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How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America

theatlantic.com

11–20 of 52 posts

Re: How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America

#11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's extremely long? Maybe I'm a bit older than most readers here (I'm 38), but has the average readers attention span shrunk that much? Nuance cannot always come in bite-sized chunks. BTW, I read the article (on a plane - the print edition, no less) - it's worth the time.

What's this "print" you mention?

The Atlantic

It's a very good magazine.

Re: How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America

#12
post #4

I'm old and generally pessimistic. But I've seen enough recessions to know that when you've read the seventeenth article about the never-ending bottom (as I did during the reagan era, during the early 90s when Germany and Japan were going to destroy the US economy, and post dotcom collapse), I can't help but think it's time that the pundits will all be contradicted on the upside. Just like they were on the downside.…

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/02/21/business/21un...

There's still a good chance that you're right, but that chance is much smaller than it would've been had you said the same thing in the 80's.

Re: How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America

#13
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that was my first reaction, but this article is extremely long. wishing there was a "tl;dr;" section so i could figure out the conclusion in a sentence or two. bookmarked it for now, will come back to it.

It's extremely long? Maybe I'm a bit older than most readers here (I'm 38), but has the average readers attention span shrunk that much? Nuance cannot always come in bite-sized chunks. BTW, I read the article (on a plane - the print edition, no less) - it's worth the time.

Yes, it has. When this article first came round I read it all because it was interesting but it's certainly way above the median length of articles that do well here (and above the median of most online content, I'd argue). I'd certainly bill it as being "rather long," though wouldn't go as far as "extremely."

Re: How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America

#15
post #8
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This too will pass. On the other hand, for certain groups the last thirty to forty years have been a long, slow slide from the top of the economic heap to the bottom. Specifically, conditions for white men without college degrees have gone from great to exceedingly poor. It's had an enormous, perhaps defining impact on modern politics, and will continue to be one of the most important influences in the future.

My initial reaction to your comment is that specifically, conditions for white women with college degrees have gone from exceedingly poor to not too bad. Just saying.

Conditions for almost everyone who's not a working-class white man have improved. But it doesn't change the fact that there is a large group of people who have done very poorly and tend to vote for people who pander to their grievances. The fact that the economic crisis made things markedly worse for these people doesn't bode well for politics in the next few years, if history is any guide.

Re: How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America

#16
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that was my first reaction, but this article is extremely long. wishing there was a "tl;dr;" section so i could figure out the conclusion in a sentence or two. bookmarked it for now, will come back to it.

It's extremely long? Maybe I'm a bit older than most readers here (I'm 38), but has the average readers attention span shrunk that much? Nuance cannot always come in bite-sized chunks. BTW, I read the article (on a plane - the print edition, no less) - it's worth the time.

Well worth the time, but probably shouldn't have started reading it at 1am, right before bed!

Re: How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America

#17
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My initial reaction to your comment is that specifically, conditions for white women with college degrees have gone from exceedingly poor to not too bad. Just saying.

The Economist ran a cover story on precisely this phenomenon a few weeks back: http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=1...

Which is my point. The perception of "really bad times" is at least somewhat driven by the fact that a few older white males perceive that their cohort is doomed.

Re: How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America

#18
post #4

I'm old and generally pessimistic. But I've seen enough recessions to know that when you've read the seventeenth article about the never-ending bottom (as I did during the reagan era, during the early 90s when Germany and Japan were going to destroy the US economy, and post dotcom collapse), I can't help but think it's time that the pundits will all be contradicted on the upside. Just like they were on the downside.…

The point of the article is more that an entire generation is going to be scarred by this recession. The author cites research showing that people who enter the workforce during a recession never catch up the lost wages. They always lag behind their more fortunate peers.

Re: How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America

#19
I'd love to see the ideas generated by a Y Combinator RFS for harnessing millions of unemployed/underemployed workers.

Amazon Mechanical Turk is one part of the picture, and it opens up the door to more. Anything that makes it cheaper to create work, hire employees/freelancers, or find jobs is valuable in this economy. Or ways for people to earn money besides the mainstream labor economy. Or something that can generate value from activities that people do with their idle time while they're unemployed - whether it's constructive like Wikipedia or entertaining like Farmville.

Re: How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America

#20
post #18
post #4

I'm old and generally pessimistic. But I've seen enough recessions to know that when you've read the seventeenth article about the never-ending bottom (as I did during the reagan era, during the early 90s when Germany and Japan were going to destroy the US economy, and post dotcom collapse), I can't help but think it's time that the pundits will all be contradicted on the upside. Just like they were on the downside.…

The point of the article is more that an entire generation is going to be scarred by this recession. The author cites research showing that people who enter the workforce during a recession never catch up the lost wages. They always lag behind their more fortunate peers.

Uh, duh. I graduated in 1983, the peak of Reaganism/Thatcherism. Life is long, and over the 40 years of a typical career, if you work your ass off, and get a little bit of luck, things balance out. You end up making a little bit less than the people who graduated two years later, and a lot more than the people who don't work as hard.
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