im starting to well understand why people resort to illegal activity (apply, average)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Tens of millions of people would disagree with you about there being no jobs or the middle class being "over". You're right... $11 an hour is not a salary that a grown man should be raising a family on. But that was your fault for starting a family before you acquired an education, useful skills, or a career worth more than $11 an hour.
Jeez...have a little bit of compassion or empathy, you never know when you may end up like the rest of us deplorable unemployed losers. You can "do everything right" and still you may end up unemployed or working a job at $11 an hour.
I swear 50% of the American population has the mentality "I've got mine...f*** you."
Anyway, I watch the show "American Greed" and the OP is correct, in order to make big money fast, you have to be a scammer/white color criminal - just look at Wall Street and our politicians.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,585 posts, read 81,279,384 times
Reputation: 57831
I had a successful business for 16 years, but when I was struggling in the recession, I took a job as a substitute custodian for the local school district. Pay was $14/hour and I was able to choose when to accept the available hours or not, so it didn't interfere with my search for a permanent job. In fact, at our same district currently, even this late in the school year there are openings for sub custodians, classroom aids, and bus drivers, paying $16/$12.60/$24 and all training is provided. It might be worth looking into in your area.
Life is a crap shoot. You put your best foot forward and hopefully it works out.
Opportunity is definitely less today and with more competition, so the risk is greater of putting in time/money/effort/debt etc... and not getting a return.
Everyone has to try something, but not everyone is going to make it.
It is just the way life is right now.
And don't bother waiting for anyone to actually help you. Most people would rather kick you when your down instead of helping.
Sure, some people truly get lucky and are just handed opportunity, jobs or businesses through family, but oh well, you have no control over that and if that isn't in your cards, it isn't.
Sounds like you need to reboot, do some thinking, realize what makes you happy in life, find out what you really want to accomplish, how to do it and get after it again. If what you are doing hasn't worked, switch gears and go after something different or do it in a different way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ad356
going to college, that's right, the solution for nearly everything. more debt. people own enough debt to buy a house, yet no house. my sister is case in point. she's 31 years old and is still sitting on 30K+ in debt she graduated canisius college nearly a decade ago and still has too much debt to afford a home. she lives in a crappy little apartment. she has a job but doesn't pay enough to justify the debt load that her schooling caused her.
this country does need its manufacturing to return, I fully believe that this country exists the way it does because we made things. we stopped making things for the most part. a good case in point, take steel for example. you take a bunch of raw elements from the ground and you create something that is worth far more then the sum of the original components.
as far as what should be useful skills and experience, I have worked in food manufacturing for over a decade. I have ran automatic palletizers, packaging equipment, worked as a raw milk receiver (have required license), obtained a CDL, worked plant sanitation (cleaning food production equipment), handled chemicals too many times to count, ran forklift, and did whatever else was required at these types of places.
the problem is the massive influx of temp services has driven wages down to the floor. its far to easy to replace people. far too many people out of work. far to many companies that there only purpose is to fill jobs.
I have a pretty positive lead on a job starting at $14 with a raise to $15 after 90 days. still not great, but better then $11. I guess that's just the way it is.
college is out of the question. no more additional debt. no time to NOT work while I waste time going to school for a job I might or might not get.
the really sad part about all of this, not everyone is college material, not everyone WANTS to go to college. I think it used to be you had jobs for the "un-educated" as some people like to call us, those people used to have decent paying jobs. the wife could sit home, it was rare she worked. as things headed in a swirl down the toilet, they progressively got worse and worse. NOW the wife MUST work and even on TWO incomes families still struggle.
my view of things, the middle class is not the people with the 4 year degrees those are white collar jobs. the manufacturing jobs have always been the blue collar or middle class families.
the really sad part about all of this, not everyone is college material, not everyone WANTS to go to college. I think it used to be you had jobs for the "un-educated" as some people like to call us, those people used to have decent paying jobs. the wife could sit home, it was rare she worked. as things headed in a swirl down the toilet, they progressively got worse and worse. NOW the wife MUST work and even on TWO incomes families still struggle.
my view of things, the middle class is not the people with the 4 year degrees those are white collar jobs. the manufacturing jobs have always been the blue collar or middle class families.
the blue collar worker has been left far behind.
The world changed. Technology has been a major game changer. The handwriting has been on the wall for some time now. Everyone has to stay flexible and keep up.
We, as a nation, can't live in the past. No one is entitled to a job. I have sympathy for your plight but you've got to change with the times. The manufacturing industry isn't coming back.
well then this country is doomed. third world status in a couple of decades coming to a town near you.
also as I said before NO MORE MIDDLE CLASS. have and have NOTS. without manufacturing jobs retail will also die. service sector jobs cannot support the economy, they do not generate wealth and they do not pay livable wages.
well then this country is doomed. third world status in a couple of decades coming to a town near you.
also as I said before NO MORE MIDDLE CLASS. have and have NOTS. without manufacturing jobs retail will also die. service sector jobs cannot support the economy, they do not generate wealth and they do not pay livable wages.
No one cares that America has lost millions of manufacturing jobs over the past 30 years. I have been complaining about the loss of manufacturing and blue collar jobs in America since 1984 and all I get is the standard BS response "well, the blue collar workers will just have to go to college and retrain!"
Retrain for what?
Computer jobs have been outsourced, and insourced with H-1B applicants who are now supposedly doing the jobs "Americans will not do."
Nursing? I guess everyone can train to be a nurse, even if you hate nursing - it is a job, right?
Let's see, what else can blue collar workers retrain for...
Retail? Seems like more and more brick and mortar retail stores are closing, as most people shop online.
Truck Driving? That's a possibility.
Taxi Driver? Uber drive sharing has destroyed that industry.
Electrician? Plumber? Construction? All good trades, however in certain areas of the country, illegal aliens have taken over the trades, especially entry-level construction jobs.
Teacher? Lots of education, costs lots of money, but if you can get a public school gig, you may be set for life.
On and on and on...however people seem to forget that manufacturing has not really been replaced with a new industry. (OK, I am sure there are smaller niche industries such as robotics but they do not hire millions of people) Other than the computer industry (see above), all the other industries I mentioned above existed when manufacturing was in full swing in America. In the past, millions of "unskilled" Americans could go to the factories to get jobs, but now the millions of "unskilled" workers even if they get retrained, are competing for limited jobs among the limited industries in America with millions of other workers (trained or not). It is a race to the bottom, and I believe America will win that race in the coming century (unless people wake up and make America self-sufficient once again).
I distinctly remember as a child in the late 70s and early 80s hearing news reports and even storylines on TV shows about plants and factories closing. Again, this was in the 70s and 80s.
Don't let all this societal doom and gloom distract you from the simple truth that you are only one person and there are more than enough jobs open for one person. Your personal job search does not equate to the plight of every blue collar worker.
People want good wages for very little effort. Those days are long over. You have to be willing to hit the books majoring in something like computer science or engineering if you want to obtain the jobs that are paying well today.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
