Thanks to a long time reader for sending this link showing the OWS chapter in Oakland CA. The video presents the socialist root of the OWS movement.
My posting today doesn't focus on the hardcore socialists shown in the video but rather concentrates on the fraction of the occupiers who are disillusioned with their future prospects for making a living in the real world. Such people have been drawn to the demonstrations hoping to find an answer to their problems starting with they can't find a job. Without thinking for themselves they feel they did what they were told were all the right things to do like going to college - but majoring in fields that have very few employment opportunities. These people now have tens of thousands of dollars in student loans & some are desperate enough to look to these occupations. The smart ones should have already given up on this approach.
Please contrast the point of view of the people in the above video with the message on this link of Professor Freidman being interviewed by Phil Donahue sent to us by one of the many doctors in our readership.
Naturally Professor Friedman provides the answer to all in the aforementioned disillusioned Trophy Generation (aka Millenials - defined here as (young) people who are the first to come of age in the new millennium - they voted for BO in 2008 better than 2 to 1). If these people are honest they will admit they need both job counseling & training in a field other than their college major in order to make a living. Politically they also have to admit that all of BO's programs & policies are designed for them to have no hope or chance @ a life that is not full of government dependence. There are about 5 jobless workers per job opening so BO has all of these people exactly in the dependence mode he wants them in.
Below are Andy Kessler's thoughts that define the problem after visiting the Occupy San Francisco protests. Professor Friedman provides the solution above – not just for the Trophy Generation but for all of us.
---Andy Kessler Directly From OccupySF – WSJ October 22, 2011---
Maybe this is all really about disappointment. I spoke to a young woman who had clearly bathed more recently than most. I asked her why she was at OccupySF. She told me she'd done all the right things. Studied hard. Graduated college. (She was an art major.) And now she can't get a job. It didn't matter. It's all messed up. She was lied to.
Of course she was. She's a member of the Trophy Generation. Win or lose, you get a trophy. We embraced mediocrity to an entire generation of kids during good times who are now finding themselves mediocre in bad times. There still is that American dream: Go to college, get a job, buy a Prius. But like it or not, studying art or humanities or gender studies won't get you there. Marissa Mayer at Google complains she can't find enough computer-science majors. Civil engineers are getting hired sight unseen.
great links, I used them, thanks
ReplyDeleteWow! Have we come full circle back to the 70s. I always admired Milton Friedman; now I know why. Thanks for sending!
ReplyDelete