Posted on 04/16/2017 3:25:57 PM PDT by TBP
Americans are stuck. Locked into our jobs, rooted where we live, frozen at our income levels. More than at any previous point in our history, we’ve stopped moving — whether moving up the income ladder or packing up a truck and finding another home. We’ve grown ossified, rigid.
The flip side is that we’re stable. If we weren’t so content, we’d be more willing to gamble, to shake things up, to start a new firm or join one. Maybe we’re fine where we are. But maybe this period of stasis cannot last. Maybe it even portends a period of massive disruption.
In “The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream,” economist Tyler Cowen presents an X-ray of societal sclerosis. This isn’t merely another exercise in nostalgia, a sentimental yearning for a bygone era (when, for instance, crime and pollution were higher, people were highly likely to marry someone who lived within five blocks and you would buy an album containing 10 lousy songs because you liked one track). Something has changed in the American character and in the American economy, and the two seem to be reinforcing each other.
For instance, parts of the country (New York City, Silicon Valley, Texas) are doing extremely well, yet able-bodied adults sit idle in other areas. Why don’t the unemployed, and the large numbers who have dropped out of the labor force, move to the boom towns? Wouldn’t it be better to drive an Uber in Brooklyn than to get by on welfare in West Virginia?
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I purposefully said Navy, because that is what I did. And, join the Navy and see the world was a common saying. Frequently it was said by sailors with a smirk as we cut squares in the middle of the ocean so take it for what it’s worth.
I did see additional 3 continents and countless cities during my floats though.
I purposefully said Navy, because that is what I did. And, join the Navy and see the world was a common saying. Frequently it was said by sailors with a smirk as we cut squares in the middle of the ocean so take it for what it’s worth.
I did see additional 3 continents and countless cities during my floats though.
LOL, reminds me of the classic SNL Parody of the Navy “It’s not just a job, it’s an adventure” ad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhioeOeOHsA
Sigh, where once ACF, Inco, and C&O once flourished, meth and opioids rule supreme. At least Frost Top and Stewart's are still serving great hot dogs and root beer.
4 years ago, my husband started looking for a new job, because his former company used funds of ours improperly. He looked from coast to coast, and had several opportunities, but they all required a long distance move.
Thank God we didn’t stay where we were. We started over, and are making inroads into our losses. It was hard, and it was risky. We gave up much on a chance to improve our lot.
Every day, and I do mean every day, we thank God that He brought us to this new place, and to my husband’s new company. We didn’t realize we were in a rut at the time, because things were stable, or so we thought.
Now, every day is a blessing. We don’t take things for granted.
I’m not moving to NY, CA, NJ, FL, DC, MA, CT, WA, HI, or near any Democrat held city. That probably explains most of the mobility issue.
I have no real knowledge of Uber but I do recall seeing something about the pay when it was first starting up. I wondered at the time why anyone would do it, it seemed to be little more than the cost of fuel.
I have only passed through Brooklyn twice and that was fifty two years ago and I would consider being wealthy and living in Brooklyn to be a living hell. I would not trade a shack in
South Carolina for a palace in Brooklyn.
“Working for Uber is not moving up the ladder of success as the article portrays.”
Yet another liberal arts major. All he sees are Uber drivers making something $40 per hour when they’re driving him to a ‘concert’. What he doesn’t see is the following:
1) The down-time for that driver. I don’t know what that is, but it does always seem that drivers are available...hence not carrying people.
2) The TRASHING of his nice new car. Even with perfect passengers, city driving costs at least 50 cents per mile, when you factor in depreciation, insurance, gas, and maintenance.
3) Uber’s cut, whatever amount that is.
By the time those factors are backed out, the driver is maybe making $10 to $15 per hour. Now he ‘thinks’ he’s making more, because he only sees the gas expense real-time. Maintenance comes in chunks and depreciation only when he sells it. But it is all money out of his pocket.
But having said all that, I still love Uber, nice cars and nice drivers!
There is no way to live cheaply any longer unless you just live in your car or truck. At one time I rented a nice room in a private home for about four hours pay per week. I didn’t have to worry about utilities and the landlady did my laundry for a pittance and would even furnish breakfast if I wanted it. In the mid sixties there were still whole houses available for forty or fifty dollars a month in this area.
While I am looking forward to seeing my parents.
Gino’s sandwiches, Stewarts & Monty’s Pizza are the only other reasons I have to go back lol.
What an @$$ this author is, but is like most liberals think. They shut down your business and work in WV or whereever due to their stupid policies, and expect everyone to move to NY to work for Uber or be a gay blogger, or whatever.
As a fellow South Carolinian, I agree completely.
I grew up in northern NJ, lived in Manhattan for awhile. Long ago.
Is crime down? Everyone I know who’s house was invaded or was mugged on the street (including myself) had it happen in the past 10 years.
And we’ve gone from a society of buying one “crappy” album to get one “good” song (not my experience) to one that just steals and streams (not the same thing) songs and doesn’t buy music anymore.
I’d probably recommend learning to cut hair over driving for Uber. You can work that skill far longer in this world and you can get tips.
Plus hair will always grow (at least until the fallout from nuclear bombs hits).
Yeah, but they bring their Left-wing, nanny state voting habits with them, turning the South into the same high tax, high regulation government they fled.
We need a WALL across the Mason-Dixon line.
I tell you one thing if I were 20 years younger I would join the air force or navy in a heartbeat and have them pay for my education.
As such I’m too old and my era passed me by.
Let’s not forget our abysmal public school system. Our kids aren’t learning critical thinking skills nor are they being prepared for the Information Age and digital economy. Half of them can’t even read and write at grade level. I have a dozen suggestions for improving the system but they would raise howls of protest from the teachers’ unions and every marxist organization in the country.
I moved from NY to Japan in 1985 with no job lined up & only one friend ( ex-Navy with whom I lived for a few months before finding / being able to afford my own place ) here ...Recently a friend in CT told me he really respected me and said I had a pair of giant brass cajones for doing what I did . Made me smile .
One reason is that more than 70% of young Americans in the prime armed forces recruiting cohort (18-25 year olds) no longer qualify for military service, due to such factors as past criminal records, obesity and excessive recreational drug usage. Many of the young snowflakes are also unable to achieve a qualifying score on the ASVAB, a product of our failed government schools.
Finding enough recruits to expand the U.S. military under President Trump may be more difficult than many would believe.
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