The new face of food stamps: working-age Americans

[dainthomas]

Oh, please. Very few American employers are willing to train anybody to do anything involving much skill at all. They've enjoyed a surplus of skilled workers for decades because of the ongoing downsizing of enterprise in this country. Training apprentices is unappealing when journeymen are in abundance.

What you describe is what business will want when all the boomer techs retire, bet on that. They still won't want to train, because imported trained & skilled workers will be cheaper.

I work for an electric utility that has a very robust apprenticeship program for its line crews. It's not easy work, but a journeyman will pull down 35/h starting with tons of overtime. That's north of 70 grand at a minimum.

 

[Doppel]

So, instead of bemoaning an economic system where people who work don't get paid enough to share much in the wealth of this nation it's best to bemoan the fact that they might have a few nice things.

That way, when you too get that big downgrade you'll blame yourself just the same as you blame them now.

Or maybe you shouldn't be disgusted by the recipients of govt largesse but rather with the system of concentrated Rentiership that creates the necessity.

I am not disgusted with their behavior really. People take, it's on our nature. If you give an inch they take a mile. I can tell you though the husband is profoundly unmotivated despite having a growing family. He has been able to cruise along thus far not really bothering to give a shit because it's not yet mattered. And that has to be in part because of benefits given to him. They pad the slack. He is a recent vet so has a bunch of money for college but is just dragging his ass getting it done, and so instead makes last I heard $11/hour working some menial office work. His sibling harps on him to buck up but, meh, whatever can't be bothered, it's working okay so far so what the hell.

 

[Jhhnn]

I am not disgusted with their behavior really. People take, it's on our nature. If you give an inch they take a mile. I can tell you though the husband is profoundly unmotivated despite having a growing family. He has been able to cruise along thus far not really bothering to give a shit because it's not yet mattered. And that has to be in part because of benefits given to him. They pad the slack. He is a recent vet so has a bunch of money for college but is just dragging his ass getting it done, and so instead makes last I heard $11/hour working some menial office work. His sibling harps on him to buck up but, meh, whatever can't be bothered, it's working okay so far so what the hell.

The fact remains that the system provides those $11/hr jobs by the million. If your guy moves up, somebody else will just get his old job. And it's not like everybody gets to do so, either- any organizational chart tells us that.

It's not about one guy going somewhere, but about a system that provides places to go & decent livings for people who don't go much of anywhere. As more is automated & offshored, as inequality gets greater, there are relatively fewer places, let alone desirable places, to go wrt employment.

We need to figure out how to better deal with that, how to better reconcile protestant work ethic with the amount of work there really is, and how to keep people going in the face of a scarcity of employment & depressed wages.

I don't really know how to do that, but I'm sure that traditional conservative values & philosophy about work never anticipated this.

 

[shortylickens]

I know, you live at the level of an animal because you do not know who you are. I am extremely competitive too. I insist that others go first and I sometimes win. I don't tell them though, when I do.

Well, since you flipflopped on your original point and ignored mine, I shant be responding to you any more.

 

[shortylickens]

Labor isn't worth squat, and it's only going to get worse.

The 21st century will define how we deal with the legion of poor and unemployed. Will we tell them to eat cake and lose our heads, or will the revolution take a different turn?

yeah I think its funny that democrats talk about raising minimum wage at the same time they defend illegal alien workers.

 

[werepossum]

5057 PhD's in custodial service?

How many of them are philosophy and art history?

How many are applied mathematics and chemical engineering?

There's a saying, "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life." Far too many people don't understand the rest of the sentence, "'cause ain't nobody paying your dead ass to play XBox and wank off." Far too many of our degrees are in fields with little or no demand, and while the very best graduates in philosophy and art history and medieval literature and French poetry do pretty well, the average graduate in those fields will be asking if you want fries with that or if he can squeeze past to pick up your trash.

 

[Texashiker]

There's a saying, "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life." Far too many people don't understand the rest of the sentence, "'cause ain't nobody paying your dead ass to play XBox and wank off."

Made me lol.

I was talking to this young man the other day who told me he was going to college for a music degree. I did not say anything rude, but I was thinking to myself who is going to hire you with a music degree? What are you going to do, teach music in school?

Kids these days have no idea what its like to work for a living.

 

[who?]

College isn't vocational school it's about teaching people how to think.

 

[Newell Steamer]

Must be because they spend all their money on;
- alcohol
- cigarettes
- drugs
- tattoos
- iPhones
- iPads
- iPods
- cable channels
- OLED 60" TVs
- XBoxs
- Playstations
- Wiis
- BluRays
- Massages
- Abortions

If they stopped getting these things every month, they wouldn't need food stamps.

 

[OverVolt]

Must be because they spend all their money on;
- alcohol
- cigarettes
- drugs
- tattoos
- iPhones
- iPads
- iPods
- cable channels
- OLED 60" TVs
- XBoxs
- Playstations
- Wiis
- BluRays
- Massages
- Abortions

If they stopped getting these things every month, they wouldn't need food stamps.

Its about starting a family. You could cut all of that and not come anywhere near what you need to buy a house and be independent. I'd bet alot of people buy all of that shit specifically because their personal life is messed up.

 

[OverVolt]

College isn't vocational school it's about teaching people how to think.

Yea well its getting pretty expensive to be taught how to think.

 

[Newell Steamer]

Its about starting a family. You could cut all of that and not come anywhere near what you need to buy a house and be independent. I'd bet alot of people buy all of that shit specifically because their personal life is messed up.

I agree.

I'm just being passive aggressive towards folks who claim a $30,000 year salary is more than enough to pay for health insurance, rent, car, gas, school, food, clothing, save money, etc.,... but, it isn't, because people are doing all sorts of terrible things with their money.

They are clearly not. The wages are too low. And, expecting more (to meet the standard of living), means it's being self entitled, Un-American, etc. etc. The usual bullshit.

 

[shortylickens]

Yea well its getting pretty expensive to be taught how to think.

Its expensive and my experience thus far is people arent improving their thinking.

 

[Incorruptible]

Made me lol.

I was talking to this young man the other day who told me he was going to college for a music degree. I did not say anything rude, but I was thinking to myself who is going to hire you with a music degree? What are you going to do, teach music in school?

Kids these days have no idea what its like to work for a living.

Too many of them are like this. Many expect to be paid for doing absolutely nothing and if they don't get paid they think their rights are being violated. There is a serious entitlement mentality with them.

 

[werepossum]

Made me lol.

I was talking to this young man the other day who told me he was going to college for a music degree. I did not say anything rude, but I was thinking to myself who is going to hire you with a music degree? What are you going to do, teach music in school?

Kids these days have no idea what its like to work for a living.

That's true for far too many people.

College isn't vocational school it's about teaching people how to think.

Seems like it's broke then, as the Occupy crowd was very heavily college students. Probably a lot of them had things like music degrees, or were working on them. "I can't find a good job with my History of Music BA, so I'm going back to school to get my History of Music master's. Somebody needs to pay for that."

 

[IndyColtsFan]

College isn't vocational school it's about teaching people how to think.

People go to college to secure better employment prospects. Whether you agree or disagree with it, that's what it boils down to. The old notion that college "teaches people how to think" or "makes a person well-rounded" is all fine and dandy, but you can become those things without going into six figure debt.

College must be looked at as an investment and therefore, if you're going to invest a large sum of money into obtaining a degree, you'd better pick something that gives you the best chance at a good return on that investment. Getting a degree in Canadian Studies isn't going to impress anyone or help you pay the bills, but a degree in engineering, accounting, medicine, etc. likely will.

 

[Mai72]

Made me lol.

I was talking to this young man the other day who told me he was going to college for a music degree. I did not say anything rude, but I was thinking to myself who is going to hire you with a music degree? What are you going to do, teach music in school?

Kids these days have no idea what its like to work for a living.

It's the truth. When I was younger I worked 2-3 jobs. It's much different now. I feel that today most young people have the attitude that they are above working hard. Maybe their parents are to blame.

I went to college later then most people. I was working midnight security and attending morning classes. It was a very difficult thing to do, but it taught me that nothing is achieved without hard work.

 

[werepossum]

People go to college to secure better employment prospects. Whether you agree or disagree with it, that's what it boils down to. The old notion that college "teaches people how to think" or "makes a person well-rounded" is all fine and dandy, but you can become those things without going into six figure debt.

College must be looked at as an investment and therefore, if you're going to invest a large sum of money into obtaining a degree, you'd better pick something that gives you the best chance at a good return on that investment. Getting a degree in Canadian Studies isn't going to impress anyone or help you pay the bills, but a degree in engineering, accounting, medicine, etc. likely will.

This is America - we're so well-rounded that some of us are barely mobile at all.

<rimshot>

 

[Abakus]

Made me lol.

I was talking to this young man the other day who told me he was going to college for a music degree. I did not say anything rude, but I was thinking to myself who is going to hire you with a music degree? What are you going to do, teach music in school?

Kids these days have no idea what its like to work for a living.

Too true.

I've seen people in their middle twenties living off their parents for food, personal items like music/games/clothes/etc and going to college on their parents' dime as well (and completely ungrateful for it too).

I've said for years (used to have it as my sig) that if we sent everyone to college, we would have the most educated McDonalds and WalMart workforces in the world.

A nation full of service people selling stuff made in other countries instead of a nation full of people making items to sell to other countries (and themselves).

Exactly my thoughts.