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There Will Never Be Enough Good Jobs Ever Again

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Paul Rosenberg via FreemansPerspective.com,

It’s over. Except for a short moment or a wild and self-exhausting governmental mandate (both of which are doubtful), there will never again be enough “good jobs” to go around. That model is gone and we need to root it out of our imaginations.

Sure, there will be some good jobs, but nowhere near enough.

About half of the Western world is already on the dole in one form or another. 93 million Americans lack a decent job and have no real hope of getting one. And so long as the current hierarchies remain, things won’t get substantially better.

I’m sorry to dump that on you, but it’s better to face it directly.

But please bear in mind that I’m a confirmed optimist. Just because there are no “good jobs” doesn’t mean that we’ll all languish in a meaningless existence. Far from it. Once we get over our addictions to status, hierarchy, and dominance, a glorious future awaits us.

Why It Won’t Get Better

The standard response to what I’ve noted above is to call it “the Luddite fallacy.” That line of argument says that in the past, innovation has not wiped out jobs, that new types of jobs were created and filled the gaps fairly well.

And that statement is true. Individual jobs were wiped out, but new jobs came along and (more or less) picked up the slack.

However, that is not happening this time, and for a very simple reason: Adaptation is now against the law. Previous rises in technology occurred while adaptation was still semi-legal.

Please take a look at this graph and remember a simple truth: Regulation forbids adaptation.

The US government is currently spending $60 billion, every year, to restrain business activity. (And the EU is worse.) On top of that, reasonable estimates show that US government regulations cost businesses nearly $2 trillion per year.

And let’s be honest about this: The primary purpose of regulation is to give the friends of congressmen a business advantage. Why else would they pay millions of dollars to lobbyists?

So, the new jobs that should be spawned, will not be. Mega-corps own Congress and they get the laws they pay for. And mega-corps do not like competition.

Furthermore, the political-corporate-bureaucratic complex will bite and claw to retain every scrap of power they have, and small businesses will be their first victims. (They already are.)

Trapped Between Hammer and Anvil

So, the people who are hoping and waiting for a “good job” to pop up are trapped between hammer and anvil. Robots are starting to roll into the workplace while the job creators (small entrepreneurs) are in regulatory and economic chains. They can’t come to the rescue.

In the 19th century, all sorts of possibilities were open to entrepreneurs. This remained at least partly true, even into the 1970s, when I watched the business heroes of my youth having a gas while making piles of money.

It used to be that a clever person could get ahead, independently, and have a ball doing so.

Those days, alas, are over.

These days, to get rich, one needs to take government as a partner. If one does not, regulation and legislation are likely to destroy your business. At this point, many of us (myself included) have had businesses – good businesses that benefited everyone involved – crushed by legislation.

To avoid being crushed these days, you have to be smarter and fleeter of foot than everyone else. Not many of us can survive in that situation, and as regulations continue to rise, even that number grows smaller and smaller.

For the generation before of mine, independent success required ambition, but it was reachable. For my generation, only those of us blessed with unusual talent had a chance at controlling our economic destinies. For the young generation of today, it’s nearly impossible. These days, if you want to jump ahead, you need to be part of something big… and you need to start as a sycophant.

So…

So, if you’re looking for the proverbial good job, stop waiting for “The Hierarchy That Is” to sort things out and get everything back to normal. Good jobs get fewer and fewer every year, and those that are lost won’t be coming back.

But… if and when you’re ready to change your thinking – to seriously change your thinking – this is good news too: You can reclaim the parts of yourself that you were ready to sacrifice to the “good job.”

You see, the “good job” was nearly as much a curse as it was a blessing. Yes, I know, steady wages and benefits are a very comfortable thing, but they also play right into a ridiculous, predatory script.

You know the one: where you struggle to display your status to all the other worker-bees. You feel like you have to do what the ads tell you: Get the new car, the bigger truck, the video player in the back seat, the gigantic TV, the most “amazing” holiday parties, the expensive shoes, the designer bags, the organic veggies, etc., etc., etc.

I would like you, please, to consider this quote from the boss of Lehman Brothers, just as the World War I production surge was failing:

We must shift America from a needs, to a desires culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old had been entirely consumed. We must shape a new mentality in America. Man’s desires must overshadow his needs.

Would you agree that their plan worked?

As long as you follow their script, you’ll remain in a permanent deficit mentality. No matter how much you have, you’ll always feel like you need more. It’s life on a shiny gerbil wheel. The “good job” kept us from knowing ourselves; it allowed us to sleep-walk through life. We got a “good job” and never developed ourselves any further. Work, retire, die, ho hum.

Then What?

So, if we forget about having a “good job,” what happens?

Well, it might very well mean that you do what you’re already doing, but you stop feeling bad about it. It means that you get over the endless grasping after status… of letting ridiculous ads define what “success” looks like… of letting other people define your self-opinion.

Letting go of the “good job” delusion means that you stop pining for the days when you could blow a third of your money on status crap. It means that you start taking pleasure in growing your own food, developing new ventures, and improving yourself.

It means that rather than begging politicians to ride in on a white horse and fix your world, you ignore them and start paying attention to your actual life.

Fundamentally, this means that we start using our own initiative, without seeking permission, and start building better things.

Rather than going on, I’ll leave you with two quotes, both from Erich Fromm. I think they are worth close consideration:

Our society is run by a managerial bureaucracy, by professional politicians; people are motivated by mass suggestion, their aim is producing more and consuming more, as purposes in themselves. All activities are subordinated to economic goals, means have become ends; man is an automaton – well fed, well clad, but without any ultimate concern for that which is his peculiarly human quality and function.

The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.

 

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Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:35 | 6211286 wendigo
wendigo's picture

It all ends in tears. Blood too, maybe, depending on the breaks. 

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:37 | 6211292 OldPhart
OldPhart's picture

There definitely will be blood...lots of it.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:39 | 6211302 weburke
weburke's picture

the author uses the words -never again. That would be the optomistic view. With vast depopulation, that could change

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:41 | 6211313 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

Never is a long time;)

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:47 | 6211321 wee-weed up
wee-weed up's picture

But, but... Obozo's BLS says everything is just fine...

They wouldn't lie to us... would they?

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:48 | 6211335 The Steaksmith
The Steaksmith's picture

So I suppose that means an "END" to the shills on ZH talking about $7,000 a month part time on the computer

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:16 | 6211443 BuddyEffed
BuddyEffed's picture

I can't tell whether or not this is a straw man or position paper making arguments that could be supportive to enacting some type of change to business rules that would allow for freer global trade, treaties, etc. 

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:37 | 6211507 MonetaryApostate
MonetaryApostate's picture

You can thank the Welfare Queens, I mean the government for brining us all of this socialism, now that's progressivism, I mean change you can't believe in...

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:57 | 6211579 James_Cole
James_Cole's picture

When they start bailing out regular people instead of bank executives, defence contractors & oil companies you can whine about 'progressivism'

http://projects.propublica.org/bailout/list

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:42 | 6211523 Earl Slaughter-...
Earl Slaughter-- Truck Driver.'s picture

Yeah, the whole "regulation is bad" thing seems usually mouthed by those who want slave-labor, to poison our food and water, and not pay their fair share of maintaining a civilized society.

 

For more laws and regulation, we should look at laws and regulations that benefit big-pharma and insurance corporations (Obamacare, anyone?), the drug-war and immigration policies that benefit LE Unions and private prisons, endless wars that benefit war profiteers-- things that most of us are against, and whose PAC bribery corrupts our very political system.

A reasonable balance has been lost-- laws that could benefit us are filled with loopholes and laws that repress us are springing like weeds.

 

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:49 | 6211340 angel_of_joy
angel_of_joy's picture

"Never" as in relative to one's life span...

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:52 | 6211350 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

Like interest rates relative to Ben Shalom's life span?

Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:40 | 6211309 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

Nah.  After the cities burn, there will be plenty of work cutting fire wood, gardening, milking cows, making cheese...

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:43 | 6211319 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

Go long rennet?

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:47 | 6211333 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

and tobacco seed, deer rifles, stills,...

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:07 | 6211407 duo
duo's picture

Go ahead and buy a farm.  The meth-heads will steal you blind during your first trip to the feed store in town.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:11 | 6211424 l8apex
l8apex's picture

The meth-heads will be the first to be wiped out.  

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 19:31 | 6211897 doctor10
doctor10's picture

THAT'S not what Donald Trump told me yesterday

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:37 | 6211290 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

Bullshit.  People who can provide reliable home security, personal security or real asset protection will be in high demand shortly.

I suggest getting long sharecropping, black markets, and guillotine manufacturing as well.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:54 | 6211359 SmedleyButlersGhost
SmedleyButlersGhost's picture

Add: brewing/distilling,soap, candle, jams, honey, Ammo reloads.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:08 | 6211410 duo
duo's picture

don't forget yeast.  Can't make bread or alcohol without it.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:40 | 6211311 lawyer4anarchists
lawyer4anarchists's picture

The end game for the average person has always been ugly.  The system is designed to screw them.  That is the only way a giant pyramid works.  Those on the top live off those on the bottom.  The only thing that is different in this country is that the people actually believed the fairy tale they were told.  http://www.thetruthaboutthelaw.com/they-really-put-the-con-in-constituti...

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:42 | 6211315 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

‘good job’ meaning high paying is false.

While I understand everyone has to get their beak wet, a highly paid worker = a consumer overpaying for a product or service.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:45 | 6211331 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

Let's cut government in half, deport 30 million illegals, and SEE WHAT HAPPENS.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:53 | 6211355 Budnacho
Budnacho's picture

...Add to that an end to entitlement programs and cutting our Military budget by about 75% and you may be on to something. 

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:04 | 6211392 two hoots
two hoots's picture

Then we may be near a balanced budget but with 30,000,000 roaming the streets while you try sleep hoping you wake up with some of what you went to sleep with.

Besides it will add nothing to average persons income

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:21 | 6211456 duo
duo's picture

You can thank LBJ for those 30 million

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:14 | 6211436 boattrash
boattrash's picture

When there are "good Jobs" to have (self employed excluded) somebody will come along and fuck it up, be it paranoid bosses, or Govt Agencies, it will get fucked up.

I had a driver deliver me 7,500 Gal of fuel yesterday, and he told me that his Co. is talking about making their employees wear ankle-bracelets FFS. Shit, you should see the hoops I have to jump through as a mariner...

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 18:08 | 6211618 divingengineer
divingengineer's picture

About 4.2 million Federal Employees, excluding active military, every one of them paying payroll taxes.  

30 million illegals, none of which can file a tax return.

Hmm, I think you are comparing apples to oranges. 

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 18:54 | 6211765 NoPension
NoPension's picture

You say 4.2 million like its a good thing. Payroll taxes, huh? Where does THEIR pay come from?

I'm near DC. When we have a bad ( +3") snowstorm, the government put out the word.." Only essential employees must show to work" . WTF is an essential employee. To my pea brain, the 90% that stay home are non- essential. If so, why the fuck do we pay you. Oh, yeah....its a jobs program.
And my son works for the Feds. It's a fucking joke. Loaded to the gills with non functioning idiots, slackers and old fucks who won't change, because they will be even more irrelevant. The U.S. government has computer systems and protocol from the 80s!!! Not all of it, mind you. The stuff they use to spy ,pry and prey on US is top shelf.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 18:17 | 6211653 Babaloo
Babaloo's picture

Where did you come up with the 30 million number?

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:48 | 6211337 Arnold
Arnold's picture

Good premise.

Many are beyond feeling good about small victories though.

Getting an extra twenty at the ATM.

Somebody pricing something wrong at the grocery store and getting it for free.

Actually winning a debate with the mentally deranged.

Being proud of accomplishment or craftsmanship.

Delivering a sincere complement.

Most of us miss the comfort of the daily grind to pay all the bills in advance.

Unfortunately , there is a great deal more sorrow to come.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 18:11 | 6211630 divingengineer
divingengineer's picture

Arnold, you are 100% correct. Having just finished the new tile floor in my kitchen I stand back and admire it. I can see the tiny flaws, nobody else can spot them. 

Did it myself, proud of it, not everyone has something like that to feel good about. 

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:52 | 6211348 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

At least Obamatrade passed.  Boehner did save us.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 16:55 | 6211362 taketheredpill
taketheredpill's picture

 

 

Time for Consumers to morph back into Citizens

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 18:29 | 6211369 Salsipuedes
Salsipuedes's picture

New Emploment Rules:

 

1) Get a job in Government

2) Act fey and gullible.

3) Have compromising, humiliating unnatural sex with somebody. Anybody. 

 4) Record everything.

 5) Assure Faustian Pact is in secure location.

CONGRATULATIONS! You're only in your third year of employment and you're Senior Avisor to the Weather Modification Obfuscation Division of the Department of Wealth and Human Servicing pulling down a cool quarter mil fiat and, get this, FREE DENTAL. Stop bitching you little pussies.

                     Senator Finegold

 

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 18:33 | 6211705 NoPension
NoPension's picture

So they say in Baltimore, per student cost is second in the country. Now ax yo'sef, wher all dat mony goin? Da classroom, shiiitt?
It's all sucked up by the administrators. An dat be yo gubbermint.

And at the other end, Lockheed Martin, Booze Allen Hamiton, Boeing are sucking it up by the billions. But it's for your safety. And the children. Don't forget the children.

Which brings me to this point....Of ALL the things we need permission to do; marriage,driving,being a doctor, contractor or plumber, build a house, cut down a tree, go fishing, camping, etc.... Why is not reproducing at the top of the list?

Want to make a dent?
$50,000 cash....to get sterilized. Then it goes to $45,000... Then $40,0000...then $35,000.. You get the point. Watch the useless eaters line up to get theirs, before it stops. We would save billions, if not trillions.

Yeah, I'm a sicko. I know.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 18:46 | 6211747 Salsipuedes
Salsipuedes's picture

"It's all about the kids." - Al Sharpton

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:00 | 6211377 two hoots
two hoots's picture

This is social evolution.  We have never been here before therefore it is difficult to envision the social future. It certainly won't be like anything from the past.  It is all too big for anyone, anything to control.   

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 18:19 | 6211666 divingengineer
divingengineer's picture

My great grandfather died in 1984, he was 93. He was a shipbuilder when they rivited together ships. He panned gold in Alaska in the 30's. He pulled his own teeth with a pair of pliers cause the dentist was too expensive.  

Could he have imagined society today?

I just got an email at work today, it is LGBT month, we don't tolerate it, we are expected to celebrate it now.  Negative interest rates. Mobile phones, GPS watches. $500 Vitamix blenders at Costco. 

He could not have forseen this future any more than we can see 100 years into ours. 

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:04 | 6211388 Joebloinvestor
Joebloinvestor's picture

With all the illegal criminals being let back in there is always the chain gang......

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:06 | 6211399 davidalan1
davidalan1's picture

Makes me wonder if Lois Lerner got her check today.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:07 | 6211404 Lordflin
Lordflin's picture

I have to assume this article is tongue in cheek...

We are violating nearly every parameter of human nature. Naturally this is not sustainable. To get from where we are to sustainability we will by needs have much bloodshed.

The truth is that most folks, black, white, Mexican, Christian, Muslim, Jew... just want a future for their kids. Lost in the mix we have the Boeners, Obamas, Pelosis, Yellens, Diamonds, Miley Cyruses, Paltrows ( steamed cleaned vagina... still can't get my head around that one... so to speak)... Justin Beibers... Draghis... I could go on, but you get the point... parasites all... or worse... killing the host... in this case the rumors of demise are long over due...

So the correction is just around the corner... and will be about as violent as might be imagined... more so.

Perhaps we are just dinosaurs oohing and ahhing at the approaching meteorite... but I prefer to believe that man yet has a destiny. That is one deep, dark, nearly bottomless gulf standing athwart our path though.

Hope to see you on the other side.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:10 | 6211414 Roanman
Roanman's picture

Another moronic Chicken Little.

Usually it's doom via "climate change".

There never has been enough "good jobs" you banal twit.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:10 | 6211420 American Sucker
American Sucker's picture

"Amount Budget for Social and Economic Regulation".  Without describing what that phrase means, the chart is meaningless.  Moreover, the $2 trillion claim links to a blog post that doesn't back the claim and says nothing of substance.  I'm not saying that Rosenberg is wrong, but show me something concrete.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:15 | 6211438 venturen
venturen's picture

Obama destructive foriegn policy...should encourage WWIII....and after WWII....there were lots of jobs rebuilding the destroyed cities.... so Obama using his superior intelligence to get us WWIII and full employment

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 18:27 | 6211686 Nanur
Nanur's picture

So you believe the "elected" I mean bought and paid for President actually calls the shots?

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:22 | 6211459 roadhazard
roadhazard's picture

The Gov. can fast track jobs outta here faster than the country can create jobs. The insane asylum is running the country.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:32 | 6211492 csmith
csmith's picture

"Once we get over our addictions to status, hierarchy, and dominance..."

May as well be:

"Once we get over our addictions to food, water and oxygen..."

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:37 | 6211510 Niall Of The Ni...
Niall Of The Nine Hostages's picture

There were never that many good jobs to begin with. Jobs paying more than a person could spend in a lifetime for doing nothing but giving orders and taking credit for the hard work done by your drudges were always thin on the ground. For most people work is a curse. It always has been. If they didn't need to feed and house their families few would bother working at all. 

The real problem is there soon won't be any jobs for working class white Americans, period, except as mercenaries and sex-workers. Everything else that hasn't been outsourced or automated will be soon enough. 

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 17:39 | 6211513 divedivedive
divedivedive's picture

If it were up to me - I would immediately cancel every H1-B Visa. I'd thank them for their contribution and then wish them well in their home country. 

 

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 18:22 | 6211674 Nanur
Nanur's picture

That would hurt corporate profits, oops I mean executive bonuses.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 18:20 | 6211670 Nanur
Nanur's picture

Yessiree, that free market cronyism where giant corporations are free to merge at will, eliminating jobs as they grow certainly does wonders for the job market.  

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 18:31 | 6211698 Black Rifle
Black Rifle's picture

It is amazing what these traitorous sob are getting away with. We don't have long and these psychopaths are going to be stocking the fema camps. GET READY EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!! This shit show is almost at the final act!!!

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 18:45 | 6211745 Evil Franklin
Evil Franklin's picture

All that has to be done is to lower the world population by 6 billion or so the Catholic Church claims. 

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 20:59 | 6212159 Last of the Mid...
Last of the Middle Class's picture

And, it's gone. The economy will never come back. Corporate greed looking for cheap labor and governments not takng care of citizens as well as automation taking more jobs every day. It's gone. Enjoy your free shit given to you for your vote.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 21:25 | 6212269 MrBoompi
MrBoompi's picture

When certain people talk about deregulation, it aint for the small frys.  its for the big fish

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 22:01 | 6212401 q99x2
q99x2's picture

  People need to arrest and redistribute the stolen wealth. We will come rejoicing bringing in the thieves.

Thu, 06/18/2015 - 22:49 | 6212533 NoWayJose
NoWayJose's picture

After WWIII there will be plenty of good jobs cleaning up the mess, and many fewer workers to do it.

Fri, 06/19/2015 - 11:06 | 6213956 Fire Angel
Fire Angel's picture

One of the best-written, reality-focused articles I've seen on ZH for a long time. Tyler(s), please keep channeling this guy. 

Fire Angel 

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