There Are LOADS Of Jobs Out There, But NONE Of Them Pay Living Wages!

Originally posted by THE_PROFESSIONAL
It used to be that you were able to work a nice 40 hr/week job and have time for yourself and raising a good family, but now you have to work 2 - 3 jobs while no time for family and it all disintegrates; It is all part of the plan.

True insight ....It is indeed part of the plan.

When you have a populace with "extra" income, you have a populace with leisure time--a populace
who have the time to pursue political interests; show up and support candidates, post opinions
to web pages....to actually vote.

Leisure time gives people the ability to become engaged in political dialogue with each other, to
discuss their views and opinions, to actually seek out alternative sources of news, and do research.

But when you're broke, and your neighbor is broke, and your community has no jobs, your focus,
and the focus of those around you is largely keeping food on the table, keeping the house out of
foreclosure, saving every penny by cutting coupons and taking the extra time to look for deals
or buy used merchandise, coupon clipping, etc.

In essence, I REALLY do care what is going on at my daughter's school, but because I work
55 to 70 hours a week to support her I do not have the leisure time available to talk to her
teachers, check the daily curriculum, research who is running for the school board, or even
take the time to vote in that process. I barely muster the time to help her with her homework or
talk about her social issues at school.

So I am completely distracted with earning a living. Instead of discussing politics and government
with coworkers or friends, we are discussing the cheapest alternatives to living---where milk is cheap,
who has the cheapest gas, how to rebuild a lawnmower or fix an alternator, etc....

My father worked one job, 40 hours a week, bought a house, car, boat, kept my mom at home,
and had a leisurely retirement. When I left the nest 30 years ago, I didn't have to return. I was able
to pay my own way and be self-sufficient. Nowadays, my children don't have that same ability--there
are few jobs available that support them. They have all returned to the nest at some point. And the
prospect that they will return again is high.

We are simply being distracted away from caring about anything but survival.

There is no time for anything else....and that is how the power-hungry want us....unable to question,
protest, assemble, or even care what is going on with our government.

And that is exactly how it is...they way they want it

Originally posted by Advantage
2 words for the near future : resource pooling.

There used to be a time when families lived in the house for extended periods of their lives or forever. Kids didnt move out at 18 with a new car and a job at McDonalds or go to college with mom and dad footing the bill and paying for Jrs lifestyle . Resources were pooled and the family unit survived and sometimes thrived. You can do this with friends and like minded individuals. There is no need to suffer if you change your paradigm a little and insist on thriviing in your life and not just surviving. There are many benefits to resource pooling with family and friends. Youre little tribe provides not only money but skills, security, etc. We have an almost 3K sq foot home with 5 bedrooms and space for more bedrooms and bathrooms... guess what we're planning?

not just to survive.. but to thrive in these unstable times.

Exactly! This is how we will survive, this is how it will be in the future I belive just as Michael Ruppert said, "you will not survive as a rugged individual, you will survive the transition as a member of a tribe or family..."

reply to post by StratosFear

Several devices have been invented over the years that can produce more energy than is requried to operate them but those in power silence them up to keep the energy companies profit margin bigger than ever.

So goes the rumor. People who have studied Physics and Chemistry do not find those claims viable. There is no "free energy". If you gage the success of civilization based upon the fantasies of sites like this one, you are doomed to unnecessary disappointment.

Big companies are not the public enemy. Only big companies have the monitary power to bring all of the wonderful products you depend upon to market.

Exxon's profits, for example, are not nearly as high as you might think based upon the percentage of the cost to market. Besides, if you want to share in those profits, all you have to do is buy stock.

reply to post by Sinny


Sinny and ChaoticOrder.....my hat is off to both of you. You speak the truth!

"I juggle five jobs and everything is great!" Whatever, Dude. Good luck with that Mr. Submarine. Glad you think that's normal and acceptable.

Great thread, couldn't have said it better myself my friend!

reply to post by v1rtu0s0


I couldn't agree more. You've hit the nail on the head. It's nice to see this reality articulated. I'm looking for work right now. I've been criticized by some for not taking the "Mcdonald's Route" or settling for minimum wage.
I'm almost 47 years old. I can't even afford to work for $8/hr. Hell, the bottom of the barrel for me is $10/hr ( and I live in So Cal )...try living on $10 and hour in So Cal. ( and yes, I went to school, and I have a skill set. I want to change careers though. My chosen field is no longer meeting my needs ). So yeah, I'm hungry for Upward Social Mobility. I want to reinvent myself, make more money, and contribute more to the tax base by doing so.
So where are the opportunities?
The conservative take is that you're only responsible for yourself, so if your neighbor goes down the tubes financially, who cares? That's their problem, not yours, correct?

A friend has criticized me saying, "Well, $8/hr is better than the nothing you're making now. You can do that, and find another job while you work that one." This is BS. If I went to work for $8/hr, I wouldn't be at a place where I would get 40 hrs a week. They don't want me to have benefits, so they'll keep me begging at 32 hours, maybe 36....you have to be careful, you know, I might actually make some money too.
So what do you do? Get a second $8/hr job? Sure! Then what? You're working 60 or 70 hours a week...driving back and forth, and you're too damn tired to chase down another job, much less have a social life.
This is my personal premise; I work to live, not live to work.

Here's part of the problem; we are not our parents or our grandparents. We have access to more information, and we are better educated. We have looked behind the curtain, and we ARE paying attention to The Man behind it. We have seen companies make bank while cutting benefits to employees, busting unions, outsourcing jobs overseas, or simply one day closing their doors without warning. Companies and investment groups feel no loyalty to their employees at all. Loyalty has nothing to do with profit.
The babyboomer generation grew up with a sense of loyalty to their employers. They sacrificed for the company, they gave it their all. They built their lives around their work schedule. They had been indoctrinated to function this way, and they happily complied. Why? In part because their wages were increasing, and their standard of living was getting better. That was a tangible incentive to hang in there.

My generation, "Gen X", sees no reward for working hard and committing to an employer. Your wages start out mediocre, and the "raises" are laughable. Lazy? Really? I don't think so. Employers now go to great lengths to make sure you don't work enough hours to qualify for benefits. They use temp agencies to keep you on the hook, without hiring you on permanently ( again,so you don't qualify for benefits ). They'll let you work your temp contract to it's conclusion, and then let you go, and bring in more temps to fill your slot.
I have known more than one person who has been working at a company for years, and starting to max out at their pay grade...and the next thing you know, that person is "downsized" out of the company, and someone younger who works for less ( and doesn't ask for benefits ) is hired to take their place. Or that work load is spread out to the remaining employees thereby increasing their work load, but without a raise to compensate for the increased work.
We see through these games and dirty tricks. The employers are being inherently disingenuous in their tactics, and yet the employee is just expected to suck it up and accept this state of affairs. I mean, you do have rent to pay, kids to feed...you will comply out of desperation eventually, right?
We see through the charade. We are angry about it, and we don't want to keep playing a game that has been rigged against us from the start. Only a chump does that.The rich want to stay rich, and they need a lot of chumps to prop them up.
Some newer Tech companies have taken a different tact, ( Google for instance ), but these are few and far between. As the older generation dies off, we may see more companies that have a different set of ethics come to the fore. Maybe. But the wolves are hungry. They are encircling their prey, and every day their advantage increases. Their less opportunistic ( i.e. more ethical ) competitors may not wield the same power and influence over the marketplace.

Then again, that's just my insight. What the hell do I know after all, I don't have a job and I'm obviously lazy.

Originally posted by intrepid
You have to do what you have to do. I worked 2 jobs(7 days a week) for 5 years. Finally had to give up the weekend job. It's quite a toll on the body to work 7 day/week in your mid 40's. If one has to work 2 jobs, hey, that's life.

you're right, intrepid...wait till you hit 55 and above. i was "laid off" from a good paying job as a network technician in 2006m making alittle more than 45k a year, (not a fortune, living in calif)....they hired a 20 yr old trainee, at 10 bucks an hour, part-time, on call, no benefits,to do the same work. as i was told, if he did not know how to fix a software or hardware problem, he was to call a "help desk" in texas, he had been out of a quickie tech school for 2 weeks.

You know, I have to wonder why no one has bothered to figure out how to monopolize employment. What I mean is, think out of the box instead of trying to navigate the labyrinth of political nonsense in the box.

The unemployed rely on companies, corporations, temp agencies etc., to do the hiring. These companies hold all the power and final decisions into the 5Ws. Who they're going to hire, Where demographically, What they're going to pay, When they're going hire...you get the picture. Not to mention, the government's hand at incentives, tax breaks, employment rates, back room deals etc. These two are obviously interconnected, everyone knows this.

Here's my idea. Consolidate every single unemployed person with a skill into a nation wide, coast-to-coast, then eventually globally, into a single incorporated employment governing entity. A union if you will. A legally bonded brother and sister hood for existing companies and corporations to tap into as a resource for hiring. And start trading on wall street. Shares go up each time someone gets a job. That's the nature of the beast.Not much different than the private prison systems in thirteen states currently operating under the name Geo Group Inc.
They make money to put you in jail. And shares go up. Read about them...

Currently there are 14 mill out of work. Other than Facebook, I don't know of another social group large enough of a force to be reckoned with. Slavery is a resource and should be charged for thusly. All people need to do is come together and make it happen.

The writing is on the wall for me and I can see there has got to be a way for all those numbers to be advantageous to the masses. Think of it as a giant co-op contractor database and all the money it earns gets put back into the pot.

Thoughts?

What's the point of living if you have to work 5 jobs?

There would be 0 time for hobbies, love life, kids, or just a break.

A few years ago, myself as well as over 5000 other people lost our jobs at an Auto Plant in Fremont CA. I had over 20 years of service in that Company. We were fortunate in that we all received unemployment benefits as well as received 20k in order to go back to school. While I was in school I put out at least 20 resume's a week in an effort to get a job. The wages I was offered were not even the equivalent that I was getting from Unemployment. I was extremely fortunate in that I did finally get a great paying job a few months before my unemployment insurance would have ran out.

I have friends however who are working 2 or 3 jobs in order to provide for their family. I have never seen or been a part of such difficult times like we are enduring now.

There are LOADS of jobs to pick crops!

Let's see; I can make a $ dollars a day -- about what it cost me to DRIVE to the plantation.
I can have no health benefits for back-breaking labor and while away my college education.

Wow -- why are all the lazy people not jumping at the chance to make a third of their rent or mortgage payment so that robber barons can comfortably pretend we have "opportunity"?

And all the jerks who talk about how Food Stamps are being used to buy booze, or how "fat" the living is on Unemployment Insurance -- have no clue whatsoever. Only people who have never tried to get public support would characterize it as "easy" or "lots of money."

As long as American give up any notion of a better life, or having kids in college -- or health care -- we can all live 10 families to a house, and comfortably "survive" in the New America. If I have to be an immigrant in my own country and survive this way -- it might be better to move to a country with a lower cost of living. I can just imagine the look of the faces on Latin Americans as a boat of ex-pats shows up with steamer trunks of clothes, xboxes, and crates for chickens. "Oh no, here goes the neighborhood..."

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


Ha!

“For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I have noticed that some of the headhunters that call, know what I do, and they have a good fit job in mind, but when they find out I am employed, and what I make, they loose interest. Looking for desperate people who will work for nuthn. They sure are.

I did work multiple jobs when I was younger. Worked a lot of ot last year. ot has dried up, my fault, working too hard/smart.

We might see some torches and pitchforks near future, but I doubt it.

reply to post by Submarines


I am guessing that you learned things in the Navy that make you marketable and employable.

Good job, good choices, well played.

I think pretty much anybody can join...

Thanks for starting this thread -- I couldn't respond to the one about "plenty of jobs nobody will do" because I've sworn off delusional threads.

This is just getting stupid now, three threads on the same subject, what has any of it to do with conspiracies or secrets or whatever you believe is the core of this site? its certainly not a place for people to be up on their soapboxes, i'll leave again again come back in another few months, maybe the kids on here will be back to school and have more important things to concentrate on or maybe even the mods might actually be awake and cut out this nonsense once and for all.




peace out

reply to post by RealSpoke

What's the point of living if you have to work 5 jobs?

That would truely be slavery. Just my view.

Originally posted by Submarines
I personally jungle 5 jobs. This also allows my wife to be a stay at home mom.
We have money to put away, pay for all our bills, and health insurance. We eat well, AND have a social life.

You lazy a$$ people need to suck it up and go to work and quit complaining!

Well hows about just doing three and letting two other people who have nothing, maybe have a job that puts a little food on their table?.
Make sure you have enough, Of course, to make sure you have more than you need whilst destroying your health and well being at the same time is idiocy.
But thats ok, you got medical to help with the break down.

"Jungle" 5 jobs?, shouldn't there be an "Of" in there, is this a new verb for 5 jobs, a jungle?.

And just because things have not got so difficult that you have not broken down yet, and currently you have the vitality to hold 5 jobs down, does not mean everyone is the same, or, that they are capable of managing as well.

This is the problem with society, until the strongest are on their knees, they will be saying "But there is nothing wrong, your just weak", when the strongest are on their knees, it is much too late by then for the poor sods who found they had to stop a while back.

Yes, as some have said these threads are becoming quite common. OP, I don't know what to say? Your sentiments are that of many at this point in time. I do believe things are far worse than what we are being told. Moreover, an economy can not function when a government has a 16 trillion dollar budget deficit, bailouts, a spend crazy central bank, spineless politicians, and a tax this and tax that solution when storm clouds amass. As far as I concerned, we are digging the ditch deeper. However, no one and I mean no one is going to look out for you better than yourself.

All any of us can do is survive, and play the hand we have been dealt. Therefore, personal responsibility for ourselves is paramount. If the world disintegrates around us? So be it! Nothing any of us can do about it. All we can do is worry about ourselves and those we care about. The job market is what is. Is it bad? Of course it is! No sense mulling over it either. Do what you have to do to survive.

I can recall stories from when my Grandfathers were starting out. One told me that he would line up with other workers at a job sight, and the boss would just pick people at random with no apparent logic or reason. He was chronically unemployed for much of the decade. My other grandfather was a migrant worker or in those days he would have been called a "hobo." He traveled the country working odd jobs, and rode the rails which was a dangerous endeavor in those days. He would tell me about guys getting roughed up and even killed by railroad men. It took a World War for them to crawl out of poverty and to acquire a modest but comfortable life.

With all the adversity and strife that had befallen their life? I did not hear any of those men complain. Not once. They took a hell of a lot of knocks to the chin and assaults to their pride, but they kept on going. I am not trying to downgrade anyone's suffering or limit their complaints. My complaints are similar to others, and I am disappointed as well. However, I reminisce about the stories of my grandparents when I feel like quitting and feeling sorry for myself. If they could survive under horrid circumstances? So can I, or anyone for that matter! Some just have to fight harder than others.

To not sound preachy. I got a rough patch before me. It is fraught with many unknowns and potential pitfalls. However, I am not going to let it eat away at me either. I am going to take this bull by the horns and bring it down! One person's strife is another person's opportunity. Sometimes we just have to roll with the punches, bluff when we got a crappy hand, and show some of that resourcefulness and ingenuity all of us have when the need arises. Nobody is going to give us anything, and there are no guarantees in life.

reply to post by Jakes51


Yup, that story about Grampa has got me thinking.

Whenever I have a bad day, I think about Grampa, on an island in the South Pacific, living in the mud and bugs and being shot at by the Japs.

Makes whatever problems I have seem small.

If everyone could be a doctor or lawyer
then those jobs wouldn't pay anything.
Or be worth anything.
Not everyone has the compacity or intelligence
to be get a degree, and those people well
there screwed..