Posted on 03/02/2009 9:23:05 PM PST by Chet 99
Will Part of Professional Class Be Wiped Out by the Downturn?
Posted 14 hours, 55 minutes ago By Debra Cassens Weiss
A Wall Street Journal column asserts that the safety net doesn’t extend to the growing professional class in the United States, and airs the possibility that part of these jobs will be “wiped out.”
The Microtrends column in the Wall Street Journal says the United States is “totally unprepared” for professional job losses. “We have safety nets for the chronically unemployed, for the fast-food workers let go (oddly they may be the only ones keeping their jobs in this recession), and for the manufacturing plants that have been shuttered. The stimulus will create construction jobs galore.” But there are no jobs for the professionals such as writers and editors who “can’t build roads,” according to the article.
The column notes job losses at top law firms and says lawyers are hit hard. “They principally had their savings in the stock and housing markets, which have been decimated. Unlike many blue-collar and public-sector workers, they have no union protection, limited pensions and suburban-family expenses. And as professionals, they have perfected how to do their narrow job well. But many have little direct business sense or experience.”
It’s unclear how long and deep the recession will be and “how much of this class will be wiped out,” the article says. These professionals worked and studied hard to become successful, but now many face lost jobs and financial security.
(Excerpt) Read more at abajournal.com ...
Killing off the professional class has always been the first step taken in any Marxist revolution...
Oh Bull Puckey. I hear that we are going to need lots of "green" installers who can screw solar panels down on the roof and attach a couple of wires. There's supposed to be infinite opportunity for green collar workers. A little humility and some re-education at the government training camps and they'll be ready to go win that $10/hour job!
It’s quite possible that a piece of the professional class won’t find work in their fields anymore.
Everyone who works in the capitalist system depends on their employer making a profit. If you are employed by governmen or other groups that don’t sell a product, then you have fewer concerns.
But all of us depend on our companies selling a product and making enough gross profit to have money to give us a paycheck.
As long as non technical people need sophisticated IT systems I think I am in pretty good shape.
I have spent 30 years refining and expanding my craft — system level, DBA level, application level, management level, functional level.
That is why I always keep “my hand in” when I am managing a project — it lets me keep my more basic tools sharp and also lets me bring them into the management realm.
Folks, you gotta be both deep and wide.
This article is talking about a profession in which 25 year old fresh law school grads are pulling $150K+ per year here in Houston. Give me a break.
Watch MDs run away from the profession if socialized medicine takes hold. In Canada, doctors are at best, upper middle class, more like middle class.
Erm. Engineers, Software Developers, Doctors, and other assorted Professionals will always find a gainful employment and/or figure out alternatives for themselves.
“Writers” and “Artists” and “Journalists”... what, exactly, of value, in terms of wealth creation, do they provide ?
Whether or not they can build roads, it would be a huge loss to the economy if large numbers of our country's most productive workers ended up doing that long-term. We don't need a "stimulus" that revolves around public works jobs, we need market-based reform that allows long-term economic growth so these high-paying jobs return.
I know a number of people who racked up a great deal of debt to go to law school, thinking that the law would be a good field to be in since their previous careers were wiped out. And now that they’re out of law school they cannot get jobs, and the loans are coming due, and . . .
What does that mean?
The kicker here is that these are the very people who hosannahed the Messiah into Washington. These are his ever-loving base. If the liberal gentry see him as bringing ruin unto them he’s going to find himself mighty short of friends in the near future.
From my Univ. 15 years ago, approx. 40% went to law school, 40% went into banking, 10% into medicine. 10% went elsewhere. I saw the same ratio among many other well-known schools where I knew people.
The “professions” - particularly law, was a bubble waiting to burst.
That's a terrible reason to go to law school. Too many people do it not because they think they'll like the work but because they can't really do anything else. They often can't do law all that well either, and almost always hate it.
Also, it makes little sense to go to law school unless you get into one of the top schools in the country (or get a scholarship at a lower-ranked one). The cost is nearly the same, and your chances of getting one of the coveted $160,000 per year jobs are almost nil. Unfortunately, too many applicants think a law degree--any law degree--is a ticket to success.
A: A good start.
Correction: A TINY minority of grads make that money. The vast majority of attorneys never see that salary level.
I suspect within three years there will be massive medical facilities built in Jamaica, the Dominican, the Bahamas or somewhere that people will go to bypass ObamaScare. There are already "medical vacations" where you can get surgery done at a discount if you go to doctors who aren't overburdened with the expenses of malpractice insurance and overpriced medicine.
Granted, unregulated doctors has its own peril but when Obama puts you on a six-month waiting list for medical procedures, a market will be created and some will be willing to take that chance.
Like anyone who gets income from doing anything, they circulate money, which contributes to the economy. And if you work with your hands or are a businessperson you may not credit it, but there is something to be said for the life of the mind, and for having a group of people in any society who create art, whether it is the art of literature or the arts of painting, sculpture, architecture, music, or the higher decorative crafts.
As for journalists: well, we despise them as a breed because we tend to think of all journalists as being people who work for the New York Times. But the many thoughtful writers and bloggers whose work keeps the conservative dream and the concept of America alive are also journalists and are worthy of our respect. One might say that Victor Davis Hanson, Thomas Sowell, David Limbaugh, and the editors of the National Review are journalists. So journalists can be worthy of our respect and do valid work, too.
Not all of us have the health and strength to build roads. Some of us must work with our talents and minds.
I'm safe.
After you die at your local hospital, you might go to Heaven or you might go to Hell but, before you die, you will go through the Radiology Department first. .... And your estate will get a bill.
If you don't die, you will still go through the Radiology Department. .... And you will get a bill.
There is always the option of not knowing why you have lost 30 pounds of weight or why you have an agonizing pain but most people want to know and they want to know NOW! .... And they will get a bill.
“Writers” and “Artists” and “Journalists”... what, exactly, of value, in terms of wealth creation, do they provide ?
Those are "professionals"?
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