[SeaGypsy]

Yeah right, Rural China, inland India, the tropical desert/ savannah, these are lovely stable climes where a bowl of rice a day and a few boiled bones is all one needs to sustain a family..

I think you completely missed my point VM.
Life is about making the most of the opportunities you have in life.
Living in a priveleged country, whining about not having it good enough, is kind of pathetic. have you noticed there are virtually zero ethnic Asians/ Africans or Latinos in this movement? It's about priveleged white kids. The 8% not the 99%.

[Pretorian]

I'm a little surprised that other posters are criticizing young people and their parents, but no one is blaming the evil corporations for the lack of good jobs for young people.

After all, that is what young people themselves believe-----the whole point of the Occupy Wall Street movement is that wall street and the corporations are to blame for all their problems.


IMHO, I think the kids are all right, but years of bad government economic policy have severely damaged the economy.

Interesting. And all those bad government policy makers were owned by w h o m ?

[Pretorian]

Personally, I find the Occupy position naive in the extreme, if well meaning. These people need to get out of their suburbs and go have a look at how people live in the 70% of the world who are struggling to earn $3 a day. The gall of these people in aligning these massive percentages with their's, generally in the top 10% globally, even if unemployed on benefits.

These calling themselves the 99% are really the 8% between the top 10% and the top 2%; not such a punchy banner.

Those calling for a hands off Government approach, had they had their way, would much more rapidly be facing wage equity with China; the inevitable conclusion of globalization.

From one side, you are right, labor is labor regardless of where it's performed and $3 is a fare wage for a day of back-breaking work. On the other hand , each country is differently endowed with resources, whatever they are. If a people of any country has a claim on resources of their own country, why would they work for $3 a day if in theory they could do nothing and get $30-50-70-100 a day just by letting others break their backs to extract those resources? Australia is a very fine example of this.

[MarkJ]

We constantly hear locals say "there ain't no jobs". They must be wearing blinders, don't get out much, or they're unemployable.

Even local convenience stores have added more full time positions, increased pay and increased benefits to attract and retain better qualified workers.



The distribution centers - Walmart, Target etc start many workers @$16 plus per hour with benefits and performance incentives.

Some of the local ARC's (Associations for Retarded Citizens) have had to increase pay and benefits as well. All these businesses are always hiring, or taking applications.


One of my nieces, a recent high school graduate and current college student with little work experience turned down 4 well paying jobs since the schedules were in conflict with school and study.

[ralfy]

The only way out for the U.S. is to decrease borrowing and spending considerably across the board--government, corporations, households. That means for this issue lower wages across the board, a major decline in consumer spending and a middle class lifestyle, a return to factories and farms, etc., given a "business as usual" orientation. For those who are aware of peak oil, that will mean localization.

[Loki]

I find it ironic that Boomers are the ones moaning the loudest about how lazy and just generally useless Millennials are. Most ironic was the post on how poor the parenting of the Millennials has been. And who was doing said parenting?

Let's conveniently ignore the economic meltdown that the US has experienced in the last few years, not to mention the long-term decline of the American middle class. Nope, it's all because youngin's today don't have the “get up and go” that the Boomers had

And since we're conveniently ignoring reality, let's forget the fact that Boomers came of age during the greatest boom in human fucking history. Born on third and y'all think you hit a homer.

I'm Gen X, not Millennial, but I've worked with the latter enough to know there are plenty of hard working folks in their 20s. That the job market is utter shit is not their fault. It's largely the fault of Boomers. So if you want to engage in generational finger pointing, look in the damn mirror.

[ColossalContrarian]

I find it ironic that Boomers are the ones moaning the loudest about how lazy and just generally useless Millennials are. Most ironic was the post on how poor the parenting of the Millennials has been. And who was doing said parenting?

Let's conveniently ignore the economic meltdown that the US has experienced in the last few years, not to mention the long-term decline of the American middle class. Nope, it's all because youngin's today don't have the “get up and go” that the Boomers had

And since we're conveniently ignoring reality, let's forget the fact that Boomers came of age during the greatest boom in human fucking history. Born on third and y'all think you hit a homer.

I'm Gen X, not Millennial, but I've worked with the latter enough to know there are plenty of hard working folks in their 20s. That the job market is utter shit is not their fault. It's largely the fault of Boomers. So if you want to engage in generational finger pointing, look in the damn mirror.

WOW DUDE

Isn't there a death panel thread somewhere

Thanks Loki!

[SeaGypsy]

Send me a few Loki, I can't find any who are not fully engaged who I would engage, if you know what I mean? I think it's part of the breeding rate contraction in the west. Yep there are still good and bad born in every generation, just a lot less of both.

[Pretorian]

Walmart? $16 per hour? Whom do they pay that, their new pharmacists?

[Duende]

Loki wrote:

I find it ironic that Boomers are the ones moaning the loudest about how lazy and just generally useless Millennials are. Most ironic was the post on how poor the parenting of the Millennials has been. And who was doing said parenting?

Let's conveniently ignore the economic meltdown that the US has experienced in the last few years, not to mention the long-term decline of the American middle class. Nope, it's all because youngin's today don't have the “get up and go” that the Boomers had

And since we're conveniently ignoring reality, let's forget the fact that Boomers came of age during the greatest boom in human fucking history. Born on third and y'all think you hit a homer.

I'm Gen X, not Millennial, but I've worked with the latter enough to know there are plenty of hard working folks in their 20s. That the job market is utter shit is not their fault. It's largely the fault of Boomers. So if you want to engage in generational finger pointing, look in the damn mirror.

Bodyslam!

[Serial_Worrier]

One of my nieces, a recent high school graduate and current college student with little work experience turned down 4 well paying jobs since the schedules were in conflict with school and study.

Is she studying to be an engineer, doctor or scientist?

[rockdoc123]

I find it ironic that Boomers are the ones moaning the loudest about how lazy and just generally useless Millennials are. Most ironic was the post on how poor the parenting of the Millennials has been. And who was doing said parenting?

Obviously you didn’t understand what was being said….The idea was that it was the parenting that said youth were exposed to that created at least a part of the problem. I don’t see anyone trying to shirk responsibility. Not sure what the irony is there. Boomers were exposed to generally very good parenting in my experience, the problem was for one reason or another (liberal education and views etc) that upbringing didn’t always translate into the way they raised their own children.

And since we're conveniently ignoring reality, let's forget the fact that Boomers came of age during the greatest boom in human fucking history. Born on third and y'all think you hit a homer.

I disagree. The “boomers” were at the age where they were truly entering the work force from about 1966 through to 1986. If you look at the Dow Jones Industrial Average it was at a level of around 5000 in 1966 having come out of the trough caused by the great depression before which the level had risen to around 5000 in 1930. The DJIA declined steadily from ~5500 in 1967 through to 1982 where it levelled off at ~2500 but then took off on a steady rise to ~14,000 in 2001. The S&P in 1966 was around 100 and remained in a range between 100 and 120 until 1981 after which it rose continuously to ~1550 in 2001. Those charts indicate the boomer generation weren’t riding on the laurels of past success at all but were, instead, largely responsible for it. Indeed, if you are a Gen-Xer then at least half of that precipitous climb in the DJIA came before you entered the work force, the jobs you would have gotten into created by the previous generation. All generations experience harsh economic times, my parents lived through the Great Depression, I’ve seen a number of serious recessions and worked in an industry that has been traditionally very cyclic. Gen-Xers saw it difficult to break into job markets while competing with skilled labor. What is the measure of a generation is how they deal with their challenges. My parents’ generation learned how to do with less, my generation learned how to be innovative, changing business models to be more resilient to economic hardship and developing technology that could open business opportunities, the Gen-Xers created their own jobs/industries and fought their way into the workforce by taking jobs they were over-qualified for, eventually being recognized for what they could contribute.

[Serial_Worrier]

BTW millenials are not the children of boomers. Boomers had their kids from the early 70s to the early 80s. Late Gen X and Gen Y are their kids. Millenials are born to Gen Xers.

[SeaGypsy]

That's a very sweeping statement. My parents were born 44/45 (boomer) I was born 67 (xer) my 1st child was born in 1992 (millenial) and I now have a 2 year old and 9 month old (?gen). My father also had 2 families, so my eldest son is the same age as my youngest brother & sister. Things have become less straighforward for many families.

[Cog]

The only way out for the U.S. is to decrease borrowing and spending considerably across the board--government, corporations, households. That means for this issue lower wages across the board, a major decline in consumer spending and a middle class lifestyle, a return to factories and farms, etc., given a "business as usual" orientation. For those who are aware of peak oil, that will mean localization.

Localization also means the destruction of millions of federal jobs. Something that both Republicans and Democrats have bitterly opposed.

But I'm hopeful anyway.

[anador]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ ... aphic.html

Great article on the subject, here is the graph

[anador]

and it may interest you to know that I am an employed recent college graduate for architecture

[SeaGypsy]

one of very few in the demographic posting on this board. I doubt there are more than 3 regular posters here under 30.

[Serial_Worrier]

That's a very sweeping statement. My parents were born 44/45 (boomer) I was born 67 (xer) my 1st child was born in 1992 (millenial) and I now have a 2 year old and 9 month old (?gen). My father also had 2 families, so my eldest son is the same age as my youngest brother & sister. Things have become less straighforward for many families.

Your family is an outlier. The generational categorization applies to most people.