Is this the new "normal" 7-10% unemployment?

[shah269 0]

Is this the new "normal" 7-10% unemployment?
Is this the new "normal" the death of the full time employment and perpetual life as independent consultants?
After listening to NPR for the past few days I can't help but we a little dismayed.
I don't know from any ones point of view but this gilded economy is starting to lose it's luster and the led core is starting to show.

And I don't know about you guys but I don't want our nation to be on the same economic footing at third world countries such as China. Been there seen it, it's not pretty. 45% of the population perpetually sick or dying, from what best could be described as exhaustion another 45% living in fear of starvation at any moment in time and the remaining 10% living a life that well honestly would make your head spin with respect to excess.

Are we on a slippery slope? I know for a fact I'm not living a life as good as my step father lived when he was my age. He was divorced at the same age more or less from his first wife and also lived in NJ. But with his one state job he was able to have his home paid off in 10 years and had a little cabin in the woods for vacation, drove a newish car and had money saved aside for retirement. And he just had a degree in sociology.

I'm an engineer with an MBA and all the little certificates such as Six Sigma Black Belt and what not and I can't help but be envious of my stepfathers generation and worry about the kids I work with. How bad will their lives be? A life filled with disposable hand held computers and zero prospects of living a comfortable life much like their Chinese counterparts? For the Jellocrats and the Richuplicans sold off the country so as to do nothing but to maintain power for no one.

What are your thoughts?

Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

[wayneflorida 0]

Yes and they will be the good ole days.

[marks2065 0]

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Is this the new "normal" 7-10% unemployment?
Is this the new "normal" the death of the full time employment and perpetual life as independent consultants?
After listening to NPR for the past few days I can't help but we a little dismayed.
I don't know from any ones point of view but this gilded economy is starting to lose it's luster and the led core is starting to show.

And I don't know about you guys but I don't want our nation to be on the same economic footing at third world countries such as China. Been there seen it, it's not pretty. 45% of the population perpetually sick or dying, from what best could be described as exhaustion another 45% living in fear of starvation at any moment in time and the remaining 10% living a life that well honestly would make your head spin with respect to excess.

Are we on a slippery slope? I know for a fact I'm not living a life as good as my step father lived when he was my age. He was divorced at the same age more or less from his first wife and also lived in NJ. But with his one state job he was able to have his home paid off in 10 years and had a little cabin in the woods for vacation, drove a newish car and had money saved aside for retirement. And he just had a degree in sociology.

I'm an engineer with an MBA and all the little certificates such as Six Sigma Black Belt and what not and I can't help but be envious of my stepfathers generation and worry about the kids I work with. How bad will their lives be? A life filled with disposable hand held computers and zero prospects of living a comfortable life much like their Chinese counterparts? For the Jellocrats and the Richuplicans sold off the country so as to do nothing but to maintain power for no one.

What are your thoughts?

yep and you can blame illegal imigration, free trade, high taxes, and handouts to the lazy for votes.

[shah269 0]

illegal imigration, HU? Those guys and gals are not middle class workers?

free trade, I can see this.

high taxes, They were much much MUCH higher when my step father was my age! Look it up!

and handouts to the lazy, they had the same system when he was my age.

Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

[marks2065 0]

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illegal imigration, HU? Those guys and gals are not middle class workers?

free trade, I can see this.

high taxes, They were much much MUCH higher when my step father was my age! Look it up!

and handouts to the lazy, they had the same system when he was my age.

Higher taxes became a bigger problem after free trade since companies could go over seas and still keep the US market.

Handouts to the lazy is a huge issue now, back then you were ridiculed if you were on food stamps, now it is looked at like it is someone elses fault not yours. Food stamps and welfare are now multigenerational entitlements, not a bridge to help you get back on your feet.

Illegal imigration is allowing companies to lower the pay scale of many workers to stay in compitition with foriegn companies, another free trade issue.

[shah269 0]

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Illegal imigration is allowing companies to lower the pay scale of many workers to stay in compitition with foriegn companies

Like what gutting fish? Picking crops?

Not like they are working in offices.

Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

[skydiver30960 0]

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Not like they are working in offices.

Yeah, but they're JOBS. They're the jobs our parents would talk about working "to put themselves through college." They're the swing-shift, low-tech kind of jobs that provided little job satisfaction but WOULD allow someone to bring home a paycheck, while doing something else to improve themselves.

With that first step taken out of the ladder, someone trying to get started takes a look at that huge first step and thinks to themself "meh, may as well stay where I am, it's too hard to get on the ladder."

Elvisio "lifetime student" Rodriguez

[marks2065 0]

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Illegal imigration is allowing companies to lower the pay scale of many workers to stay in compitition with foriegn companies

Like what gutting fish? Picking crops?

Not like they are working in offices.

when you parents were 15-20 years old they did jobs like bus boy, shelf stocker, fast food resturaunt worker, and other jobs like that. Now those jobs are filled by many illegals and hard to get for a teenager today. My stepson was turned down by burger king and McDonalds because he could not speak spanish, In america a high school kid has to speak spanish to flip burgers!!! these are the low paying, introductory jobs that influence and build character in our children that are no longer available to them.

[Southern_Man 0]

You started this exact same topic last year:

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4132897;search_string=new%20normal;#4132894

"What if there were no hypothetical questions?"

[DrewEckhardt 0]

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Is this the new "normal" 7-10% unemployment?

No. The collision between first and developing worlds should cause it to worsen as improved education and infrastructure there allow more jobs to be exported and lower wages overseas keep it practical. Technology improvements are also eliminating expensive jobs (my local grocery store has no baggers or checkers - it's all self service, with one employee in the checkout area to check IDs for alcohol purchases and deal with machine malfunctions).

Eventually the costs of labor (labor shortages places like China are causing wages to increase) will normalize and things will be stable.

I'm hoping that at the same time the costs of living in Seattle, Stuttgart, and Shanghai end up about the same too but expect government policies here that keep it high so our standard of living ends up being lower.

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And I don't know about you guys but I don't want our nation to be on the same economic footing at third world countries such as China.

Don't worry about being on the same footing. Instead you should worry about how far behind we'll be. The IMF predicts that China's economy will pass ours in 2016.

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Been there seen it, it's not pretty. 45% of the population perpetually sick or dying, from what best could be described as exhaustion another 45% living in fear of starvation at any moment in time and the remaining 10% living a life that well honestly would make your head spin with respect to excess.

While we're unlikely to starve, there will be more intergenerational housing and spartan living conditions for the working classes as economic forces reduce real wages and the governments act to keep property prices high for corporatist interests.

[shah269 0]

Yes, i did.
You know I have to stop watching the news and listening to NPR on my way to work in the mornings.
It's bad enough that I feel trapped in my own economic condition the fact that the outside harbors less hope than my purgatory really depresses the shit out of me.
Don't you wish you could sometimes just be fat dumb and happy? Know no better and not care?

Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

[kelpdiver 2]

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Yes, i did.
You know I have to stop watching the news and listening to NPR on my way to work in the mornings.
It's bad enough that I feel trapped in my own economic condition the fact that the outside harbors less hope than my purgatory really depresses the shit out of me.
Don't you wish you could sometimes just be fat dumb and happy? Know no better and not care?

there are other alternatives, many of which have been presented to you.

some suggested you move south where the cost of living is more reasonable.

Here in SF, that isn't the case, but the sun is shining here. Lots of good work out there for people with brains.

[rehmwa 2]

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Here in SF, that isn't the case, but the sun is shining here. Lots of good work out there for people with brains.

and those without brains can always run for public office

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[kelpdiver 2]

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Here in SF, that isn't the case, but the sun is shining here. Lots of good work out there for people with brains.

and those without brains can always run for public office

SF does specialize in zombie politicians, with the latest fun being the new Sheriff who appears to have been beating up his wife (or got set up for being too progressive in a town of lefties).

[shah269 0]

kelpdiver
I have spoken to a few professionals and they are "looking into it" but it appears that I am stuck.

But I agree I would love to move a bit further south but I have something a good 15% of people in this country don't.

A job that pays the bills. And though I am looking at a career change now may not be the most opportune time to do it.

I think here in NJ the unemployment is officially 9% but truth be told it's over that even though we have NYC at our door step.

I really do need to stop watching the news and listening to these so called experts....this great recession has done more than just cripple our economy. It may have permanently weighted our soul

Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

[kelpdiver 2]

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this great recession has done more than just cripple our economy. It may have permanently weighted our soul

every great recession/depression does that. Just as every boom cycle creates (temporarily) financial daredevils, ever confident. But the bad cycles have longer lasting effects - the difference in behavior between the Boomers and those who lived through the Great Depression a clear example of this.

[shah269 0]

So how about young folks like me?
I mean yeah I came from Iran and I had nothing when I got here...we just had hope that tomorrow was going to be better than today!
And for the most part ti was but...now it is as if the hope has died!

Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

[AllisonH 0]

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So how about young folks like me?
I mean yeah I came from Iran and I had nothing when I got here...we just had hope that tomorrow was going to be better than today!
And for the most part ti was but...now it is as if the hope has died!

If you are so miserable here, go back to Iran.

[Southern_Man 0]

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It may have permanently weighted our soul

You are doing that all by yourself.

"What if there were no hypothetical questions?"

[Channman 2]

The real number is closer to 15%, ahh maybe a bit higher. But 7-10 percent makes me feel better.

[kelpdiver 2]

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So how about young folks like me?
I mean yeah I came from Iran and I had nothing when I got here...we just had hope that tomorrow was going to be better than today!
And for the most part ti was but...now it is as if the hope has died!

the problem for youth is that they only have seen the current picture, no memories from the other end of the economic cycle. So they just see gloom. When I graduated from college, it was another bad period. If you can't tell yourself that these cycles have been around for all of man, then you're just going to suffer through until the better days. But in your case, as employed, you'll come out of it a lot better than others.

[billvon 2,991]

>So how about young folks like me?

You have a good job and access to all sorts of great food, drink, technology, entertainment and education. You are upset because you're not richer. That's fine, but objectively you're doing very well with your skill set.

>now it is as if the hope has died!

That's your decision, not anyone else's.

[Andrewwhyte 1]

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kelpdiver
I have spoken to a few professionals and they are "looking into it" but it appears that I am stuck.

But I agree I would love to move a bit further south but I have something a good 15% of people in this country don't.

A job that pays the bills. And though I am looking at a career change now may not be the most opportune time to do it.

I think here in NJ the unemployment is officially 9% but truth be told it's over that even though we have NYC at our door step.

I really do need to stop watching the news and listening to these so called experts....this great recession has done more than just cripple our economy. It may have permanently weighted our soul

One of the benefits of free trade is the mobility of skilled workers. If you are an engineer we have a job for you in Alberta. Yes it's true that Fort McMurray is not quite as cosmopolitan as NYC, but the wages are high and the hunting is good. The stories in the news around here is always about the labour shortage crisis.

[kelpdiver 2]

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One of the benefits of free trade is the mobility of skilled workers. If you are an engineer we have a job for you in Alberta. Yes it's true that Fort McMurray is not quite as cosmopolitan as NYC, but the wages are high and the hunting is good. The stories in the news around here is always about the labour shortage crisis.

and the inflationary costs of housing. And by inflationary I mean like Tokyo in the heydey of Japan's rise to world domination in the 80s.

[wmw999 2,447]

Not everyone gets lucky in every way.

One of my grandfathers never caught a break -- he even tried to go back to the old country (Sweden) when the depression came along and he couldn't support his family. But his kids did OK.

The other one did OK; he had to leave school and go to work at 13, but he was able to keep working during the depression by taking (eventually) a 25% pay cut.

Shah, the idea is to decide what satisfies you, then work towards it. You might not get all the way there. You might decide that what you think now defines satisfaction no longer does. That's true for a lot of people.

Both of my grandfathers died with family who loved them, with enough to eat, and a place to live.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)