The Youth Unemployment Bomb

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Originally Posted by Loki

We spent $340 billion on oil imports in 2010 (a number that will surely rise in 2011). The US trade deficit with China is $270 billion. Even if China was to allow its currency to appreciate, our trade balance with China would change by perhaps 10% (i.e. less than $30 billion), and most of those "savings" would end up shifting to another similar country (e.g. Vietnam, Bangladesh).

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Really? Your argument is that we should consider something that can't be produced in the USA as a major factor of our trade imbalance?

Paul Krugman's articles become increasingly pathetic by the day. He is becoming the caricature of a whiny, shallow Upper West Side weenus. I mean, just read this shit.

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As the article points out, software has also been replacing engineers in such tasks as chip design.

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Who the fuck does he think designs the software?

And somehow he concludes that the inevitable march of progress means we should all join labor unions and get free healthcare. How pedantic can he get?

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Originally Posted by Dreadnaught

Paul Krugman's articles become increasingly pathetic by the day. He is becoming the caricature of a whiny, shallow Upper West Side weenus. I mean, just read this shit.



Who the fuck does he think designs the software?

And somehow he concludes that the inevitable march of progress means we should all join labor unions and get free healthcare. How pedantic can he get?

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Any review worth merit would contrast the good points against the bad. But it's nice to know where you stand.

His basic thesis -- if you can even call it that -- reads like a 1700s rants on how mechanical looms will end the textile industry. It's bonkers, do you really believe that technological progress puts people out of jobs in the long term?

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Originally Posted by Being

That's an awfully long-winded way of saying that if the USA wants to compete it needs to get rid of environmental regulation. :down:

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If it wants for there to be no trade barriers impinging on its trade, then it needs to remove the trade barriers it set up. Right now, it's eating the cost of those barriers. I'm ok with that, you're the one who apparently has a problem with it.

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The proper response is to enforce environmental regulation on producing countries who benefit from not having any.

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To enforce environmental regulations, there has to be a regulatory agency with the capability to develop them in the first place. I'm not aware of any environmental regulatory agency operating on the global level. It's a matter for the diplomats. There is a regulatory agency working on trade, but environmental regulations are not its bailwick and insofar as direct trade is affected by environmental regulations, they place that agency on the wrong side for what you want as a matter of principle, and completely unconcerned with them as a matter of real-world relevance.

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And I'd just like to point out that this argument extends way beyond environmental regulations, I'm merely trying to keep it to one item that is representative of the rest (ie. China has no problem allowing unfettered worker exposure to toxic substances). And you can argue all you want that WTO fights trade barriers but in fact they enforce them.

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Because the WTO has to work with sovereign states, which are ostensibly free to pull out of its free trade regime or ignore it, it has developed an enforcement mechanism primarily composed of supporting/endorsing countering trade barriers on behalf of injured parties to redress the consequences of the actions by the injuring party. I have no clue what general argument you are making, so I don't know if you merely picked a piss-poor example or whether your argument itself is based on flawed grounds. I do know that in your example the injured party and the injuring party are the same entity. The redress for self-inflicted injuries is to stop inflicting them. What you are seeking is an entirely new regulatory regime. I wish you the best of luck with it, but it as nothing to do with the World Trade Organization.

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Originally Posted by GGT

We're lucky enough to still have great music and art departments (orchestra, string symphony, jazz band, marching band, choir, ensembles, drama) but the inner city schools don't. When budgets get tight those are the first things to go. Students who thrive in English, Literature or History don't have the same number of advanced classes (or AP offerings) as Maths.

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Good?

Math and science are way more important then History, Literature and English.

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Originally Posted by Lewkowski

Good?

Math and science are way more important then History, Literature and English.

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How far did you get in math?

Pretty sure more firms care about an employee's ability to read, write, and speak than they do about their ability to multiply and divide. :noob:

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Originally Posted by Loki

Pretty sure more firms care about an employee's ability to read, write, and speak than then they do about their ability to multiply and divide. :noob:

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Translated for Lewk.

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Originally Posted by Loki

Pretty sure more firms care about an employee's ability to read, write, and speak than they do about their ability to multiply and divide. :noob:

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That is done in Elementary and Middle School. AP classes are in High School. If you can't read, write and speak by high school something has gone terribly wrong.

We know most Americans have an utter lack of financial education and a big portion of that comes into play due to a lack of mathematical ability. Compound interest and what that means in regards to credit card debt or retirement planning? Pssh.

To give a common example: If I go to McDonald's the cashier can understand what I tell them they can read an order display. How much do you want to best most of them are going to have difficulty providing correct change without register?

Math is so important to personal finance as well as every day tasks. So is reading and writing. However advance levels of English do what exactly? Teach you how to write essays no will care about after college? I mean really you can and will use math all of your life or face a lot of difficulties. A failure to learn match means you doom an entire generation to playing the lottery, taking pay day advance loans, not fully funding their retirement and being raked over the coals by credit card interest.

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Originally Posted by Being

That's an awfully long-winded way of saying that if the USA wants to compete it needs to get rid of environmental regulation. :down: The proper response is to enforce environmental regulation on producing countries who benefit from not having any. And I'd just like to point out that this argument extends way beyond environmental regulations, I'm merely trying to keep it to one item that is representative of the rest (ie. China has no problem allowing unfettered worker exposure to toxic substances). And you can argue all you want that WTO fights trade barriers but in fact they enforce them.

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Trade between countries makes it possible for consumers in a country with strong labor, workplace safety, and environmental laws to buy from a country that has weak laws in those items at a lower price... if the WTO encourages that to happen (and it does), then if you consider that a barrier to trade is e.g. strong environmental laws (which raise prices), then the WTO does reduce barriers to trade.

I think what Being might be saying is this--

Indirectly though, there is the side-effect that countries with e.g. strong environmental laws cannot export as many of their products on the world market anymore because the price is too high. (assuming that both countries have the same technology but one has lax environmental laws)

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* Many industries have economies of scale, so a reduced amount of competitors in the industry in the same area (eg: country) further reduces competitiveness.
* Associated industries that gain a competitive advantage from having their supplier/buyer be close to them also suffer.

If the lax-environmental-regulations country gains free trade with both the stingent-environmental-regulations country and the rest of the world, you could argue that free trade is itself a barrier to trade, at least for the stingent-environmental-regulations country.

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Originally Posted by Lewkowski

That is done in Elementary and Middle School. AP classes are in High School. If you can't read, write and speak by high school something has gone terribly wrong.

We know most Americans have an utter lack of financial education and a big portion of that comes into play due to a lack of mathematical ability. Compound interest and what that means in regards to credit card debt or retirement planning? Pssh.

To give a common example: If I go to McDonald's the cashier can understand what I tell them they can read an order display. How much do you want to best most of them are going to have difficulty providing correct change without register?

Math is so important to personal finance as well as every day tasks. So is reading and writing. However advance levels of English do what exactly? Teach you how to write essays no will care about after college? I mean really you can and will use math all of your life or face a lot of difficulties. A failure to learn match means you doom an entire generation to playing the lottery, taking pay day advance loans, not fully funding their retirement and being raked over the coals by credit card interest.

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You need a resume to get a chance at exhibiting your mathmatical skills. To write that resume and focus it on the specific requirements the employer is looking for requires skills that don't include mathmatics. If you use words that don't mean what you think they do, it doesn't matter how good you are at math because you won't get an intervue.

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Originally Posted by agamemnus

Trade between countries makes it possible for consumers in a country with strong labor, workplace safety, and environmental laws to buy from a country that has weak laws in those items at a lower price... if the WTO encourages that to happen (and it does), then if you consider that a barrier to trade is e.g. strong environmental laws (which raise prices), then the WTO does reduce barriers to trade.

I think what Being might be saying is this--

Indirectly though, there is the side-effect that countries with e.g. strong environmental laws cannot export as many of their products on the world market anymore because the price is too high. (assuming that both countries have the same technology but one has lax environmental laws)

Also:
* Many industries have economies of scale, so a reduced amount of competitors in the industry in the same area (eg: country) further reduces competitiveness.
* Associated industries that gain a competitive advantage from having their supplier/buyer be close to them also suffer.

If the lax-environmental-regulations country gains free trade with both the stingent-environmental-regulations country and the rest of the world, you could argue that free trade is itself a barrier to trade, at least for the stingent-environmental-regulations country.

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It completely depends on which side of the trade you are on. WTO enforces trade restrictions on those who, by mass (such as USA agriculture), can swamp the output of countries who can barely make ends meet. Can anyone reconcile that with Loki's claim that trade barriers undermine the WTO?

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Originally Posted by Lewkowski

Good?

Math and science are way more important then History, Literature and English.

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Is that why your spelling is atrocious? :donkey:

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Originally Posted by Lewkowski

That is done in Elementary and Middle School. AP classes are in High School. If you can't read, write and speak by high school something has gone terribly wrong.

We know most Americans have an utter lack of financial education and a big portion of that comes into play due to a lack of mathematical ability. Compound interest and what that means in regards to credit card debt or retirement planning? Pssh.

To give a common example: If I go to McDonald's the cashier can understand what I tell them they can read an order display. How much do you want to best most of them are going to have difficulty providing correct change without register?

Math is so important to personal finance as well as every day tasks. So is reading and writing. However advance levels of English do what exactly? Teach you how to write essays no will care about after college? I mean really you can and will use math all of your life or face a lot of difficulties. A failure to learn match means you doom an entire generation to playing the lottery, taking pay day advance loans, not fully funding their retirement and being raked over the coals by credit card interest.

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Making change is taught in elementary school as part of basic math. They start pre-algebra and algebra by 4th grade. Statistics, trigonometry, and calculus are electives in HS. Finance is taught by the history department as part of economics. History is also where kids learn about government, politics, and law. They don't teach about the US Constitution in math classes. :bored:

There's much more to advanced English than writing essays. It's the foundation for all communicating, whether writing grant proposals, corporate SOP, or journalism articles. Public speaking or debate uses both language and history --- plus the ability to organize, analyze, and communicate concepts. (Some schools call it Language Arts and would include foreign languages, too.)

I'd say it's more important for all students to have a grasp of the world's comparative histories, with an ability to communicate, than it is to know advanced or specialized math. But then, you have a simple black-or-white view of most things, and don't even know the difference between than and then. :donkey:

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Originally Posted by agamemnus

If the lax-environmental-regulations country gains free trade with both the stingent-environmental-regulations country and the rest of the world, you could argue that free trade is itself a barrier to trade, at least for the stingent-environmental-regulations country.

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Things aren't that relative. Sure, you can make that argument but it's fairly torturous and with similar effort you can make almost any act or series of actions which interfere with trade turn free trade itself into a barrier from the perspective of the agents taking those actions.

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Originally Posted by Being

It completely depends on which side of the trade you are on. WTO enforces trade restrictions on those who, by mass (such as USA agriculture), can swamp the output of countries who can barely make ends meet. Can anyone reconcile that with Loki's claim that trade barriers undermine the WTO?

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The US and Russia still have nuclear arsenals. Can anyone reconcile that with the disarmament treaties they've signed? Same issue. The WTO is, in part, a negotiated process. It works toward free trade, but does not presume to have achieved it yet.

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Originally Posted by GGT

Is that why your spelling is atrocious? :donkey:



Making change is taught in elementary school as part of basic math. They start pre-algebra and algebra by 4th grade. Statistics, trigonometry, and calculus are electives in HS. Finance is taught by the history department as part of economics. History is also where kids learn about government, politics, and law. They don't teach about the US Constitution in math classes. :bored:

There's much more to advanced English than writing essays. It's the foundation for all communicating, whether writing grant proposals, corporate SOP, or journalism articles. Public speaking or debate uses both language and history --- plus the ability to organize, analyze, and communicate concepts. (Some schools call it Language Arts and would include foreign languages, too.)

I'd say it's more important for all students to have a grasp of the world's comparative histories, with an ability to communicate, than it is to know advanced or specialized math. But then, you have a simple black-or-white view of most things, and don't even know the difference between than and then. :donkey:

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The conservatives in the US want to create a barely literate under-class of helots fueling the furnaces of Corporate America. They need to have basic literacy and arithmetic skills, but educating them beyond that is against the goals of the wealthy over-class. So skills with literary interpretation and historical insight are bad things that need to get thrown out the window. It's the only way they can keep buying elections; so long as people are dumb and don't have critical thinking skills, they'll vote based on the sexiest or most vocal sound bytes they're exposed to before the elections.

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Originally Posted by LittleFuzzy

Things aren't that relative. Sure, you can make that argument but it's fairly torturous and with similar effort you can make almost any act or series of actions which interfere with trade turn free trade itself into a barrier from the perspective of the agents taking those actions.

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You gotta look at significant sides of the coin... not one side, not all sides, but significant sides. :-)

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Originally Posted by Nessus

The conservatives in the US want to create a barely literate under-class of helots fueling the furnaces of Corporate America. They need to have basic literacy and arithmetic skills, but educating them beyond that is against the goals of the wealthy over-class. So skills with literary interpretation and historical insight are bad things that need to get thrown out the window. It's the only way they can keep buying elections; so long as people are dumb and don't have critical thinking skills, they'll vote based on the sexiest or most vocal sound bytes they're exposed to before the elections.

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Round and round we go... :) Can you not say that about liberals in heavy [D] states? Replace "sexy and vocal" with "bread/circus and vocal".

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Originally Posted by agamemnus

Round and round we go... :) Can you not say that about liberals in heavy [D] states? Replace "sexy and vocal" with "bread/circus and vocal".

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I am not familiar with liberal legislation creating a helot underclass, can you point me to some examples?

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Originally Posted by Nessus

The liberals in the US want to create a barely literate under-class of helots fueling the furnaces of Big Government. They need to have basic literacy and arithmetic skills, but educating them beyond that is against the goals of the wealthy over-class. So skills with literary interpretation and historical insight are bad things that need to get thrown out the window. It's the only way they can keep buying elections; so long as people are dumb and don't have critical thinking skills, they'll vote based on the sexiest or most vocal sound bytes they're exposed to before the elections.

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fixed.

wow this is fun

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Originally Posted by Nessus

I am not familiar with liberal legislation creating a helot underclass, can you point me to some examples?

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I'm going to hate saying this but. . . "affirmative action"

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Originally Posted by Veldan Rath

fixed.

wow this is fun

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Originally Posted by Nessus

I am not familiar with liberal legislation creating a helot underclass, can you point me to some examples?

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Originally Posted by LittleFuzzy

I'm going to hate saying this but. . . "affirmative action"

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Good point! That ship should probably have sailed some time ago. Although there is still institutional hereditary poverty among some blacks and other minorities. It's hard to see AA solely as a vehicle for generating a perpetually poor white under-class, but that's a side effect I suppose. AA in general is a bit crap because, as per US politics, it's reactive instead of active and doesn't even try to address the underlying cultural issues.

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Originally Posted by Nessus

Good point! That ship should probably have sailed some time ago. Although there is still institutional hereditary poverty among some blacks and other minorities. It's hard to see AA solely as a vehicle for generating a perpetually poor white under-class, but that's a side effect I suppose. AA in general is a bit crap because, as per US politics, it's reactive instead of active and doesn't even try to address the underlying cultural issues.

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I might regret mentioning this "hot potato"......but the underlying cultural issues could be traced back to elder, white, male (often Christian) landowners who held a disproportionate percentage of national wealth and power, for far too long. Affirmative Action would have been unnecessary if those same men hadn't been so greedy and exclusionary, when interpreting what All Men Are Created Equal meant.....

It's perplexing to wonder how early Americans (who were so fed up with Kings and Queens, nobility and landownership titled by birth, the Catholic church or the Church of England) could have started things out on such a good course, but modern America seemed to get it so wrong, for so long. :hmm:

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Originally Posted by GGT

I might regret mentioning this "hot potato"......but the underlying cultural issues could be traced back to elder, white, male (often Christian) landowners who held a disproportionate percentage of national wealth and power, for far too long. Affirmative Action would have been unnecessary if those same men hadn't been so greedy and exclusionary, when interpreting what All Men Are Created Equal meant.....

It's perplexing to wonder how early Americans (who were so fed up with Kings and Queens, nobility and landownership titled by birth, the Catholic church or the Church of England) could have started things out on such a good course, but modern America seemed to get it so wrong, for so long. :hmm:

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Why is that some minorities cultures have such horrible outcomes compared to other minority cultures? Affirmative action is a poison. Because of affirmative action people will always wonder about if (insert minority individual) made it on their own merits or because of affirmative action. That is a cruel attack on those who actually have pulled themselves up by their own merits and are forced to endure life long doubt from others on their hard earned abilities and accomplishments.

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Originally Posted by Lewkowski

Why is that some minorities cultures have such horrible outcomes compared to other minority cultures? Affirmative action is a poison. Because of affirmative action people will always wonder about if (insert minority individual) made it on their own merits or because of affirmative action. That is a cruel attack on those who actually have pulled themselves up by their own merits and are forced to endure life long doubt from others on their hard earned abilities and accomplishments.

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Are you claiming that AA is to blame for causing bad outcomes in certain minority groups? Seriously? How does that factor into AA for women? We just managed to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps---err, I mean "merits"---to gain entry into higher education and the work force?

Wow, women must be even better than men, than history gives us credit! Women didn't need to have the suffrage movement after all, we could have just willed it so. Voila.

AA can be a contributing factor but it isn't the main reason. It is a symptom of the cult of the victimization which IS the problem.

I'll ask again. Why do you think certain minority cultures seem to do well in society but others have terrible outcomes?

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Originally Posted by Lewkowski

AA can be a contributing factor but it isn't the main reason. It is a symptom of the cult of the victimization which IS the problem.

I'll ask again. Why do you think certain minority cultures seem to do well in society but others have terrible outcomes?

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Well, that's a question for a 50-page thesis, but I agree that AA and the mindless bureaucratic thinking that goes with it (in terms of other aspects of government) doesn't help.

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Originally Posted by Lewkowski

AA can be a contributing factor but it isn't the main reason. It is a symptom of the cult of the victimization which IS the problem.

I'll ask again. Why do you think certain minority cultures seem to do well in society but others have terrible outcomes?

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One theory is that old white Christian men (the predominant demographic in legislators) exhibited a distinct bias against skin color and gender that wasn't their own. It's pretty hard to work one's way up the socio-economic ladder, when the most powerful group is intent on greasing the rungs.

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Originally Posted by GGT

One theory is that old white Christian men (the predominant demographic in legislators) exhibited a distinct bias against skin color and gender that wasn't their own. It's pretty hard to work one's way up the socio-economic ladder, when the most powerful group is intent on greasing the rungs.

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I'll ask again. Why do you think certain minority cultures seem to do well in society but others have terrible outcomes? Again drop the white male crap. Explain the differences in outcomes of Asians, Blacks and Hispanics.

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Originally Posted by Lewkowski

I'll ask again. Why do you think certain minority cultures seem to do well in society but others have terrible outcomes? Again drop the white male crap. Explain the differences in outcomes of Asians, Blacks and Hispanics.

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Asians and Hispanics weren't imported as property.

You are really one backward facing individual. In fact, you are almost as bad as Dread.

Huh? You don't even know my views on this.

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Originally Posted by Lewkowski

I'll ask again. Why do you think certain minority cultures seem to do well in society but others have terrible outcomes? Again drop the white male crap. Explain the differences in outcomes of Asians, Blacks and Hispanics.

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Originally Posted by agamemnus

Well, that's a question for a 50-page thesis....

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I can't 'drop the white male crap' when our history was dominated by white men in power, or men in general. :bored:

If a minority group is struggling in our current culture, things like soft racism, low income or poverty, access to and value of a good education, role of adult male role models, they all play a part.

Lately, Asian-Americans are grouped into the successful group of math wizzes and go-getters, based on what Japan, China, are Taiwan are doing. Latino-Americans are grouped with non-English speaking illegal immigrants, or based on what Mexico, Guatemala or Cuba are doing. African-Americans are grouped into mostly negative stereo-types, based on our long history of racism, plus what African countries look like.

There have been studies using facial drawings, where young children pick out the "smart, nice, successful" or "dumb, lazy, mean" face. Darker skin color meant the latter. Other social studies show Asian eye shape and lighter skin meant the former.

How do YOU explain different outcomes based on race or ethnicity?

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Originally Posted by GGT

Lately, Asian-Americans are grouped into the successful group of math wizzes and go-getters, based on what Japan, China, are Taiwan are doing. Latino-Americans are grouped with non-English speaking illegal immigrants, or based on what Mexico, Guatemala or Cuba are doing. African-Americans are grouped into mostly negative stereo-types, based on our long history of racism, plus what African countries look like.

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None of that is true. The stereotypes are based on how those people are doing in this country, not how their ethnic kin are doing in the home countries. Most Americans don't even know what's happening in Japan/China/Taiwan or Africa. Asian-Americans were viewed as being smart long before there was strong economic growth in China (I should note that even today, China is poorer than Mexico; India is still one of the poorest countries outside of sub-Saharan Africa, roughly the same as Pakistan). Also, African immigrants to the US tend to have incomes similar to whites here, largely a function of those immigrants being from the middle class and well-educated.

GGT, there is no one Holy answer.

It's a mixture of factors. One of which is the culture the youth are raised in.

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Originally Posted by GGT

I can't 'drop the white male crap' when our history was dominated by white men in power, or men in general. :bored:

If a minority group is struggling in our current culture, things like soft racism, low income or poverty, access to and value of a good education, role of adult male role models, they all play a part.

Lately, Asian-Americans are grouped into the successful group of math wizzes and go-getters, based on what Japan, China, are Taiwan are doing. Latino-Americans are grouped with non-English speaking illegal immigrants, or based on what Mexico, Guatemala or Cuba are doing. African-Americans are grouped into mostly negative stereo-types, based on our long history of racism, plus what African countries look like.

There have been studies using facial drawings, where young children pick out the "smart, nice, successful" or "dumb, lazy, mean" face. Darker skin color meant the latter. Other social studies show Asian eye shape and lighter skin meant the former.

How do YOU explain different outcomes based on race or ethnicity?

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Different cultures produce different outcomes. A culture that is constantly refers to the past and how they have been kept down is a culture that will produce failures. A culture that has a strong work ethic is a culture that will produce successes. A culture that views "snitches" as traitors and bad people is a culture that will produce failures. A culture that doesn't believe in coddling their children and sets high standards for them is a culture that produces success. A culture that glorifies crime is a culture that sets its children up for failure.

That is the reason for the negative outcomes of some groups and the positive outcomes for others. Of course cultures aren't uniform. But there are obvious trends.

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Originally Posted by Lewkowski

I'll ask again. Why do you think certain minority cultures seem to do well in society but others have terrible outcomes?

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Well its probably because those Irish are violent, ignorant, drunks...

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Again drop the white male crap.

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Oh...hmm...well those damn Chinese are a constant and terrible menace to society, what with their drug use, participation in illegal activities like prostitution, amongst their other cultural inferiorities. No wonder they're stuck in the slums.

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Originally Posted by Dreadnaught

Huh? You don't even know my views on this.

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Sorry, I really didn't mean to imply that you are backward facing on this particular topic. I see how it can be taken that way and I appologize. :heart:

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Originally Posted by Loki

None of that is true. The stereotypes are based on how those people are doing in this country, not how their ethnic kin are doing in the home countries. Most Americans don't even know what's happening in Japan/China/Taiwan or Africa. Asian-Americans were viewed as being smart long before there was strong economic growth in China (I should note that even today, China is poorer than Mexico; India is still one of the poorest countries outside of sub-Saharan Africa, roughly the same as Pakistan). Also, African immigrants to the US tend to have incomes similar to whites here, largely a function of those immigrants being from the middle class and well-educated.

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I gave an example. :bored: But it depends on one's age, generation, past experience, and family influences. Some elder WWII veterans still use derogatory terms for Japanese, Italians, even Germans. Remember American-Japanese interment camps? When Japan made breakthroughs in technology and autos that threatened US workers, plenty of resentment took hold and carried some bias.

Today, Asian descendants are often expected to be the brightest students in math and science, even though they might be 5th generation Americans. And let's not ignore what today's Muslim communities are facing in negative stereotypes that have nothing to do with reality.

Many older Greeks still harbor hatred for Turks, decades later. Just a few decades ago, many Greeks changed or shortened their last names to avoid discrimination when applying for business permits in the US.

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Originally Posted by Veldan Rath

GGT, there is no one Holy answer.

It's a mixture of factors. One of which is the culture the youth are raised in.

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Of course. I wasn't implying there was one answer.....but I'm not going to write a 50 page thesis.

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Originally Posted by Lewkowski

Different cultures produce different outcomes. A culture that is constantly refers to the past and how they have been kept down is a culture that will produce failures. A culture that has a strong work ethic is a culture that will produce successes. A culture that views "snitches" as traitors and bad people is a culture that will produce failures. A culture that doesn't believe in coddling their children and sets high standards for them is a culture that produces success. A culture that glorifies crime is a culture that sets its children up for failure.

That is the reason for the negative outcomes of some groups and the positive outcomes for others. Of course cultures aren't uniform. But there are obvious trends.

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Where's the Why in any of that? Sounds like a short synopsis of The Godfather. :donkey:

Been thinking about this ever-more recently, as the employment situation among my friends is pretty dire. It's really becoming socially and emotionally taxing for all of them. Plus making it hard to meet nice, funny women who don't have a bad life/job situation going on.

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March 20, 2011
Educated, Unemployed and Frustrated

By MATTHEW C. KLEIN

WE all enjoy speculating about which Arab regime will be toppled next, but maybe we should be looking closer to home. High unemployment? Check. Out-of-touch elites? Check. Frustrated young people? As a 24-year-old American, I can testify that this rich democracy has plenty of those too.

About one-fourth of Egyptian workers under 25 are unemployed, a statistic that is often cited as a reason for the revolution there. In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in January an official unemployment rate of 21 percent for workers ages 16 to 24.

My generation was taught that all we needed to succeed was an education and hard work. Tell that to my friend from high school who studied Chinese and international relations at a top-tier college. He had the misfortune to graduate in the class of 2009, and could find paid work only as a lifeguard and a personal trainer. Unpaid internships at research institutes led to nothing. After more than a year he moved back in with his parents.

Millions of college graduates in rich nations could tell similar stories. In Italy, Portugal and Spain, about one-fourth of college graduates under the age of 25 are unemployed. In the United States, the official unemployment rate for this group is 11.2 percent, but for college graduates 25 and over it is only 4.5 percent.

The true unemployment rate for young graduates is most likely even higher because it fails to account for those who went to graduate school in an attempt to ride out the economic storm or fled the country to teach English overseas. It would be higher still if it accounted for all of those young graduates who have given up looking for full-time work, and are working part time for lack of any alternative.

The cost of youth unemployment is not only financial, but also emotional. Having a job is supposed to be the reward for hours of SAT prep, evenings spent on homework instead of with friends and countless all-nighters writing papers. The millions of young people who cannot get jobs or who take work that does not require a college education are in danger of losing their faith in the future. They are indefinitely postponing the life they wanted and prepared for; all that matters is finding rent money. Even if the job market becomes as robust as it was in 2007 — something economists say could take more than a decade — my generation will have lost years of career-building experience.

It was simple to blame Hosni Mubarak for the frustrations of Egypt’s young people — he had been in power longer than they had been alive. Barack Obama is not such an easy target; besides his democratic legitimacy, he is far from the only one responsible for the weakness of the recovery. In the absence of someone specific to blame, the frustration simply builds.

As governments across the developed world balance their budgets, I fear that the young will bear the brunt of the pain: taxes on workers will be raised and spending on education will be cut while mortgage subsidies and entitlements for the elderly are untouchable. At least the Saudis and Kuwaitis are trying to bribe their younger subjects.

The uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa are a warning for the developed world. Even if an Egyptian-style revolution breaking out in a rich democracy is unthinkable, it is easy to recognize the frustration of a generation that lacks opportunity. Indeed, the “desperate generation” in Portugal got tens of thousands of people to participate in nationwide protests on March 12. How much longer until the rest of the rich world follows their lead?

Matthew C. Klein is a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/opinion/21klein.html

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It's even more frustrating to see a job position for which you are almost perfectly qualified..... almost! The company will always hold out and not hire anyone till they get the perfect candidate, because they feel that there is nothing to lose by waiting. For these companies, there isn't... I feel that there is just no incentive to hire anyone anymore, for whatever reasons.

(I've seen this happening from my end and from close-relative accounts of the other end. The company management/owner just doesn't care if they don't hire anyone, even if they need the manpower to relieve their production line.)

I read that op-ed, too. Our new PA governor proposes cutting funds and grants to our state universities by 50%. :eek: We already have one of the top (if not #1) average in-state tuition rates as it is, and I can't imagine any student wanting to double their debt for a degree that could be 'worthless' after graduation. Some of schools' poor decisions were made during boom times, capital improvements for fancy dorms, libraries with marble floors and vaulted grand foyers with two story fountains. :rolleyes: But 50% is just brutal and counterproductive.

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As governments across the developed world balance their budgets, I fear that the young will bear the brunt of the pain: taxes on workers will be raised and spending on education will be cut while mortgage subsidies and entitlements for the elderly are untouchable. At least the Saudis and Kuwaitis are trying to bribe their younger subjects.

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