We admire, even revere statistics and statistician explanations, and when they pertain to our economic well being and are supported by anointed economists, they become gold. These statistics and explanations can only be elevated into the rarified domain of sanctity if they have been stamped “approved” by celebrity news anchor talking heads. Such approval permeates our collective consciousness and launches politically armed ships to do battle on our perceptions, and we find ourselves acceptant of nonsense and lies. We seem unable to discern the subtleties with which the ideologically driven celebrities cast twisted deceptions our way.
Let’s pluck a consequential item out of today’s media — unemployment levels of the “middle aged.” This significant force is affecting every State and every community in America. 17% of men between the ages of 25 and 54 years are out of work. Women? Almost twice that. The real number for men is likely something much greater than 17%, since history dictates that such “statistics” are usually and purposefully inaccurate, but that is not the point.
The point is, . . . well let’s go to the CBS celebrity talking airhead Gayle King (Charlie Rose sidekick) for the really critical talking point, these men are unemployed because they, “didn’t adapt.” Huh?
You’re not out of work because there are no jobs available for you, you dummy. You’re not out of work because companies have outsourced your job. You’re not out of work because of uncertainty and lack of confidence in the Nation’s leadership. You’re not out of work because of the Administration’s antagonistic stance toward all business, or a result of this Administration’s policies. You’re not out of work because for 5 years all levels of government have grown enormously and over-burdened all of society, particularly employers. You’re not out of work because governments have taken the oxygen out of the economy since this Administration has taken office, representing 40% of all hiring. You’re not out of work because corporations are holding back on investing in America. You’re not out of work because governments have raised all taxes and fees. You’re out of work because you did not adapt.
You became a computer programmer and now you can’t find a job to support yourself and your family? Well, you should have known better and you should have learned a trade, something like perhaps, hmm, well, doing house renos. And you, you became a Red Lettered tradesman and were successful in your trade for years and now you can’t find work? You should simply have adapted, and you should have become a computer programmer. You should have adapted. It’s your fault.
Have no fear, Obama has pandered to his favorite people, “the middle class,” whatever that is, and whoever they are and fed them the pablum of lifting the minimum wage. That will take care of it. Oh, and he also told corporate executives to go do some hiring. Come on, how brilliant is that? That will get all of you lazy, good for nothing 25 to 54 year olds a job. That will stimulate the economy. That will energize entrepreneurs to run out and hire crowds. That will make up for the fact that you couldn’t adapt. It’s not this Administration’s fault. It’s yours.
A constituent of the vast baby boomer generation with a career which has been fortunate to know the ponderous corporate worlds, as well as the intimately pressurized, and invigorating entrepreneurial domains of high tech and venture capital, I have harvested my share of mistakes meandering through corridors of enterprise from Silicon Valley, to London and endless, colourful, sometimes praetorian points in between. The voyage has provided an abundance of fodder for a pen yielding to an inquisitive keyboard, a foraging mind, and a passionate spirit.
Whether political or business or social or economic or personal, is it not all political? It is a privilege to write, and an even greater privilege to be read by anyone, and sometimes with the wind at my back the writing may occasionally be legible. I do not write to invite scorn, nor to invite respect, but if I get really lucky the writing can stimulate thinking. I also write for the very selfish purpose of animating my own processes, and engaging the best of what life offers. Above all, whether biting fire or swatting shadows, I am grateful to be gifted the freedom to write and publish whatever flows down to the keyboard. To all those who enabled this freedom, and to all those standing guard to preserve it, I am indebted.
I’ve heard similar comments by globalist Republicans. Both parties are working against US workers and job creation. I remember during the last 3 decades many politicians on both sides telling us that America would only be outsourcing low-tech low-wage jobs, and that these trade agreements would result in the creation of more high-tech jobs. Here we are 10-20 years later and this high-tech job transformation never came to be. Instead, all we got were mostly part time service jobs in a service economy where we compete with a flood of foreign workers to “wash each others laundry.” So what is the answer the DC elite are now telling us? More trade agreements and that we need to make it easier for illegal immigrants to stay so that they can compete with our vast numbers (which, if you do the math, is actually at 31.6% not the 6-7% they claim it to be,) of unemployed citizens. Clearly there needs to be a revolution in this country with the express purpose to run all these progressive world citizen elite out of town, and rebuild the American dream for future generations.
You’re a programmer. You’re out of work. You should have adapted. It’s your fault. You should have moved to India (or anywhere else), come back on an H-1B visa. Lots of programming jobs would now be open to you.
We need to get rid of the H-1B visa program. Companies use it to hire foreign programmers for less money (the law says they can’t do that, but they do).
God, I am so sick of losers lying to dummies to keep the middle class down. The right is truly destroying America.
@Ditto: #1,
Agreed. Neither party is doing its job on this one. Republicans in Congress should be the ones marching up the Capitol steps. Nevertheless, the majority of elected idiots, particularly the Gladhander-in-chief, don’t understand how to create jobs, and too many have never held one. Lawyers in majority make the worst managers, and they make up most of the seat-warmers elected to the W.H. and Congress since day one.
My principal point in this article is that I’m smelling a new mantra echoing in those hypocritical brains in the Administration — the work force did not adapt. Bullshit, but we’re going to be hearing it for another 3 years.
Adaptation is obviously helpful in a small percentage of some areas of the Nation, however, these progressive monkeys are pretending that we no longer need bridles since we no longer use horse drawn carriages — so learn to make something else. It’s disingenuous at best, and is hateful crap no matter from where you smell its stench. No one is making bridles. There is NOT ONE job these rejects can name that plenty of Americans can’t fill.
@John: Are there really a lot of programming jobs out there?
@John: #2,
For a whole generation we’ve heard the demand for opening the gates to “foreign programmers” — not coincidently, high tech is a game I’ve spent much of my life playing in — never, ever, not once, ever did I have any problem finding seriously talented engineers. Of course, if you don’t want to pay them well, going off-shore and bringing in the talent, can be much, much cheaper.
@James Raider: The reason I wondered was that I went to a Tech College in the 60’s for Programming, and was very good at it. Year long class, 5 hrs a day, finished #1 in my class. Was offered a job, went to orientation for it and decided not to take the job. Had several other ‘good?’ offers, but decided to go to a Univ and got 2 BS degrees out of that, had excellent grades, got a fantastic job (in a manufacturing facility, nothing to do with programming) and the rest is history, advanced very far up the chain in a major company. Don’t believe I would ever have had that much success in programming field, but I’ve always wondered. In the manufacturing plants, we always had excellent process control computer experts, but they were relatively limited because we usually couldn’t replace them easily if we promoted them out of, and up into, other management positions.
We never had any ‘foreign’ programmers in those jobs.
I got laid off at then Hawker Beechcraft in Wichita, KS on 26 February 2009. I was fifty four. This was just about one month after the obama coronation…………….Seems that dirty harry reid and nana botox wanted scalps. The heads of the big 3 auto companies were summoned to their respective inquisitions in each house of the congress. The majority leader and speaker along with their minions were very angry that these auto company executives arrived in DC on very nice and very expensive airplanes……………..Suddenly, corporate aircraft became Evil…………..This had a very profound effect on Wichita……………..Wichita IS corporate aircraft…………by August of 2009, some 13,000 of us in the industry in Wichita were out of work……………………………Adapt! My Ass!
I was lucky in that I am retired from the Armed Forces and was at the time 30% service connected disabled……
I have been employed by the Air Force at Edwards AFB in California since November of 2009. We did eventually lose our house in Wichita but we are doing quite well now.
Adapt…………..What a fucking moron……………….
@James Raider:
Which is a wholly deceptive, disingenuous, aloof premise by all those elitist A-holes in Washington. What happens when a worker does “adapt” to a another trade, and that one is moved off overseas? Go to another technical school and try to learn yet another job that might also be “off-shored” before you even finish your schooling?
Nations create wealth by having ec0nomies that take their natural resources and build things that can be sold. No manufacturing job of any technological level is safe from the multinational globalists taking it and moving it overseas for cheaper labor. That leaves service jobs, mining, agriculture, gifted artists and professional athletes as the only “safe” homegrown jobs. Pretty much everything else can be farmed out.
It seems that what the US Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street and the party leaderships really want is a transform all nations including this one into a fusion of capitalism and feudalism.
@Redteam: #7,
First, congratulations on a successful career and redirecting yourself along a path that felt right.
Replacing talented people is never easy, that’s why I’ve always believed that if you are lucky enough to find someone with talent, regardless what the job is, you should compensate them whatever it takes to make them happy. In the data processing and controls area, particularly if some of the software is created or edited internally, the business is dependent on “continuity” for its ongoing smooth operation.
Obviously each situation differs somewhat from the next, and some individuals may not want promotions to higher management. In this general field, colleges and universities across the country are producing plenty of knowledgeable and capable engineers ready, willing and able to work.
@James Raider:
I found that to be true. Because of my computer training, I was offered the opportunity to get into the Process control group, but Management was my preferred area. Over all the years, as I said, we had many excellent computer guys and I share your thoughts, most of them did not want to be in “management’, they loved being ‘buried’ in the computer world. I appreciated their dedication and we did compensate them well.
@ORPO1: #8,
You endured a hardship that too many have had to face, and you prevailed — well done.
I have never understood the degree of hatred for their own people which has become evidently demonstrated by this Administration and the like of your “dirty harry reid and nana botox” — leaches on the government teat who never accomplished anything productive in their miserable lives. None of them know how to create jobs, but they sure know how to destroy them.
The small jet industry can be critical not just to a city or State, but to a whole nation. It’s not just the jobs, it’s the knowhow and the technology which is constantly advanced, that can move the country forward.
These idiots, led by the Gladhander-in-Chief, pandered to “jealousy” factor.
So when you voice, “What a fucking moron……………….,” — you about capture it.
. . . And all these loons are somehow still in office.
@Ditto: #9
The big money has fairly good control of the political process — look at who the Gladhander-in-Chief received the largest contribution from, for example. That big money doesn’t much care what this goof and his handlers do, as long as the big money is left alone to control MONEY. It does that through invisible and independent organizations such as The Fed.
Bankers have done an amazingly effective job, along with their mouth-piece politicians, in the ubiquitous imposition of debt.
No man-made force has ever impacted mankind more than this. Ever. Not guns, not bombs. The stress is palpable. The majority of the planet is now covered and burdened with heavy blanket of debt. And this debt grows each day in all countries, led by the kings of debt, . . . The Fed.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, the debt machine is in trouble, and has no idea what to do to. It has no bullets left — the interest rate has been at zero too long (5 years too long), U.S. debt continues to rise, heading for $20 Trillion, and the economy isn’t coming back to create jobs.
That strange silence you hear, is the debt clock ticking away in a forest where no one is present to really listen.
@This one: this one has once again proven his craniusanalius disease has mutated
January numbers are usually bad.
But this January was worse than the 2 previous ones!
In January alone the US lost 2,870,000 jobs!
2008 and 2009 January’s were worse, 2010 and 2011 the same as this years, 2012, 2013 both a bit better.
So, why say we ”gained 113,000 jobs” in January?
Because commentators focus on ”seasonally adjusted” numbers instead of actual ones!
http://www.bizzyblog.com/wp-images/NSAandSAjobsJanMar2000to2014.png
@Nanny G: and the unemployment is at 6..6%, or about 15% in real numbers.
@Nanny G: #15,
One of our new realities is the false skewing of numbers by “the kind” of employment being created — PART TIME jobs are kings of the hill, also, many jobs are now being shaved from FULL TIME employment to part time, thanks to the Obama / Pelosi venture into “we have to pass this crap to know what’s in it” insanity now being implemented and foisted with haste on a dumbfounded Nation.
Only the rich will now have good healthcare. Well done!
@James Raider:
I’m on medicare, I don’t know of any changes to it, yet. It’s been excellent for me.