More job searchers just quit looking

USA TODAY ^ | 4/7/2003 | Barbara Hagenbaugh

[Willie Green]

WASHINGTON

[ARCADIA]

People don't want to work.

Actually, that sounds like a reasonable statement to me. I suspect that if we were to stop paying people for their work, that very very few would actually show up. People work to earn a living, and successful people are those who are willing to work hard at it, and charge well for it. But working multiple minimum wage jobs with few if any benefits is hardly about making a living. You are wasting time and killing yourself in the process; sometimes literally.

I also have no interest in embracing change. Civilization moved away from normadic existence ages ago and I see little to be gained by returning to it. Change means starting over at the beginning and getting absolutely nowhere. I noticed that most of those preaching about change have seldom seem to have experienced a real dislocation.

But, if embracing change is absolutely the way of the future, then by all means lets do it. I suggest we hold a national lottery every month, put everyones name in a hat, and assign everyone by the luck of the draw. That could be fun; you can spend a month as the CEO of a fortune 500 company and earn a cool million, and the subsequent month cleaning out the mens room at your local Burger King at minumum wage. Somehow I suspect that that is not the kind of change people want us to embrace. When we talk about embracing change it means that we want someone else to work at one low grade job, only to be "changed" to yet another equally unfulling post. As for ourselves, we seem quite willing to kiss our bosses bottoms and do everything we can to shield ourselves from change.

We are not experiencing a problem in work ethic, nor is our work force plagued by an unwillingness to grow; but, we do have a shortfall in meaningful jobs, and a corporate culture that is doing a disaterous job of managing its human resources. We have gone from hiring the best to hiring the cheapest, and if it shows well on the bottom line of the income statement, it shows poorly in the quality of the products we are producing. If all we can produce is junk, then we certainly need to produce it ever more cheaply to sell it.

It is a good thing that many people are day trading, since the future is beginning to look very shaky.

[dark_lord]

People don't want to work. I'm not saying that you personally dont want to wrk cause I dont know you from Jack. But if you do want to- I mean really really willing to work- to get your hands dirty or to lift something heavier than a stapler or something else that "wastes" that precious college degree there IS someone out there that would love to have you over the other 1999 applicants that just want to sit on their hands all day and collect a paycheck for it.

Yes, the issue is not work per se. But you are missing a key and critical point. People go through a "life cycle". When they are young their overhead is low. A single person can live on $8.50/hour because they get together with 3 other single people and bunk down in a two bedroom apartment. Normally these people are going to school part time to find get some skills for a better job.

A married with kids and mortgage person cannot effectively make it on $8.50/hour. Which is what the kinds of job you describe pay. This is a phase of life. Once you have kids you have to keep them safe (which means don't live in a crime infested neighborhood), which means a mortgage in a nice (or at least "nicer") part of town. Once the kids are out, yeah, you can downsize the house and go back to working for less money. But people with kids have higher expenses. It is not necessarily about a fear of "wasting a precious college degree." It is that when you compete with unskilled labor, you get paid too little to cover the overhead that comes with kids.

[CyberAnt]

You're right - but I've saved my income tax return and I'm about to begin making T-shirts. I made the designs about a year ago and now I'm talking with Hanes about producing them.

[annyokie]

Best of luck in your endevour!

[saluzza]

I told people during the dotcom boom that they needed to keep an eye towards organizing themselves, but they were all sold the "freelance" employee line. Unions work on multiple levels, all the way from very little workplace involvement to full on involvement. During the "boom" years people were like "aww, man we don't need unions". But thats alot like saying "I don't need insurance because I'm healthy now". In either case you plan ahead, hell, the companies were planning ahead, they were thinking about how to get you to do twicw the work at half the price. Businesses organize for mutual benefit,why not employees?

The H1-B issue is a symptom of a larger problem, namely lake of political clout in working America. We don't have the lobbying power, and the candidates are choosen by donors before they ever get to the election ballot.

Bartlett and Steele in their book, America: Who Stole the Dream? detailed Corporate Americas strategy to reduce labor costs, tax liability, and increase governmental influence. This was in 1996, the "boom" only delayed the collapse, teh strutural damage was already underway. There was a section on H1-B visas as well, adn why corp America loves them. But we are all wage slaves in some way or another, unless you make your money the old fashioned way, inheritence.

[joef]

You're right that the economic problems that we face today have been building for a long time. Some of these go back to policies Reagan implemented. One of the best economic texts I've read is Wealth and Democracy by Kevin Phillips. It covers all of American history, and looks at how much influence the wealthy had at different times, and it also compared the economic policies of the internet bubble to other speculative bubbles.

One of the most striking things it details is the shifting of the tax burden away from corporations and the wealthiest Americans, and onto the lower and middle class. Right now, the government makes 3 times the revenue on payroll taxes that they make on corporate taxes. Companies like Halliburton and Enron didn't even pay taxes some years...they got money back. And the percentage of income paid by the middle 20% of americans is just about equal to the top .5%, at about 25% for both. Considering the middle 20% make something like 40-60 grand, that 25% is taking a big chunk of their income...the top .5% (people that make over 1 million dollars a year) are much better prepared to pay the 26% that they pay, on average.

[PETAMember]

The IT labor oversupply is directly related to the H1-B program which currently has 800,000 foreign nationals working here for less than an American would take. For those of strict libertarian bent who feel that this is just reasonable competition, keep in mind that this program is limited to techies. It would be fair, I suppose, if we extended it to all trades and professions. That way, I could maybe hire a lawyer for $10.00/hr or get my truck fixed for $5.00/hr.

This H1-B program, by the way, though it is supported by congressmen on the take from both sides of the aisle, was primarily and greatly expanded during the Clinton reign. This helps explain why we used to see so many news stories about how the New Economy types just loved Clinton and Gore. Of course they did. The ones outside of Redmond also liked having the Clinton/Reno Justice department help compensate for their competitive deficiencies. So, their love for the Clintonians was more in the nature of a very shrewd investment. For just a few hundred thousand, the chance to replace your labor force with lower priced foreigners and also have Justice carry your water with Micrsoft.

[ApesForEvolution]

No, nor do I support a lot of other government hogwash. What do do though, is actively work to get government as far out of the mix as I can through political activism - all the while taking on each and every independent and lucrative endeavor I can put my hands on. An employee, by the nature of life, is not guaranteed security. It's the longest running fallacy in business. The only security in this world (if one is viewing economies through this world's outlook and not relying on God's economy) is that which an individual creates. Some people spend more time (wasted) on the problems than overcoming them. "If it is to be, it is up to ME!" I've learned the hard way too. I simply did something about it...

[saluki_in_ohio]

Good luck to you! I have been looking/interviewing for months and there is nothing here.

I know this thread is extremely stale, but I did find a job, one that pays more than my old job. I hope you find a job too!

[waterstraat]

Good luck to you! I have been looking/interviewing for months and there is nothing here.

There is nothing here either, but the indian economy is booming, with lots of new offices going up, and a hiring frenzy. Perhaps you should send your resume to india or china - lots and lots of jobs there if you are willing to relocate.

[waterstraat]

NATIONAL REPUBLICAN PLATFORM, ADOPTED AT MINNEAPOLIS, MINN., JUNE 9, 1892 We reaffirm the American doctrine of protection. We maintain that the prosperous condition of our country is largely due to the wise revenue legislation of the Republican Congress. We believe that all articles which cannot be produced in the United States, except for luxuries, should be admitted free of duty, and that upon all imports coming into the United States coming into competition with the products of American labor there should be levied duties equal to the difference between wages abroad and at home.