"The unemployment numbers were released within the last day or so and people are now admitting that we are looking at what are described as near depression era statistics in terms of joblessness and the length of people being unemployed. There have been some items of discussion in the most recent batch of economic reports focusing on the idea that people of a certain age--middle aged, late middle aged, may never actually find employment again."
William Grigg--Radio Liberty July 8, 2011
"This summer only one in four teenagers will hold a job and in major cities like Chicago the rate is even worse. In addition to the job losses from the economic crisis thousands of young people are out of work this year as a result of cuts to the cities youth employment programs. For young people trying to pay for college by working over the summer, finding a job is almost impossible.
"I've been looking for several months. I took job training courses and it's still hard to find a job--restaurants, retail, pretty much everywhere.Places like Sears, Macy's, different restaurants like Chipole--places that you hear are hiring and you apply but you still don't hear from them. I've kept records of how many places I've applied to, so it's been over 30--paper applications, online applications, and just recently I called back to some of those places I applied to and it's gotten much worse because we're in a recession. We're competing with people who've worked in businesses and they've been laid off and so they're taking jobs at Best Buy, you know the teenaged jobs."
-ReAnna Winston, a student in a local physician assistant program who is out for the summer. She made several attempts throughout the year to line up a job for the summer, but to no avail.
World Socialist Website--WSWS.ORG, July 1, 2011
The Government Doesn't Care About the People
Is this what we have come to in the United States--where the very structure of work, composed of different age groups seeking to obtain employment for different purposes according to long term objectives has been fundamentally amputated?
As a college student transitioning from junior college to a four-year university several years ago, I can remember obtaining temporary employment within the service sector as a hotel van driver with relative ease in the summer-time months. But according to the World Socialist Website video titled "Jobless in Chicago," these same types of employers--hotels, big-box stores and restaurants are now denying employment to a class of individuals in society whose goal is still upward mobility. The stated purpose for not hiring these individuals according to the video is that they are looking for people interested in working "long term" and not "short term." In other words--for an ever larger segment of society than ever before, service sector jobs have become the new permanent career path rather than just a stepping stone to obtain a better job upon completion of a college degree.
For those who got a degree in a field where lay-offs are prevelant--such as myself, we are increasingly being compelled to become this new underclass--that is, if we are lucky enough to even find these jobs.
The days when working hard during breaks between school to save up money are over. Even recent high school graduates with no experience in the labor market who merely want a job to gain work experience or to possibly save money for college state in the video that the employers won't hire them because they have no experience.
People enrolling in school for Master's Degrees because they can't find a job with the degree they have, and hope to earn money against their student debt in the summer months will find themselves running into the same dillemma that drove them back to school in the first place--no work.
In addition, only 56 percent of Americans who graduated from college last year found a job.
And what are the middle-aged unemployed supposed to do now that it's being announced by various commentators citing government reports that they may indeed never work again? Starve? Die? We have plenty of money for full-scale imperial wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, in addition to covert wars heating up in Yemen, Somolia and Pakistan where nine civilians are killed for each so called "militant" assassanated via the military's Unmanned Aerial Vehicles--also known as drones. There are 700 military bases in over 150 countries, special operations commando units in 75 nations, but no money to stimulate the economy through utilizing the government to hire individuals directly to repair roads, bridges and build light rail systems that European nations have had for years. All the money is going to killing. According to linguist and political analyst Noam Chomsky, light rail could employ the laid off workers from the auto-sector in areas such as Chicago, Detroit and the like. This, in turn, would create more purchasing power among these workers who would then stimulate the economy so college students could once again have summer jobs and youth/teens wouldn't be roaming the streets facing all of the social pathologies a large inner city such as Chicago can unleash on innocent youth. See also Young and Jobless in Chicago Part 3 for an update on how youth summer programs have been cut in the same ruthless fashion while Obama launches his lastest imperial intervention in Libya which has already cost the U.S. taxpayer $715 million dollars. Former military who are mentally disturbed Iraq veterans now sleep in tunnels under Las Vegas casinos with people who turned to hard drugs due to their unemployment situations. We--the American people, are rapidly becoming the trash heap of a government and society controlled by corporations that only care about selling the latest weapons to the Pentagon. Those who were sent to imperial wars now committ suicide at astonishing levels and sleep in tunnels and people attempting to better themselves through education can't even find a job. The government clearly does not care about the people.
(C) Bill Lewis
SOURCES:
JOBLESS IN CHICAGO
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jul2011/vide-j04.shtml
TUNNEL PEOPLE
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326187/Las-Vegas-tunnel-people-How-1-000-people-live-shimmering-strip.html
NEVER WORK AGAIN
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/07/04/krauthammer_middle-aged_may_never_get_employed_again.html
CIVILIANS MURDERED IN DRONE PROGRAM
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KrXr8vjsxKcJ:www.brookings.edu/opinions/2009/0714_targeted_killings_byman.aspx+nine+civilians+for+every+militant+brookings&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYb65AH0zA4
POST IRAQ/AFGHANISTAN SUICIDES
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/feb2009/suic-f04.shtml
700 Military Bases
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/8/17/evolving_empire_chalmers_johnson_on_bushs
SPECIAL OPERATIONS IN 75 COUNTRIES
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7144445.ece
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