. There has never been full employment and there will NEVER be full employment. Our system does not aim for that. Since the 1940s, the US government considered full employment to be 4% unemployment.
Stop blaming the economy. There has NEVER been a time in America when jobs were being given away like free penny candy.
We can't control everything around us. We can control our ability to target the jobs that pay the salary we want. We can control doing the things that help us acquire the skills, experience, and education that would make us qualified for those jobs.
These poor, poor people. Is there a charity or some way to help them? I'm happy to have my business manager write them a check on Monday, assuming they are legitimate and I can get a receipt. Gotta keep my tax bill low you know.
I don't care if there are enough jobs for everyone. I'm (as we all are) just one person. All I need to know is that there is at least one job open in the fields for which I'm qualified.
I don't understand why people talk about there not being enough jobs. There has never been full employment and there will NEVER be full employment. Our system does not aim for that. Since the 1940s, the US government considered full employment to be 4% unemployment.
Stop blaming the economy. There has NEVER been a time in America when jobs were being given away like free penny candy.
We can't control everything around us. We can control our ability to target the jobs that pay the salary we want. We can control doing the things that help us acquire the skills, experience, and education that would make us qualified for those jobs.
What else can we do?
And just a little more of that "let them eat cake" attitude/lack of empathy. There are boatloads of well-qualified, hard-working people out there who are struggling mightily, but apparently this fact of early-21st American life has eluded you...once again.
These poor, poor people. Is there a charity or some way to help them? I'm happy to have my business manager write them a check on Monday, assuming they are legitimate and I can get a receipt. Gotta keep my tax bill low you know.
Well you're not going to write THEM a check, but you're going to write a check to a charity (you know, one where the executives of said charity keep 75 cents of every dollar donated for themselves) that's supposedly dedicated to helping these poor, poor people...
Once I'm done with school, my potential salary is at least 3x that.
Consider changing programs if you have time. 3X is only $75k and you will struggle in most major cities and that's IF you get the prime position right out of school.
Quote:
Originally Posted by s1alker
I make $16,000 a year. I'd be rich on 27k. Truth is most people cannot be doctors, engineers, etc.
Why? I'm not trying to be provocative, I'm just curious why you believe that. I believe anyone can be anything if they really want it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by charlygal
Truth is half the country doesn't have the right skills, ambition, knowledge to plan their careers.
This is exactly the problem. It may be even more than half. Their ambition, communication skills and common sense are so lacking and they are so ignorant that they arent even embarrassed by it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MaseMan
Oh great, another boot strapper who thinks everyone can be either an entrepreneurial dynamo or get a STEM degree (which doesn't guarantee a job these days anyway).
The truth hurts. EVERYONE can improve their circumstances. Sure we might not all have the chance to go to Harvard. But we all had the chance to finish High School. We all have the chance to develop a positive outlook on life and want to be better off. We all have the ability to be well read and informed. We all have the ability to be compassionate and show empathy to others. those universal human skills are available to everyone and while mastering those may not make you a doctor, they will greatly improve your life, your job prospects and your overall happiness.
If you have a STEM degree and you can't get a good job, then something else is wrong with you. Its really that simple.
If you live in a typical town like Knoxville TN, if two people live together and both make that money you can live a nice comfortable middle class lifestyle on $27K. Just don't buy a new car or spend a lot money on things like Tattoos and fancy things.
I'm guessing no one else looked at the link because there are 15 more things listed on why the middle class is dying
1. 59 percent of Americans believe that it has become impossible for most people to achieve the American Dream (CNN Poll)
2. More Americans than ever believe that homeownership is not a key to long-term wealth and prosperity...
3. Overall, the rate of homeownership in the United States has fallen for eight years in a row, and it has now dropped to the lowest level in 19 years.
4. 52% of Americans cannot even afford the house that they are living in right now...
5. 36% of Americans under the age of 35 own a home (lowest level that has ever been measured).
6. 1 in 6 men that are in their prime working years (25 to 54) don't have a job
7. The labor force participation rate for Americans from the age of 25 to the age of 29 has fallen to an all-time record low.
8. The number of working age Americans that are not employed has increased by 27 million since 2000
9. 20% of the families in the entire country do not have a single member that is employed at this point.
10. 25 percent of all American adults do not even have a single penny saved up for retirement.
11. As I noted in one recent article, total consumer credit in the United States has increased by 22 percent over the past three years, and 56 percent of all Americans have "subprime credit" at this point.
12. Major retailers are shutting down stores at the fastest pace that we have seen since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
13. More than one out of every five children in the United States is living in poverty in 2014.
14. 49 million Americans that are dealing with food insecurity
15. The U.S. poverty rate is up more than 30 percent since 1966.
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