The year was 1973 - I was embarking on what I thought, and was being touted, as a promising career in teaching music. I was headed for a doctorate in music. This was "the field" (at that time) that was going to be the "wave of the future" and the country was in dire need of more teachers in schools. There were not enough teachers to fill the millions of positions that were going to (operative word there: "going") to be available within six months.
Less than two years later, came the "other" news ... the more truthful news that the universities were churning out 250,000 excess teachers each year with no places to go (no open positions). I quickly changed direction and went into electronics ... and chucked the advanced education.
Six years ago, when my son was in trade school earning his quals and certs for auto-body repair, he was told and almost guaranteed, that as soon as he graduated he would be moved into a journeyman position and be making at least $69,000 (USD) per year. Upon graduation, the tech school folded, and all hopes were scraped off the table and into the trashcan. All he could get was an apprenticeship position which was basically a "go for" boy fetching parts for the journeyman mechanic.
It took him almost 5 years to finally make journeyman status and he is doing quite well now - but the road getting there was filled with things like school loans (about $18,000 USD) which must be paid back at 8% interest. School loans cannot be forgiven if one files for bankruptcy in the US.
The problem seems to be with government - both here and abroad. How to fix this, I haven't the slightest notion. The very people who are running this country were elected by taxpayers; taxpayers who pay their salaries to NOT do the job they were hired to do in the first place. We have only to look into the mirror to see who voted for who. And I'm just as guilty as the next voter, although in recent years I never vote for the incumbent.
Those in government that are making the laws and running the country have no term limits. Our president has a limit of 2 terms (4 years each) and then they are out ... period. But the Senators, and Congress members have no term limits and as long as they get the votes to stay, they have a job for life, with their own private health insurance plan, their own private retirement plan, able to vote themselves 39% raises, and countless other "perks" that we, the taxpayers, are funding for them. Meanwhile people like me, a pensioner now, got a whopping 1.7% raise in our Social Security pensions this year ... while our lawmakers in the city got 39% raises.
It is true that much work is going offshore ... and this is not entirely the fault of government. No, labor is involved here too - the unions are pricing themselves right out the market. The work can, and is being, done off shore for lots less than what the union scale wages are - the corporate body saves money. So the workers strike - and are on the picket line for up to 6 months (earning no pay from there jobs) and then they finally vote to return to work for LESS benefits and FEWER raises. If they had left well enough alone, they would have been much farther ahead than they were after being unemployed for 6 months, money which cannot be replaced no matter how much of a raise they would get.
I am not anti-union ... I was a card carrying union member working at the missile plant. I paid my dues ... when I retired I got my lapel pin and a pen and pencil set with no pencil and no ink cartridge for the pen. That was the thanks I got for 25 years as a union member. :crazy:
Sorry, I digressed to far ... but Mike is absolutely correct ... we need to get the right people to start making all the right decisions. How we do that is beyond me.
Kh ♫