Okay I am going to
do something I seldom if ever do. I am going to preface this rant
with a little modifier. I am not an economist. I am not a
sociologist. Hells, I am not any sort of -ologist. What I am about
to put forth is simply my opinion based of my own personal
experiences and observations over the years. Take it for what is
worth and don't take me to task because I claim no professional
expertise in this matter.
The
above article and so many others that I have read talk about how
times are getting harder and harder for the Middle and Lower Class.
This trend has been exacerbated by the recent Great Recession, but
the trend existed long before that. People who had lived a certain
way their entire lives were suddenly finding that they couldn't do it
anymore. This is a trend that is only getting worse as time goes by.
Fer
example, Sherman set the Way Back Machine for 1950 something. My
father never made it out of elementary school. He lacked any sort of
formal training for specialized jobs. I seriously doubt he ever made
more than minimum wage (If that much) his entire life. Despite this,
he married and raised three kids. He owned his own house and a mind
boggling eclectic number of odd cars and trucks. Except for a very
short period of time when I was very young, he never took public
assistance for anything.
If you
go back 50 or so years you can probably find hundred of thousands of
stories like my fathers. Stories of people who worked hard all their
lives, raised a family and lived well if not great. Those were times
when a Man or Woman with no formal education or training could earn
enough money to keep things together.
Unfortunately,
times like that are rapidly fading away. With the globalism of
industry and the loss of more and more jobs to automation and better
techniques, jobs and places where someone like my father could earn a
decent living are vanishing faster than ice in Nevada. Unless you
have prior training or education, getting anything more than the most
mediocre jobs is practically impossible. As the job market shrinks,
more and more people are trying for the same job so even with the
training or education, it is still harder to get a job.
People
lament that jobs like mining and lumber have been the way their
parents earned a living and their grandparents did too. They
complain that modern techniques and machinery is making it impossible
for them to work. They complain that things should stay the way they
were so that they can work and feed their families.
In
truth, being at the beginning of my second 50 years, I empathize with
them. However, things are not going to go back to the way they used
to be no matter how much some people might want it. Times like when
my father raised me are fading fast and once they are gone, they will
never come again. People are being faced with two choices. They can
either adapt or be left behind.
Sure
that sounds harsh, but it is the truth. The world isn't going to
stop moving forward. Technology isn't going to stop advancing. The
world and the way we live in it is evolving at a startling rate and
unless we learn to evolve with it, we are going to join the Passenger
Pigeon and the Dodo. So instead of lamenting about the way things
were, do something to prepare for the way things will be.
Send
your kids to some sort of school. I personally feel that most
college degrees are kind of useless, but you can send them to
technical schools where they can learn new skills. Hells, forget how
old you are, You can go back to school and learn something new. Just
do something, anything to keep from being thrown to the wayside. Do
your best to keep up because the world isn't going to wait for you.
End
of Rant
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