Comments on: Unemployment is Up! But So are Job Vacancies?

By: KatieB

KatieB — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 02:23:44 +0000

Hmmmm. Now real estate agents, newspaper and magazine workers are blue collar? It’s not blue vs white collar it is keeping up with the times. I’ve never met a real estate agent who wasn’t something else first. That’s the beauty of selling real estate–you don’t sell real estate, you manage people. And that skill will always be in demand. Um…print publicatons…they are and will continue to come back. Bottom line, look for the trends and go with the flow. Isn’t that what a good liberal arts college education teaches?

karass says:
September 10, 2010 at 1:42 pm

Agree completely that blue collar work is beyond honorable and needed. All of the men two generations before mine were blue collar workers who also held civic leadership positions and were great role models. However, you have to be careful. Certain blue collar jobs have disappeared or will soon including auto worker, newspaper or magazine worker, many construction related jobs, real estate agent, and secretary.

By: Decatur Metro

Decatur Metro — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 17:28:48 +0000

But what about all those 8% yearly growth models that are my only shot at retirement?

I’m beginning to think that retirement is going to be a thing of the past quite soon.

Now who’s the entitled generation? Hmmm baby boomers? Hmmm?

By: unclecharlie

unclecharlie — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 16:40:32 +0000

Of course a recession was inevitable. But government spending is the only proven way to shorten, or lessen the depth of, a recession. Without that spending we would have had most of our largest banks and pension funds fail.

On the same Friday as David Brooks’ article there’s a piece on the opposite side of the same page by Paul Krugman about Japan’s problems trying to recover from a real estate bubble in the 1990s. The gist of it is that they spent enough to keep themselves out of depression but not enough to avoid deflation. So almost twenty years later deflation has become the norm and they are stuck with slow growth and fairly high unemployment.

This is where we are headed — not into utter disaster but get used to flat wages, impoverished retirements and declining standards of living for the middle class. The best thing about being a craftsman is your sense of pride in the work but you have to accept a lower wage along with that.

By: Deanne

Deanne — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 13:52:01 +0000

Phew wee! What’s that stink blocking the sweet patchouli scent?

By: DEM

DEM — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 13:30:17 +0000

They are short term reactions to crisis. They are not decisions to accept some responsibility and sacrifice to pay for our lifestyles.

_______________________

I can’t disagree with this. A recession simply HAS to follow a debt-fueled consumption binge of the likes we saw. But very few will admit this, and certainly no pol of either party. Instead we’re told that we can borrow our way out of this by borrowing even more (by the government).