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What If You Still Cannot Find Work?
“Economy, in Sweet Spot, Adds 313,000 Jobs. It May Get Sweeter.” — Washington Post
So, here I am, in month five of not working. Failed to land a client on my first pass at consulting. While my wife found a job after 15 years of not working, After 25 years of working, in the greatest recovery in that 25 years, I cannot get anyone even to interview me. I have taken advice. I have networked. I have submitted lord only knows how many resumes. I have changed my cover letter for jobs. I have met with a dozen people in “informational interviews.” Either I don’t hear back, I am told “someone else is better qualified” for jobs I could do in my sleep, or I get “You have a strong resume, and you are going to find something.”
Now, I am not using this thread to complain, for am I actually in better spirits than ever, all things considered. For one thing, I am almost walking normally. No, this thread is more about the general idea of those left behind. In a world gearing up for the millennial crowd, folks like me are left out. Oh, in theory, my age is a protected class, but age discrimination in the workplace is alive and well. Overqualified just means “you are going to cost too much.”
What I think conservatives need to acknowledge is that we have a culture where working is needed to survive. We value work, and rightly so. However, the fact I cannot find a job to hire me, even stuff I am very overqualified for, shows that “get a job” is not much of an answer. Sure, we can say that no employer owes anyone a job. But, what do we say to someone who plays by the rules, did nothing wrong to lose his job, and cannot find someplace to take his 25 years of experience? I have heard already all the advice on how to obtain a job. It has not worked. LinkedIn has a group full of people in my age range, and they all have similar tales to tell. So, I am not owed a job, and I have to earn it. Great. I did that and the outcome was losing a job I had earned, and thus far, no one will offer me another chance. Not even a chance at an interview.
What I expect to see in this thread, is lots of advice on that boils down to “well you must be doing it wrong.” Classic conservative response, which is to blame the person with no job. Believe me, I am doing everything I have been told to try, networking, and I am working hard, daily to launch by business, TalkForward. I do think that is my long term right path. I just have to try to support my family in the meantime (another conservative “should”).
I’d like to avoid the advice giving, and concentrate on what our message should be. Right now, we tell people they must work hard to get ahead, that they have no right to a job, and that if they work hard, they will get a job and succeed. OK, gang, I am a model of a hard worker, I am not lazy, I give my all to every task I am assigned. I worked from the bottom of an organization to the top. And it was taken away for nothing I did wrong. I am doing everything conservatives have told me to do, and I am not getting the American Dream. What do you tell someone like me, other than “Life is not fair?”
I feel if we cannot message better than this, then the Republican will always be the second party. I fear if we cannot find a message to address people like me, the left will always win in the long run, because it has a message to address it.
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This is how we got Trump. People want their cut of the Keynesian scam or they want it fixed. They can’t explain it like that but that is what they want, rightly. The GOP needs to get more libertarian where they can and learn how to pitch it, or things will get worse.
The state has it’s thumbs on too many. It’s not easily dealt with.
Short-term problems suggest time-limited solutions. An alternative to the EU approach of screwing up the labor laws long term is to make provisions that sunset after 5 or 10 years, subject to renewal if merited. Key point is that the default is to end, not to continue. Potential temporary fixes could include age discrimination provisions that actually work, though such things make me nervous. There are probably better ideas out there than I can come up with. Getting rid of de facto diversity quotas would certainly help. Even if you don’t check the boxes, the quotas affect your chances of getting hired.
You really are putting words into my mouth. I am not advocating any such thing, nor am I looking for the government to come take care of me. I am looking for conservative messaging beyond a shrug of the shoulders.
Now, non-conservative, non-liberal Jordan Peterson has some things to say on this, and say them pretty well, so maybe I should have come from the angle of let’s use his message. So once my back heals, I am going to clean my damn room.
Isn’t the standard bit of messaging here “entrepreneurship”? I mean, I happen to think it’s cold comfort, since starting your own business is really hard, even if you are skilled and can come up with a product or service that other people want to buy. But that’s part of the messaging, and it often ties into bits about government ruining people its trying to help by making that harder than it should be.
I keep hearing about that guy. What does he say?
He’s incredibly good at describing reality, micro and macro. The big thing he adds is he’s experienced as a psychotherapist, and very educated in Western thought or whatever.
Clean your Damn Room!
https://www.amazon.com/12-Rules-Life-Antidote-Chaos/dp/0345816021
Far too much to summarize. Go look up Jordan Peterson on youtube and take a listen. The video doesn’t matter because it’s all good. He has solid considered opinions on many issues.
He is not a sound bite guy. His good stuff is long.
IMO, one would be better at “cleaning their own room” if they listened closely to Charles Hugh Smith as well. He’s very good at explaining how the state is complicating so many people’s lives and what to do about it. Start by listening (in order) to the interviews at Financial Repression Authority.
IMO, Jordan Peterson is an example of why old-style liberal arts education is good for you. They just need to charge a fair price for it.
I am not sure of the health insurance situation there in Japan, but here in the USA, Obama Care mandated that employers who had X amount of workers were mandated to pay for those workers’ insurance. This means that for a 50 something to get a job, when a 30 something will ask for less pay and maybe cost only half as much on the insurance end of things – well, what employer wouldn’t decide that they really can’t afford to hire someone who is fifty?
I am so angry about this. Eight years to get ready to improve the health insurance system. Three months to get ready after the election. And nothing. The ACA is a system is a vehicle to destroy everything and increase leftist power and it is working big time.
Bryan – No one wants the dated bread on the shelf, so do some “consulting” if only for friends and for free. This day and age of immediacy, with resume crunchers that parse your background in a nanosecond, don’t get fooled. The best and most fruitful leads come from former business contacts (not linked-in colleagues) who know you and who know your capability. Call them and ask for help, for a coffee, for a job, for a lead. Chumming for jobs on the internet sites is not likely to land you what you want. You end up chasing the same jobs over and over, the ones with unrealistic expectations and revolving doors, or fake jobs posted by an unscrupulous headhunter to boost his stable. To get a job, you need a recommendation and a referral; that’s it. Work on those things. In the meantime perhaps you can do something else? I worked as a newspaper reporter for a time while I was between jobs. The money was awful but it was fun and manageable around my wife’s work schedule.
First of all @Valiuth, the Democratic leadership is not any different than the traditional Republican leadership of the last thirty years. The leaders of both parties are indifferent to plights of the 45 to 63 year old range of workers. These workers are inside a world of hurt. Both their experience and responsibilities dictate that they deserve more money due to expertise. And they have huge responsibilities so the reason they attended school, got a degree or several degrees, and now have a kid or two in college, a mortgage, and other demands means they can’t go work at Jack in the Box.
Employers who are precisely the sort of corporate establishment that provides good pay and decent benefits have an incentive to hire younger workers. Some will consider hiring a 40 year old. But once someone is 45, their health insurance is going to be substantially higher than that 40 year olds. And if a 30 year old wants the job, it is a no brainer – hire the 30 year old.
I know of no economic system that understands the system of how being older dis-incentivizes people from hiring you. In fact, the only reason I didn’t blow out my brains some eight years ago was that due to my spouse’s proclivity to have losing enterprises as a past time, so we decided that with both of us being out of work, we would take his longest running “hobby” and make it an economic wunderkind. The result is we have a business that grosses around $ 40 K a year. But had we not already had this business in place, up and running, though at a loss, for some years, we wouldn’t have had that method as an escape from the “No Hire” Zone. And yes, progressive “leaders” talk about Universal Single Payer HC, forgiving student loans, etc. However, it only a ploy to get in their Wall Street Corporate Whores, same as the other side of things.
In short, this philosophy or that one might make a person envision a future where there is pie in the sky for older workers, but in reality it is a bust. They do shoot horses, don’t they?
Doing it. Done it. No job.
Do want else exactly ? Retail ? McDonald’s ? I am better off spending that time on developing my consulting I think.
It is one thing to say “take less”. Every job I have applied for is a 50-70% pay cut and I cannot even get interviews for those.
I appreciate the advice given here , though it is not what I asked for. Thanks
Edited
Not sure what you mean by leftist power. If you mean that the continual tripe the Dems and “progressives” like Bernie offer up to their faithful so that they themselves are re-elected and are back feeding at the trough, then we are in agreement.
But the critters that really benefited from ObamaCare were the Big Health Care Insurers and the Big Pharma interests. The stock on those companies went sky high with minutes of the ACA passing. A company like United Health Care, that already pays its top exec some 700 million plus a year, is not my idea of a leftist establishment. And such business practices would astound a Republican with decent values of honesty and thrift, and respect for the middle class like that guldarn socialist Dwight D Eisenhower. (Plus can you imagine the type of kickbacks Obama himself got from having this legislation go through? He will never have to buy a yacht for himself as long as he lives. His rich buddies in banking and insurance will be happy to lend him theirs.)
@bryangstephens, hoping you’re recalling that you are among friends here – who either can commiserate and/or are *trying* to pay it forward – somehow…Praying till you tell me to stop. :-)
This is inflationist-statism reenforced by K Street. The old system that the GOP has done jack about for decades. Tax cuts and moralism isn’t enough.
I think you’re on to something here, Bryan… :-) Working on getting you well!
IMO, a superb liberal arts education can be had for free at Hillsdale online and the podcast notes page of EconTalk.
Right, but that isn’t the same thing as a live classroom and a campus etc.
It sounds like your situation has changed. You’re not looking for a job. You’re looking for clients. And that’s a different ballgame. And it’s easier in some ways because companies and individuals and nonprofits actually like short-term relationships.
When I started up a nonprofit years ago, the very best information I found was at the Wall Street Journal. They had a section that used to be called the “Start-up Journal.” It is now called Small Business Marketing.
I think you will find some great ideas there.
Valiuth accurately described that statists do hold out the promise of this kind of security, and that gives them a political advantage. Nonetheless, Bryan, you are right that you’re not looking for the statists’ promise, just a conservative message beyond a shrug of the shoulders. It’s difficult, though, to put forth a political message without involving the government, though.
One thing which might help is if conservatives were clearer at distinguishing an opportunity society from a meritocratic society. We often treat the two as if they were the same, but they’re not. Opportunities do not always go to those most deserving of them, and sometimes the deserving, through no fault of their own, find that strings of oportunities, by pure happenstance, pass them by.
In which case, what do well-meaning people say except, “Hang in there,” “Keep on keepin’ on and maybe your luck will change,” and “Are you sure you’ve done everything in your power to keep those opportunities from passing you by?”? Despite the fact that we know nobody can be 100% sure – that people could more easily drive themselves mad with doubt than be 100% sure. Nobody can be sure they’ve done enough to deserve… well… anything, really. And at some point, people simply have to take your word that, though nobody can be 100% sure you’ve done literally everything in your power to snag opportunity, you’re a reasonable man who’s made a reasonable effort, and you should not be faulted for some hypothetical shortcoming nobody can be sure about.
The human heart craves just deserts strongly enough that it’s probably impossible to keep people from wanting to see opportunity as meritocracy. We want “enough” opportunities to result in opportunities going to those who deserve them most, and so we wishfully tend to believe thaat’s how it happens. I don’t know how to politically sell the message that that’s not quite how it works.
We haven’t practiced capitalism in over 100 years. It “worked” for various reasons. Once NAFTA was passed, China opened up, and we got robots, everything started slowing down. So Greenspan started goosing the economy. NASDAQ bubble. Housing bubble. Obama. A freaking decade of 2% growth. Now all of the central banks have swallowed gigantic chunks of their bond markets…because…well, you tell me. Some central banks are buying equites. So we got Trump.
What we need to do is go back to actual capitalism. Except the most important issue is getting past the next election.
A freer market means more chances, more opportunity, but that’s still not the same as meritocracy.
We have to be OK with it not being the same as meritocracy, believing that the abundance of opportunity is worth it still not being a meritocracy. There are no meritocracies. We may have difficulty disbelieving the just-world hypothesis, but that’s not because the just-world hypothesis is true, or conceivably could be true, even under very free conditions.
The problem is that there does have to be some kind of generally assumable security. If there isn’t you can never get a future time perspective. Without a future time perspective you can never have delayed gratification. Without gratification delay you get all sorts of unpleasant maladies.
Which is why the ghetto is the ghetto. For those people the future doesn’t exist or it isn’t good. All social diseases spring forth from the dissolution thereof. Hell capitalism doesn’t work in that kind of society. All of this rolls into expectancy theory on motivation as well.
I have come to the conclusion that conservativism is kind of like physics assuming a frictionless surface. Useful for teaching general principles, but in no way representative of reality. But without those principles we have no way of understanding that reality either.
This is all accurate and very good stuff. I’d say the activist central banking and idiotic government actuarial management gets in the way of it.
This reminds me a little of Becker and Posner’s (in)famous (and hard to obtain) paper on the economics of suicide.
And also of the flaws in the original marshmallow test. You’re right that people have to have a certain faith in the ability of delayed gratification to pay off in order to make delaying gratification their rational choice. And you’re right that people don’t just look at average payoff, either, although average payoff is the first approximation.
(I agree life gets weird when morality tells you delayed gratification is the moral choice, but experience doesn’t necessarily paint it as the rational choice.)