Reminds me of a certain Zuckerberg lackey who said that those displaced in the Rust Belt and coal industry should just suck it up and become a coder.
Yeah, easy for you to say. Tell that to a 54 year old with a mortgage, two kids and college and a car payment.
“Tell that to a 54 year old with a mortgage, two kids and college and a car payment.”
I was Obama’d out of a career at age 59. Thanks to Obama I probably couldn’t have gotten a job even if I could defecate gold eggs. The economy under Obola suffered terribly. I applied for jobs as far away as Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, as I had worked for a company with operations in those countries. I had a hot phone interview where I blew away the interviewer with my knowledge and accomplishments but as the phone interview, with what sounded like a twenty-something, ended, he made a gratuitous joke about older workers. I realized that the next level video interview was a waste of time, and that turned out to be the case. (I am guessing they looked at the date I graduated with an MBA, which was recent, and ignored the engineering degree, which was from 1979.)
On the other hand, we have to play the cards we are dealt and nobody has a say in that. I started buying low-end rental houses and I am eking out an income. Frankly, I am much happier working for myself than I was following the illogical, political dictates from people so on-high they had no idea, or care, what the situation was on the ground.
Several times in my career, I had to leave through no fault of my own; due to layoffs, buyouts, contract losses, etc. Each time, I ended up in a better place financially. Until, of course, the last time.
Change is not, on the whole, a bad thing. We get stuck in a comfortable rut. For my father’s generation that rut lasted an entire career and they retired with a defined benefit plan. I retired with just what I’d saved and that wasn’t nearly enough. So, I am essentially gambling with the money I have knowing that if I leave it where it is, in stocks and savings, it will be reduced in value to inconsequential small change by a government that can’t make a budget. I am therefore investing in something that will increase much faster in value, cash flow from rentals. Whatever the market rate is, caused by inflation, a renter will have to pay it. His pay will adjust for inflation because he is currently running on the employment treadmill while I am not.
So what do you propose—that we become a nation of Luddites? Stop the productivity improvements that have led us to an ever-higher standard of living?
So you believe in the free market only up until folks have to be responsible for themselves?
Oh, and the kids can work their way through college if they’re college material. Though if Mom and Dad are so hopeless, it’s probably better for the kids to learn some sort of trade.
“Let them eat cake”, said the tyrant.
Nothing new under the sun!