Full Time Jobs (ie Careers)

I’m sorry but I’ve gotta disagree. One has to adapt as best as possible to the world around them not expect the world to adapt to them. For the record I don’t like or want to see anyone struggle or be out of work. But wanting to work is not enough. It’s been not secret for the past twenty years or so that manufacturing jobs are going away and their not coming back in any great capacity. Skilled jobs are in much more abundancy now and that’s where one has to go for a better chance at employment or better paying jobs. And as Coop mentioned that’s still not a guarantee of anything it sucks but it’s the way it is. I make no claims of being any kind of genius I’ve a decent job and can get by if there’s overtime but still very seriously need to find a second job that’s just how it is.

I agree with all of this especially the last sentence. Definitely a good debate. I hope some others will chime in too.

I agree with RiffOnRuts here. I'm in the computer science field, with a management information systems degree. I took a lot of computer science courses and have work experience in that area. I'm nowhere near rich, but make a comfortable living and am able to save more than I spend. So, I don't think I'd benefit at all from more emphasis on US manufacturing jobs, and it would probably hurt my purchasing power. However; it is an area I think the government should make stronger efforts to improve. There have been a lot of policy changes in the last 30 years that have been devastating to blue collar workers, and hopefully an effort is made to reverse course a bit.

Not everyone is made for an office job or working retail. I'm fortunate that it's something I've always done well, but since the beginning of time manufacturing has been a major driving force of the economy. We buy manufactured goods every day, why is so much of it made elsewhere? Bunch of shitty trade deals and tax loopholes.

I also agree with most of Bartman's points. I don't think the government should interfere in businesses too much, but there are some really shitty trade deals out there that aren't helping the American worker. The only point you made that I really disagree with is listing Jack Welch as a great CEO. He's part of the problem IMO. He's from my hometown, but I'm not a fan. GE was a great American company going back almost 90 years before he came to power. Yea, he improved the bottom line but he came in and pretty much consolidates and outsources time and time again. The area he grew up in was all factories back in the day, now because of those methods they are all gone. Replaced by these ugly, yellow, overpriced condo/apartment complexes. GE was a huge employer in this area, now it's a shell of it's old self. I think Mario Lemieux would be a good name to replace him with.

I'm not a fan of Bernie, in fact I think he's a commie nut job. One area I did agree with him however is about the economy being rigged. I don't have any kids or have a mortgage, so I'm stuck with the standard deduction for taxes. One way I can lower my tax rate a bit is investing in a 401k. I put the max into that (17.5K to 18K i think), and mine profited over $14K last year (yay Wall Street).

Seriously though, why are the two most realistic tax breaks for interest payments to a bank, or contributions to Wall Street? Both are entities that are involved in all these foreign trade deals that outsource hurting the American worker, then on top of that, they get lower tax rates!

Why not make some tax incentives for buying American Goods, investing in American start-ups rather than Wall Street? Or better yet, just balance the tax rate better so people have more money to spend rather than giving it all to useless political acts.

Hopefully Trump follows through with his campaign promises (not counting on it) and we see more of these manufacturing jobs return. The positions will obviously need to evolve from what they were 30 years ago with more automation, but combined with the computer and efficiency backgrounds so many people have, they should run a lot better and smoother than before.

While Obama worked full time to destroy jobs it is the internet that really has destroyed the middle class and will continue to do so. Bill Gates and Elon Musk taking about putting everyone on a base salary for nothing really points to this. No politician can save us from this and it will take sociologist to come up with a solution as to what to do with all the extra people in this country. I am certain these billionaires are concerned to a point because welfare has always been a method at keeping the poor from uprising and upending the way our republic operates. With so much of the wealth now really going towards very few internet billionaires and with things like Instagram and FB having these same people pushing this wealth into peoples faces they will be the first 0nes to be strung up and killed. The US has always been a country where anyone can get rich, and I still believe this......but the ways to do it will continue to get limited and harder. I a m not finding fault with anyone in this post, but I have thought these things for years and now to hear the internet people voice the same thing in recent months I guess I was not so ignorant to the subject.

Geez, low-skilled white dudes can't keep their families in comfy middle-class lifestyles just by showing up at work and punching the clock anymore? What a horrible injustice it is that they actually need to buckle down and work to get ahead now! White guys are entitled to effortlessly comfortable lives, dontcha know?

See, when a black person or a Mexican person can't manage to get his shit together and find a full-time job, it's because he's "lazy." If only those black folks would stop being so damned lazy, amirite?

But when a WHIIIIIIIIITTTTTTEEEEEE GUUUUUUUYYYYYYYYYY can't manage to get his shit together and find a full-time job, then he's a victim! Oh, such a terrible, terrible injustice! There simply aren't any opportunities out there, and his struggles are EVERYONE ELSE'S FAULT!

I managed to earn a bachelor's degree. Yes, it was hard work. But I did it. Why are you unable to do what I was able to do? If you want to earn a decent living, a four-year-degree is now a requirement. Spare us the wallowing in self-pity, and all the excuse-making, and all the reasons why you "couldn't even possibly" get a degree. I don't find jobs to be scarce at all. I find that there are plenty of opportunities, but most of the jobs that need to be filled require a four-year degree as the baseline minimum. We are increasingly becoming a knowledge-based economy, where workers will need to have very specialized knowledge and "thinking skills" in order to do the jobs that need to be done. College is necessary now, and advanced/professional degrees are becoming more and more important. There is simply no excuse for not making your education your #1 priority.

On that thought, what's stopping you from simply creating your own job? You could start your own business. Working hard to create your own opportunities is a better bet than sitting on your ass, waiting for opportunities to be handed to you and then crying about "the lack of opportunities."

Employers aren't charities who exist "so that you can have a job." Employers hire employees because there is work that needs to be done. If you're unqualified to do any of that work, then there will be no job for you.

Conservative/Republicans love to pay lip service to the idea of "personal responsibility," but also they love to whine about what victims they are, and they love to make crybaby excuses about why it isn't their fault that they can't find work. You can't find a high-paying full-time job because you'd much rather spend your time sitting on the internet and chatting about Aerosmith while bitterly complaining that everyone else isn't falling over themselves to supply you with a job. Instead of finding ways to blame everyone else, it's time to take a little bit of responsibility for your own prosperity.

Oh, boo-hoo! Life is HAAAAARRRRRDDDDDDD! And white guys should never be expected to do any of the hard things! It's such a horrible injustice that easy-peasy economic security isn't being handed to white folks on silver platters anymore, isn't it! Gosh, you might actually need to put your noses to the grindstone if you want to feed your families! Gosh, you might have to sacrifice all of your leisure time! Gosh, you might have to head back to school! Gosh, you might have to juggle night school with two or three part-time jobs! Gosh, you might have to work 15-hour days! Let's cut down to the heart of the matter: You have an expectation that life should be easy for you.

Obama didn't take your jobs away. Mexicans are not stealing your jobs (unless you're a migrant farmer or a janitor). Border control will not bring back your well-paying blue-collar jobs. Why? These things are happening because the entire developed world has undergone a huge shift where low-skilled work just isn't really needed anymore. Thanks to the digital revolution, we now have a knowledge-based, technology-based economy where degrees are a requirement. Industrial work is obsolete; this is a seismic shift on a par with the Industrial Revolution and nobody can do anything to stop it, but you can take personal responsibility for your own life and do something to adjust to this new reality.

I believe in lasseiz-faire economics, and I don't see that the government require companies to create un-necessary jobs for superfluous workers with irrelevant skills.
Why should an employer pay a worker, when a robot can do the same job at a fraction of the cost? Why should the government prop up our obsolete auto-manufacturing industry? It's not anyone else's responsibility to "give you a job" so that you can have money -- it's UP TO YOU to become capable of doing one of the jobs that actually needs to be done. It's not anyone else's responsiblity to make sure that you have "plenty of opportunities." It's UP TO YOU to create opportunities for yourself. In today's economy, most of the jobs that need to be filled require a four-year degree. So, put your nose to the grindstone and work on your education. Take responsibility for your own life.

There are PLENTY of opportunities out there, as long as you're college-educated. Put your nose to the grindstone and earn a degree, and you can have access to those opportunities, too. If you're unwilling to do the hard work and make the tough sacrifices, realize that you've got nobody but yourself to blame for your lack of access to opportunities.

Without a four-year degree, chances are your skills are irrelevant and you are, therefore, no longer needed. We have a lot of superfluous people, a lot of deadweight in this country -- why should the government pay to keep you in a comfortable lifestyle when you're essentially a deadweight who doesn't contribute? Get off your ass and find a way to become a contributing member of society. Don't just sit there helplessly and whine about all the injustices you think you face. If you're unwilling/unable to become a contributor, maybe starvation/poverty are what you deserve.

I'm a software developer. I get harassed by recruiters constantly. There are more jobs than there are workers available to fill them, and yet we have all these blue-collar lazies whining about "the lack of opportunities."

Yes, America is still a country where people can get rich! This is an excellent place to be an entrepreneur! This is an excellent place to launch a new industry! But, as it's always been, you actually need to WORK FOR IT. We've got way too many lazy, spoiled, entitled white dudes who believe that they "deserve" a comfy middle-class lifestyle just because they show up and punch the clock every day, and that's simply not how it works. If you hope to become rich while working in a low-skilled job, playing on the internet, posting in Aerosmith message forums, keep dreaming! Imagine if you took all the time you devote to "leisure" and actually focused on gaining an education and relevant new job skills!

Take responsibility for your own life. Stop expecting anyone else to provide you with a living. When you whine and cry about "OMGZ, OBAMA TOOK OUR JOBZ! Boo-hoo, such a lack of opportunities," you just come across like a bunch of lazy crybabies who want to blame everyone else for your hardships.

A bunch of you folks sound just like a bunch of Liberal Communist Democrats who want a big paternalistic government to over-regulate the economy just so that you can have a job. Geez! You do realize that this fantasy Communist dreamworld where EVERYONE GETS TO HAVE A JOB will entail a REALLY BLOATED government, and you do realize that it will be quite Soviet-like when "everyone gets a trophy", right? You do realize that the "everyone gets a trophy" mentality is the reason why Communism failed in the USSR, don't you? Heavy-duty government regulation of private industry is A-OK, just as long as it benefits you personally? But when other people benefit from it and you don't, then it's communism and it's evil, but as long as YOU'RE the one reaping the perks, Big Government is just fine and dandy. Uh-huh. Okay. I see.

Welcome to the world of capitalism, kids. No, everyone doesn't get a trophy. No, everyone doesn't get to eat. If you want those things, you need WORK HARD for them. You need to be competitive. That's how capitalism works, that's life.