Lets End the Fantasy of "being employed" or Having a Career in America

Is it the president's job "to give work" to Americans? No. It's the EMPLOYERS job. If anything, the president's job would be to establish programs which make it more appealing to employer's to hire people (tax breaks, for example) or to set-up whatever programs which support employment..but it's STILL the employer's job to actually EMPLOY people. Is this so hard to grasp?

reply to post by NoRulesAllowed

I wasn't even going to respond to you, because I don't like your tone. However, let me educate you, since you seem to have a problem yourself, grasping economic issues. Obama is doing everything in his power to PREVENT employers from hiring. In fact, his programs have the effect of eliminating jobs. Turn to any news network and see what employers are doing because of his "Obamacare". Even unions are now protesting the effect Obamacare is having on the job market, as well as the cost of it. Furthermore, Obama is either completely ignorant of how to fire up the job market, or worse, he is purposely destroying it, so that everyone can be dependent upon the government. In the later case, he is still ignorant of economics, because when everyone loses their jobs, there will be no more money for government programs.I could go on with his tax increases, the complex hiring rules he and his administration have implemented, but somehow I have the feeling that you really don't want to hear the truth, based upon your tone. To be quite honest with you, with your attitude and fowl language, I am surprised that anyone hired you, even for a part-time job. Your anger comes through in every word you write. For your sake, you need to clean up your act, if you wish to get anywhere in life.Please take my advice if you wish to climb out of the depression you seem to be in. It's sad to see someone so angry.

reply to post by MystikMushroom


You are so wrong blaming this on repuplicans. The dmocrats have destroyed this country with their tax and spend policies and pushing this country towards socialism. People who work, fear the government and those that dont rely on it, perpetuating the liberal/socialist agenda. Do you people not get it? When the govenment controls your wallet, they contrl you. Wake up young people and vote for freedom and personal responsibility. People will not starve. They will work and quit thinking they are victims and society owes them. There are tons of jobs out there if people want to get of there laxy asses and lmprove their lives!

reply to post by Skydog88


Both parties are equally responsible! People are to blinded by party allegiance on both sides to see this. As long as they can keep you blaming the other party, they can keep the people divided and stop them from fighting back.

I just heard the ATS Live discussion on this thread from last week, taken way out of what I was trying to say with this thread. To keep it closer to what I was trying to say, is that those that have had a career for 20+ years good for you but this generation will probably not see such a luxury. I have posted enough info on here in the forms of links that show this down fall

I'm sure that very few are so naive as to believe our current economic problems are solely because of politics although, of course, it is part of the mix.

I've included some links below, but here are some of the fundamentals laid out in "Who Stole The American Dream" by Hedrick Smith.

After WWII (about '45 to '75) American productivity roughly doubled and so did the standard of living (for everybody from company owners to the guy pumping gas & the local barber, etc). That universal increase can be visualized as ~98% productivity & ~95% income. (That was even with a higher tax structure than we have now)

From '73 to '11 productivity was up ~80% . Because of a variety of factors, the average worker saw wages rise ~10%. Adjusted for inflation, that means that what I've earned since high school ('70) has not even kept up. The only reason household income has risen slightly is that more women are working and those working are working more hours.

At the same time, median CEO wages have gone up ~350%. In this last "recovery" the top 1% saw an increase of ~600%.

As I said, it's not just politics, but politics can't be ignored. The only two countries in the world with a higher disparity of income are Chile & Mexico.

Because C-Span doesn't make the video available for free, I've provided the link to their page where you can watch the lecture Mr. Smith gave. Of the three, I think you'll find this one the most informative because of the charts he shows.

www.c-spanvideo.org...

YouTube has two that are good. If you are truly interested, please watch both. While there is some repetition, they aren't word for word and each has valuable points. And, of course, the best thing to do would be to invest the time to read the book. If you can't afford to buy it, your local library has probably got it.

There is more than enough blame to go around, but it is never a waste of time to educate yourself on topics that are important to you and you'll be prepared the next time someone wants to start over-simplifying things in a conversation.

reply to post by CornShucker


Hey thanks man i will check them out when I get a little more time to look at what you have presented

Originally posted by jrod
I am about over living in the US. I have years of sea time, know my maritime Rules of the Road, and can ace the USCG Captain's Test no problem but I can not get a captain's license in the US do to some legal trouble 3 years ago and the fact my DD-214 says alcohol rehab failure(because of that legal trouble), despite the fact I am not an alcoholic nor drug addict but because I've been under/unemployed for the past 3 years I can not afford to go to a shrink that MAY write a letter on my behalf saying I am not an alcoholic. However the Coast Guard will give any idiot who has a clean record a basic captain's license(6pak) if they can pass the written(multiple choice) test without verifying they actually have sea time or even taking them for a sea trial. There is no other career I am more qualified for(except Lifeguarding) than skippering a boat, but I can't even do that in this failing country.

The system is rigged, find yourself in any legal trouble and you are automatically disqualified from 90%+ of the decent paying jobs out there, and those you are still eligible for will hold that against you when it comes time for a promotion.

The American Dream is now just an illusion. The system is rigged to keep the average person in debt for life, and then rigged to prevent their family from collecting what little wealth they may have without paying a hefty tax. The quality of life is great and there are plenty of distractions aka entertainment, but to think you can still go from rags to riches is nothing but a fantasy.

Sorry to hear your plight friend..

I've been actually thinking about leaving the USA and living elsewhere beside any country that hasn't been invaded either by USA or taken over by rebels of the same country and with a stable economy and not at war..

That will be a tuff decision

The dream died and placing the blame will do nothing to fix it. Time to start coming up with a solution. When are we as a country going to come up with a solution? Will it be when the fabric of society becomes feral?


The American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it - George Carlin

reply to post by bg_socalif


I know so little other languages that I'm very out of place overseas, I didn't want your response to go unnoticed since it's important (like you pointed out, I agree).

I know contracting overseas is an option but this crappy country is my problem and I have another calling as an artist. Maybe I need to stick it out and just paint the solution? Saying I'm conflicted is an understatement.

reply to post by GoodOlDave


Sorry it took so long to reply.

As far as the Navy goes, the rate you belong to is 9 times out of 10 what you'll be doing. Sometimes you may be
put on in an individual augmentee billet doing whatever, but most of the time you'll be working within your rate. At least that was my experience, but I was a SONAR Technician trained to work on a specific SONAR platform that is only on a few ships,us A/N SQQ-89 (v)15 techs are few and far between.

Originally posted by LOSTinAMERICA
The dream died and placing the blame will do nothing to fix it. Time to start coming up with a solution. When are we as a country going to come up with a solution? Will it be when the fabric of society becomes feral?

The way I worded it may have given an impression I didn't intend. The word "blame" is thrown around so much these days that it's a bit of a cliche. I shouldn't have used it as a kind of short-hand... What I meant was that there are a sizable variety of reasons, both political and economic, for why we are where we are as a country. I'm completely in agreement that the Blame Game has become a cop-out. As much as I am put off by Dr. Phil, some of his sayings squeeze a lot into just a few words. "You can't fix what you don't own.."

The book I recommended and accompanying videos point out several things that just kind of slipped by all (or most, me included) of us but contributed greatly to the decline of the middle class and put many in the position of having no choice but to seek assistance from the gov't just to live day to day.

For instance, the 401-K program. Admittedly, I'm old, sick, broke and scared sh*tless of losing what little we have, but I warned everyone I could get to listen that I didn't trust the gov't enough to sock away what could help feed our three kids into another gov't "Kiss & A Promise" program. Therefore, I wasn't dealing with sleepless nights and diarrhea when thousands of my "retirement" dollars disappeared in the blink of an eye.

I'd have to dig through the book or re-watch the videos to tell you exactly which two companies were involved, but I'm pretty sure one was Kodak. The 401-K was never intended to be a retirement plan for the middle class. It was a political favor from some politicians who were approached about a plan to enable the higher-ups from two companies to feather their nests before retirement. (You would need to read the book for the particulars.)

I'm old enough to remember when an employee who performed his duties well and stayed with a company long enough became fully vetted and was rewarded (at no cost) with a very sizable, paid-up life insurance policy.

Things like the 401-K and changing the law to make perks like that life insurance taxable income, lowered costs for employers while quietly chipping away at the actual take-home of the employee.

Don't have time for more, but I hope you get my point. I was merely using the word blame as a euphemism.