from a pilot training classmate who happens to have his MBA from Northwestern:
—– Original Message —–
From: fastfac
To: dsevakis@
Sent: Saturday, September 24, 2011 4:11 PM
Subject: Jobs
Sent you an AOL article with a lot of unemployment statistics and recovery periods…most of which you have probably seen in one form or another.
What I don’t see, and I would suspect that Rand Corp Think Tank guys are still pondering the multiple possibilities of the issue, is the plight of college graduates…something of immense concern to me because of the potential “revolutionary” pressures that could (are?) building. A recent statistic indicated that 80%-85% of the 2011 college graduating class moved back in with their families because of the lack of “career-centered” work. That would be close to 2 million graduates from my understanding of the numbers. I don’t have the figures from 2010, but I know they are large and 2012, 2013….20xx(?)…still bad news since employment recovery is estimated to take at least 3 years to secure jobs for the 12-14 million unemployed (and that doesn’t count the 25 million of part-timers, many looking for full-time). I also don’t believe the unemployed and part-time statistics fully account for the unemployed group of students who have never been employ ed.
So…..the basic question being what do you do with an ever increasing pool of excessively educated people who, for arguments sake, now will compete for the blue collar jobs or find that their only income is to replace some Indian in Bombay doing customer service tips for Verizon customers? I sensed a similar situation several years ago happening in China, only there the college educated issue is 10X the U.S. problem. One difference of course is that the rise in the college educated ranks in China is quite a bit the result of government mandates to be educated with little regard to where they will place those college taught skills. In fact, one of the places for them is in the blue-collar ranks and I have seen it happening. The easy access to money has diluted the “have” and “have not” boundaries…the hell with education. I don’t think this is going to be a good mix for the future of the U.S. either.
Our society could be facing a redistribution of attitude, politics, and social life style that makes the 60’s/70’s Viet Nam counter-culture revolution appear microscopic. What do you hear from your learned friends on the issue?
Regards,
Worried With No Solution
my response:
Dear Worried With No Solution,
There are no solutions. That’s the problem. There is no theory of a steady-state modern, industrial, or post-industrial, if you will, economy. The entire planet has ventured into new territory and we are not sufficiently evolved socially, let alone morally, to handle it. And 19th century economic theories on the part of the Chinese, the Obamites and Eurozone twits will not suffice. Personally, I don’t think anybody in power really knows what they’re doing other than, to some extent, how to maintain their own power – for the time being, that is.
Except for modern medicine, we were perhaps better off as hunter-gatherers. Superstition and wonderment provided all the entertainment required. We no longer appreciate the rewards of the simple life. We now know and want too much to be easily satisfied. We find ourselves on an insane planet run by the inmates. And there are no political answers. As far as I can tell, the American experiment is winding down to an unsuccessful completion.
My apologies for such cynical pessimism.
Ciao,
Wingman
P.S. Maybe those who died when Truth, Justice and the American Way were not so muddled really are better off. I’m not sure why, but I keep a copy of Jim Badley’s (another pilot training classmate) UPT classbook picture on my desk. He’s not worried about this shit. If the Krell could not survive, what makes us think we can?