Oh, and where did the stories go about Doctors taking early retirement if
Obocare is implemented? The Gov cannot force them to care.
Because of automation there is a small percentage of the population that has nothing to offer the labor market. They can perform no task that can't be done cheaper and better with less hassle by machines. As automation increases this percentage will grow to 100% of the population someday. What we're witnessing is the beginning of that trend. Poor Americans starving is a thing of the past but we're pretty much stuck with more and more people permanently on food stamps.
Tell that to some of the unemployed I know and they'd kick your ass.
I'm sick of the attitude around here that anyone who needs to rely on public assistance, or might in the near future, is a useless do-nothing or that anyone not employed right now is unemployed by free will.
Preposterously, I know even now I'm too "cash rich" for assistance of any kind. I wouldn't know how best to apply for such things if I needed to. I may up relocation to farm country just to survive after one more push in a metro area.
I have a few friends in their 60s who've lost jobs. I know one gets food stamps. He used to handle billing for an internet host company.
The youngest one could not get EEOC to take his case of age discrimination because they deemed his position unique. What's unique about running electronics and electrical at a hotel in a major city that EEOC lacks data to draw comparisons? He did say he was the only white person at the EEOC office.
Another board did rule he was terminated illegally which made him eligible for unemployment for awhile but he's in a field where age is a barrier to employment. I was with him one afternoon when a headhunter called and flat out told him the client is probably "looking for someone younger." He's now losing his house.
I'm talking about college educated people too.
Part of the problem is once people see you've reached a certain level of education or a certain career position, they won't consider you for something "beneath you" no matter how badly you need most any job. Conversely if it's seen you've taken jobs to get by, you're harming your prospects with jobs in your career field because HR will discriminate.
All of this presupposes you can get an interview, that you can get beyond the barrier of automated job application sites. These days you've little way of knowing if human eyes will ever see your application or resume and some places don't have those positions to fill, they're just collecting data.