The Job Market is a Stuborn Thing.

The Unemployment numbers came out for the last month, and we had a reduction in overall unemployment from 9.7% to 9.5%. That seems exciting, until we break down those numbers a little further. That's a "Real Change" of 0.002. As of the end of June we still have 14.6 Million people unemployed. A net change of 652,000+ (jobs acquired over jobs lost) occurred. So when we divide it out, 4% of unemployed people found jobs in June. "The biggest cause for concern had been the weakness of the private sector, which created a modest 83,000 jobs in June, well up from May's revised total of 33,000." (Source Yahoo! News, )

What's making jobs so hard to find? Certainly there's a lot of economic pressure. But I think there may be another undercurrent here. Over education.

Starting from the assumption that, like my own, your high school guidance councilor (much like every teacher before him from Kindergarten up to his arrival on your academic scene... and possibly even your own parents) assured you that you could "Be anything you set your mind to if you just worked hard enough." The rational among us instantly (or very nearly so) rejected this as insane, but many people (some of them very bright) bought into this wholesale; not realizing their errors until the real world hit them in the mouth with a bag of bricks.
Exhibit A: My friend Greg who worked hard through high school and college... the man studied like a fiend and worked nights and weekends and ungodly hours at various local grocery stores to make ends meet... and now, finally having attained his degree in "German"... he still works at a local grocery store. (Now with major loans to pay off.)
Exhibit B: My sister spent 4 years and a good chunk of money pursuing an Art degree at Maryland Institute College of Art. She's a brilliant artist, who does amazing work. She's not one lick better at art then she was when she went into the money machine, and works part time at a Bakery... taking yet MORE college classes.
I'm sure many of you know people who fall into categories like this. Rest assured, we will be getting into the WHY of what happened in small detail today, and in GREAT detail in my next post "The Important Role of the Economic Loser."

Why do we work at the jobs we do? What determines which jobs we're going to work at, and which careers we land in overall? It's not lack of effort, at least not always. It's not lack of desire certainly, it's not even always lack of ability. I think that we can't look at what WE are lacking for the answer. If we must refer to it in terms of "Lacking" I'd say the Job Market is lacking what WE want. Worded another way, the Job Market has certain needs and certain overflows. If what we want falls into a need category then we are one of the lucky few. That said, most people will not fall into this category. If your life's dream was to be a basket weaver and you've managed to fall into one of the few basket weaving slots that society has out there then stop reading. For the rest of us, the problem bears a bit of closer inspection.

The Economics of the Job Market boil down to "How badly do we need this done?", "How Many people can do it?", and "How much does the average person want for doing it."
There are, in certain cases, other small factors that impact job creation... but not many. It's hard to find a job that nobody wants done, that anyone could do, and most people will do for free that pays well.

For example, lets look at the "Worlds Oldest Profession".
Has it ever occured to anyone to wonder why there are more female prostitutes then there are male prostitutes? It's hard to compete in a job market where there droves of people waiting to do your job for free. This isn't to say you CAN'T find those jobs, just that you really shouldn't bank on doing it to make a living.

This is starting to run a little long, and we're getting into subjects I want to cover tomorrow... so for now we'll call it a day.

"Truth is sought for its own sake. And those who are engaged upon the quest for anything for its own sake are not interested in other things. Finding the truth is difficult, and the road to it is rough." - Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham, roughly 950 AD.

Recently I observed an argument in which neither side was willing to back off their insistence that the other party was wrong. The question was factual, and in an attempt to be helpful I offered to use my laptop to seek an answer to the question online. Much to my surprise both parties balked. My initial response was to apologize for the intrusion, assuming that I was an unwelcome third party to their discussion. Further confusing me, the two of them insisted that they weren't offended; it simply "Was not worth the time to look it up, they would rather just drop it."

While I finished my lunch I puzzled over this. My laptop was out, I was on free WI-FI and the time it took to seek the answer to the question was minuscule. So why avoid the answer? Wouldn't a resolution to the argument by reference to the facts be a desirable outcome?

For the rest of the day I reflected on this. It began to burn me up little by little. Why would we reject a shot at truth and correcting our own misconceptions? Can we as nation really be this addicted to the "We are the right, they are the wrong!" mindset? I suppose it shouldn't surprise me really.

At all levels we seek answers that have mass apeal far more often then we seek truth. There are people who make their living on data manipulation for both sides, enabling news organizations and pundits to twist the facts in such a way as to make them more appealing to their core markets. What's the end result of this? We only seek the people who tell us what we want to hear. Any voice from the "other side" is rejected outright, and often villified.

"It is proper for you, Kalamas [the people of the village of Kesaputta], to doubt, to be uncertain; uncertainty has arisen in you about what is doubtful. Come, Kalamas. Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing; nor upon tradition; nor upon rumor; nor upon what is in a scripture; nor upon surmise; nor upon an axiom; nor upon specious reasoning; nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over; nor upon another's seeming ability; nor upon the consideration, 'The monk is our teacher.' Kalamas, when you yourselves know: 'These things are bad; these things are blameable; these things are censured by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill, abandon them. "...Do not accept anything by mere tradition... Do not accept anything just because it accords with your scriptures... Do not accept anything merely because it agrees with your pre-conceived notions... But when you know for yourselves—these things are moral, these things are blameless, these things are praised by the wise, these things, when performed and undertaken, conduce to well-being and happiness—then do you live acting accordingly." - Kalama Sutta

The Blog is Active Again.

I'm back, I'm writing, and I'm mad.

More to follow, tomorrow I'm hitting this Haiti thing. Soon after that I'm addressing the issue of the police. That might be a 5 part article. I've got a lot to say about that one.