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| Why get a job at all? That big nut we all have to crack. |
Where are those damn "regular person" jobs? A not particularly motivated person could always get a job. There was toll taker, now it doesn't exist. Call center/telephone operator, gone overseas. Store clerk or retail support: Fox Business calls it a "retail apocalypse", 23 big retailers closing stores, i.e. Abercrombie & Fitch is closing 60 stores, Payless is closing 800 stores, and many more have filed for bankruptcy. Then there were taxis and pizza deliveries (driverless cars will make that obsolete according to the news today). You could get a job taking ads in the local newspaper. Oops, gone.
As certain things die in the 21 century what is there to take their place? Specialized computer jobs are not a fit for most of us. Of course the steel and aluminum industry will be booming as we get into a trade war. Even the sugar industry has automated most of its farm jobs. We are automating our jobs away, and our thirst for bargains on-line is killing the brick and mortar stores (where PEOPLE worked).
What do most of the industries spend their money on? Figuring out how to get rid of humans and bust unions. Let's give businesses more tax breaks so they can do that better. The Transit Union in Miami is getting a raw deal right now, they can't get a contract.
What have the disaffected, under-employed - mostly men - turned to: Playing Video Games and reading WAAAY too much crap on-line. Others are binge watching TV.
America is now going through the slowest job growth in 6 years according to MSNBC.
The question is, how do you you earn that $56,378 nut (remember that is 2016)?
In Miami most jobs for regular people pay under $15 an hour. Let's base it on $14 which is $560 a week -- not take-home of course. But if it were take-home, that would still be only $29,120 a year (working all 52 weeks). That is hardly enough to afford that $56,378 needed to live an average life. And those low paying jobs are not even a dime a dozen anymore. They are disappearing. Where are the jobs, jobs, jobs? I know that is growing, making violent video games.
7 comments:
Miami seems to have few manufacturing opportunities as we move forward, so the odds of making enough income with only a high school background is not good. Most jobs do not on average pay enough to live above paycheck to paycheck. The area has large pockets of poverty with no real solutions in sight.
Looks like the only upward potential is in mining and logging, like chopping down the shade tree's and mining coral rock in all our backyards, then shipping the goods up to Jacksonville. As a side benefit, this would show from the air, like we all are upper middle class with back yard pools.
This would be so huuughe.
It is just beginning, and none of the politicians are talking about it. You have to work in the future so that you will be ready when the future arrives. And very few people are out there working on it. Jobs are being automated and computerized, there is robotics, and on top of these things, artificial intelligence is beginning to take over. We have always thought these computers were dumb. Now they think on their own, make decisions on their own, interface with other thinking entities by themselves, do intensive research alone, solve very complex problems, and implement very complex transactions. While we operate on dimensions of length, width, and height, they operate on hundreds of dimensions that we cannot see. Lots of jobs we think only humans can do, will soon be done by machines, and we won't be able to compete with them because they are very efficient, work 24/7, need no benefits, and cost 4 or 5 cents an hour or less. When work as we know it is gone, how will we live? How will we make a living? How will we survive?
Like your comment thanks.
YES - Please tell "President" Trumphet :(
This is a good analysis of the problem. It takes people working two or three jobs -- or two full time salaries to come close to making it. That has been a trend for a long time but it is getting far worse. No wonder we have a brain drain and no wonder we are not attracting quality jobs. Hard to belive that groups like the Beacon Council have even tried hard. Between a ruined environment and a toxic economy, we are not leaving much of a legacy to future generations. I do not have any easy answers - but leadership that cares about the future could help.
I see what you mean. It reminds me of the transitions going on in banking. In another state a year ago I went to a branch bank and it was packed inside, and no one was at the ATM machine. One cold day this year I went there and the ATM line was long as people stood in the wind and cold, and no one wanted to go to the warmth inside. Everyone preferred to go to the machine as it was easier than working with a human. So the humans have been getting pink slips and the ATMs are popping up in shopping areas.
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