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A lot of those jobs aren't realistic expectations though, There are many inspiring writers and producers working for 9 dollars an hour, for every 1 that makes it, there is hundreds that don't. The internet has killed most writing jobs and there are many newspapers just holding on, even giants like the New York Times and Washington Post have seen better days.
Education is a very big investment in todays world so you need a return on that investment or you just wasted a whole bunch of money. As students and graduates we're basically buying a credential that says I've been trained to do whatever job it is you're interested in. If you spent 30k on 4 years of college and come out making 60k that makes sense, if you spend 60k on 4 years of college and come out making only 30k then that does not make sense. In that scenario your debt is higher then your earnings, in which case can effect your credit score when your debt to income ratio is factored in. They probably aren't telling the kids that when they sign up for college.
Some degrees are simply useless, and there is a big difference between being educated and having common sense, or as the saying goes, book smart common sense dumb.
I think the problem is you live in the South, and much of the South is not a diversified economy. And the aspect of the South you know is blue collar.
Much of the economy of Los Angeles is built on the creative industry. Those writers aren't broke. Nor are the New York writers who write commercials. Oh, video games have writers too.
Those jobs are very realistic. However, you have to have ACCESS to the industry via social connections. You also have to have talent and the educational background.
I could say the same for jobs like investment banking, or any other high paid position or industry.
60k a year is nothing, that's a working class job.
Put it like this, the majority of people I knew in NYC work in the creative industry in some capacity. Writers ,software programmers, actors, directors, etc. Everyone makes more than $10 an hour.
Which gets us to another point. In the US and in any other nation, the percentage of people who will get professional jobs are comparatively small. Most of the money is concentrated in just a few areas of the nation.
If you think White Flight, real estate discrimination, racist websites, closet racism and high levels of white self-segregation doesn't exist today then your even more sheltered than I thought; and there's really not much left to discuss, lol
Most blacks playing the knockout game don't even have racial motives. Plus, they are a new and rare phenomemon that actually originated in Europe. YES, blacks have played that game at much higher rates in America but apparently they tend to play it differently than whites. In the white cases of knockout, most of them were also accompanied by racial slurs; however, in the black knockout games, the same such racial thing is rare. You can look up, compare and contrast various knockout incidents in articles for confirmation.
I kept on posting about Happy Slapping that originated in the UK with links to articles about the many pure Britons as offenders .
Of course my posts were ignored.
Now, since this is a NYC forum, and this is about NYC's economy, there's a few sectors of the economy in which you can make enough money to live well in NYC.
Wall Street is one. The tech sector is another. Media (film, tv, advertising, news, ) is another. Education and the medical professions. And then there's civil service and other unions jobs (construction, utilities, etc).
Outside of that, much of the city is employed in retail or other low level service jobs. In all of the private sector NY jobs I mentioned above, your social connections are as important as you education in breaking in the field, perhaps even more so.
It's a very different economy from a small town in the South, where you get an associate or some technical training and just apply for a job. There are some other parts of the US with economies like this, Boston, California, etc. To a degree DC too (your connections are very important in politics).
But the overall point you miss is there is not a cookie cutter solution for all, and universities and colleges are not trade schools.
Not everyone wants to work in a blue collar technical job in middle America. Not everyone is good at that. For those who like it and are good at it, great. There are people, even if they are a minority, who are better suited to running the country or running business. These people should study government/political science or other social sciences, law. We are big consumers of media, whether tv, film, news, internet, etc. That requires writing, filmmakers, photographers, computer programmers etc. Those good at those things should study liberal arts (or in the case of the programmers engineering). Every big organization has people who shuffle paperwork. Anyone with any degree can do that. Some people are good in business in general. They can study economics, or maybe go out for a MBA.
The saying is different strokes for different folks.
THIS WHOLE ENTIRE COUNTRY WAS BUILT BY POOR PEOPLE MAINLY FROM EUROPE AND THEN THE REST THE WORLD.
They worked hard so that if not in their lifetime their decendents comd have a better life and made it what it is today.
They are here for the same reason your forefathers came here with nothing in their pockets.
Those poor people who came from Europe did not get Section 8, project housing, expensive education and medicaid even long after they became US citizens.
I agree that it is different strokes for different folks and that's one thing that makes the world good. Back to New York City and it's economic problems I guess I really cant offer a insiders view on the problem because I'm not from there, I was born and raised an hour north of NYC, in Putnam County New York.
If I had to guess I would say that NYC has one of the largest groups of people who make really big money and even if someone were to get an opportunity to go to college from a low income family lets just say, unless it was a top tier school like the Princeton's or Columbia's, said person would probably have a very small shot at making it to Goldman Sachs or Mckinsey and Co. anyway.
From an ethical standpoint I don't think the big banks really have a humanitarian interest to begin with. They're all bout money and making more of it, which is fine I guess, that's what they're designed to do. Wall Street was one occupation I never wanted any part of.
Small town USA, where I now reside, has it advantages I suppose. We are big on Friday night football games, marriage and community, and putting our faith in god. We work hard, live in our little houses on our streets, and we can play even harder then how we work. For some, like myself, that's quality of life.
I came from a working class family, my dad worked for the state highway department, my grandfather and uncles owned an electrical contracting company, and for the rest of us we were either college, military, or both. The saying was growing up if you want a good job stay in school, which is a working class attitude but by being able to work and earning a decent living, we can open many doors. Work empowers you to achieve buying a home, going to school, saving for your retirement, taking the family on vacation. The best social program is a job.
I agree that it is different strokes for different folks and that's one thing that makes the world good. Back to New York City and it's economic problems I guess I really cant offer a insiders view on the problem because I'm not from there, I was born and raised an hour north of NYC, in Putnam County New York.
If I had to guess I would say that NYC has one of the largest groups of people who make really big money and even if someone were to get an opportunity to go to college from a low income family lets just say, unless it was a top tier school like the Princeton's or Columbia's, said person would probably have a very small shot at making it to Goldman Sachs or Mckinsey and Co. anyway.
From an ethical standpoint I don't think the big banks really have a humanitarian interest to begin with. They're all bout money and making more of it, which is fine I guess, that's what they're designed to do. Wall Street was one occupation I never wanted any part of.
Small town USA, where I now reside, has it advantages I suppose. We are big on Friday night football games, marriage and community, and putting our faith in god. We work hard, live in our little houses on our streets, and we can play even harder then how we work. For some, like myself, that's quality of life.
I came from a working class family, my dad worked for the state highway department, my grandfather and uncles owned an electrical contracting company, and for the rest of us we were either college, military, or both. The saying was growing up if you want a good job stay in school, which is a working class attitude but by being able to work and earning a decent living, we can open many doors. Work empowers you to achieve buying a home, going to school, saving for your retirement, taking the family on vacation. The best social program is a job.
Well, if you came from a poor background and went to Princeton, you can indeed work at Goldman Sachs. It might not be easy, but there are certainly people who can do it. Sonia Sotomayor was born in the Bronx, has two ivy league degrees, and is now a Supreme Court justice. Spike Lee came from a poor family in the South, went to Moorehouse in Georgia undergrad and NYU for grad school, and is now a known film director.
Mind you, that's not the path for everyone. Some poor people may be better of working their way up in retail. Others may end up getting civil service jobs like working in the Post Office or Sanitation Department. Different people have different strengths and talents and interests.
That's true and that's why for me I went into a technical field cause I was good at it and more importantly I really had the desire to want to do it. One thing I don't think we mentioned about career is enjoying what you do. I think that interest in a particular field is what pushes you to wanna go further with it.
Location: Formerly NYC by week; ATL by weekend...now Rio bi annually and ATL bi annually
1,522 posts, read 2,242,785 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NyWriterdude
I think the problem is you live in the South, and much of the South is not a diversified economy. And the aspect of the South you know is blue collar.
Much of the economy of Los Angeles is built on the creative industry. Those writers aren't broke. Nor are the New York writers who write commercials. Oh, video games have writers too.
Those jobs are very realistic. However, you have to have ACCESS to the industry via social connections. You also have to have talent and the educational background.
I could say the same for jobs like investment banking, or any other high paid position or industry.
60k a year is nothing, that's a working class job.
Put it like this, the majority of people I knew in NYC work in the creative industry in some capacity. Writers ,software programmers, actors, directors, etc. Everyone makes more than $10 an hour.
Which gets us to another point. In the US and in any other nation, the percentage of people who will get professional jobs are comparatively small. Most of the money is concentrated in just a few areas of the nation.
I have lived in many cities and have to say I disagree with the BASIS of your statement. Different areas of the country as a whole have different QOL, which then affects the types of industries and rates of pay to a certain degree. The South is not full of blue collar jobs that pay nothing. And here in NYC, every professional jobs salary isnt twice what it would be somewhere else. To insinuate otherwise is a gross falsehood. Truly. For instance, I work in Finance and the 6 figure job I have in NYC is not much more than an offer I had in Atlanta. I know nurses whose salaries are comparable in Texas as it would be here in Manhattan. If you are an investment banker, or Trader, or Hedge Fund manager, then NYC is your oasis. If you are an Actor, Writer or Director then L.A. is tops. These are vanilla examples but speak to what I believe depicts the most correct picture of what you attempted to say in the above post. There are places where the QOL is better than here. Hands down. But individuals make their choices in life based on their own circumstances and situations. For example, Houston has a crazy good market for Finance professionals.
Because it takes money and a job to relocate to a new area.
Amen. It's easier said than done. (move to another city and star over). You need to have the relocation money, emergency money, and be extremely charismatic in order to get a job ASAP.
I hope to move as soon as I pay off my student loan. Either to another state or to New Jersey.
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