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Dear Future American Generations, You Are Screwed
Faith that the future will be better than the present is slipping, as despite President Obama's demands that Americans not be "cynics," a new report shows there is a major lack of confidence that the next generation will have it better than the last one. As WSJ reports, most strikingly, only 16% of respondents agree that job and career opportunities will be better for the next generation than for their own – a drop from the 56% who were optimistic about this measure in 1999 and down even from the 40% who agreed in November 2009, well into the recession.
In addition, a majority of those surveyed believe the recession permanently altered economic conditions in the U.S.
The numbers, while measuring individuals’ feelings rather than more objective measures such as employment or income, paint a picture of a workforce scarred by personal experience with unemployment or close proximity to others who suffered.
And despite more than six consecutive months of companies adding 200,000 or more jobs, workers are still pessimistic about their prospects for finding decent work. “Only 20 percent of currently employed workers feel extremely or very confident they could find another job if they were laid off,” the researchers found.
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Cynics!!
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In ascending order of importance:
1. Apply yourself in a field of work you actually enjoy. Work smart (hard work intelligently applied). Never stop learning- educate yourself daily, try new approaches. Live within your means, and realize that if you live in the US, your standard of living is by far better than the overwhelming majority of humans that have ever lived. Never feel sorry for yourself. Always do what is right. Treat others the way you would like to be treated. Never take revenge, and always forgive. Show love in everything you do. Plan to work until you die, retirement is an increasingly elusive dream that few will actually experience. So choose your field of work wisely. It’s never too late to change.
2. Learn survival skills- how to start fire, how to find pure water or how to make it pure. Learn how to make shelter, clothing, traps, and weapons. Learn how to fish, hunt, trap and gather. Learn what plants, fruits, nuts, bark, roots, insects are edible in your area. Practice regularly. Get yourself and keep yourself in top physical, mental and spiritual health. Avoid all drugs.
3. Prepare for The End Of The World As We Know It- the imminent return of Jesus Christ within your lifetime. Monetary wealth, precious metals, the desires of the flesh will soon be worthless, those chasing them are chasing after the wind. Get right with God and prepare to soon meet Him.
The cost of hiring is horrible.
I'm in California and when I was able to sit an accounting office for small companies (that were midsized before 2008)- I noticed that these firms were being sued left and right by investors for losing investor money during the subpirme collapse. They were once high profile, midsized companies who had to layoff, change their product and pay $20,000-$30,000 PER MONTH to law firms for protection against their investors.
How many accountants, CPAs and business consultants can you hire for $30,000/month?
Mind you, the corporate tax in CA is 8%, over 10% for finance companies.
The same law firms who are hired to protect these businesses from investors are the same ones who tried to get the courts to do something about the counterfeit subprimes back as early as 2003 (CFTC was being misused to block these good cases).
The trouble is that this state is dominated with incesantly narcissistic and nihilistic patronizing boomer ideologues. And drugs. (sorry to hate on that sector, nobody quality controls the recreational mind candy and big pharma).
On the bright side, in areas like Santa Barbara county boomers are exercising and eating better. They actually look better- some of the rich look pretty damm good for 70 year olds which is a great trend to set. Imagine using Calcium and Magnesium (and clean healthy eating) to knock out that arthritis instead of big pharma's "solutions" ...then being able to walk 4 miles a day. These people are trying to set a real trend. It's working- with the college students and a few people in the Gen X&Y groups.
Others - omg. It's so ugly. They're still vein and they're so raunchy- taking from medicare for their vanity items and getting MRIs. etc . driving lifted trucks/SUVs with $4/gallon of gas on government's dime...So many may die before they retire. Natural Selection is costing us way too much.
The workplace you described was like San Diego to a "T" before the subprime collapse. There's a small company (taxed at 4%) where the only people employed with college degrees were all boomer "Sr. Vice Presidents" (10 of them) taking home 6 figures a year and a young admin with no degree to do all of their work for $12/hour. OR my favorite in San Francisco where I couldn't be hired on permanently after temping because the okay boomer (non-competative) worker wouldn't retire because she had to pay for her kid's dorm fees (I paid my own while going through school).
Norcal had a U-6 unemployment rate of 14% and it worked against you if you were not a techie.
Los Angeles had a 22% U-6 unemployment rate (add Sag/Aftra merger) - LA is home to 9 great schools and businesses should be flooding that area for talent. But the NARCISSISTIC politicrat boomers won't. they think we all should live on $12/hour forever while they keep pushing us into uninhabital living situation with their "investment" schemes (real estate ponzi scheme).
I very strongly resent the group.
I'm 34 and am right where you are. The generation between Boomers and Millennials is Gen X (b. 1961-1981). Many Millennials are hard workers, but I notice quite a few entitled/whiny ones, too. Now, as an Xer, I'm self-centered, but Millennials take the cake. They seem to be completely walled off from everything but their smartphone. I think the Boomers are just ready to call it a day; cash out and take what they can get. Can't say that I blame them.
You think we're bad (Millenials) just wait until this new batch of snot-nosed brats reaches maturity that have grown up ONLY knowing high-speed internet, cell phone in hand at age 8 (or earlier), hooked on social media like it's crack, whose future is even worse than ours (the Millenials), and if you think OUR work ethic is bad (again, the Millenials) we'll see how it goes for all these little tykes that were born after 2000.
Post 9/11 brain washed (brain dead?) minions ready to consume whose attention span only lasts as long as the hippest youtube video or hashtag. See Ice bucket challenge and fire challenge for a reference.
Must READ:
Russian Aggression Prevention Act of 2014
Directs the President to establish a United States-German Global and European Security Working Group to focus on areas of mutual concern, including the situation in Ukraine, and increasing political, economic, and military cooperation between the two states.
More:
http://homment.com/usarussia
Make Viagra over the counter & double the pension payouts. Someone might as well have fun.
Fun ??
You mean someone other than the Bankers and Politicians ???
It wasn't the recession that permanently altered the economic conditions, it was the idiotic belief that permanent Keynesian "stimulus" would prevent the deleterious effects of big government and the warfare/welfare state. The recession merely pulled the wool off our eyes...
I'm guessing that 16% is either FSA, government employees, immigrants, insurance, real estate, oil and gas, health care or finance.
Humans are screwed. Humans are finished. As long as human predators retain the power to overtly enslave [the vast majority of] human beings, humans are utterly, totally, completely screwed. And the human predators will retain their power as long as humans are clueless sheep, who cannot identify what is happening in front of their eyes.
As long as human believe there is ANY legitimacy to the term "authority", they are screwed. As long as humans cannot understand which terms in their language refer to reality, and which are fiction, humans are screwed.
The following are pure, unadulterated fiction:
organization
government
corporation
regulation
authority
country
statute
county
nation
offical
state
legal
law
And the list goes on and on. Until a substantial number of humans understand these terms are fiction, and have no basis whatsoever in reality, humans will remain incapble of escape from their matrix-like enslavement. Since that won't happen, humans are indeed screwed.
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Government (and other fictions) cannot be fixed. Why? Well, to begin with, they don't exist, trying to fix something that doesn't exist is a blatant self-contradiction and pure insanity. What does exist are predators pretending to be [officials of] government. The way to treat predators of all species is the same... eliminate them or cage them. The solution to the enslavement and destruction of mankind is as simple as that. And for anyone delusional enough to say we should reason with predators, well... you are so willingly insane that you deserve what you get. Just don't propose such nonsense for everyone else.
Speak for yourself, Miss.
Exactly! And you speak for yourself. If you love being enslaved by human predators just because you're too clueless to be able to distinguish reality from fiction, then don't ever tell anyone else THEY TOO must be enslaved by those predators, just because you love delusion and slavery.
Speak for yourself, and only yourself. Suffer the consequences of your own ideas and actions alone, and leave everyone else to enjoy/bare/suffer the consequences of their ideas and actions.
What you profess is somply existence. There is no need for change or lack of change for "everyone else to enjoy/bare/suffer the consequences of their ideas and actions"
We are all in the same existential plane. So whatever you do begets the already known consequences. Your idea of enslavement exists no matter what. There is no such thing as existence without the influence of others. Even if you are the last human on earth, your existence faces the consequence of the earth itself.
Sorry, but "influence" is not the same as "enslave". All you're trying to do is pretend "influence" is "slavery" so you can claim "we must all be enslaved, because humans can influence each other". That's just a pile of nonsense.
People can treat each other (and influence each other) in different ways. One important distinction is "voluntary interactions" versus "involuntary interactions". Don't pretend there is no difference.
You don't know me at all, yet you presume to speak for me as if you do. A pity.
You've made some fine points over the past year, Ann, but taken on the whole I was wrong to have thought so highly of you.
Honestann, I largely agree with just about everything you say, except your basic premise, that humans are finished. There are those of us - you, me, most of the ZH crowd - who understand all this and can actually prosper from it.
I know that may sound rather mercenary to some people, and it is, but, don't we have an obligation to at least save ourselves?
Taking the point further, I believe it is up to us to lead, show the way out of the morass of authority which enslaves so many. To that end, I tell everyone I know certain things. Grow a garden, learn a trade, cut your expense, don't buy healthcare, etc. Some listen, mostly the younger ones. They are the most disturbed by the inequality and official lies they see.
The older ones, my age (60) and close to it, are solely focused on themselves, to such a degree that they willfully ignore reality and want to believe that everything is just fine and will work out OK. This includes college professors, other professionals, mostly people who have saved and are looking forward to retirement.
Just as our parents and elders showed us the way forward, it is up to some of us to lead. I often consider some of the words of my father, a WWII veteran and self-made private attorney. The most important advice he gave me was to be different and to be self-reliant, and I think that's a huge problem today. Most people want to fit in and have no idea what it takes to be self-reliant. A healthy ego, self-confidence and a bit of criminal thinking are probably the most desirable traits.
These days, people are afraid of authority, and that's likely always been the case, but even moreso today. People need to be told that if they stand up for themselves, they will not be standing alone. They should take heed of the message from the Bundy Ranch, not the useless media-created fiasco of Ferguson.
Some of us must lead. Silence will only serve to embolden the tyrants.
Future generations can live better than those of today, or of the past, if we demand change and accept no alternatives.
Of course, getting even the most ardent freedom-lovers to agree on anything, not the least of which would be a course of action, is akin to herding cats, but, that may be a good thing. Rugged individualism (sorry to use the cliche) is what made this country great, and it can again.
I yield my soapbox to anyone who will stand up and speak the truth to believers and skeptics alike.
When I say "humans are finished", I mean "most of them"... probably "almost all of them", and possibly "everyone". While I do believe "humans are finished" in the sense I just mentioned, I work full time on a private endeavor that may liberate a few humans from human predators (as an indirect consequence of the technology).
But overall, humans are finished, because humans are clueless, utterly in denial, and literally insane in the most fundamental possible way (inability to distinguish reality from fiction). Human predators know and understand this absurd state of affairs, and take full advantage. They now have overt control of the consciousness of kids from the time they're born until the day they die.
Their parents are brainwashed, so they start the process by telling them endless popular nonsense, setting up the household as a microscopic authoritarian dictatorship, even telling them fantasy bedtime stories to make them habituate the notion that "fantasy is fun, positive, enjoyable" (the obvious implicit if not explicit corollary being "reality sucks"). Then authoritarian teachers take over. Have you looked at a school lately? I mean, even after school when nobody is there. Just look at the place... a freaking institutionalized prison or military training camp in so many ways. No privacy, uniformity, regimentation, authoritarianism, reward for obey and regurgitate, punish for any independent thought or interest. And these days, if you even point your finger at someone in the manner of a gun, you may be gunned down by a SWAT team.
The reason I "survived" was because I didn't let ANYONE show me the way. Not parents, not teachers, not television, not newspapers, not predators-DBA-government, not anyone.
Yes, we should indeed be self-reliant, and I've been far more reliant than most since age 4. Now I live 125km from the nearest human being in my self-sufficient digs. If every human on the planet died tomorrow afternoon, I could easily live out the rest of my life in comfort.
I considered the Bundy Ranch episode to be one of the few positive signs in several decades. I'm a bit puzzled by that event though. I've never met anyone who I believe would [reliably] "watch my six" in dangerous situations. Yes, I've heard that a few tiny communities exist in the northwest where neighbors do behave that way, and I have nothing but kudos for those people. I've not been lucky enough to encounter people like that in my life. I have found a few (but only a few) people I can trust in the intellectual sense, but that doesn't help much when any physical danger might arise.
Yes, trying to get individualists to collaborate on anything is much more difficult than herding cats. This is extremely STUPID too, on the part of those individualists. In other times I'd say it doesn't matter, but today, with the entire world going hyper-authoritarian while backed up by endless advanced technologies... collaboration is crucial. Though a few of us might be able to literally hide in the middle of nowhere alone as I'm doing, that is not a viable plan for very many. To begin with, I am a scientist, engineer, inventor and product developer with decades of experience in advanced electronics and robotics, and lived many years before my latest move at self-sufficient scientific outposts where I became familiar with those systems. To have those skills available usually requires at least 3 or 4 individuals.
So yes, we need rugged individualism... in spades. But we also need collaboration between rugged individualists for many purposes. As early warning systems for each other (approaching dangers), to share costs of defensive systems, to develop strategies and tactics to avoid predators if possible, and defend against them if necessary. Note that Bundy would have gotten NOWHERE FAST on his own.
Yes, I too speak truth. But my reason may be different. I'll feel lucky... and satisfied... if I help even a few humans understand what's happening, become rugged individualists, or learn to collaborate effectively with other rugged individualists (something I failed at completely myself).
What I see that many others don't is... what happens when you mix human predators with the best modern technologies. If humans don't overthrow the tyrants soon, the entire earth will be a bullet-proof prison for everyone on the planet (except the tyrants). For the first time in history having the tyrants outnumbered 1000 or 100000 to one... will be insufficient to overthrow them. I won't get into details here, but careful analysis of what is coming makes this conclusion clear. Time to act has not passed, but almost has. But action requires that at least a modest number of individualists and liberty-advocates CLEARLY understand the nature of reality and the nature of the matrix they participate in. The bottom line is... they don't.
KUDOS ! Perhaps (Just Perhaps) you are better conditioned when you have live in generations under crony capitalists and not told bedtime (Alice in Wonderland) stories from your elders in parts of Asia.
Look like many of the Y GEN in US/EC is just beginning to recognize Predators and BS (Not an insult but an encounragement to wake up each day and ensure that you are not somebody meal).
Banker left Speechless by Irish Journalist!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCHu1kRT6hU
What will it take to get the sheeple angry enough to go out and vote for some of the strong advocates of reform (tax, education, useless gov depts, 1000 military bases and related cocktail circuits, cut regulations, corrupt social programs, - and on and on and on). The average citizens of the TEA party were focused at one point but the racist smears seems to have broken the movement that could have matured to fight the corruption. There will not be a perfect leader but with smaller government, the damage of mis-steps will not be as disastrous as what is happening now. Get involved, vote, and defend the Constitution!
go out and vote ...Get involved, vote, and defend the Constitution!
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Man, step away from the bong!!
No bong here - just refuse to beleive that there is no way to change the system. If you want total war , starvation, etc just lie down and wait for it - I will not.
If you uncover a snake, be prepared to be bitten.
That's the first rule of politics.
Red /Blue Teams are all snake dens.
So you are going to vote? Ha, big man.
this is what really chaps my ass- one of my lifelong best friends dad has all the money in the world. he travels, doesn't have to worry about shit. and he is the most miserable fuck on the planet. If I had more than enough dough, my kids and friends would have whatever they want, within reason. He has land, houses, drives a POS car- some 60's hippie mindset b.s.
He won't help my friend, his son out, until he is in his 60's, and he said something about a "modest" monthly payment. Whenever I am upset coz I am dead ass broke, I just think of this miserable dude. GO SEE A SHRINK! Just having money doesn't bring some people happiness, me on the other hand... I would FORCE myself to be happy... ugh! It is painful just to write this. And then you have the "lottery yahoos" that would just piss it away if they did have it.
REALITY 3.0
Money brings me happiness; I let in run through my fingers and listen to the musical ringing as it hits the granite countertop. The weight, and how it shines!
Maybe you meant 'currency' or 'debt-instrument?'
I prefer filling the bathtub with Sovereigns. Scrooge McDuck got some things right.
..as he rightfully should not help him out. Your buddy needs to stand on his own like we all (mostly) did. Counting on daddy to bail you out is what teens think when they run up the credit cards the first semester of their freshman year at university.
I am assuming your buddy is not 18...
life ain't fair, so take a break!!!
Are you kidding? Americans are being depopulated and replaced with... beaners, Asians, Indians, Africans, semites, LGBT losers, not even the good ones, all welfare queens, and directly because of this not enough Americans. Americans are already totally fucked. Our replacements will get squashed like bugs trying to lie and fake their way out of this mess they created, just like they got us into it. Fuck 'em all. Global thermonuclear war sounds like a decent option right now. But bugs are cheaper, ebola fans.
I can only say what worked for me. Had to move eight times in 20 years to find opportunity. No financing of toys or trips. Went camping (tenting) and day hiking for fun. Chipped in for gas for friend's boats to fish or water ski. Paid off as much as possible on mortgages until I was able to cash out and get a small parcel of land - built house myself, put in a garden and have reduced expenditures as much as possible. Peace of mind had to be bought with sacrifice in my case. Good luck with your search.
Had you been Amish, the journey would have been shorter.
(Not an Endorsement)
You cannot build the future of the country with government and welfare as the core businesses ... but the morons are trying.
I suggest that the market for employment will, in the near future, be considerably better. Instead of the earth supporting a population of 6-7 billion it will be supporting a population of 500 million. And a huge majority of the jobs will be agrarian.
And your kids kids will get too enjoy. Well, maybe.
Our future is only an investment away. If the earth could be Germany who would complain. We just need the 1% to drop the dime.
?
32 year old IMMMIGRANT from Portugal that worked FOUR jobs committed suicide in her car in NJ. Greencards are expensive. Add krap economy.
"New Jersey woman who worked multiple jobs dies while napping in her car: cops"
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/new-jersey-woman-worked-multiple-jobs-dies-napping-car-cops-article-1.1920260#ixzz3Bp9nS0N1
Thats nothing. Robin Williams died slowly from a million, million legal paper cuts inflicted over a lifetime, and the killers walked.
Vague. Are you referring to his ex-wives and support assessments, being screwed over by lawyers and agents, or something else?
Not suicide, accident.
Whaaaa? Why not open all 4 doors of the Kia Sportage, and the hatch back, and let the car air out for 5 minutes?
The entire USA has become pussy-fied and safety obsessed.
These guys were looking to use their fancy atmospheric testing equipment, but common sense left them behind.
I am currious who are the 16% that think that the next generation will have better employment choices? Also I read that only 4% think that congress is doing a great job. Who is that 4%?
When will people learn that it is the Senate and Obo that have held up any meaningful legislation - not the House. Heals are dug in and the divide created by "hope and change" will mean that the 49% (gov sucklings) will always vote for more of the same and blame the radical right!
They are anomalies. I am guessing mostly young people from the sticks who migrated to the nearest big city. Maybe the last bright ones from small towns, first generation college students. Occaissionally the two cross-eyed hicks can breed a halfway intelligent kid. They buy the 1,200 sf home and know they are doing better than ma and pa in the double-wide. Things are looking up.
They are the (growing) cohort of the mentally ill. That's what happens when you start running your society as a welfare state. Natural selection becomes perverted. Survival of the fittest is replaced by ever growing supports for the deficient. And before you know it they are running the place...
If we let this go on we are all screwed. We might get one shot.
And the "exit fee" was just raised a little bit...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2014/08/28/u-s-hikes-fee-to-renou...
"Now, the State Department interim rule just raised the fee for renunciation of U.S. citizenship to $2,350 from $450."
For many, the $2,350 will still be money well spent.
Oh..finally some news.
Odious debt
Mark it zero!
Americans are advised to keep a stock of Vaseline.
There will be a new Executive Order from the White House insisting on that. It won't need Congressional permission as they will also be using it.
Whenever i come across old angry and broke boomers my first thought is "what a waste of white privelige".
Racist, ignorant, and uses the non-concept of ''privilege".
You know how to densely pack your sentences with fallacies.
Things are getting so bad here that pretty soon the only ones that'll want to be illegally smuggled into the country will be ISIS Jihadists! LoL
An American born in 1945 can expect nearly $2.2m in lifetime net transfers from the "state" far more than they pay in, and far more than any previous group. A study by the International Monetary Fund in 2011 compared the tax bills of what different age citizens pay over their lifetime with the value of the benefits that they are forecast to receive.
The boomers are leaving a huge bill. Those aged 65 in 2010 may receive $333 billion more in benefits than they pay in taxes.This is a heavy burden to place upon the young. The article below delves deeper into this subject.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-young-will-be-burdened.html
The have and have nots should be replaced by the produce and prduce nots. Or politicians will find there is no more money to steal.
WRONG. every generation has been screwed by the Fed.
Forward! Because Obama.