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I have a question for the "employer" types who feel "average" people deserve to be unemployed, and who feel that employment should only be a privilege for a small elite (who is willing and able to work 24/7/365, who has no medical problems, who is over 6' tall if male or under 100 lbs if female, who has an advanced degree from an elite university, who has the type of personality that employers like, etc). My question is, how do you expect everyone else to live? Do you want the government to support us? If so, you will be paying even more taxes taken out of the money that you are working ridiculous hours to earn. Or do you want us to all just suffer and be homeless? If so, then who do you expect to buy the products and services that you produce?
Most of them want "average" people to just quietly drop dead, ideally away from the roads so they don't have to see the bodies. They don't want any of their money going to support those "welfare bums," but they also don't want to employ them. In their insane minds, they are far above average and are singularly responsible for all their success in life - apparently, they chose their parents well, chose the right location into which to be born, built the schools they attended, educated the teachers that educated them, and so on. They have no understanding at all of how an advanced society functions and have delusions of "rugged individualism" that could only apply to primitive tribes living in the wild. Many also worship Ayn Rand, to whom charity was a sin, and it was somehow wrong for others to benefit from your work. Of course, she ended up taking social security money to stay alive in her waning years vs. volunteering for carousel as she should have according to her own spiteful ideals, but whom am I to judge... haha... right.
As for who will buy the products and service produced by all the self-proclaimed, above-average special people? They have no idea, and despite all their supposed genius, they also have no idea who will build the roads, make the products, dig the ditches, etc. Some of them simply dream of slave labor for such things - since, you know, "those people" deserve such treatment. Others just don't know and just don't care provided not a dime of their money goes back to help the society in which they live every day. In truth, they are the "takers" vs being "makers."
What the hell has that bloated, mustachioe'd hack ever produced, built, programmed, sold, created, invented or discovered other than very average books of propaganda in favor of the beltway elite, which anchor people's laps as they snooze on the DC-NYC acela express?
When reading a Freidman piece, all you need to ask yourself is, "how does this latest one serve the purposes of those who'd prefer to see the American worker blamed for everything wrong with our economy?" YOu won't need to blow a brain gasket to figure it out.
Contrary to popular belief, employers do in fact need average people. They need these people to work the jobs directly beneath the small minority of above average super achievers. Why? Because the above average crowd is not going to stay satisfied with those 35K/year dead end, go nowhere positions. Average folks will take these jobs, put in an average effort, grumble a bit about the pay and that's about it. Hiring one of those above average, the sky is the limit types for these jobs is a big mistake. As soon as they are somewhat comfortable with that position, they will be planning their escape if they have not already done so.
Employers and economists are just stiring the pot to get folks riled up. The sky is falling stuff is a big seller. Yes, there was a brief time during the recession when employers were hiring top notch, largely overqualified employees for the equivalent of the burger flipping jobs in their given sector. Of course, it was foolish to think that would last forever. As things started to pick up, including hiring, many of these folks had luck getting a job comparable to the one they held before the recession.
Many companies are also relying on skeleton crews to maximize profitability. It's questionable how long this can go on. Depending on a small handful of employees to carry out the most critical of tasks is not exactly the most healthy of long term strategies. Eventually, these folks get burned out, or just decide they've had enough. I've seen folks voluntarily take lower level, lower paying positions at different companies just to get away from the intense stress. I hear more and more folks saying "it's just money", and they will only work so hard for a little bit more.
America is one of the most overworked, under-vacationed countries in the world. We were recently displaced by Mexico as being the most obese. We are prescribed record amounts of anti anxiety and antidepressants. Mental health and well being suffers each time the thumb screws are cranked a bit tighter. What happens when the workforce is pushed a wee bit too hard???
Exactly this. Most average jobs are held by average people. They go to work, do a task, earn a check and go home. Hopefully the company pays them a reasonable wage plus benefits, but sadly this is less frequent in our winner take all unregulated business world.
Most average people will see a few minor promotions over their career as they gain experience, or are in the right place at the right time when somebody more senior leaves. Throw in an occasional raise that exceeds inflation, some retirement planning over their career and ll should be good.
This is not a glamorous career path, but it should be sufficient.
Above average, ambitious people will always thrive for that next step. They will take on additional, often uncompensated duties and be rewarded by gaining additional experience that often leads to promotion. Once they thoroughly understand their position they will become bored and look for the next thing. You could even view this as the typical path to career progression.
When I think "average" I think of someone who does some menial task at a factory for 30 years and collects a pension. I think those days are pretty numbered.
Here's the deal. One way or another, "average" must have clothes on their back, shoes on their feet and food in their stomach. Society will have to pay for this through higher taxes for better social welfare investment, through providing them with jobs so they can support themselves, or it will be done the way it's done in 3rd World places such as Central America and Detroit, where "average" will steal from/kill you in order to survive.
Your ordinary Joe six pack is "average." Average means middle of the road. Go to the mall or the movie theater on any given day of the week and most of the people you will see there walking around are average. These average people generally have an okay car, a small house or apartment, as well as all sorts of electronic junk, and they go shopping on the weekends. The average person does not have a college degree (only 25% of the population does), but yet most average people have disposable money, so I don't think they are doing that badly.
I tend to agree with this and and what plmkon wrote. I think this piece is more sensationalism and doom and gloom generated by the media. Not to say things aren't bad, they certainly are. But I don't think it will ever get to this extreme.
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