Younger generation mobility at 50 year low

[BoberFett]

LOVE the amount of bs people on this site push about anything involving the government/military. It's like a bunch of 9 year olds with posters of F22 fighters on their walls saying "Oh well I'm gonna pilot one, I just have to get my top secret clearance cleared". I bet you have no idea what the COLORS of the 3 levels of clearance normally given to contractors are!

Oh jeez, the window licker is back...

 

[irishScott]

with something like that, it's hard to really compare the situation of growing up in the 70's or 80's versus today.

cars, insurance, and gas costs are all rising, while minimum wage isn't even coming close to keeping up with inflation. it's a different world than when insurance was like $20 for the year and gas was pennies per gallon.

Yeah, and you could get a decent job with a high school diploma, which was one of my somewhat vague points. Nowadays college isn't career school, it's expected. I know far too many of my classmates who are in college simply because they had nowhere else to go and their parents expected them to go. To them it's 13-16th grade, and they have no idea what they're doing.

This massive influx means there's increased competition for slots at good Universities, hence my extra-curriculars and AP classes. High school was never really about learning or living for me or anyone else I knew, it was considered to be pre-college. And this was a public school.

 

[Texashiker]

This massive influx means there's increased competition for slots at good Universities, hence my extra-curriculars and AP classes.

Which means more people competing for jobs, which means lower wages.

The simple truth is we do not have enough jobs.

 

[Moonbeam]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Orignal Earl
I've noticed young folk won't settle for a bungalow.
They "need" the huge house, yard, new appliances
Oh and the granite countertops, they would die without it

This. Young people look at what their parents have taken 20 to 30 or more years to earn, and they believe that's how life should be from Day 1. They don't realize everyone needs to start at the bottom, in tiny little apartments, and you earn your way to nice things. That's partly why personal debt in this country is out of control.
__________________

Ah crap, I want granite countertops, God Damn It. I'd settle for Carrara marble but it can stain.

 

[Moonbeam]

Which means more people competing for jobs, which means lower wages.

The simple truth is we do not have enough jobs.

What if we took all the money from the rich and paid the jobless to improve the world we live in. Wouldn't that breathe new life into the world improvement business model and make world improvers rich? And wouldn't that inspire a lot of folk whose job it is to fuck other people out of money a chance to do something more self fulfilling?

 

[Texashiker]

What if we took all the money from the rich and paid the jobless to improve the world we live in. Wouldn't that breathe new life into the world improvement business model and make world improvers rich? And wouldn't that inspire a lot of folk whose job it is to fuck other people out of money a chance to do something more self fulfilling?

How about we abolish free trade and bring the jobs back from china?

 

[desy]

Don't make me repost my reply in another thread about this!

Fine
"When they got their first house, Dad built it in the 60s we lived on plywood floors and every payday they'd go to the lumber yard to buy more."

I also remember friends of theirs lived in the basement ZERO house on top just laid down plastic on the main floor so the water wouldn't rain down on them and lived in the basement as they framed up the top half and finished.
What my Uncles lived in the 50's did not have indoor plumbing no rooms just basically 600 sq ft with dividers for bedrooms and the youngest slept in a fold down from the wall over the kitchen table like a camper.

My point is this, I don't think its much harder to have a house today than it was 40 yrs ago, I think what people expect out of a house is a lot more than it was 40 yrs ago, used to be avg house was 1000 sq ft bungalow unfinished basement. No attached garages , sun rooms, hot tubs etc

 

[Texashiker]

My point is this, I don't think its much harder to have a house today than it was 40 yrs ago, I think what people expect out of a house is a lot more than it was 40 yrs ago, used to be avg house was 1000 sq ft bungalow unfinished basement. No attached garages , sun rooms, hot tubs etc

In the past 40 years there have been some massive leaps in technology.

Some rural areas did not even get electricity until the 1950s.

Kids these days have no idea what life would be like without a smartphone and internet.

Most young people (< 30 years old) have never raised their own food, never went a day without electricity, never missed a meal,,, so that they only expect the best and finest.

 

[BoberFett]

What if we took all the money from the rich and paid the jobless to improve the world we live in. Wouldn't that breathe new life into the world improvement business model and make world improvers rich? And wouldn't that inspire a lot of folk whose job it is to fuck other people out of money a chance to do something more self fulfilling?

Tax the rich
Feed the poor
Until there are no
Poor no more

It's quite a conundrum, eh?

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Surely there must be a few folk around who love to learn for its own sake.

Vox clamantis in deserto.

 

[Texashiker]

If things are bad for the younger generation now, what is it going to be like in 10 years?

About the time todays 20 somethings pay off their college debt and buy a home, along comes the next group of college kids.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

If things are bad for the younger generation now, what is it going to be like in 10 years?

About the time todays 20 somethings pay off their college debt and buy a home, along comes the next group of college kids.

People who were in their late-20s and early-30s during the great depression got to enjoy the biggest spoils from the abundance of the 1950s. So it may work out pretty well for us. We just need another war with Germany.

 

[desy]

People could actually train for jobs that are available?

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/mone...mic-recovery-manufacturing-revival/54365676/1

Its not young peoples todays fault tho, they have been parented to expect a cushy life

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/generation-y-unhappy_b_3930620.html

And as a parent myself its hard not to spoil my own kids, even as I try by the time they are 21 they will have a large sum given to them

 

[Texashiker]

People could actually train for jobs that are available?

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/mone...mic-recovery-manufacturing-revival/54365676/1

Its not young peoples todays fault tho, they have been parented to expect a cushy life

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/generation-y-unhappy_b_3930620.html

And as a parent myself its hard not to spoil my own kids, even as I try by the time they are 21 they will have a large sum given to them

Two things about the links you posted, regardless of how bad companies need employees they are only willing to pay X amount of wages.

1. Metal working is one of the few fields where demand does not equal good pay or benefits. Companies can be begging for skilled workers, but wages are not going to go up to attract people.

2. If a company is not willing to pay well, when they can afford to, screw them.

Unlike the people who lived through the depression, I refuse to work for a company who treats its employees like trash.

 

[GTaudiophile]

In Germany, about 65% of high school kids go off to do vocational training, which in turn creates arguably the world's most innovative and robust export economy.

Could it be that the US is neglecting nearly two-thirds of its high school graduates by providing only one path to future success through a college/university education?

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Could it be that the US is neglecting nearly two-thirds of its high school graduates by providing only one path to future success through a college/university education?

Without a doubt....YES!!!!!!

 

[Texashiker]

In Germany, about 65% of high school kids go off to do vocational training, which in turn creates arguably the world's most innovative and robust export economy.

Could it be that the US is neglecting nearly two-thirds of its high school graduates by providing only one path to future success through a college/university education?

What are we supposed to build to export?

Our shipyards are gone, our steel mills are gone,,, just what are we supposed to build?

I know what I built when I was in the welding field, and some of the stuff I built was exported. But I want to you to back up your statement.

 

[nageov3t]

What are we supposed to build to export?

Our shipyards are gone, our steel mills are gone,,, just what are we supposed to build?

well, it sounds like we need to start by building shipyards and steel mills apparently

 

[waggy]

In Germany, about 65% of high school kids go off to do vocational training, which in turn creates arguably the world's most innovative and robust export economy.

Could it be that the US is neglecting nearly two-thirds of its high school graduates by providing only one path to future success through a college/university education?

I have said for years they need to bring back Vocational training in high school. Not all kids need or should go into college. some are just not college material.

though with that we also need more company's to produce stuff here in the US.


Seems the US has went from being able to make anything to being office workers.

 

[yllus]

I've noticed young folk won't settle for a bungalow.
They "need" the huge house, yard, new appliances
Oh and the granite countertops, they would die without it

Bull - us young folk can't afford that huge house with granite countertops, and nobody's about to lend us the money either. Not to mention that housing prices haven't simply kept up with inflation - they've skyrocketed upwards in major urban areas.

The Globe & Mail - 2012 vs. 1984: Young adults really do have it harder today

Buying a house is another point where the experience of older Canadians is unlike what today’s younger generation faces. Canadian Real Estate Association data show the average national price of a home in mid-1984 was $76,214. If houses kept up with inflation – and that would be a pretty good result all on its own – the average house would now cost $154,587. In April, the actual average was $369,677.

That’s an annualized gain of 5.8 per cent across the country. In cities like Toronto and Vancouver, the yearly increases are even more pronounced.

House prices themselves are an abstract number – the real question is how affordable a home is. Data from a 2011 Conference Board of Canada study on income inequality shows the average family after-tax income in 1984 was $48,500. In 2009, the latest date included in the study, income levels had risen to $60,000. In 1984, a house might have cost a family 1.6 times its annual income. Today, we’re looking at a multiple of something around six.

 

[Texashiker]

Seems the US has went from being able to make anything to being office workers.

Why should someone go into a field where the wages are lower now than they were in the 1970s?

My ex father in law was making $5 more an hour working in a shipyard as a helper in 1977, than I was working in a welding shop in 1997, and I was a skilled worker.

If wages of skilled workers had kept with wages for tech jobs, I would be driving a bmw right now.

 

[Tormac]

I think that the cost of living and education in the US is a weight that is dragging down gen Y.

As a gen X&#8217;er I&#8217;m the old guy in the office (I work for the IT department at a Midwestern University) and I&#8217;m stunned at the level of student loans that some of the new hires have. When I was going to school in the &#8216;90&#8217;s I was just barely able to scrape by and pay for school while working as well. I never had money for anything, and I was either working or going to class, but I was able to do it, and I think most people my age could if they were motivated.

But now I don&#8217;t think that there is any way someone with no degree working a service level job could support themselves and pay for college. And, as some have mentioned, having a bachelor degree is just expected, like a high school degree was a couple decades ago.

Trade schools and loosing the expectation that everyone has to get a college degree in something would be a good thing for a lot of kids, I think. I would hate to be 60-80k in debt with a degree that no one wanted looking for an entry-level job today.

 

[werepossum]

Times change and we really need to band together with a unified front and stop lying to our children. It is NOT okay to get a TPD. With student debt where it is now and the job market it is a tough time for people in that age group, but having a TPD is not the answer.

Really wtf is human and organizational management? It is a toilet paper degree gained by a lazy tit who has no real passion and his parents and peers didn't sufficiently mock his selection of degree. That fact is a lot of kids in college don't know what to do but a TPD does not help anything.

Pretty much. Far too many kids are moaning about not being able to find jobs when they have degrees in sociology or psychology or philosophy or French literature. Far too many kids don't realize why jobs even exist and thus have no concept of needing an education that will add value to an employer.

i blame part of it is constant telling of kids "do what you love"

sorry. i would love to get paid to jerk off and play video games. that is not going to happen.

so many go to school for stupid shit.

LOL If there were careers in that you'd still be standing in line to register.

Although come to think of it, there are people who make a living at both of those things. It's fair to say that every degree has a possible job out there, but for many of them there are only a handful of jobs (pun intended) no matter how many graduates there may be. (Not that a degree would help employment with either of those things.)

I'm moving back in with my mom and stepdad after I graduate in 3 weeks. Its too expensive to get out on my own right away...especially in NOVA.

I'm looking forward to interviews for positions in the area and I need to get security clearance.

There's going to be a lot on my plate, so not having to take on too much adulthood at once will help me.

I'm big on moving out and growing up, but there's no shame in staying home as a part of moving forward with your life plan. Taking a $20k job now to pay rent versus taking the time to find a good job with long term prospects for advancement makes no sense unless you have a lousy home situation. Or you really, really want to get laid well and often.

 

[Agent11]

My wife likes to watch those "first time homebuyer" tv shows.

I think it is ironic how these 20 something year kids, right out of college, can afford a 500k home. But yet we have news articles talking about how rough the younger generation has it.

Those would be the 20 somethings that applied themselves in school, formed a smart career plan, pursued it aggressively, and landed a good job out of college. . . Unfortunately they are in the minority. However even these fortunate few only have a tenuous hold on the American dream; If their position is downsized or they stray off the straight and narrow they will lose it all and be up to their eyeballs in debt.

 

[werepossum]

Um, you need to calm your tits. I dont know anything about security clearances, I just know that several jobs that I have applied to said I am required to have active security clearance in order apply. Ive never worked in Virginia. Ive been at Michigan State the whole time, I dont know everything about working in VA.


So yea, just accuse me of lying for no reason. Your e-dick is still small

Oh jeez, the window licker is back...

Here I thought it had no value and yet it has caused two posts that made me laugh. I guess everyone has value after all - if only as an object of derision.

Better be careful.

With an attitude like that, he could grow up to be president!

Best of luck,
Uno

LOL