🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <JASON.92Jul27161514@ab20.larc.nasa.gov> jason@ab20.larc.nasa.gov (Jason Austin) writes:
>
>	Why is it so hard for people to believe that the US is in
>pretty good shape?  People that work hard and develop their skills
>have jobs, keep their jobs, and can find new jobs when they need to.
>Everyone I know that is having a hard time don't want to make the
>effort to find a better job or work at educating themselves.

That's not quite true.  Many talented and well-educated people don't have jobs.
Many more have jobs that pay the rent but don't provide satisfaction.  Most
of all, many of these people are working for a lot, lot less than they used
to work for, or than people like them used to work for (myself, for instance).
You should check out the Help-Wanted section in the Boston Globe.  There's
not much!  What few positions open up receive literally hundreds of
applications, because there are so many people here looking for work.  As
for educating oneself to be able to get a better job - you and I and most
of the people reading this article may have that opportunity, but there are
many more people who don't.  Maybe they can't afford it, maybe they can't
spare the time away from their two jobs that they have to work to feed their
children.  It's very easy for you to sit there and preach the work ethic, and
the work ethic does has value, but you should look around you, too.  The US
is not in good shape.  The quantity of freelance work that I get (playing
piano on the side) decreased to half in 1989, and it has stayed there.  It's
possible that I'll personally be able to get more work through effort, but 
that doesn't change the fact that there is less work.  There is MUCH less
work.  There are big layoffs all the time; there are fewer jobs.  No matter
how much I educate myself, there are fewer jobs.  I might succeed in getting
a better job, and good for me if I do, but that also means someone else isn't
getting a job.

All you're doing is pretending the problem doesn't exist, and it's not very
helpful.

   - Dave Borden
     borden@m5.harvard.edu