You tried going to a movie theatre recently?
Not for years - I download
What's behind it all, well it's an increasing wealth gap between the rich people in power and the middle & lower classes. The baby boomer generation have had the best economic run in known history, and because they've been spoilt with good times, they've become ruthless in their quest to get ahead, attain power, and all that stuff.
Or did they just have the savvy to capitalise on the prevailing economic conditions and then fight to retain it, which is only fair? They don't give a crap about training up an upcoming generation like their forefathers did. In fact they demand tertiary qualifications before employing anyone.
True, the discontinuation of the NZ apprenticeship system was a disaster that is still causing major problems in the labour pool but current employers are now forced to use tertiary qual's as a measuring stick because it's pretty much the only method they have available (apart from work history but we've already covered that topic).
Now the education system is a major part of the growing wealth gap. To get a qualification (without rich parents) a person has to put themselves in quite a bit of debt, to pay for the increased living expenses, increased education fees, increased transport fees etc. And because everyone is having to get a qualification just to get a semi decent job, there are way more people with degrees, and I'm pretty sure that many of them are rather easy to attain. Now because a person has often qualified themselves for a specific role they are often stuck in that field. And with nearly everyone having to get qualifications, there are tonnes of people to do some of these qualified jobs. And nobody to do others. So the obvious roles such as the junior accountants, and junior lawyers get paid SFA these days. On job training (such as apprenticeships schemes) would sort out this balance, but the baby boomers did away with most of them, because they all thought, why the hell should I have to train someone up, even though it was very often a courtesy they received themselves, and they wonder why staff turnover is so high, there's no loyalty from companies to staff and thusly vice versa.
Most of these points are a result of an education system that is badly out of sync with the demands of the job market. That system is now far too focussed on their own bottom line (as are the health system, national roading infrastructure, criminal corrections, police, etc.) rather than provide the service that is required. The more worthless qualifications that are generated, the more wasted effort results as the job market struggles to cope with the dross that comes mixed with the potential staff pool. Lack of loyalty is a side effect.
(The workforce has been screwed for quite a few years now, and because of the longterm stability for most of the boomer generations lives, they've plugged every niche and business opportunity and established firm footholds and control all the power/money).
Keep using that as an excuse and you will guarantee failure.
(A whole generation of retards? you are classic baby boomer)
Who said retards? A lack of reality relates to a mindset modelled by expectations of instant gratification (e.g. fast food, online purchasing, easy hire purchase), denial of failure (no-loss in sports, exams), questionable role models (bad boy/girl sports and pop icons) amongst other things. Me, baby boomer? Only just, but more attuned to genX characteristics I think.
(Easy for someone to say who life has been more than fair to to get those not quite so lucky as to be born at the wrong time to put up and shut up.)
No easy run for me. Just identified the opportunities and ran with them, and made my fair share of mistakes along the way. "The harder you work the luckier you get" still works it seems.
(I've got my self esteem, I've got my happiness, I've got my freedom, and I won't give it up for a peanut salary unless I'm happy with the workload/work environment, if everyone else did the same the business owners would be in quite a quandry).
Supply and demand rules. Unfortunately though the demand side of the employment equation is on its way down for the forseeable future.
($40,000AUD a year is subsistence in these times, and in Melbourne it was the starting salary of someone fresh out of uni with a Quantity Surveying qualification. In NZ $40,000NZD is good money but still very hard to get by own, the wealth gap is too big. P.S. QSing is one of the jobs to get pretty good salary's so if I start to run low on savings I'll go back to it, just looking for something that I enjoy while I can.)
Number immaterial and is for example only. Living off of savings is pretty unsustainable and an emergency measure only I would have thought.
(A boss that sucks the fun out of being alive is a boss that I will gladly do without. My whole upbringing under my father was far tougher than any boss has been or would be able to achieve. And I will not let some silverspooned knob shine dominate me.)
Look forward rather than dwell on the past. A bad boss will still provide money to get by on while being a great motivator to find something better.
(I would gladly flip burgers for the rest of my days if it paid well enough, had decent hours, a boss I could get on with and enjoy the company of, in our grandparents day flipping burgers could earn you a house after a while, these days, no chance.).
Dead right, but these days the only way burgers can be supplied so cheap to the instant gratification generation is to pay those that make them peanuts wages. And globalisation has seen the same dynamics effect manufacturing, IT services and a whole bunch of jobs that have relocateable labour or can be done through a phone line.
(I don't know who this applies to but not me)
Instead of "parents" read "baby boomers" and check back through all the blame you are laying on them.
(Yes they worked hard, but have got ahead by some speculative bubbles which were unsustainable and are currently crashing after many of the boomer generation have cashed up. The next couple of years are going to be pretty grim economically, it's not any particular persons fault, its just the situation that has been caused by trends and mindsets that have come about through environmental factors such as the economy, which has been manipulated and control legislation has been messed up. But to expect young people to be able to "get ahead" in the current economic climate is wishful thinking.
Current conditions would tend to promote survival mode with a chance of getting ahead if you are smart and/or lucky. I went into Botany Honda the other day, and asked them "why don't you have any Motards for sale". They asked me "what is the target market", he then proceeded to tell me that it was 18-30year olds. And he said that this age group "HAS NO MONEY". Now you've got to ask yourself, is this age group of people any less intelligent or any less determined than previous generations?
They (genY's)are relatively comfortable with high debt levels which will see them more quickly and seriously effected by the credit crunch. No, it's just that the wealth gap between the generations has become huge. When my father was younger, he was able to buy brand new cars and motorbikes, and a house and feed a family on tradesman's wages. Recently tradesman's wages have flown up with the housing bubble, but they will come back down a fair bit with the economic slow down, and they are probably the one group of workers who've managed to increase their earnings with the increased rate of cost of living.
With the fall of the financial economy, hopefully there will be more money going into the productive economy, and NZ may yet again prosper. The financial economy is a great big leech on the real economy.)
You got it. Back to basics but not using borrowed money to do it.
(Yep, nerds like myself and Coyote may end up taking the reins one day. Looking forward to rebuilding after the economic carnage to come. Opportunities and niches will be rife).
Just keep yourself productive in the meantime so you have the resources and skills available to capitalise on those opportunities, or just survive if things really do go tits up.
Originally Posted by Sully60
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Go find a job!
but it has taken 30+ years of continually upskilling together with establishing a very comprehensive and multiskilled CV. At your point in your working lives you still have an uphill struggle to find your niche in the job market and to be turning up your noses at jobs that are below your perceived skillbase is not a wise strategy in today's economic climate.
10 chars damnit
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