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Personally, and I am not even a millennial, I am starting to think it needs to die on the vine. The entire system is broken.
It used to be that you could make a ok living wage at a blue collar job. But you can't anymore. Of course that isn't anyone's fault with other countries in the world perfectly willing to take advantage of their people to gain cheap labor, how can you compete and pay a good wage in here?
At the same time it seems 99% of people have degrees that put them into debt but gave them no skills and now it is is basically a situation where HR is just trying to bat people off from applying for jobs..
There is a reason so many millennials are in the Universal Basic Income camp. Maybe it is the solution. I feel Biden and the other dems know exactly what they are doing and will pivot to this suggestion. Who knows.. maybe that is the best solution...
As the marginal return of extra work declines to zero, work will stop. Given that 1% of our population grows our food, and consumer goods come from China at rock bottom prices, it's much easier to eke out a living than in the past.
If the opportunity cost of working - the ease of doing nothing for that amount of time - exceeds whatever marginal gains are to be had from more work, then no more work will be done. There are a lot of people who are content with three hots, a cot, and Netflix on a flat screen.
(The cot is actually in the shortest supply of the three, hence the runup in home prices and rents.)
In the mid 20th century there were predictions of a shrinking workweek because of cheap energy, automation, etc. Back then it was something to look forward to, but now that it may be happening in fits and starts it's something to condemn.
There is the reductio ad absurdum of general AI doing all the work in the future. Whither work ethic then?
Work ethic is something to be praised as long as the work is necessary. But doing work for work's sake, while a perfectly fine choice for some, doesn't really make sense to most people.
As someone else said, if you want to do the minimum and you accept the minimal reward that comes with that, more power to you in my book. The problem is when anyone, rich or poor, thinks they deserve to take out more than they put in.
I don't know if this has been said, but there was a time when companies (probably family owned, I am thinking now) treated their employees well and people were well-rewarded. There were pensions. That's not even a thing now.
Unions offer employees the only job protections these days.
Too many people have worked for corporations and have experienced how absolutely ruthless they are and how unimportant their employees really are to them - there are memes that say something like "shoot for balance in your life because if you croak today, you will be easily replaced by next week."
Who wants to work over eight hours per day (in Silicon Valley it became the norm to work twice that) - just to basically exist (eat, watch TV, go to bed, get up and do it all again)?
Personally, and I am not even a millennial, I am starting to think it needs to die on the vine. The entire system is broken.
It used to be that you could make a ok living wage at a blue collar job. But you can't anymore. Of course that isn't anyone's fault with other countries in the world perfectly willing to take advantage of their people to gain cheap labor, how can you compete and pay a good wage in here?
At the same time it seems 99% of people have degrees that put them into debt but gave them no skills and now it is is basically a situation where HR is just trying to bat people off from applying for jobs..
There is a reason so many millennials are in the Universal Basic Income camp. Maybe it is the solution. I feel Biden and the other dems know exactly what they are doing and will pivot to this suggestion. Who knows.. maybe that is the best solution...
So the way to fix a broken system is to make it more broken?
Many service / blue collar jobs can not be exported - how do you serve drinks, landscape a yard, stock a shelve, fix someone's pipes or run a small business supporting these activities from another country. The last administration was attempting to bring manufacturing back to the US, supported mining operations and good income projects like the Keystone pipeline. You now want to give that up and declare the system broken just 100 days into the new administration. The system is mainly broken for those that do not try.
You say 99% have degrees must be based on "feelings" since the stats are far different. The Census figures are that 35% of adults have at least a 4 year degree and 47% have at least a 2 year college degree or equivalent. The age group of 25-34 is slightly higher with 50% having some sort of postsecondary degree. According to the stats, just over 50% take on any student loans to support secondary education. Only 14% of adults carry some student loans debt - most pay it off fairly quickly.
The debt that gave no skills was those that got degrees at an expensive private college in things like 18th century French literature and find that it does not support a job making 6 figure starting salary. They often find they are stuck asking if you want an appetizer instead of the one without a degree asking if want fries, holding out for an opportunity that does not exist. Smarten up, get a degree in something relevant at the local public college or university instead - degrees do not have to cost a lot if live at home and are relevant to the work force. Lets not cover up for personal failures and instead encourage such things as education that supports real jobs with good wages.
Many millennials seen to feel that they don't need to work their way up (or even want to work - the subject of this thread) - they want short cuts. These type of programs are just shortcuts to working toward meaningful jobs. What makes you think universal income will solve anything. It is a blatant wealth transfer - very socialist. UI is close to the worst solution, not the best - it only makes the problems worse by supporting lack of effort.
Until/Unless we are willing to face the OVERpopulation issue and it's effect of supplying
far more warm bodies than are needed at all levels (mostly toward the bottom but it's climbing)..
in order to align labor supply with labor demand so there is a market based reason to be paid better...
what's the motivation ??
Immediate Term: Get the deadwood out of the equation and the employment statistics.
Longer Term: Get the population numbers down generally.
This is what I always say but it's like shouting into the void.
The powers that be need a large number of serfs with no Upward mobility. Not sure for what though, beyond votes.... Automated checkout lines don't vote.
Everyone is free to sell their labor and skills to the highest bidder. If your current employer doesn't "appreciate" you enough, then go work somewhere that does appreciate you and pays you accordingly.
The problem is when you're in an entire system that devalues human capital there's no alternatives available. It's the same bid everywhere.
Thanks for the link. Lots of panic in the unemployment section cause they're all in denial it's ending, milking it to the last minute, they don't want to go back to work. Seems some haven't been vaccinated, they're saying now they have to consider getting the experimental vaccine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dad_the_inhaler
The links go to articles about Biden’s tax plan.
Yes, both links go to an article about Biden's tax plan. I thought it was me until I googled for the right article.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RationalExpectations
So, I guess the answer is "No." You didn't read the article.
Some how you linked to the wrong article in both links. Go to your 1st post, click the links. The article linked has nothing to do with your title. I sent the right link, asked if a mod can add it.
“The Texas economy is booming and employers are hiring in communities throughout the state,” Abbott said. “According to the Texas Workforce Commission, the number of job openings in Texas is almost identical to the number of Texans who are receiving unemployment benefits. That assessment does not include the voluminous jobs that typically are not listed, like construction and restaurant jobs.”
It's only a matter of time before the American appetite for those that can but won't contribute to be kept on the government dime will dissipate, and the country will swing far to the right.
We are seeing this in meatpacking. We’ve raised wages We’ve have a 4 percent dollar for dollar match on 401k. We subsidize not just most of the employees insurance but plus 1 and children as well. However the work is hard. It’s easier to sit at home. However even that isn’t the main cause. The main absorption is that the market for cash jobs is very hit at the moment. Suddenly a cash job paying 12 with no benefits of plus unemployment with all benefits for free is tremendously more appealing than simply working an up and up job. So the effect is expanding the grey market forcing out some market participants who are legal. Lots of people moving to unregulated and uninsured grey labor.
I can recall Meat Packing being a well paid UNION JOB. It supported a living wage for middle class workers and their families. The employers crushed the unions and brought in illegals to work below union scale. Perhaps they need to unionize.
I'd like to see stats on who is getting what level of unemployment. People here are just assuming that this scenario is playing out:
1) Pre-pandemic, someone was working service jobs at or near full time
2) That someone is now making more money from unemployment.
3) This person will not go back to work unless forced to by fear of starvationn.
How do we know this?
As I've said before, I work for a school and was recently tasked with calling some of our laid front line, service, and physical maintenance employees that were laid off to see if they want to come back for the fall. Most of these jobs are hourly in the 11-20 range. Here's what I found:
14 months is a long time and many re-evaluated whether they want these jobs anymore started doing something else.
Some left the area because housing skyrocketed by 45% in one year at the same time they were making less on employment (no not everyone makes more). A lot of these people went to live with parents.
Some started working gigs and that plus unemployment is enough for them for the moment.
Some are eager to come back but want more pay and more hours to deal with the housing cost.
Some cannot work the hours we need because of child or elder care (mostly child care). If they were to pay for daycare it would cost most of their paycheck.
Some are ready to come back as is
So, many of you seem to be assuming that people have been sitting like bumps on a log for a year, and are not acknowledging what the pandemic did to housing cost. When housing cost rises so much it may not be worth it to work.
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