Posted on 02/14/2012 9:00:34 AM PST by SeekAndFind
How in tarnation does that work when there are not enough jobs to begin with for young people?
Not to mention the sky high cost of renting a home or apartment. Throw in all the other cost of insurance, car payments food, utilities, gas, etc etc...In today's America, millions of adults can't even makes ends meet. Where ya been?
Did ya notice there are millions of empty homes adults couldn't hold onto? The landscape is covered with them.
For the majority of young people, these jobs simple don't pay enough for young people to go get their own place. Yeah, they can go in on an apartment with two or three others, but that only works for a very limited time..It never lasts.
You seem detached from reality.
It is sad when I see people come in where I work all dressed up wanting to drop off a resume when I know just from looking at them that they have too much education for what we have and what work experience they have is irrelevant to any job we can offer.
This isn't your parents America.
I disagree with your premise: here in San Antonio, jobs - especially entry-level, just out of college jobs - are going begging. McDonald’s (my first job) is always hiring. Domino’s (my second job), et al always need drivers. If minimum wage isn’t enough, then get a second job. Sorry, we have a baseline disagreement (or difference in job market). My children have never NOT had jobs since they were in high school.
I’m a military reservist and a lawyer with my own itty bitty firm. I work my ass off to pay my two staff people and all the overhead. I sing on the weekends. I disagree that I’m “detached from reality”.
I think the biggest force for all that is that we keep delaying adulthood. When 18 year old got married and owned cars they could also drink. There was an expectation then that when you turned 18 you were an adult with all the responsibilities and privileges. Now when you turn 18 you get almost none of the privileges, and parents aren’t forcing the responsibilities. And really why take on more responsibility than you have to, any kid who paid any attention at all to their parents’ lives knows responsibility blows.
And the parents keep putting up with it. My in-laws are completely tolerant of their 27 year-old unemployed loser, they don’t expect anything from him, he doesn’t have to contribute to the household at all, and they still give him an allowance. Yeah they bitch about how irresponsible he is, but for the price of listening to them complain a couple hours a week he gets a free room, 3 squares, and $50 for his pocket. The year I was about to turn 18 my mom said I’d get June for free because I was graduating high school, and July for my birthday, but starting in August I was going to be paying rent, better get a job.
When you get right down to it people don’t want responsibility, it gets forced on us. Except that large portions of the current youth generation aren’t getting it forced on them. They’re allowed to stay irresponsible and so they do. They get to live the life that on some level we all want, no alarm clock, no job, nothing to do but hang around and relax. Most of us would adopt that lifestyle in a minute if we had half the chance. And they’re getting the chance. If we want them to get out there and be useful we need to stop giving them a free pass. That’s what I’m always telling my in-laws, kick him out and cut him off, he’ll only grow up when he HAS to. Just like all of us.
Well in previous generations there was also this thing called "The Draft", that kind of forced 18 year-olds to be responsible.
Here, it’s a bit harsher. We’ve had some high tech industries close up shop, laying tens of thousands of skilled workers off. Largely, this was a company that worked with NASA making boosters.
We also have several colleges in a 80 mile radius, graduating skilled workers - all of whom want to settle down locally. More’s the pity; as you gotta go where the jobs are.
I’m an electrical Engineer with 23 yrs experience. I had over 22 people competing for this job, and there are literally thousands of engineers in this state looking for anything that will allow them to keep their homes. In response, an engineer I used to work with took a job at 40% less pay than he was making just 1 yr ago - just to he can continue making his house payment. Yep, 40% drop. When you have dozens of applicants, you don’t have to compete salary-wise; that’s money directly to the profit line.
And if something isn’t done about government pensions and social security, the parents will have to move back in w/the grandparents, because they’ll be the only ones w/any cash.
Really? Is there a large demand for such individuals?
Regarding responsibility - you are correct. If you have no sense of self-worth, pride and integrity - you have no compuncture to take responibility for yourself. This is, indeed, a huge failing of their parents. Biblically, this is what I think is meant by the phrase "The sins of the fathers shall be visited upon his chldren".
But, the facts remain - there are ~4+ Million fewer jobs out there today, than there were a few years ago. You might find a few menial jobs; but a job that will support a family are few and far between, at least where I live. I've been looking for a better job for 2 yrs (yes, I am working as an Engineer - I'm the Lead at his position). It's highly competitive, even for Sr. Engineers here. Like ~50 applicants per job. I'm fortunate, I have a job that I enjoy, a great boss, fantastic co-workers ... the only downside is that this job is a contract, and I'm not using my skills or being paid what I should be making.
80% of those postings are generated by search firms and temp agencies to grow their "inventory" of applicants.
I worked at a staffing agency for two years, and it was an eye-opener.
Doesn't mean that there aren't job openings to be had. Looking for a job is full time work, and you're much more valuable to another company when you're already working.
...most high school graduates these days are simply not prepared to function at even a very basic level in our society....
&&&
In addition, most high school students are not prepared to function in high school because they have not been properly prepared by mommy and daddy.
I do not understand this. You need someone and they are OVERQUALIFIED? Hire them anyway, they can do the job; probably better then the booger eating morons you usually hire. You probably think those educated ones are a lot of trouble, right? Yeah, stick to the mouth breathers.
You are pathetic.
I would never work for someone so myopic and obtuse as you appear to be.
Amen! Amen!
Actually, it’s a very tight-knit community that’s tough to break into, but more and more exotic animal “safari” places are opening here in Tx. Zoos and wild animal orphanages are big as well.
Was your daughter in Japan for the earthquake/tsunami? Must have been scary.
My wife is half-Japanese. She had some family that was affected. Thankfully, they all survived, but it was really bad.
Our younger son was of the conservative/libertarian mindset like his mom and I. Then he went to Berkeley and became a liberal.
When he realized that his Anthropology degree wasn’t worth the paper it’s stamped on, he began to come around again. Still not completely back yet, but he doesn’t like Obama. He agrees with me that Hussein is a fascist dictator. So there is hope.
He’s been out of the house for two years now. We occasionally help him out financially, but we definitely aren’t carrying him.
I think some of it is a consequence(intended or not) of the sexual revolution, feminism and homosexualism. In a previous era, young males were encouraged and required to become a man and being a man meant get a job and become self-supporting so you could get married and support a wife who could stay at home and raise the children. When the incentives for that were taken away and masculine men were seen as something bad that our society did not want our sons to turn into, it encouraged this idea for males to stay perpetual little boys forever with no incentive to mature. And of course without men for women to marry, it affected females as well since a major change for one sex always affects the other sex too.
As an employer, I can tell you that there are risks to hiring overqualified people.
It’s costly to spend the time training someone who doesn’t plan on being there long-term.
When hiring, you look for good people that have education and experience congruent with the position.
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