The American Dream? 2 Jobs = $10,080 /yr

Youth today have played into the dream that if you go to College and get a degree, you can walk out of the doors and land a job making 100k a year. This happens very rarely.

The ugly truth is, and I have prepared my children for this already, is that you still have to prove your worth to your employer. No one is going to hand you money because you went to school. You may start out at a little better salary in some jobs, but if you don't continue to learn and grow you are never going anywhere.

(This is not directed toward the OP or anyone else)
I see people who can't understand why they can't make the salary that Joe Blow makes. Take a look at your work ethics. Do you come in early, and stay late? Do you do a little more than is expected of you? This Nation has had it good for so long no one wants to work hard anymore. Why do you think that all of the production jobs have been relocated overseas?

The dream is still there, but if you aren't ready to pick yourself up and keep trying, well there are thousands of others that are going to jump in front of you.

No doubt times are hard. We are all feeling it.

Don't give up. Keep trying.

Is it tough?? Yep!
Impossible? No!

reply to post by Daz3d-n-Confus3d

I see people who can't understand why they can't make the salary that Joe Blow makes. Take a look at your work ethics. Do you come in early, and stay late? Do you do a little more than is expected of you? This Nation has had it good for so long no one wants to work hard anymore. Why do you think that all of the production jobs have been relocated overseas?

This propaganda right here is what killed the American Dream and replaced it with the American Nightmare. If you are going to come in early, and stay late, your best bet is to do such a thing for your own business. Sure, if you can trust your employer, then do it for him. Work your ass off to make sure his company is profitable. If that pays off for you, then more power to you! However, if all it generates is an expectation that you keep doing the same for the same pay, or worse, during hard times, work even harder for less pay, then don't be surprised at all. Hell, just read carefully what I quoted above. Read that last sentence carefully. The message is clear. The propaganda is that production jobs have been moved over seas because Americans are too lazy. Not too expensive, but too lazy!!

Let that posters children work their butts off for the man. The rest of us are better off being the man, and hiring their children as our employees.

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux


Please enlighten us on how youre the man (i.e. what business do you run, how many employees, how long youve been in business, how you got started etc)

Originally posted by Count Chocula
reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux

 

Please enlighten us on how youre the man (i.e. what business do you run, how many employees, how long youve been in business, how you got started etc)

Enlightenment is not given it is obtained. If you need something as simple as that explained to you, then it is doubtful you would benefit from my personal experiences.

reply to post by 30_seconds


Really weird degree program you chose.. there's almost nothing that you can do with that degree as an undergraduate.. the programs are usually designed as a feeder into Graduate programs?

So sadly...... you need to go back to school. "Specialize" in something.

On a side note, I know someone who had a Bachelors in marine biology and started looking over seas for a job.. and got one, of all places, in Russia. I don't know how the pay stacks up.. but perhaps for the educated among us, we should think globally as everyone else in the world is. Surely there are other places in the World in need of people with premium education.

reply to post by 30_seconds


dude, similar boat here except I don't pay rent, get free food, make at least enough for cigs, have a car, pay $550 in bills a month, no college education but security training provides me with good work. Temp and on call jobs. Plus I have interviews with two security companies. Trust me, sometimes life sucks, everyone goes through the tough times. You'll just have to keep working hard trying to unstick yourself. And if your way isn't working, maybe it is a good idea to read up on things and try to do something new.

reply to post by Daz3d-n-Confus3d


No generation in this country has ever experienced the debt to income ratio as MY generation has. Thanks to YOUR generation.

Please don't call into question our expectations, we learned them somewhere: Parents. And because of their inability to run a country and economy, my Generation gets to graduate college with more debt than any other since the days of indentured servitude.

Best thread I've read in months. Straight forward and hurtful.
& to think many, many families around the world live off percentages of even that.. Just makes my heart drop.

So much life not being lived due to $.

Stay strong, buddy.

Originally posted by Jean Paul Zodeaux
The American Dream was never about getting a job and working for the man, it was about being the man! The Pilgrims did not sail on the Mayflower across the Atlantic Ocean because they heard that there were some really good jobs over there in the New World. The expansion Westward was not made by a bunch of people looking for really good jobs.

If one has no greater ambition than to find a job and work for someone else, this is fine, but it is foolish to believe that the path to wealth and prosperity can be found through employment.

Further, most states tend to statutorily define "employee" which only exacerbates the problem of being an employee. Technically speaking every person should have the right to contract as they see fit without any undue government interference. The reality is that in today's so called "free market" - which has all the characteristics of a closed system - if one chooses to be an employee, most employers will coerce prospective employees into filling out government contracts such as a Form W-4 which is also known as an Employee Withholding Authorization Certificate. Now think about that! A withholding authorization certificate. However, employers will coerce an employee by insisting that they must fill out such a certificate by law. How is it an "authorization certificate" if people are being coerced into signing this authorization?

The blame lies squarely with the job seekers who willingly acquiesce to this nonsense. When I was growing up my parents always stressed that asking other people how much they make, or what their tax liability was, was a breach of etiquette. It was just bad manners. Today, newspapers and broadcast media regularly make it their business to report peoples earnings as if it is a matter of public record, and apparently very few people take issue with this bad form.

Try this, the next time an employer demands you fill out an "Employee Withholding Authorization Certificate" agree to do so on the condition that the employer will show you their tax returns for the past five years. See how far that gets you. Apparently, it is still none of your business how much your employer pays in taxes, but it is not only their "business" how much you pay in taxes, your employer insists on being "authorized" to act as a fiat tax collector on your behalf, in fact, withholding your so called "tax liability" before you get paid a single dime.

This is the American Dream? Well brother, if that is the American Dream, then somebody please pinch me and wake me up from this nightmare.

I just love your thinking, your responses are always right on.

Originally posted by Jean Paul Zodeaux




Enlightenment is not given it is obtained. If you need something as simple as that explained to you, then it is doubtful you would benefit from my personal experiences.

Well that kind of confirms my suspicions with your smarmy answer and previous posting of pie-in-the-sky platitudes and probably zero real world experience. You don't (haven't) practiced anything you go on and on about, otherwise you could at least presented a little personal experience.

As for myself I've ran a small construction contracting business for 20 years, anywhere from 1 to 5 employees, and I started out in my trade in high school working for the "man."

reply to post by 30_seconds


Yeah, I have a BA degree, get a union job with benefits, healthcare, etc. Make a better choice for yourself and stop settling for less. Don't sell yourself short. Be smart...that's the key.

reply to post by Rockpuck

Well then, keep blaming everyone else and see where that gets you. And dude, I'm not that old. As long as I am alive this is my generation too.

reply to post by Count Chocula

Well that kind of confirms my suspicions with your smarmy answer and previous posting of pie-in-the-sky platitudes and probably zero real world experience. You don't (haven't) practiced anything you go on and on about, otherwise you could at least presented a little personal experience.

Now you confirm my suspicions with this post that your nothing more than a smarmy Marxist fool, not only expecting that people give you a job, but you expect them to give you enlightenment as well. What difference does it make to you what I do when it is all "pie in the sky" to you anyway? What is your message? Surrender? Don't even dare to imagine that you are good enough to create your own business? Is this your message.

I am a freelance writer. I walked away from my job of 15 years two years ago, because I found myself in a position of working 6 to 7 days a week from 9 am to 9 pm, and when times got tough I was expected to keep working those hours and take a pay cut to boot, because as my employer explained it to me, I "was lucky to have a job". Now I am lucky to have clients, without any of the crap I used to tolerate.

That is my personal experience. How does that relate to you? What will you do with this? Dismiss it? Of course you will, because you have nothing to offer except that which you can take.

reply to post by 30_seconds


I have a similar fate. I have a bachelor's of science in communications. I am 2 classes away from my Masters in Psychology. I live on $900 per month. That is $10,800 a year. I have 2 part time jobs and disablity. One job is on call and I rarely get hours. I work as a mental health aid for dementia/alzheimeirs patients but due to cuts in Medicare the agency I work for has few clients. I live in the midwest we dont have a lot of rich people here.
My other part time job I do from home I log in about 30 hours a week yet make $200. With disablity they allow me to work part time and the only reason whey they allow me to have 2 part time jobs is because one is on call.
I really believe this is the new norm. I had a job interveiw for a mental health tech position that was 12 hours per day without a single break. The only reason I turned that job down is because it is in a mental hospital so that would be very grueling. It was only paying $8/hour 32 hours per week. It was not enough for me lose all my benefits. Before taxes it would over $1,000 but after it would have been be less than what I make now.
I did not go to school so I could do worse. All I really want to make is $24,000 per year for me if I could do this for a year this would be enough to lose my benefits for. It is very hard out there and problems seem to come even more now.
They build products that don't last so your money does not go very far. Sigh.
By the way I would take the job if it was less hours maybe 5 hours a day. Now if it paid $24,000 a year I might think of ways to try to do it but it isn't realistic really.

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux

Yes, it's mad how people have completely integrated the lies and propaganda of the oligarchy!

Originally posted by Jean Paul Zodeaux
reply to post by Count Chocula

 

Well that kind of confirms my suspicions with your smarmy answer and previous posting of pie-in-the-sky platitudes and probably zero real world experience. You don't (haven't) practiced anything you go on and on about, otherwise you could at least presented a little personal experience.

Now you confirm my suspicions with this post that your nothing more than a smarmy Marxist fool, not only expecting that people give you a job, but you expect them to give you enlightenment as well. What difference does it make to you what I do when it is all "pie in the sky" to you anyway? What is your message? Surrender? Don't even dare to imagine that you are good enough to create your own business? Is this your message.

I am a freelance writer. I walked away from my job of 15 years two years ago, because I found myself in a position of working 6 to 7 days a week from 9 am to 9 pm, and when times got tough I was expected to keep working those hours and take a pay cut to boot, because as my employer explained it to me, I "was lucky to have a job". Now I am lucky to have clients, without any of the crap I used to tolerate.

That is my personal experience. How does that relate to you? What will you do with this? Dismiss it? Of course you will, because you have nothing to offer except that which you can take.

Oh I see you're (btw Mr Freelance writer it's you're not your) one of those people who sees a marxist in everyone that doesn't believe they can become a multi-billionaire just by being a God feariing, flag waving patriot. Nonsense.

And my position remains. I am seeing a whole generation of young men from working and middle class families that are idling away their time working in some McDonalds type job with absolutely no chance to repeat what I did when I was younger. That is reality.

The fact is we no longer have an economy where we produce the kind of wealth we did when we had a manufacturing base. Service industries do not create wealth. Freelance writing does not create wealth. Working at Mickey D's does not create wealth.

You cannot tear down the fundamentals of the system that created the greatest generation, kept a solid middle class lifestyle through the 70s and expect mine and your service industries to survive. It's game over.

reply to post by Count Chocula

And my position remains. I am seeing a whole generation of young men from working and middle class families that are idling away their time working in some McDonalds type job with absolutely no chance to repeat what I did when I was younger. That is reality.

Then why in God's name are you dismissing the reality that people have the power and creativity within themselves to break out of such a system and build their own businesses?

The fact is we no longer have an economy where we produce the kind of wealth we did when we had a manufacturing base. Service industries do not create wealth. Freelance writing does not create wealth. Working at Mickey D's does not create wealth.

You clearly have no idea what wealth creation is. Go on, pretend you're not a Marxist. What you mean, when you say that freelance writing does not create wealth, is that it does not create wealth for you, and the only reason it doesn't create wealth for you is because you have no intent on being a freelance writer, and you have no intentions building your restaurant or other service industry business. This is what you mean, isn't it?

You cannot tear down the fundamentals of the system that created the greatest generation, kept a solid middle class lifestyle through the 70s and expect mine and your service industries to survive. It's game over.

Greatest generation? According to who? It was not the system that created wealth, it was ingenuity that did, and it will be ingenuity that will do so again. So, if you choose to, go ahead and sit on the sidelines and play armchair quarterback. For those playing the game, the game is over when it is actually over, not when non players declare it over.

Originally posted by Jean Paul Zodeaux


Now you confirm my suspicions with this post that your nothing more than a smarmy Marxist fool

And that reminds me, we are rapidly being beset with all the ills that caused Marxist systems to collapse. The power concentrated in the hands of the very corrupt few, the loss of faith by the masses, the hoarding of wealth by those political elite via their proxy banksters and megacorps.

This country is starting to experience the vilest form of Capitalism, where the common cynicism is "screw you I got mine" type of attitude. It is every bit as evil and without morals as the former Soviet Union. And this country was not like that during my parents generation and wishing it back into existence is not going to happen with flowery words and ideals.

Hi there,
excuse my english.


I didnt have a job for years now. And im happy like that.
I dont want to work all day till im old... and then? Start living when im 60? Forget it.

Im only on this planet once, and i dont waste my time with mindless work.

I dont need to buy stuff to be happy. I enjoy my life NOW as good as i can. I prefer laying down in the park, enjoying the sun, over buying the lastest iPhone or whatever.


I dont know about the US but i get enough money for a living from the state anyway. Damn, there are people around me, who are working 10hours a day, who have less money than i do.
And those are not jobs that you do because you like/love it. Its jobs the people hate. They do it because they are bored at home, they watch advertising and are reaching for the "material stars" which they can never ever reach.

And they feel bad if they dont pay taxes. "I owe it my country." BS. Im proud of not paying taxes, because i have no influence what they are spent on anyway. Hell, we havent even been asked if we want to have a new currency (Euro) or if we agree in having not-elected officials who can make laws for our country (EU). I dont play this game anymore.
I strongly disagree with taking part of the monetary system. Because its obviously not working. And it killed democracy. I try to spend as less money as possible and i do not use banks. I have no television. I dont have expensive clothes. I dont have a cell phne. And im happy.

Im a free human being, enjoying my life, trying to get enlightenment about the universe and everything.

Please keep always in mind, that: You are only on this planet once. This is the only life you get. Every second counts.

(At least till we have evidence for reincarnation, but that is a different topic)

Here's a movie, called the American Dream. Perfect match to this thread.


Link (if the video above is not working):
www.youtube.com...

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux


It's too late for me to respond to those now, but I will tomorrow.