President Obama is going to create 600,000 jobs, and not one of them for me.
I think it's great that the guy is creating jobs trying to stimulate the economy. I really do. But let's look at the kind of people who are getting laid off here. Executives. Cultural resource managers. Biologists. People with advanced business degrees. People who are failing to pay their mortgages are, largely, educated (note: this does NOT imply that they are in any way smart or responsible, but that's another argument), white-collar workers.
Now lets look at the kinds of jobs being created by this "awesome" stimulus package. Trail maintenance crews. Repairmen. Wastewater plant improvement personnel. Construction workers.
Has anybody else noticed that these aren't lining up right?
The people with the greatest amounts of education are being laid off at enormous rates and are struggling to find jobs that fit their education qualifications. Let's be honest, someone with an advanced degree in history and historic preservation is not going to settle for a job improving water treatment facilities or clearing washed out trails. We worked hard and paid $40,000 for our masters degrees, and we're not going to take a job that pays $8 an hour doing mindless tasks in exchange for being laid off.
So why are all the jobs being created aimed at blue collar workers? Wyoming is struggling to find ENOUGH blue collar workers to fill hundreds of open positions in the oil and natural gas arenas, but museums and national parks don't have the money to pay cultural resources specialists or historical interpreters. Companies and government agencies will receive money to hire people to fix roads and repair buildings, but non-profits will have to fire ecologists and anthropologists to make ends meet.
When will the educated class of Americans feel the economic stimulus? At the risk of sounding whiny and disturbingly Republican, why does this whole stimulus package seem like an unfair waste of time?
5 comments:
The MASSES being laid off are, in big numbers,those blue collar workers, but Obama is giving money for police officers and teachers (those white collar workers you're talking about). Sorry you don't qualify. How about those new energy jobs? No, not you either. But, something will turn up.
But lets look at all the money going to National Parks... its going for construction jobs, by and large (with some technology stuff stuck in there for good measure). No more park rangers, no more resource managers... just people to hammer in nails and pave roads. Which they do need, but they also very much need the specialists.
And if you get laid off from a construction job, you will now have more such jobs to choose from. You can always suck it up and come to Wyoming, where you'll likely become comparatively wealthy. But if you get laid off from a job as an ecologist, you're forced to take unemployment (my coworker is a good example... she can't find a job at all, while our secretary has several options). Of the people I know who have lost their jobs, there are 2 teachers, 2 human resources specialists with many years of experience and certifications, 2 ecologists, and many people with several years experience in non-profit management and working with national parks and public lands in a variety of capacities and 1 secretary (though NPCA, while not hiring program managers, etc. is hiring plenty of secretaries elsewhere in the organization)... and then me and Erin, all highly educated people who are, all of us, sitting on our butts because there are no jobs to be had.
Perhaps he's giving money for teachers, but apparently not enough if they're getting laid off (and generally, I don't consider police officer to be a white collar job unless you're referring to a law enforcement ranger or a high level investigator of some sort, neither of which, as far as I know, are receiving money for more jobs).
So what about us? We can't just go get jobs as cashiers or servers or construction workers or people who put together windmills. But there are no jobs for us, nor are there any being created... We're the population with advanced degrees, no credit card debt, mortgages that we can afford and pay on time... we make good decisions and do good things, and we are now being forced to completely support those who don't have the education and who have made poor financial decisions, people like my neighbor who, despite the fact that nobody in her family has a job, they just moved into a house that is 3xs ad expensive as their last one, bought a brand new car, and are defaulting on all their loans because, hey, the government will bail and help them out.
I feel like there's something wrong with that.
See the thing is, if they're like me they WILL take that stupid low paying job. What else can we do? Like you said, we're responsible and pay our bills on time, which means we have to get money some way. I have a job that reqires a degree and yet I make half as much as the construction workers that Robert manages. Less than half. I'm starting to think that a hard hat might be a good look for me.
And I feel like we shouldn't HAVE to take low-paying jobs just to make ends meet. I mean, we're the people who, when They told us to go to get a summer job for experience, we did. When They told us to go to college, we did. When They told us to get more experience or more education, we did. And now, They are telling us that instead of being ahead of the gang because of our hard work, we have to sacrifice even more because the people who DIDN'T do those things are struggling. You and me, Laura, we both provide important services in our society, and we both get paid crap and if we lose our jobs, we may not be able to find another one, and that bugs me.
Nah, I'm sweet talking the manager down at the subway. I'm set for life! I love the smell of roastbeef
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