CA = Not a state for the working poor

[Social Democrat]

Sigh....take responsibility for yourself and prepare for life. So many people are here in CA and whine, whine, whine, when they don't get what they think is due them. The influx of immigrants, legal & illegal, just continues even though there are nowhere near enough jobs. Additionally, many have no skills or education and are just completely unprepared for life here. Their status matters not, the state simply cannot generate enough employment for them.
What can separate you from the pack is getting prepared, either through education or researching skilled labor jobs with advancement opportunities. There is the retail path that can be rewarding with minimal education.
I stress education as that is simply you best chance to move up the ladder but in any case prepare yourself the best you can and realize your individual effort is what counts.

[RudyOD]

California's saving grace is (was?) its community college system. The majority of the working poor, and even lower to mid middle class, qualify for Board of Governors Fee Waiver, meaning that classes are essentially tuition free. Even if you have to pay tuition, it isn't as ludicrous as other states (for community college.) Our Cal State system is also a great bang for the buck, and one of the best investments anyone can make AS LONG as they choose a major that actually leads to jobs (engineering, nursing, biotech, accounting, etc)...though in California the arts also proof profitable as long as you are also a tech savvy person. I totally promote the idea that people should get an education for the sake of education, but in a time when the 1% keep grabbing up all the profits, the middle class is disappearing and number of those in poverty under the age of 18 is increasing - I think there are other priorities, and the working poor -and sons and daughters of the working poor- don't have time to waste money on educations that won't lead them to a decent job/career upon graduation.

The problem then becomes when these folks do get to the middle class, they come to find that being in the middle class is not all that it is knocked up to be in a country that has put it upon itself to create policies that financially disable it.

California's greatest (current) failure is its k-12 system, that fails to make that connection between high school graduates (IF they graduate that is) and streamlining them to our colleges/universities. There are way TOO MANY of our youth in California that waste the first year (or two) of college taking remedial math and writing courses. These are skills that should have been learned in high school, not ones that should fall upon the shoulders of California community colleges which are already under a great amount of strain.

[Rkstar71]

Originally Posted by Social Democrat

Sigh....take responsibility for yourself and prepare for life. So many people are here in CA and whine, whine, whine, when they don't get what they think is due them. The influx of immigrants, legal & illegal continues even though there are nowhere near enough jobs. Additionally, many have no skills or education and are just completely unprepared for life here. Their status matters not, the state simply cannot generate enough employment for them.
What can separate you from the pack is getting prepared, either through education or researching skilled labor jobs with advancement opportunities. There is the retail path that can be rewarding with minimal education.
I stress education as that is simply you best chance to move up the ladder but in any case prepare yourself the best you can and realize your individual effort is what counts.

You're absolutely right. I'll have to go back to some college and learn something that pays well and that the rats can't do. Goodbye construction career/business. The rats are doing it here in CA. Time to get some training to do something that'll pay a lot better. Maybe even work into entrepreneurialship.