The Youth Unemployment Bomb • Hacker News Board

Re: The Youth Unemployment Bomb

#161

Post by pragmatic » Wed, Feb 09, 2011, 2:34 PM UTC

thedaveoflife wrote: post #114

pragmatic wrote: post #60

The simple answer is: These kids are training for the wrong jobs. College (in many areas) is a waste. Trade schools (vo-tech) offer a (almost 100%) guarantee of employment. A trade is a gateway to self employment (once you have your hours in for licensing). My brother has his master electrician's license in two states. He has more work than he knows what to do with. I have two friends who recently went back to school…

I agree that there are certainly plenty of opportunities presented by developing a technical skill. However the unemployment rate is only 4.5% for the college educated vs 10.7% for high school only and 8.4% for an associate degree/some college. So maybe college is not as much of a waste as you might think. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t04.htm

Yes but show me the figures that break out Electrician/Plumber/LPN from 2 year business degrees.

My sister in law got a 2 year biz degree. You're qualified to be a secretary (without experience). She went back and got LPN with an additional year at school.

Her job outlook is amazing. Her income is 2 to 3 times what she could have made with only her business degree.

Associated degree/some college includes a lot of things like child care/business, etc.

Re: The Youth Unemployment Bomb

#162

Post by Shorel » Wed, Feb 09, 2011, 3:32 PM UTC

lotusleaf1987 wrote: post #146

yummyfajitas wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our wealth has grown exponentially in recent decades but poor people still work 9 to 5 or more. This is a myth. The poor work very little - their full time labor force participation rate is only 10% or so (this includes both the employed and unemployed). 80% of the poor don't work at all. http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswp2007.pdf (Before you criticize this statistic as being too simple, go see this thread where I answer m…

Please go read Howard Zinn. You are 100% wrong. Poor people work more hours, harder jobs, more dangerous jobs, are more likely to die at a younger age etc etc. Everything is worse for poor people and your argument of just blaming the poor is counter-productive and myth. Zinn: There are two issues here: First, why should we accept our culture's definition of those two factors? Why should we accept that the "talent" of…

Please travel more instead of just reading. What you argue totally depends on the country.

Some of the 'poor' people here in Colombia work 3 hours a day, earn just the same money as someone who recently got a bachelor degree, and stay the rest of the day drinking beer and saving no money for tomorrow.

They also tend to have very big plasmas or LCD TVs and huge sound systems, while their houses are just bricks without any paint on them.

So, I live in a very rich country (you just can't imagine the delicious and cheap fruits here) but full of poor people.

Re: The Youth Unemployment Bomb

#163

Post by jasonmcalacanis » Wed, Feb 09, 2011, 11:35 PM UTC

throw02082011 wrote: post #26

Tycho wrote: post #5

Luckily the soil is fertile: All over the world, the hittistes and shabab atileen, NEETs and freeters and boomerang kids are hungry for a chance to thrive. Hmm, but how hungry? Compared to say people who came of age in the 40s or 50s? I'm not sure hungry is the right word. Restless maybe. Peckish.

Jason Calacanis? Is that you??? Part of the problem is cheaper young workers are laid off to keep fatcat management of an older generation. The workers remaining at the company then get "more productive." Fire the old and bring in 2 young workers(or more) for each of their salaries and things get much better.

average age at mahalo is 27... nuff said