[boycottliberalhollywood.com]

Without sounding like a shill for Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, I'll dare to consider this from a different perspective...

Let's say that you are not an intellectual giant, in fact, you barely squeak through high school. Maybe not even that. Forget about race for now, just look at the eduacation aspect. You aren't one of those folks who are going to start their own business, you are just a real "average joe. 30 years ago, you could certainly find work in a factory of some sort. Folks with that 'gearhead' mindset would end up in some sort of machine shop or something involving steel. Not quite up to that level? Well, somebody needs to assemble Barbie dolls, right?

Ah, but this is the 21st century! There are good jobs if you know technology and you job hasn't been outsourced to India yet. There are plenty of jobs working at Wal-Mart, but they pay like the bumper sticker, "Low Wages...Always".

Okay, what about jobs for the remanining what, 30% of society who don't have software development kung fu skills, but who are certainly more skilled than a Wal-Mart clerk? In our enlightened society that has embraced the "Cheapest price rules" mindset, we've shipped away all the jobs for which the "average joes" were perfectly suited. Auto mechanic? Not any more, with the complexity of cars these days. Construction? Sure, but the constructin field goes through some pretty nasty boom/bust cycles. There just aren't a lot of average jobs anymore!

[summer]

Yes, that's one part of it -- the article mentions that, too (the loss of manufacturing jobs). But, here's another part you have to consider: white and Hispanic men do not have the same problems at the same rates as black men.
Black men bear a lot of children out of wedlock, and now, with stricter child support laws, the article explains how these black men, already absent from the home where their children are being raised, see any kind of legitimate work as coming with a "tax" of child support payments. So, they avoid it. Which leads them into more problems.

[Jeff Chandler]

You aren't one of those folks who are going to start their own business

My father never graduated from high school, and is not the intellectual type at all, but he has AMBITION.

While holding down a full time job driving a truck delivering dairy products, he started a lawn maintenance/landscaping business. He then invested some of his profit in a retail motorcycle business which went under. He then took a loan out on his modest 3 bedroom home and invested in an apartment complex. Then in more rental homes. Then the California real estate market went through the roof. Today he is retired and worth millions.

Of course, I'll never see a dime of it, but that is a story I'll keep to myself.

[Clemenza]

True, but that doesn't answer the question as to why whites males, hispanic males, and Asian males participate in the labor force at considerably higher rates than black males.

[Jotmo]

Sorry, I don't buy a word of it. As counter argument I offer the fact that males from other races have nothing like this kind of collective problem.

There's something else wrong here.

[Just Lori]

There just aren't a lot of average jobs anymore!

Sure there are. You just have to be willing to work. You can't expect to start out at $15.00 an hour. You have to believe that you can do better for yourself than the government can do FOR you.

[RobFromGa]

Folks with that 'gearhead' mindset would end up in some sort of machine shop or something involving steel. Not quite up to that level? Well, somebody needs to assemble Barbie dolls, right? Ah, but this is the 21st century! There are good jobs if you know technology and you job hasn't been outsourced to India yet

My customers are manufacturing plants here in the good ol' USA. They have plenty of "factory jobs" available-- their #1 complaint is the inability to find good solid workers who are not on drugs, and who want to show up dependably for work. I have seen it myself firsthand, many of those at the entry level are not thinking about working hard and getting ahead, they are busy figuring out how to do as little as possible, and skipping work.

There is plenty of opportunity in this country for the average Joe who wants to work.

[Beckwith]

we've shipped away all the jobs for which the "average joes" were perfectly suited

Got a mouse in your pocket, Skippy?

[Pan_Yans Wife]

My father, a technical engineer, and my husband, a maintenance engineer, managed to work their way into stable positions and then worked their way up the ladder. No one did this for them. They were not locked out of employment due to manufacturing overseas.

Every person mush find their own niche, to enable them to enjoy job security. My father's employment was always based upon the auto industry and how well they did. He traveled for twenty years, performing his job... providing a high standard of living for his family.

My husband first joined the Navy, served for over nine years, and then actively hunted down the best job for himself, even though it meant re-locating across the country.

Those people who will not actively pursue the highest dollar for work that they perform get no sympathy. You must work for YOURSELF and your future.

[taxed2death]

Let's say that you are not an intellectual giant, in fact, you barely squeak through high school. Maybe not even that. Forget about race for now, just look at the eduacation aspect. You aren't one of those folks who are going to start their own business, you are just a real "average joe. 30 years ago, you could certainly find work in a factory of some sort. Folks with that 'gearhead' mindset would end up in some sort of machine shop or something involving steel. Not quite up to that level? Well, somebody needs to assemble Barbie dolls, right?

Ah, but this is the 21st century! There are good jobs if you know technology and you job hasn't been outsourced to India yet. There are plenty of jobs working at Wal-Mart, but they pay like the bumper sticker, "Low Wages...Always".

"Okay, what about jobs for the remanining what, 30% of society who don't have software development kung fu skills, but who are certainly more skilled than a Wal-Mart clerk? In our enlightened society that has embraced the "Cheapest price rules" mindset, we've shipped away all the jobs for which the "average joes" were perfectly suited. Auto mechanic? Not any more, with the complexity of cars these days. Construction? Sure, but the constructin field goes through some pretty nasty boom/bust cycles. There just aren't a lot of average jobs anymore!"

___________________________________________________________

Excellent post. Here's the real hidden problem. I'll use myself as an example here. I went to a tech (trade) High school. There were blacks, whites and Hispanics that went there. Upon graduation.... if we took up carpentry...or Machine shop...or "Heating / HVAC ..."electro-Mech" or any other trade... we could basically graduate and walk into a pretty darned good job. I chose Auto Body repair and within 3 years of graduating I was making more than my father. At 22 years old I was making $600.00+ a week...and this is back in 1984....not too bad for someone with no college education. When I look around now and see many businesses (blue collar) in a 30 mile radius....most of my fellow classmates went on to be very successful business owners. I know of several plumbers who make over $250,000.00 a year. That's no joke!
The normal chain of occurrences is that when these business owners need new help...all they do is stop off at any local trade school and ask the teachers there for the best and the brightest.

All this has changed now with the influx of illegals. One USED to be able to make a decent living and or have a GOOD job upon graduating from carpentry in a trade school. Now the illegals have driven down the wages by so much there is no incentive to be a carpenter or a framer here in CT. If you choose that line of work....you should also be aware that you'll have to live in a house with 15 other dudes and work for 8 bucks an hour.
Now....if you're a legit business owner here in CT....you simply can not AFFORD to go to a trade school and hire one of the students. You have to put them on the books. This crappy situation pits legit business owners against scumbag tax cheat employers. It has become a race to the bottom. How does this effect black kids?

Well as I had mentioned before.....a large percentage of my graduating class were blacks. Now they've been sold down the river (once again) by this bull$hit line from GWB that we "need" (illegal) immigrants. Go talk to the black (and white and Hispanic) youth graduating from trade schools. They can not find employment when they graduate from a trade they've trained for 4 years. If you are a legit business owner you will find yourself underbid time and time again by these scumbags who pay no FICA, or SS or any other insurance for their illegals.

GWB and his ilk are complicit in this. There is no job stability in the blue collar workforce anymore and we are importing cheap (near slave) labor to the tune of 10,000 to 15,000 persons a week through our insecure borders.

This illegal mess is just another way that people (all races) of lower economic means are getting shafted by their own government. I don't think our own government should pit the lower economic groups of Americans against illegals for the sake of "cheap labor". That hardly seems "American".