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What Are the Options For Those Who Can't/Won't Get A Corporate/Government Job?
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
To understand alternatives to conventional corporate/government jobs, we have to understand "the economy we have, not the one we wish we had."
The average jobseeker is hoping to nail down a corporate or government position, for the usual reasons: security, pay and benefits. This is understandable, and it works for those who do manage to nail down a corporate/government job.
But what about everyone else? What do they do for a career? And what about those who take the Corporate America/state job and realize it isn't a good match for who they are and where they want to go?
The conventional options are on the margins of the economy: a low-wage part-time job or risky self-employment. No wonder most people want a secure Corporate America/state gig.
But there aren't enough secure, high-paying corporate/government jobs for everyone who wants one. The conventional (and carefully unstated) view is: tough luck, welcome to the low-wage serfdom basement of the economy. Take a part-time McJob or three if you can get them and spend your life scraping by.
I don't see low-wage serfdom as the only alternative to a shiny Corporate America/government bureaucracy job. To understand the alternatives, we have to understand the economy we have, not the one we wish we had or the one we might have in the future.
I often receive emails asking for job/career advice, and this is to be expected, given my latest book is titled Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy.
My first response is to list the four conditions that make finding paying work easier:
1. Living in a place with a diverse range of opportunities for work.
2. Developing a network of people who know I’m looking for work and who trust me to do a good job.
3. Having more than one skill so I can take a variety of jobs.
4. Knowing what kind of work I like doing.
Beyond these common-sense points, job-seekers and those changing careers need to understand the disruptive forces transforming the economy.
The Disruptive Forces Transforming the Economy
There are three fundamental forces disrupting the conventional order, and everyone with their eyes open sees them at work every day:
1. Essential resources are becoming more expensive.
2. The system of expanding credit/debt to fund more consumption (i.e. “growth”) has reached marginal returns and is failing.
3. Networked software, automation and robotics are reducing the need for human labor on a global scale.
As a result of these three structural forces, economic instability is not going to go away any time soon. Technology leapfrogs the obsolete and inefficient; no wonder conventional sectors and the market for traditional 9-to-5 jobs are both stagnating.
The realization that ever-expanding debt and consumption are unsustainable has given rise to a new understanding of the economy called Degrowth (French: décroissance, Spanish: decrecimiento, Italian: decrescita).
From the perspective of sustainable prosperity, growth based on ever-expanding debt-based consumption is the road to ruin.
This shift from debt-based consumption to a more productive sustainability is bringing profound changes to the nature of work itself and social arrangements in the workplace.
Though we can’t foresee all the ramifications of networked software, automation and robotics, we can predict one aspect of this systemic disruption: technology will disrupt the most expensive, least efficient sectors of the economy because that’s where the greatest reductions in cost can be reaped.
In our economy, these are healthcare, education, government and national defense, all traditionally viewed as stable sectors with guaranteed job security. That is changing, as the soaring costs of these sectors now exceed the economy’s ability to fund them. If an economy expands by 2% each year and healthcare costs rise by 5% each year, eventually healthcare runs out of oxygen—there isn’t enough income generated by the economy to fund its continued expansion.
Few “experts”—academics, pundits and advisors—have accepted the reality of these forces or thought through the interacting consequences. As a result, we’re on our own in setting a course and navigating the inevitable storms ahead as the old system lurches from crisis to crisis, weakening further as every politically expedient reform fails to address these structural realities.
Outmoded Career Advice Is the Norm
Though the transformative power of these three forces is self-evident, remarkably, conventional career counseling is still stuck in the past, offering three basic bits of advice:
1. Choose a career that aligns with your core talents and interests.
2. Get as many credentials as you can -- degrees, certifications, etc. -- because the gatekeepers who do the hiring require them.
3. Since the goal is secure employment, try to get a job in the government or a big corporation.
In my view, the conventional advice has it all backward. What worked in the past is no longer working because the economy and the nature of work are both being disrupted by forces that cannot be controlled by those threatened by these fundamental changes.
In the conventional view, a college degree prepares one to enter the workforce. This is no longer true, as higher education has largely failed to keep pace with technology and a fast-changing economy.
As for adding more credentials to keep ahead of the pack—degree inflation dooms this strategy for all but the few who manage to secure multiple degrees from elite universities. And even this is no guarantee of lifetime security for everyone, as the number of open slots in gatekeeper-dominated institutions is much smaller than the rapidly expanding pool of over-credentialed applicants.
What matters more than credentials is the ability to keep learning new skills over one’s entire productive life.
And while it’s certainly solid advice to align one’s work with one’s talents and interests, even this advice misses the key dynamics of the emerging economy—which I define as the parts of the economy that are thriving on innovation rather than depending on cheap credit and asset bubbles for their survival.
The thriving parts of the economy rely less on gatekeepers and credentials and more on skills, flexibility, professionalism, mastery and networks of collaboration.
In the emerging economy, security arises not from institutional promises but from a diversity of skills and income streams and a flourishing network of other trustworthy, productive people.
As a result, the goal for jobseekers isn’t just to identify one’s talents and interests but to acquire a diverse suite of flexible skills and a network that enables you to put these skills to good use.
In this view, work isn’t what you do between 9 and 5: it’s a lifestyle informed by a flexible, open perspective and guided by entrepreneurial values.
In terms of values, conventional career advice is based on the idea that happiness and fulfillment require institutional security and ever more consumption. But the more we learn about happiness and fulfillment, the more apparent it becomes that family, community, meaningful work and networks of trustworthy collaborators and friends are the sources of happiness and fulfillment, not the accumulation of institutional promises and more stuff, which turns out to have little impact on happiness or fulfillment.
The Dynamics of Economic Transformation
Capitalism and technology are both disruptive by their very nature. That mature industries shrink or disappear is not the fault of one policy or another; that process of creative destruction (a term coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter) is the heart of capitalism and technology.
Many have attempted to keep technology safely locked up so it can’t creatively destroy their regime or industry. But technology is a genie that cannot be kept in the bottle. To quote Bob Dylan: those not busy being born are busy dying. Every nation or industry that tries to protect itself from technological transformation either stagnates or fails.
One aspect of capitalism that disturbs many people is the mobile nature of capital—that capital will flow to the highest return, regardless of national borders or religious, national and ideological loyalties.
Though many attribute this mobility to base greed, capital that doesn’t seek to expand will fall victim to creative destruction: the only way innovation and productive investment can occur is if less productive investments and quasi-monopolies are dismantled.
This is true not just of financial capital (cash), but of human and social capital—what author Peter Drucker called the new means of production in the knowledge-based economy.
This will have implications for every worker seeking to escape the corporate rat-race or build a career.
One feature of capitalism that is rarely noted is the premium placed on cooperation. The Darwinian aspects of competition are widely accepted (and rued) as capitalism’s dominant force, but cooperation is just as intrinsic to capitalism as competition. Subcontractors must cooperate to assemble a product, suppliers must cooperate to deliver the various components, distributors must cooperate to get the products to retail outlets, employees and managers must cooperate to reach the goals of the organization, and local governments and communities must cooperate with enterprises to sustain the local economy.
Darwin’s understanding of natural selection is often misapplied. In its basic form, natural selection simply means that the world is constantly changing, and organisms must adapt or they will expire. This dynamic is scale-invariant, meaning that it’s true for individuals, enterprises, governments, cultures and economies. Darwin wrote: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, or the most intelligent, but the ones most adaptable to change."
These new ideas, techniques and processes trigger changes in society and the economy that are difficult to predict. The key survival trait is not so much the ability to guess the future correctly but to remain flexible and adaptive.
Ideas, techniques and processes which are better and more productive than previous versions will spread quickly; those who refuse to adapt them will be overtaken by those who do.
This creates a dilemma: we want more prosperity and wider opportunities for self-cultivation (personal fulfillment), yet we don’t want our security to be disrupted.
But we cannot have it both ways. Those who attempt to preserve the current order while reaping the gains of free markets find their security dissolving before their eyes as unintended consequences of technological and social innovations disrupt their sources of wealth and mechanisms of control.
The great irony of free-market capitalism is that the only way to establish an enduring security is to embrace innovation and adaptation, the very processes that generate short-term insecurity. Attempting to guarantee security leads to risk being distributed within the system. When the accumulated risk manifests, the system collapses.
Why This Matters
Why do these characteristics of free-market capitalism matter to jobseekers?
Opportunity is not randomly distributed; it results from what I call the infrastructure of opportunity. If there is no mobility of labor and capital, no transparent markets for labor and capital, no creative destruction of corrupt, obsolete, inefficient systems, weak rule of law, weak property rights, no self-organizing (i.e. transparent, decentralized) access to credit, limited means of cooperation, little room for innovation and no understanding of the essential role of risk in adaptation, opportunities for successful adaptation (what we might call prosperity) are intrinsically scarce. Virtually all bets made in this environment will be lost because there is no fertile ground—it’s a desert for opportunity.
In Part 2: How The Nature Of Work Is Changing, we explore the changing nature of work and what skills and values tilt the odds in our favor. (Free executive summary;Enrollment in Peak Prosperity is required for full access)
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When I was young (26 or so), private sector jobs paid more than .gov (on the average). Now it is the reverse.
EDIT:
I think "who you know" is more important than he writes...
Try to explain to a government worker what the crisis actual is...
"It's not that bad"
....
if you were pulling down $100k for the rest of your life with full COLA and free medical it wouldn't be!!!
few years ago, Hillary wanted to start a program to offer free school for those commiting to working for the state for 10 years .... got shut down without even starting ,,,, who knows how many applications and request they received .... talk about disconnecting from reality
My sister's boyfriend's aunt makes $10000 working from home, and if you are still reading this you are a sucker who couldn't secure a cubicle in .gov or .corp yet spending your time in front of the screen from your parents basement...
If you are rich you don't need a job.
Tried and true ways to get rich:
1) Marry rich
2) Inherit
3) Become a workaholic, no wife, no kids, no fun
4) Steal
5) Get Lucky
Oblameyou has the answer.........
https://grabien.com/story.php?id=12376
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" - Upton Sinclair
Im contracting for government and I would disagree with your statement.
Which part? And what do you do?
Can't say, Information Technology.
Two years old but i am sure it still hold water.
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2012/11/dod-contractors-cost-nearly-3-t...
Costs more because of: profit, overhead, ability to dispatch a contract/personnel with limited recourse, etc...
Not sure what your point is, however. This has been an ongoing debate since outsourcing began. Bottom line, the key benefit to the Gov is the ability to end a contract and dispatch personnel. Obviously can't readily do that with Civs (though plenty of deadwood in Gov). Of course, the current bloat in Gov will be self-correcting once the current system resets.
Usually they do pretty well. Of course it depends on what you do (not where) which is why I asked. Sys admin/networking, cybersecurity, and development are all pretty solid areas (bonus of course for clearance).
Don't know about that. Go on USAjobs.gov or whatever it is. A typical 50-60k private sector engineering job is listed for 80-100k on the .gov site.
It is more complicated then that. In DC the cost of living Iis 2x higher then other places in the country. I left government employment because I could make more on the outside.
The ones who make a lot of money inside the government are GS 15 and SES. They get huge amounts of time off, bonuses and high salaries.
Yes, they get bonuses during the recession.
Simon: No Chile for you!
Similar to Weimar Germany, secure jobs for Government workers with increasing pay as Reichmark devalued. Instead the only jobs available are connected to the Government which has access to capital markets to issue more debt. More jobs vs More pay.
Its a blue belly shoot
They can try to win the lottery
Become a pimp
A meth cook
Or a civil servant
They don't call them "Civil Servant"s any more..., first they aren't "Civil" and these better capture their role "Overlord", "Retired Teacher and Living Large", "World Traveler"(ever see the number of teachers on a crusise or organized trip...they are the only ones that have big cash in retirement!) or simply "Master" are more appropriate.
You must have missed the articles on the Pension issues; here now and just around the corner. Don't think they'll impact everybody (i.e. all levels of Gov)?
Yeah for city and state employees.. fed employees have the printing press as a back stop.
"Son, I'd like you to be a brain surgeon when you grow up."
"No, no Daddy, please let me become a gubmint 'folk' and live high on the hog...pleeze Daddy..."
They do until they don't.
Move to New York City and become a traffic warden. Apparently, the ability to speak English is not required.
and you retire at 35 with 25 years of service....their maths is always great....and don't forget the 5 years of accrued sick time...since you worked 120 hours a week for your last year.
Scroll down to the second photo to see what a lifetime of service to the people will buy you:
http://dailycaller.com/2014/04/14/lois-lerner-sits-in-her-lavish-house-o...
and the only qualifications needed was she had to be a c**t
I made $9500 last week by only working 20 hours online.
Of course, I had to split it with the Donkey and the Midget 3 ways.
pods
Logged in to upvote. ^^
lmfao! That made my day.
usually it's your brother's sister's cousin who makes the dough ......
Dude, if there's a donkey and midget in the act, they are splitting the money with you.
Is that an elected or appointed position?
For those seeking diversion, Louise Yamada is awaiting "sustained penetration" over at KWN
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2014/8/6_Lou...
"sustained penetration" the definition of government.
The number one characteristic in demand in today's world... a complete lack of conscience.
Oh... you want a government job
Good point. Charles completely discounts 'a life of crime' as a viable alternative.
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"
What Are the Options For Those Who Can't/Won't Get A Corporate/Government Job?
Start a new government. I am currently a finalist for governor of Mayhemville.
I would like the General Mayhem position in your new government
I want to be Chief of Stuff.
Prostitution?
Here have laugh.
A bloke wakes up from a coma after sixs months treatment off a serious car crash.
He wakes up and starts screaming 'DOCTOR, DCOTOR, I CANT FEEL MY LEGS!!!!!'.
The doctor says, 'Cause you cant son, I've amputated both your arms'.
Fucking smile bitchez, its never that bad is it?
:-)
Got any Ebola jokes?
How to curb the outbreak of ebola in Africa:-
Step 1 - Identify the infected
Step 2 - Prep the infected for travel
Step 3 - Place the infected on a Malaysian Airlines flight & hope they live up to their reputation.
This kind off hopium, will cause you mental problems, (raise spirits but dash them harder).
It's over.
You should change your handle to "Barrel of Laughs".
>> What matters more than credentials is the ability to keep learning new skills over one’s entire productive life.
TOTALLY NAILS IT. Nothing I learned in college or before 2000 has the slightest bearing on how I earn my living now.
The best skillset one can have moving through life: Rapid learning.
The stupidest recommendations made by others are they need to get an advanced degree and let nothing stand in the way of your career, and that What Color is Your Parachute? was some kind of genius book helping people find a career. A dumb title for dummies! You aren't prepared for self employment by education, but to fit into the nine to five routine. Which is one reason our country is hopelessly bankrupt with unfunded liabilities that will lead to a default. My advice to those working is stay with your job until you find something better but do not quit stupidly or without real economic opportunity. There is a large part of the population who have not had a good job for years....
Re; The stupidest recommendations made by others are they need to get an advanced degree
An advanced degree is great IF you are going into a field with lots of bullshit OR a highly-technical field with no bullshit. You'll make allot more money.
Understanding the flow-of-bullshit is very important.
This post is a very good question. Outside the safe nest of Government and Corporate work the world is a very cold place to be. I see so many people, even educated people end up in some form of retail. The college degree holders seek the assistant manger jobs in corporate retail of make coffee at Starbucks, hoping to become a manager of an outlet. These "manager jobs and assistant manager jobs" are really slave pits. Once a manager, your hours become almost unlimited without compensation. I have a family member with a marketing and media degree. Jobs were hard to find, no corporation would even talk to her, as they had tens of thousands of applicants with her same degrees. So she got an assistant manager job with a major corporate retailer of high end youth clothes. She loved the job, but the hours were 7 days a week, come in early and leave late. Wages frankly sucked! But if you add the long hours to the wage paid, her hourly was about McDonalds level. 7 days a week and holidays, no breaks, everyday a long day. She finally used a friend inside a big corporation to get that corporate job at entry level at headquarters. Hours are now 8 a day, 5 days a week and pay is double. So yes, corporate headquarters is soft and warm, while a store front on the street is endless hours and poverty wages. But for the sales clerks is was even worse. Working for next to nothing.
My family and I are all in to small business now. We each found a nitch to get into. Nobody is getting rich, but we still like it.
while i agree that the corporate life can be terrific one should always keep in mind that the psycho megalomaniac at the top can eliminate you or your division in a quick second. If you luckily survive until age 58 and planning retirement with said company at 65 please wake up! They will fuck you over and your benefits and your dreams so quickly you will almost have a stroke/heart attack from the speed of it all as you are quickly forgotten by friends, your business associates and contacts and find yourself at the retail level just trying to survive. Once you are over 40 you are a dead weight around a corporate profitability center and those dead eyed HR people are like zombies mouthing corporate platitudes while delivering the ax and the occasional outplacement help.
Fuck all of it and get into business for yourself.
Re: get into business for yourself
But, don't forget, the bigger the organization the more access to debt you've got. The debt is used to eliminate the smaller fish. So, best to get a job with the bigger fish eating the smaller fish, but you've got to have the brain configuration to succeed with the big-fish.
I work in film and television. The running joke here is: "So, you're an actor? Which restaurant do you wait tables at?"
But in this business the lack of stability is no big deal actually as long as you know what you're getting yourself into. Productions move around. No project lasts forever. Everybody wants feature films, but unlike soap operas they typically wrap in a year. Security guards enjoy better job retentions than most staffers when it comes to film shoots. The career is a lifestyle.
Margins are eroding constantly, but that's been happening since the dawn of cinematography. Again, no issues there. Adapt or perish, and as George Carlin puts it: "If you're needs aren't being met, drop some of your needs."
With 5 companies in charge of your industry, margins aren't being eroded. Your wages are being eroded because there are less studios, networks, etc.
Acting as a profession to study from the outside does provide interesting information, though.
You can see a difference in confidence, more so in interviews than anywhere else, between an actor who owns a production company and an actor who's a straight contract worker.
The bottom line here is own your means of producing revenue. Don't be a back office or support person. Don't just know how money is being made in your business but be the one who makes it. Run your own business.
P.S. I'm not an actor. I'm an equipment engineer. Non-union.
Running my own business - that's practically what I do. Still, things aren't getting any easier. What's eating away pofit? Competition, obviously, and reduction in consumer spending / ad revenue.
Not every project's an Avatar.
Now that I'm much closer to the end of life than the beginning and have a little more perspective I will advise my progeny to choose to do something they have passion for and makes them happy.
Chasing dollars can be souless and catching them does not automatically equate to happiness. Chase happy in your employment pursuits. If your happy "riches" mean little. Simple really. Happy people do not commit suicide and generally have a good time in life. Rich and or famous people commit suicide on a fairly regular basis or at least get involved in some vice or addiction that makes them as good as dead on the inside.
This little anecdote has to mean something. This does assume one is capable of avoiding abject poverty engaging in their pursuits of happiness.
<-- Start a new Blog site
<-- Start a new Religion
Cults are much more lucrative, working on a new one right now called Scientologier.
Pamphlets to drop soon, it's a bitch taping each one to a meteor.
"I've been involved in a number of cults, both as a leader and a follower. You have more fun as a follower. But you make more money as a leader."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLvUTVcYSfw
Um, here in this town, any jobs are few.
Used to be that if all else failed, one could get a job with Walmart, 7-11, Burger King, McDonald's or Jack in the Box.
And in doing so, one was admitting to be desperate.
Now?
Now, just getting a P/T job with any of the above is a juicy plum.
Openings are few.
Applicants are many.
I see more and more decently dressed people dumpster diving for recycleables.
Used to be just "homeless".
While Big O has enriched the .01% nicely, average citizens continue to get the shaft from him.
But Big O has a solution to the lack of jobs for Americans:
He will import millions of 3rd World low income/low education illegals.
Give them Amnesty and "free sh*t" and make them legal to work and vote.
Surely, at a time of record joblessness for American citizens, bringing in millions of illegals will help the unemployment problems of American citizens!
Right?
Right?
Can I have an Amen?
DK
Ask the dumpster divers if any of them remember the "Giant Sucking Sound" guy. Ask how many voted for him.
Survival of the fittest is a bitch when you find out who the food is.
Say- Fastest dog gets the bone, in your best Ross Perot voice.
Modern tenagers are spoiled. Raised with the idea that jobs will come to them. Most are unwilling to take risks and relocate. Remote regions with sever climates always have labor shortages. A friend travels far north to work as a cook at some mining town. A cook who can afford to take plane back and forth few times a year, because what they pay is actually sufficient to make a living... lodging and food are provided, which saves money.
Kids want everything - places to go, entertainment value, green trees out the window, high speed internet etc. That's why they'll keep waiting and waiting, whining and whining. Meanwhile, adults, whose expectations are set appropriately low, will keep forcing them out of the labor market. The working age of the population is rising, partially due inflation and the lack of savings. The other reason is unwillingness of youngsters to take the necessary risks when looking for work.
Teenagers have been spoiled since GIs came home after fighting Germans and Japanese.
Three generations of spoiled brats, all of us.
There's always stealing a $25,000 Rolex while pretending to be disabled in a wheelchair. Works like a charm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8g_ipX6xss
If you like your Free Shit Army benefits, you can keep your Free Shit Army benefits.
Well, at least until the next CONgress is sworn in.
My TBTF Zombie bank will be with us forever and ever, AMEN.
I would recommend humbling yourself by getting into retail or customer service and having to deal with real assholes for eight hours. Yeah, you the fat pig who can't even take a cigarette butt and put it into a trash bin or throw your garbage into one rather than dumping your shit on the parking lot. Try opening your fucking mouth so the customer rep can understand you asking for the 'rillo through the grill or flippantly saying "I don't care" when asked debit or credit, turning and walking away and having the card declined.
I hate all of you assholes.
I now feel better.
Yep, dealing with the Lards of the Onion Rings (americans) ain't no easy task.
great play on words.
what i never realized until being in the retail force was the incredibly high number of truly --i mean TRULY FUCKING SICK people there are running loose in our society from the very lower class to the extremely rich. Both classes with an incredible arrogant sense of self entitlement , like the totally rich asshole driving the 750 BMW who came storming into my store, bellowing FUCK YOU because he didn't have a license plate on the front of his car and I couldn't preapprove him for a gasoline sale. Or the fat suburban rich housewife who waddles to the counter enraged because the gas pump didn't print out her receipt and she a) had to walk and b) had to talk to riff raff. The poor just bitch because we can't understand their dialect asking for the Country Club Vodka, airplane shots or cigarillos. But they think everything is free--oh , I'm fifteen short can you cover me? EBT can't be used on open ice cream? You're fucking kidding me right?
Then there's the high number of autistic--functional yes, but also autistic people out there
I had a friend.
Worked retail/customer service for 20 years.
Got laid off.
But refused to consider another job where he had to daily deal with the ;public.
Just too many a**holes disguised as customers.
DK
i've definitely seen the one where a car drives up, parks for a minute or three, and during that interval they casually dump a bunch of litter in the parking lot. it doesn't even have to be from the same store. it could from the restaurant down the street.
Join ISIS - they're hiring!
and extra opportunity for woman.
Off topic
http://dailysurge.com/2014/08/watch-obama-wax-poetic-favorite-subject/
Watch Obama Wax Poetic on His Favorite Subjects: He, Himself, and HimBarack Obama is one bored dude. In one of the most honest answers he’s ever delivered, Barry even admitted to Barbara Walters once that his worst habit is laziness.
So how does a bored, uninterested Leader of the Free World keep himself entertained while being forced to speak about world events?
Why, reference himself, of course!
According to our good friends at Grabien, this week, during his big speech at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, Lord Barry mentioned himself (at least) 68 times in one 44 minute speech. That’s more than 1.5 times a minute!
Of course, every self-referential comment uttered by BHO is always a positive one, so don’t expect him to do the same when talking about Benghazi, the I.R.S., or the murder of Major General Harold Greene. Not that he’s talking about those things anyway.
I, I, I…don’t even know what to say about this guy anymore. But enjoy Grabien’s look at Obama’s latest display of vanity in the video montage above. He might as well have taken 68 selfies on the stage.
..
On the website they nail it with the montage of Beeker singing me me me me as a parody of the self important Narcistic Jihadist.
So, what are the options for those who can't/won't get a corporate/government jobs? Something about inovation, acquiring new skills, networking, Darwinism and whatever...I didn't get it.
That part's behind the paywall, I guess.
These are excellent careers/vocations: plumbers, electricians, pipe fitters, stationary engineers, carpenters, heating/cooling, etc. You have to work hard--many would rather sit on their arses and collect snap.
As long as we have the dollar I am afraid we will continue as we are. When the dollar dies it will be worse and then we will gradually reunite in competition with the rest of the productive world.
I see wages similar across the planet which is a big step down for Americans used to the benefits of having the reserve currency.
The good news is that eventually we will again have industry. The bad news is that it won't pay anywhere near what it did relative to other countries....and imports will be relatively higher...and who knows what benefits a freshly broke US government will be able to provide.
get gold...it may be the one thing that separates you from the hungry mob....
I used to have a business...45 employees.....and for me the most important points of an employee was...
show up for work
want to work
able to learn new things
If you did that..you would move up the totem pole very fast and make more money....so many kids just want to play with their cell phones now.....
I looked for attitude and aptitude.
So what if someone is producting in 4 months instead of 1 month-if they stay 5 years instead of 18 months and they don't drag everyone down with their attitude-welcome aboard!
"I used to have a business...45 employees.....and for me the most important points of an employee was..."
Yep, "used to have" (a business, a job, a..)...a common tale.
I have friend who used to have a small business too...about 35 employees at one point.
Now, business gone. P/T jobs, unemployment,...for sure not employing anyone or contributing to the economy.
Another friend, small business...lucky to have a wife with a decent job as his business is on the rocks.
These days, best job growth seems to be in importing illegals...be a coyote.
DK
So true; play with their phones and whine that they are not President after showing up three days straight without being late.
Small business is not what it used to be, the world is run by lawyers turning over rocks.
me thinks war infrastructure is a growth sector, followed by medical services, and finishing in grave digging. Trickle down prosperity.
I don't know about that grave digging thing, they always cry when I have them do that.
"What matters more than credentials is the ability to keep learning new skills over one’s entire productive life."
And ride purple unicorns....
How to do?
1. Stay forever in school. Be a professional student, ever learning new skills.
2. Get a job and forever learn new skills: Um, hate to burst your bubble, but most jobs are to do a job. Normally repetitive. Not get paid to learn new skills.
You chose the wrong job. Its unfortunate you didn't get in the trades. Its called a ticket to learn and you do get paid for it.
Just another article by a hippy malcontent who hates Merica, and the troops.
Get a goddamn corporate/government job you hippy, and stop complaining about the best goddamn company in the world!
Babylon is decaying for sure
Watch this great video, of the future of America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_iW9DzG-g0#t=57
I think this version is pretty funny too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2EKzoh6AAo
Apparently the authors think Michelle Obama is a man and the punchline at the end is worth the watch...
I know Baby Lon too. She gave up teaching 1st graders to become a highly paid mini-skirt-wearing realtor to make the Big Bucks selling boxes to suckers.
There can't possibly be enough Pro-Active Community Gender & Race Sensitivity Consultants are there?
How insensitive
Anyone spending six figures for an advanced degree right now is a fvcking idiot unless they have a well-defined plan/strategy....
Are there any securities to play to short student loan debt...??
Go real old school and be a pool hustler.
i was thinking of hustling at chinese chess (xiang qi).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_iW9DzG-g0#t=57
Nobody learned anything last month - CYNK.
I thought we were all supposed to become poets?
the key is "sustainable competitive advantage"
find something that no one else does.
and master it.
Lice-picker to the Stars
I'm shootin for a job at UNESCO.
I have this free book that explains how to survive in the current economy. Just send me $14.99 for shipping and handling.
government workers = overpaid parasites who are essentially on a par with the free shit wefare crowd.... USELESS
Their only 'options' are the Triple index funds, long, which they should buy with their financial aid, and student loans. At least then they might have a nest egg or maybe even do spectacularly well enough if they, J B T F D.
I dispute the view that Networking and Robotics destroys jobs.
I would cite that these words could easily be replaced by the words "The Cotton Gin" and "The Combine Harvester".
Of course when we do that, the idea that jobs were DESTROYED becomes ridiculous. The jobs in fact simply moved from manual-labor harvesting jobs to industrial jobs.
The article is right about adaptability.
Those itinerant harvest workers of the past had to be adaptable to transition to manufacturing jobs.
Similarly, we know certain sectors of jobs will disappear as a result of automation. But the nature of the replacement jobs is not yet in view.
Best to be adaptable.
Be a skill collector.
"1. Essential resources are becoming more expensive."
Charles Hugh Smith continually has some good points to consider. However, I disagree with this conclusions. His conclusions are apt for farmers and people who don't have access to education. His ideas herd people into subsistance work. This is good because it is flexible and reliable. However, the progress of technology and globalization has made it very possible to become relatively wealthy.
The bullet i highlighted above is key. If there are young people here who don't know what to do, just read that bullet. Go into energy and mineral extraction like drilling and mining. The pay is good (150k start, and nearing 250k on long overtime). If one learnsto be frugal and not spend "easy money," then this is a good way to go. Combine engineering with business management and you will never worry about money.
I agree. If I was starting out again, solar power installation and science would be an area of interest.
But there aren't enough secure, high-paying corporate/government jobs for everyone who wants one.
Yes, there are. Its the reason we have hundreds of thousands of indian guest workers in this country-- because there is huge demand for software engineers, business analysts, etc. These guest workers are attractive to US corps because of their work ethic. They work hard. Where are the American tech workers? Why are there so few?
Scumbagery pays well. Dale Carniggy has a class you can take.
Bring all these game changing technologies that support demographic trends, etc and away from financial paper plays into an undeground economy.
The Oilgarchs have no systems to handle an underground economy based on technologies.
The underground economy is an expression of non violent disobedience and an antitode to rigged markets, snake oils, etc.
P.S. Not talking about drugs, money laundering etc here.