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Boots On Throats, The Long, Hot Summer
This is from Stone Street Advisors
Imagine being told that you need to do something in life and you attempt to do it, but the person that’s very insistent that you do X takes his other hand and actively goes out of his/her way to prevent you from attaining X while each passing moment in time said person begins to label you as “lazy” or not trying hard enough?
That’s what it feels like to the nearly 6 million people who have been out of work over 27 weeks.
(Image Credit: Matt Stone)
There’s no doubting that many of these people (as well as the 16% “underemployed”) would be happy to work. They have the skills, they have the motivation and many of them would most likely work harder to keep their jobs in light of what’s happened in the past 3 years. Yet, I see people who have the power to create jobs dispensing this sage “advice” that those who are unemployed are all lazy and they are not trying. They are trying to find work, many of them at significant (> 50%) less pay than their previous jobs. A job. Any job. What are they met with? Let’s go through a short list that those who like to dispense sage advice with one hand put unemployed people through with their other hand when they apply for their jobs:
- Overqualified
- Not the “right skills”
- Not a “right fit”
- Unemployed/Unemployed for “too long”
- ________ Insert your reason du-jour here
It seems to me that many (not all) of the same people who constantly preach that people should “get a job” are actively exacerbating the problem by finding a reason, any reason to not hire those same people that they say need to “get a job”. I’m quite sure that the unemployed know what they need to do and they are actively striving to do just that; find a job. Again, it’s not helpful when those people who have the power to create jobs are trying to come up with every reason not to hire someone. They spend so much of their energy trying to keep people out as opposed to discovering ways to attract talent that may prove to actually possess a shred of loyalty to your company, a harder work ethic and a willingness to evolve and try new things within an organization.
Many people think that entrepreneurship is a solution. It’s a solution for some, not all. But again, constraints are put on those who try to launch new businesses. Lending standards are particularly tight, if you’re unemployed and you walk into your local bank with a business plan but have little to no assets, you’re going to be laughed right out the front door (Unless you’re at a Chase, where you will be accosted by 6-10 personal bankers trying to get you to open up a checking account or credit card).
Bill Gross’s July letter is a must read. This quote is particularly relevant:
It is clear, however, that neither party has an awareness of the why or the wherefores of how to put America back to work again
I agree with this statement. As I wrote in Structural or Structurally Selective, legislation to prevent unemployment “discrimination” will only push it into more subtle, less detectable means. Legislation alone is not going to solve the problem; a grassroots movement to change the perception is needed. But first we must admit that there is a problem, and people that like to preach the “get a job” line don’t want to admit that their other hand is actively working to prevent those who want to work from doing what they are saying with their left hand.
Perhaps Bill Gross is right about structural changes in the economy in terms of fueling job growth on the back of a financial driven economy. There will undoubtedly need to be some work done to position those people who have been affected by this shift, most notably in manufacturing. Technology workers are being subjected to a structurally selective shift in the economy: employers are placing absurd requirements for these jobs in the US and then when a “rockstar” programmer/whatever doesn’t appear out of thin air, they cry from the rooftops that there’s a shortage of skilled workers in the US. Ask any technology professional/consultant about technology job postings and you will begin to see a broader picture emerge.
Stop putting boots on the people’s throats and actively work to remove the barriers of misguided perceptions and prejudice so that society as a whole can benefit.
Happy Recovery Summer.
This post originally appeared on Stone Street Advisors by BondWimp
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@Rhodin: Thank you bro, for explaining this so well to the readers here. I'm wallowing in Indian H1-B's here in Silicon Valley, and have been for 10 years. Nobody gives a rip about high tech unemployment caused by foreigners. They all think globalization is great and that American engineers are overpaid. They call it a free market, but it is a fake market that only exists because of the government regulations that created it. Of course, one day, when their asses fry in a cancer radiation treatment machine because of crap software written in Bangalore, or by H1-B's here, it will be too late. They will reap what they sow. Carry on.
I'm not sure the "get a job" people are the same ones as those making it hard for the unemployed to get jobs. But that many of the unemployed have worked their last job is obvious.
In high tech, job requirements are intentionally posted beyond what can reasonably expected for the pay offered. When no one "qualified" applies the job goes to an H1B. When "none qualified" cannot be documented, the job is withdrawn, and applicants are notified no one was selected. Then they re-design the job with higher qualifications. In selecting the H1B, qualifications become "negotiable" since the H1B is "temporary".
As it turns out, more money goes permanently into the hands of corporate executives (decision makers) if they employ fewer people in the US and more people in China (or wherever). The banks are complicit in making it so.
Until that changes (which can happen through a number of routes) the decision makers and their incestuous boards will continue to sacrifice US employment for what they "perceive" as benefitting their personnal pocketbooks.
... and yet they risk it ALL in doing so ... but they are short-term thinkers who believe themselves immune to everything.
Why should a corporate executive hire employees that are not needed and do not contribute to the bottom line?
You can get work. The hard part is getting paid for it. The entry level JOB has been replaced with the UNPAID internship.
+1 My son recently completed (read on) a degree in physical training. It turns out he will only get his licensing certificate after an internship (unpaid, of course) of three months.
Hear, Hear! Overqualified typically means were paid too much in prior job or 'we are dumbing this job down to a level a trained seal could perform.
Most jobs do not require a great deal of expertise and the fact that people who look like Lindsay Lohan or George Clooney are seldom without jobs indicates employers are willing to find the time to train someone if they want too!
Lets not forget "diversity" requirements have created a structural log jam in employment that is govenment mandated reverse discrimination created for no other reason than political gain . The weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth is a Cloward Piven strategy and an essential component of the financial coup d' etat.
Hogwash. Drop your rate, and you'll be working. Or start your own business. Enough complaining that we're not getting paid like we did in the 1970s-90s. That was nice, but it's over.
The problem is that the government, banking, insurance and regulatory overhead on both small businesses and individuals has increased to the point where people cannot exist at 1970s - mid 1990s income levels without breaks and/or subsidies.
The overhead is now the problem, not the wages.
I actually know what a pulpcutter does. Can one actually make a living wage these days? Somehow I don't think $15/cord will actually cover expenses and food. So then what?
Next time you hit some 'fat' years, SAVE MONEY, rather than blowing every dime you make, or can borrow, on crap you don't need. That way, you have money to grow your business when the next economic downturn hits - which history shows is the best time to expand. This advice is at least as old as the Old Testament. It's not boring, straight or square; it's the way to an interesting, self-directed life, and financial independence. Or, to put it in the theme of your post, to be able to tell the little fag with the jackboots to F off!
You can only be a slave (have a jackboot on your throat) if you permit it.
Work so I can bend over for Wall Street and Washington?
No thanks, been there, done that.
well......... let's see.... first, eliminate greed in exec offices, eliminate "stock options" for fat pigs, put those "rockstar" programmers in as CEO at 1/10 the the pay, hire people to shuffle paper at min wage, with guaranteed fast-track to $10/hr and guaranteed OT, re-structure the entire corporate incentive system, kill all the bankers, disincentivize short-term planning, blah blah blah. Now, all you have to deal with is the "un-skilled" millions. Still gonna have to hire half to dig holes and others to fill them back in because there simply ain;t no fuckin' place to put all the "manufactured" shit any more. Oh, did I mention "demand" problems?
No worries, Jeff Immelt is on the case.
Washington not bailing out Wall Street would have been a starting point.
Instead, TPTB chose oppression and the status quo.
The necessary response from the mammon lusters and megalomaniacs is to blame the masses rather than accept their own culpability and consequences for their malfeasant choices.
TPTB need now to foment class warfare, as well as ageism and generational warfare.
If you can blame the young or blame the old, blame the poor or blame the rich (while bleeding the middle class), and create animosity between nations (while those same nations central banks share money stolen from their constituents) than the masses will continue in ignorance and attend to the bread and circuses and allow the tyranny continue.
The MSM has worked hard to maintain the bifurcation, the polarity, of the old memes; however, enough suffering and anger and that perception and those ways will collapse.
It may take some time, but when it happens it will come with a speed and violence that will shock the world.
Torch The Hamptons
Every Last Bit
In The Ass
I like it.