 Tracy Blakeley, who was laid off in early 2009, thought she would quickly find another job but it didn’t work out that way. She went to school to learn massage therapy and ran her own business for a while but closed the business last year. Blakeley has strung together a series of temporary jobs but still hopes to land a permanent one. (Genaro Molina, Los Angeles Times / October 31, 2013) |
When potential employers ask Tracy Blakeley about her personal life, she assumes they’re not making idle chit chat.
They’re trying to figure out how old she is.
“They ask if I have kids or grandkids,” Blakeley, 53, said. “They won’t ask you your birth date, but they’ll ask when you graduated from high school.”
Blakeley has a rock-solid work ethic, good computer skills and an upbeat personality. What she doesn’t have is a permanent job, despite trying her hardest to find one.
It’s a common story for people in their 50s, 60s and even 70s. Nearly 2 million people ages 55 and older are looking for a job these days, twice as many as before the Great Recession.
The chronically sluggish U.S. economy has taken a toll on workers of all ages, but it has weighed particularly heavily on the baby boom generation.
This deplorable condition will worsen as the means of production shift from the need for human labor increasingly to the non-human technology factor, which constantly destroys jobs and devalues the worth of labor. For the nation to continue to focus on JOBS CREATION is not the solution long-term. We must begin serious discussion on the impact that technology is having on the prospects for jobs in the future and the reality that far less human labor will be needed to produce the products and services needed and wanted by society.
The rapidly shifting digital world is not about to stop, but will intensify as tectonic shifts in the technologies of production exponentially destroy jobs and devalue the worth of labor.
Given the current invisible structure of the economy, except for a relative few, the majority of the population, no matter how well educated, will not be able to find a job that pays sufficient wages or salaries to support a family or prevent a lifestyle, which is gradually being crippled by near poverty or poverty earnings. Thus, education is not the panacea, though it is critical for our future societal development. And younger, as well as older people, will increasingly find it harder and harder to secure a well-paying job––for most, their ONLY source of income––and will find themselves dependent on taxpayer-supported government welfare, open and disguised or concealed.
The solutions can be found in the Agenda of The Just Third Way Movement at http://foreconomicjustice.org/?p=5797.
The path to prosperity, opportunity, and economic justice can be found in the writings about the Capital Homestead Act at http://www.cesj.org/homestead/index.htm. For more overviews related to this topic see “The Absent Conversation: Who Should Own America?” published by The Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-reber/who-should-own-america_b_2040592.html and by OpEd News at http://www.opednews.com/articles/THE-Absent-Conversation–by-Gary-Reber-130429-498.html.
Also see “The Path To Eradicating Poverty In America” at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-reber/the-path-to-eradicating-p_b_3017072.html and “The Path To Sustainable Economic Growth” at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-reber/sustainable-economic-growth_b_3141721.html, and the article entitled “The Solution To America’s Economic Decline” at http://www.nationofchange.org/solution-america-s-economic-decline-1367588690.
Also see “Financing Economic Growth With ‘FUTURE SAVINGS’: Solutions To Protect America From Economic Decline” at NationOfChange.org http://www.nationofchange.org/financing-future-economic-growth-future-savings-solutions-protect-america-economic-decline-137450624, “The Income Solution To Slow Private Sector Job Growth” at http://www.nationofchange.org/income-solution-slow-private-sector-job-growth-1378041490, and “A Solution To Eroding Retirement Security” at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-reber/a-solution-to-eroding-retirement_b_4103834.html and at http://www.nationofchange.org/solution-eroding-retirement-security-1382020223.
See “How To Reverse The Increasing Reliance Of Low-Wage Workers On Billions In Aid And Restore Economic Growth” at http://www.nationofchange.org/how-reverse-increasing-reliance-low-wage-workers-billions-aid-and-restore-economic-growth-1382195936#comment-294097 and at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-reber/how-to-reverse-the-increa_b_4125981.html.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-older-jobs-20131110,0,6385586.story#axzz2kSLpw07N
