“Young Workers: A Lost Decade.”

Originally posted by whaaa
Perhaps it's the conspiricy theorist in me that sees this situation with our young people almost to contrived by the PTB.
[edit on 3-9-2009 by whaaa]

That's the case with me

When graduated from high school five years ago. I went straight into the construction industry thinking that the work would never end.

Now I find myself on Employment insurance without any work at all and the prospects of getting another job is pretty low.

I'm in my mid 20's right now

reply to post by kosmicjack

These aren't slackers, these are young people with post graduate degrees and dual majors in useful fields that should allow for good job prospects.

Um, I've not ever been too big on sizing a person up based off of College education. When I was young growing up in Texas, college was out of financial reach.

I was raised anti union; which now I know is a load of bull turds, but any ways I went to work for an Electrical Contractor before graduating High School.

Because not being in the Union/IBEW I paid out lots of my own money on trade schools. Any ways I achieved my first Master Electrical License by 22. I had my own company by 25; moved onto real estate development, and have since stopped that since the "wonderful economic state".

I still hold multiple Master Electrical Contractor licenses, but have no desire anymore. Part of my non motivation come from the nature of Your thread specifically. I had to claw my way, and in doing so the things I saw made me literally sick of my piers; business piers that is.

Most trade organizations are geared toward a set agenda. On paper it is usually "tolerable", but many off the books are geared at a very matter a fact sick nature of "abusing the labor"...or worker's.

The point where I ended up in thought is definitely off the mark from most. Now I encourage any younger person to take their time, and just enjoy life; as they won't be retiring anytime soon in this system.

Thanks for the thread
S&F

Originally posted by sanchoearlyjones
reply to post by kosmicjack

 

These aren't slackers, these are young people with post graduate degrees and dual majors in useful fields that should allow for good job prospects.

Um, I've not ever been too big on sizing a person up based off of College education.

I completely agree Sancho. I used a poor choice of words in order to fend off what I suspected might be blanket criticism of "lazy kids". But you are right, a degree doesn't equate to success or brains.

reply to post by platoman


i love you and everything you stand for!

i get another chain email (obviously sent to 8 billion people previously, and you wonder why we have to keep coming out with new technology) that says that...

actually i have one i got today....

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes. (try crack moms and


Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints. (the lead is still there because you STILL continued to paint with it even after people were saying it, BUT HEY! THEY ARE JUST CRAZY)

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads. (same here, only dorks wear helmets)

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes. (if you drive anything like you did back then currently, then no you are ALL STILL ALIVE)

Riding in the back of a pick- up truck on a warm day was always a special treat. (same...?)

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. (k... same?)

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this. (still dont know anyone who dies from it, but if they did, its because you guys brought that over here for us to enjoy when you were in singapore or wherever)

We ate cupcakes made with Lard, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank FLAV-OR- AID made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight. WHY? (cus you guys also invented aspartame which is the reason, wait... no fat people ever back then?)

Because we were always outside playing....that's why! (its dangerous outside with all the radioactive and poisonous chemicals from life long obsession with BLOWING PEOPLE UP AND MAKING MONEY THE CHEAPEST WAY)

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were OKAY. (


We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem (bet they never looked like this geektyrant.com...)

We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms. (thats a positive? im confused...)

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! (because anyone with a computer has no friends..... )

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. (pretty hard to sue yourself i guess)

We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping pong paddles, or just a bare hand and no one would call child services to report abuse. (and then you grew up and were mad that you couldnt do the same?)

We ate worms and mud piesmade from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. (actually those worms were and are still around... i guess you guys did that cus you didnt have videogames... or intelligence)

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes. (same yet again)

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them. (i once again dont know the difference)

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! (or now they get a computer and make a bajillion dollars that way, ohhh wait... that bubble burst was your fault too... damn)

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! (back when barney fife was the law...)

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever. (we have people who think its a good idea to go hike in iran. dont talk about risk takers. besides...


The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. What can kids today do besides push buttons. (so i guess your playstations and video games are part of that... so in essence you are the reason why kids today cant do anything at all right?)

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. (and you took it all away from us)

If YOU are one of them, CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regula ted so much of our lives for our own good.

While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were. (for living the easy life it sounds, sounds pretty boring)


I like some old people, but for the most part, you are the reason why our country is this way. your wanting to continue to have it easy, and not think about global warming, not thinking it was a bad idea to give the government more control, to go and make that money by sueing peoples parents, to rip down the forests and make animals go extinct for money, to expose people to more and more toxic chemicals which produced stronger bugs and tore away at our immune system. awesome. i guess we have to applaud you!


/rant

ps - keep right except to pass

Originally posted by Taikonaut
Well, the two posts above just amply illustrate whats so f*****g wrong with the world

...an entitlement to technology to provide 'lobsters and 3000 sq.ft home for everybody, regardless of cost to produce or financial expense as money should now be free'

...an expectation that everybody should fall into thinking along the same world view, and if not 'get the hell out of my way and don't dare interrupt/impede me'

A selfish sense of entitlement and ignorance if ever I came across it

[edit on 5-9-2009 by Taikonaut]

you couldnt be farther from the truth.

its not self-serving sense of entitlement. its truth. i dont know about lobsters (due to supply), but houses yeah. we do have the technology to do it.

you do realize money is control right? its fake already, thats the whole reason why he said it. if its completely fake, then its completely un-needed. hence people could still get the same thing without it.

logic is truely whats missing in this world.

not saying people dont have to work for things, but i believe that a house for everyone with decent food, shouldnt be too hard once automated, but thats still pretty Orwellian, and scares me.

www.usatoday.com...

The incomes of the young and middle-aged — especially men — have fallen off a cliff since 2000, leaving many age groups poorer than they were even in the 1970s, a USA TODAY analysis of new Census data found.
People 54 or younger are losing ground financially at an unprecedented rate in this recession, widening a gap between young and old that had been expanding for years.
While the young have lost ground, older people have grown more prosperous over the years and the decades. Older women have done best of all.
The dividing line between those getting richer or poorer: the year 1955. If you were born before that, you're part of a generation enjoying a four-decade run of historic income growth. Every generation after that is now sinking economically.

Wow. I don't even know what this means for the future of middle class America and the rest of the world.

It even affects people up to the age of 55 so I know the people under the age of 35 are feeling the squeeze.

It's really interesting to me from one particular aspect - assuming wealthier people of retirement age had any money to bequeath prior to the financial crisis, that amount is greatly diminished now, if not straight up gone. A lot of them had inherited wealth from their parents, the greatest generation and the first official middle class. All of that sweat equity and hard work, gone in the blink of a Wall St. trade. It's really sad.

We went through this when I graduated from high school in 1979. The eighties as also a lost decade for young people. Not until the nineties did those who graduated from 79 to 89 start to gain any economic traction and accumulate wealth, but since 2000, that has all been essentially reversed. The concept of the free market is the cause. The laws are all written and enforced to protect corporations, and to work against small businesses. The whole corporate job reliance has been a complete scam.

Everywhere I go and talk to people, I find everyone vowing not to work for a corporation again. Everyone wants to start their own business, and if you network, that is where the opportunities currently exist. I see an economic revolution taking place.

The federal government isn't so much of the problem as the state and local governments, who have found all these safety laws to be a great source or revenue to pay for the overly generous retirement plans of local government employees. These local governments are also the worst abusers of small businesses, and the heaviest regulators, always looking to squeeze more money out of the local civilian population. I don't think people consider this point nearly enough. These local governments also cater to big corporations, because they want to bring corporate businesses into their local communities, so they are willing to allow corporate abuses to spiral out of control.

Look for a way to earn income from some source other than a regular job is what I think people need to start concentrating on. Forget the stock market, it is a big scam, put your money into credit unions for now. Remember, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

reply to post by poet1b


Good to see this thread "bumped"...

I'm definitely one of those who won't be working for a large corporation again, ludicrous targets and a climate of fear seem to be the main thrust of their work ethics - a maintenance of standards that are reasonable with an inadequate amount of staff, standards that if you don't achieve - you're failing/incompetent.

The whole structure of corporate labour seems thoroughly flawed.

A great link with video and text about the long term business impact and psychological personal impact of the "Lost Generation". I'm glad the issue is garnering more attention:

www.businessweek.com...

Affected are a range of young people, from high school dropouts, to college grads, to newly minted lawyers and MBAs across the developed world from Britain to Japan. One indication: In the U.S., the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds has climbed to more than 18%, from 13% a year ago.

For people just starting their careers, the damage may be deep and long-lasting, potentially creating a kind of "lost generation." Studies suggest that an extended period of youthful joblessness can significantly depress lifetime income as people get stuck in jobs that are beneath their capabilities, or come to be seen by employers as damaged goods.

Equally important, employers are likely to suffer from the scarring of a generation. The freshness and vitality young people bring to the workplace is missing. Tomorrow's would-be star employees are on the sidelines, deprived of experience and losing motivation. In Japan, which has been down this road since the early 1990s, workers who started their careers a decade or more ago and are now in their 30s account for 6 in 10 reported cases of depression, stress, and work-related mental disabilities, according to the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development...

Well I'm sick of feeling sorry for young people. I'm 30 years old and we have SO MUCH power it's not even funny. It starts with our wallet! If we pulled our head out of corporate America's brown starfish we could implement some serious change. If we all spent less time on Facebook and playing video games and spent more time protesting and rioting in the streets we could really change things. But we don't. We sit back and complain and feel sorry for ourselves. It's time the young people of America rise up and demand change, demand jobs and most importantly demand our sovereignty. America's youth i.e. 25-35 year olds have been screwed by the baby boomers who have taken all the jobs, taken all the wealth, who are running all these companies, running the government and screwing us. The baby boomers are single handedly responsible for ruining this country if you really think about it.

reply to post by Zosynspiracy


Don't think about getting a job, think about starting your own business.

That is what people need to do these days.

reply to post by poet1b


That's easier said than done and even if many more Americans were small business owners not everyone can achieve that goal nor should they. I mean let's be honest in this corporate and banking environment where it's practically impossible these days to get a small business loan (let alone a decent mortgage) you've got to have a lot of capital to start a business, jump through a lot of loopholes depending on your business, and then you're taxed to death. America is NOT small business friendly anymore. America NEEDS JOBS and GOOD JOBS whether those jobs come from mom and pop or McMerica. And when I say start a business I mean a legitimate jobs producing, product producing business not some stupid dog walking business, or some other "on wheels" type of business. I mean A REAL quality business much needed in our society.

Let's face it we can banter back and forth about what's wrong with the economy and why but there is only one economic pie and as long as CEOs are making billions everyone else suffers. There has to be some redistribution of wealth in this country and whether it happens at the hand of government or the people is what matters. If you added up all the top 1000 CEOs in this country and added up their salaries you know how many jobs you could create? We live in a bubble where everyone's actions affect everyone else. Money doesn't grow on trees. As long as a bigger portion of the economic pie goes to the smaller minority there is less for everyone else. That's the bottomline.

[edit on 10-10-2009 by Zosynspiracy]

reply to post by poet1b


What kind of business do you own by the way?

reply to post by Zosynspiracy


Not to mention that the government really does not want you to start your own business. This is evident with all of the laws enacted which choke the life out of attempts or makes things more stressful for the business owner.

Originally posted by Jessicamsa
reply to post by Zosynspiracy

 

Not to mention that the government really does not want you to start your own business. This is evident with all of the laws enacted which choke the life out of attempts or makes things more stressful for the business owner.

That's not true. I initially financed all my businesses with the help of Government grants and SBA loans during the Clinton administration. I do agree that regulations are a pain in the butt but any savy entrepreneur knows plenty of loop holes.

What kills most small businesses is increasing high cost of raw materials and scumbag bankers that hoard capital during hard times.

Topic......I feel for the new young workers. Due to the hard economic times I had to lay off all my temps, piece workers, and salaried people and do everything myself. I could only sustain that kind of work for a short while so I just shut the doors.

My advice to my young friends starting out in the business world. "Learn to speak Chinese"

I have recently started up one of my businesses again but I don't have great hopes for showing much of a profit. I am still suffering from the GWB economic model [corporate Big Oil welfare]. I had hoped for change but nothing yet, still waiting.







[edit on 10-10-2009 by whaaa]

Just wanted to add this here as we are seeing the results of prolonged hopelessness play out across the globe.

The Youth Unemployment Bomb

From Cairo to London to Brooklyn, too many young people are jobless and disaffected...

In each of these nations, an economy that can't generate enough jobs to absorb its young people has created a lost generation of the disaffected, unemployed, or underemployed—including growing numbers of recent college graduates for whom the post-crash economy has little to offer. Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution was not the first time these alienated men and women have made themselves heard. Last year, British students outraged by proposed tuition increases—at a moment when a college education is no guarantee of prosperity—attacked the Conservative Party's headquarters in London and pummeled a limousine carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla Bowles. Scuffles with police have repeatedly broken out at student demonstrations across Continental Europe. And last March in Oakland, Calif., students protesting tuition hikes walked onto Interstate 880, shutting it down for an hour in both directions.

More common is the quiet desperation of a generation in "waithood," suspended short of fully employed adulthood. At 26, Sandy Brown of Brooklyn, N.Y., is a college graduate and a mother of two who hasn't worked in seven months. "I used to be a manager at a Duane Reade [drugstore] in Manhattan, but they laid me off. I've looked for work everywhere and I can't find nothing," she says. "It's like I got my diploma for nothing."

While the details differ from one nation to the next, the common element is failure—not just of young people to find a place in society, but of society itself to harness the energy, intelligence, and enthusiasm of the next generation. Here's what makes it extra-worrisome: The world is aging. In many countries the young are being crushed by a gerontocracy of older workers who appear determined to cling to the better jobs as long as possible and then, when they do retire, demand impossibly rich private and public pensions that the younger generation will be forced to shoulder.

I'm 34 and got to witness the dismantaling of the American workforce first hand. I went from making $16 an hour to minimum wage. Some of my younger family have lost hope. They can't go to school or even get a job. Instead they turned to drugs and a life of crime.

My youngest cousin graduated high school with a 3.7 gpa. He couldn't afford collage and had to start working to help his parents pay bills. It only took him two years to find a part time job. He's 20 and don't even have his drivers liscens yet. He can't afford a car so theres no point in getting it.

My 2nd youngest cousin couldn't find a job so he started doing drugs. Now he's doing herion and breaking into houses for money. He don't have to worry about work he has free room and board for the next 5 years.

I have countless stories of friends and family without work. My uncle use to make $22 an hour now he can only get minimum wage. He refuses to work for it so he relys on my aunts income.