You have a fascinating story, Cobalt. I see your point and it is quite interesting. Society has changed in so many ways over the years. It is nothing like I was taught in school. Only the strong survive.
If your job gets shipped overseas, you have choices. You can move someplace where there is work. You can learn new skills. Or you can accept a lesser lifestyle.
Here in Northeast Ohio, you can meet tens of thousands of underemployed people. A significant number of them have college degrees. A shocking number have post-graduate degrees. There are no jobs within their chosen field to be found. So they take up a trade and continue paying their bills. They haven't given up anything. Many have moved away. Sometimes one cannot pickup and go. I can attest that I have met even MORE such persons in California than Ohio.
Thousands of steel workers were given government grants to go back to college and learn computer programming. You would be stunned to know how many people here can both manufacture steel and program the heck out of a computer . . . provided it uses a long forgotten language, such as Fortran, Cobal or Basic.
In between infomercials, televisions ads sell the merits of one school after another, claiming "high paying jobs" upon graduation. Many are sucked in and realize they now hold a sucker's degree. . . in another obsolete area. Universities have extreme difficulty catching up to internet speed. Most are still trying to move into the 90's. Many are still trying to move into the 80's. We are increasingly teaching worthless degrees. . . (one of the things I have been doing at a university here is developing new degree programs which are more in touch with these new realities).
Without CORRECT training and without a decent jobs, these same people (all races, ages, creeds, etc.) get up, dust themselves off and try again. . . they turn to the classified job ads. But most of those are sucker ads looking for "churn and burn". So they hop from one "sales" job and "opportunity seeker" offer to another. . . not always with hopes of striking it big. . . but usually with the hope of just getting by with a little left over at the end the month. There is so much out there that leads nowhere fast and leaves people worse off than where they began.
That concept, I am sad to report, has become so foreign to so many for so long. . . that yes, hopelessness has set in. There is a downward spiral that is easy to slip into. Fighting your way up and out becomes harder and more futile as time passes.
Blame? I point the finger at Washington politicians and at corporate greed-mongers. Discretionary income has eroded into negative numbers over the last 50 years. Prices have soared in the same period, while wages were mostly frozen. Politicians still cut their sweet deals. And corporate America thrived. . . and still thrives, as they continue sending jobs overseas and automating shops and factories.
I have yet to hear anyone . . . politician or otherwise . . . offer up a feasible solution. Washington refuses to even recognize there is a wage / buying power problem. . . for fear of being asked to offer up a solution.
Workers are usually promised their jobs are only gone temporarily and that other "high-tech" jobs will take their place. Well, there are now many millions of underemployed out there. . . skilled. . .sharp. . .educated and eager. . . who may never again see a "proper" paycheck.
Rande Is |
