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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Education Is Literally Tearing You A New Asshole.

Forget what the news is telling you...unemployment is still at an all time high. If you are 37 years or older, you are fucked in the workforce. Here's why.... Most corporations are downsizing and the folks that get it in the rear first are the older employees. When a person has tenure, a company is paying a lot more for your services between pensions, if you're lucky, and paid vacation and sick days. Maybe they have implemented a point system that rates you based on your ability to make it to work, whether you're sick, dying, or have a death in the family. Or they will just get rid of the department you are in and give your work to another department that is probably already overworked and underpaid. Your experience is undervalued and they will gladly find a young, recent college graduate to do your work, working twice as hard for half the money you made. They will usually try to buy you out or forcibily retire your ass. If you are one of the select few that have managed to get a degree in your field, you find the opportunities for advancement to be very slim once you reach a "certain" age. Which brings us to the next problem... Folks are so upset about losing their jobs, that now most want to go back to school to get another degree. And for what? To delay the inevitable in a lot of cases - you're already in debt with your other student loan, car and home loans and family expenses. You're still unemployed. This corporate system does not work in your favor, don't be fooled. Again, if you are in your thirties, those days of getting what you are worth are long gone. Unless you happen to be connected. Then there are people like me, that have managed to fly under the radar without attaining a higher education degree. I was in the military, got additional training when I got out, and went into a field that doesn't require an advanced degree but common sense and a little brute force. I'm one of the lucky ones. Here's where we get screwed. It is like a Catch-22, you apply for a position, without a degree, you won't get the position because you aren't educated. If you have higher education you won't get the job, because guess what? You're too educated and corporations don't want to pay the money that your degree is worth. Ain't that shit fucked up? Which means you need to start figuring out how to pay your bills while working for minimum wage or learn the delicate balancing act of working multiple jobs to make ends meet. This is the new American Reality. So, the uneducated goes back to school, to go into debt, to get a degree for a position that probably won't be available for the many who have training in that field. Meanwhile, the educated person ends up handing out game tokens and tickets at Chuck E Cheese or serving designer coffee at Starbucks. Keep reading these past lines over and over again until this shit sinks in. Lately, education is doing nothing for this country's masses but perpetuating debt, dishonesty, depression, and quite possibly diabetes(smile). From what I've read, depending on the school, a four year education can cost at least $100,000 dollars before you get that piece of paper. All this push for an education on the radio and TV, and the work opportunities keep shrinking, and the education loan companies sink their claws deeper in those honestly trying to make a way out of their professional dead end. It is an ugly, vicious cycle. Speaking of those TV commercials, doesn't it seem like the world will be over-run with CNAs, graphic artists, hairstylists, makeup artists, and "security professionals" soon? It seems like like places are churning them out like an assembly line? Not to insult any in those fields; but how about some career diversity? Why don't they ever promote the fields that are actually really in demand? You know the fields where there is truly a lack of qualified people? It is like they don't want people to be truly prepared for the future work force. It seems like a big scam, like the ones at the top are in it together to further control the struggling 99%. Keep the masses down and get them desperate enough to accept the bare minimum of compensation, after all, they should be happy to be working, right? And no, that doesn't include benefits. But what's a person suppose to do? You have to aak yourself, will you ever get out of debt in your lifetime? Will you ever be able to live the American Dream of past generations? Will you have a cushion of funds for your "golden years"? Before you ask, I don't have an answer for this. It is just an heads up.