The Permanently Unemployed

[paft]

From the New York Times:
Long-term joblessness - the kind that Ms. Barrington-Ward and about four million others are experiencing - is now one of the defining realities of the American work force

Comments

[brother_dour]

You get all the internets for this post. All of them.

May I link this to my FB page and quote the last three paragraphs?

[paft]

Certainly. And thanks!

[policraticus]

When faced with an ocean of applications and only a teaspoon of positions to fill, one way or another, there is always going to be someone unfairly excluded. That is just the nature of the problem. Arbitrarily choosing one qualified applicant over another is as unfair when you do it as when someone with different prejudices does it.

I never face this dilemma. Where I am we are chronically short of qualified applicants so I basically hire on sight now. That being said, there are plenty of jobs where long term unemployment raises questions, STEM jobs, for instance. There are others which are so physically demanding that an applicant over a certain age has to at least raise questions. I know I'd be apprehensive about hiring a 50 year old line cook. Quite apart from wondering why they are still a line cook, I'd question their ability to handle the hours, the pressure and the sheer time standing. Not that I'd be in much position to pass. Better to fire them later if they can't hack it.

[paft]

I'm not asking for a justification of this policy of systematically excluding anyone over a certain age or anyone unlucky enough to have been unemployed for a number of months.

I'm asking what you advocate doing about the resulting massive population of the permanently unemployed.

Some form of government support to prevent them from starving and becoming homeless -- right?

If not, what alternative do you suggest?

[gunslnger]

I'd suggest stopping our trend toward a top-down solution generating system which looks for a single solution only, and go back towards a bottom-up solution generating system which generates multiple viable solutions that can be tailored to individual needs more easily. But since that violates your ideology, what are we to do?

[paft]

Wow. That's a lotta jargon.

What form would this "bottom up solution" take?

Why do you think these people are fit to work?

[rick_day]

I employ over 35 people. All of them were looking for jobs when we hired them. Half of them are full time. In Atlanta, we can't afford to cull with such arbitrary measures. Mega corps? Well, what kind of special cupcake actually wants to work for such a behemoth entity?

The system has totes failed business by cutting education, decimating communities and families by throwing father and mother figures into a Prison System

Or, just the issues with people seeking work, but lack the ability to learn because of FAS, ADD, pollution or other societal poisonings.

Throw in a healthy dose if 'your ass is rich, so should mine' along with a consumption oriented attitude called 'entitlement' and you have a large section of the unemployable who have reasons other than unemployment tenure. They simply suck as employees.

ETA: my solution is to resurrect the CCC. We need infrastructure work bad!

[paft]

I think these people are fit to work because I know quite a few of them, and I don't for one moment believe that one's competence, wisdom, and industry vanish the minute you turn 50, or after you've been unemployed for a few months.

The CCC was for young men. It would not address the issue of the countless older workers now being rejected merely because they are older workers.

[rick_day]

*shrugs* we can't save everyone and the future lies with the young, Unfortunately. If one has not learned urban survivor skills by age 50, then one requires some serious retraining. Cushy desk jobs with nice salaries and perks are not, nor were they ever, the norm; rather, the exception.

Frankly, I'd rather see a social structure that is not built around an employer-employee axis of co-dependence. I would hope we will find efficient ways to produce enough for all, so that only those who are willing to work can. It's Bizarro Right Wing Extremism.

I dream of a world Federation of planets and ask "why not?".

[paft]

rd: *shrugs* we can't save everyone and the future lies with the young, Unfortunately. If one has not learned urban survivor skills by age 50, then one requires some serious retraining

[dexeron]

"what alternative are you proposing for dealing with this large pool of human resources you are so willing to toss into the dustbin?"

“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge. “And the Union workhouses? Are they still in operation?”

More seriously, you raise a valid question. I note that the first to respond quickly jumped to defend, or at least explain, the lack of hiring of the chronically unemployed. What is missed in this mad rush to defend the corporatocracy is any consideration of whether allowing a massive segment of our population to remain unemployed has negative consequences for society as a whole. Do the effects ripple outwards? Do we just wash our hands of the jobless and pretend that this has no effect on us?

Is it not, perhaps, in our best interests to ensure that those who fall through the cracks because of what (we are told) is merely smart business practice have some sort of safety net?

The Maddow Blog had a short blurb about it this morning as well. I agree with their contention: the Democrats cannot merely

[brother_dour]

I would argue that the problem is the corporatocracy could care less about what is best for society in today's business world. What is best for the shareholders is alpha and omega to them.

[telemann]

I've never understood why if you were unemployed for X amount of time (it seems six months is the magic number), you were ruled out of the game automatically.

In a nutshell?

[rick_day]

supply and demand, baby. So many to choose from, so many arbitrary ways to cull the list.

It ain't right, but it is what it is.

[brother_dour]

It ain't right, but it is what it is.

This brings to mind a thought: the Right only has so many answers to any issue. Shrug, hand-wave, tsk tsk, shoot down or eviscerate anything the other guys propose...and propose no ideas or solutions of their own.

And that is what OP was asking for: how would you propose to fix the problem she mentioned?

[gunslnger]

There are millions of solutions, one for each person in need of one. To propose a single one to apply to all of them instead is folly.