Thread: Has the "Safety Net" Evaporated?

Could be. Here's what I think and it may not be PC. IMHO our current problems go back to the end of WWII. Through hard work, sacrifice, common goals, luck, and determination our country emerged as the super power. We were in an idealitic period for us. No competition and super demand for everything.

Over the decades we seemed to have taken our circumstance as a right. We also seemed to get fat and lazy. We are kinda like the addict that says they are in total control and can quit anytime. We are addicted to our stuff and our way of life. We consider it a birth rite.

I, myself, saw this coming with the signing of NAFTA and other treaties. Free and open markets are going to put downward pressure on the highest standard of living in the labor class. If the labor is cheaper elsewhere the cost has got to lower here or the job will move. Also, as we learn more we can produce more with less labor. This, again, results in lower wages.

I don't think a college degree can trump the power of the market. I do forsee that our average standard of living will have to balance out with our competitors standards of living. I do believe there will be more pain to come for most Americans and I think the only way out for them is to work longer for less money.

The only safety net I see is to be able to write you own rules and to live with your choices.

"Safety nets are for weaklings" as one of my friends use to say. Well, I don't really believe in using others safety nets. I create my own, that way I know the quality to expect if all hell breaks lose.

Call me paranoid, but I am at least proactive.

I come from a country where everybody (of course I am exaggerating here) has a degree. All of my friends have one (if not two) degrees. Many have master level degrees. A crazy one has a Ph.D. And salaries for a college-degree holder are just marginally better than high-schooler jobs.

What happened was that college degrees were a norm, like today you could expect people to be able to read and write. Computer literacy is today a given for office type jobs. Same thing happens with college degrees.

You can see ads for jobs that don't need a degree, but, because there are so many with a degree that are available, companies can demand that you have a 4 year degree to answer the phones.

The opposite was true up until 7 years ago or so. during the dot com era anybody was a computer science expert, or a computer expert, even though never went to school to learn about it.

so, what I am trying to say is, the college degree has become a norm so it may not produce any advantage anymore with a job market like today's.

I think it will improve and will become again an advantage and a real safety net for a middle class job. But today, at least, it is gone.

Well those people are not go-getters its that simple. No one is just going to get a job, especially in today's market. Guess what, if they were entrepreneurs they would probably fail as well. You have to be strategic and work hard at anything you do. A CEO is not there by luck. People think they will be hired because of a piece of paper. As an employer i would be more interested in their work ethic and common knowledge, some of the kids i am graduating with have no idea how the stock market, real estate, or real business even works. That's pathetic, they were all too busy sleeping or something. Ambitious people will prevail.