Why Millennials Can’t Grow Up • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Millennials Can’t Grow Up

#91

Post by dkural » Sat, Dec 07, 2013, 2:09 AM UTC

djur wrote: post #65

dkural wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There a literally millions of open positions in the US economy, and millions of upper-middle class liberal-college educated jobless millennials who can't be bothered to master these STEM fields to qualify. They all want to be an aid worker & save the world or something, or to be paid for playing a banjo. The only reason half of the people even get jobs is better qualified, harder working foreigners are kept out of th…

"literally millions of open positions in the US economy": And almost four times as many unemployed people seeking work. Those open positions numbers are based on self-reporting, too, and they don't account for whether companies are actively seeking candidates, are offering a competitive salary, or are expecting reasonable qualifications. Lots of companies would love to hire busloads of experts at a bargain rate if th…

This would be more credible if I didn't find qualified candidates who are 20 years old with skills + knowledge many in their 30s lack. I have nothing against a liberal arts degree, but not teaching yourself / taking computer science, mathematics, statistics during college automatically disqualifies you from many white collar jobs requiring strong quantitative reasoning skills. This is not about on-the-job experience, it's about basic skills.

Re: Why Millennials Can’t Grow Up

#92

Post by dkural » Sat, Dec 07, 2013, 2:11 AM UTC

rjbwork wrote: post #60

dkural wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There a literally millions of open positions in the US economy, and millions of upper-middle class liberal-college educated jobless millennials who can't be bothered to master these STEM fields to qualify. They all want to be an aid worker & save the world or something, or to be paid for playing a banjo. The only reason half of the people even get jobs is better qualified, harder working foreigners are kept out of th…

The previous generations didn't exactly do anything to help us realize this reality. Hell, I feel like I won the roulette wheel of life sometimes in that my CS degree, which I naturally graduated towards, is in great demand. And other kids were pushed equally strongly to their history, sociology, philosophy, and english degrees.

Instead of blaming parents for 'no one told us', a second option would be look around and ask: How does philosophy, history, sociology, english help me do something in a company, besides HR, Sales, Marketing, and with luck, Management? What exactly did your friends think they'd do with their degrees, vis-a-vis getting a job?

Re: Why Millennials Can’t Grow Up

#93

Post by lsc » Sat, Dec 07, 2013, 8:16 AM UTC

javert wrote: post #88

djur wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it a "bailout" for the government to adjust the funding of a tax-funded program by adjusting the tax? By that definition, I'm being forced to bail out the military every time they spend tax money to buy a jet fighter. You are thinking of Social Security as an investment program. It is not. The government is not forcing you to invest in a fund, it is taxing you to pay for other peoples' benefits. Eventually, it…

It is a "bailout" because the government originally claimed that Social Security would be a self-sustaining investment system, as far as I understand it. But I'm not dead set on arguing for calling it a "bailout." It is what it is, the terminology here is not that important. You are right---I am not being conned. Just forced. I will eventually go to a country that better allows me to pursue my values if I can find on…

>It is a "bailout" because the government originally claimed that Social Security would be a self-sustaining investment system, as far as I understand it.

Please do your research. The government claimed no such thing.

here is as good a place to start as any:

http://www.ssa.gov/history/fdrstmts.html

Social security was a government program. Funded by taxes. From the start.

Note, the first generation? yeah, the retired folks got social security benefits right away, even though they had paid in nothing. This very clearly made it not work as an investment.

I mean, it's perfectly reasonable to disagree with safety net programs.

But don't claim that our safety net programs are bad as investments when they are clearly not investments at all.