Is there any way the old job market can come back?

[pecksniff]

Notice the use of the weasel word "implicitly." It allows liars and propagandists to simply read into Trump's actual words a racist intent where none was present before.

The intent here was not racist. When he promised "You'll get tired of winning," Trump was simply pandering to the very real grievances of the white working class -- not in this instance their racial resentments (it was his anti-immigration talk and "American carnage" talk that went to that), but their economic anxieties.

But, never mind what Trump couldn't do about that. What can be done about it now? How can we arrange things so a HS grad has the same (inflation-adjusted) earning opportunities as in the 1950s?

 

[haventgotaclue]

Apologies for bumping this thread up, but I was in the same boat just a month back, looking for a job that could help me afford more than just the basics.

With the constant evolution in technology and market dynamics, I feel it's all about keeping up and adapting. I ended up transitioning from a traditional blue-collar role into tech, which involved some learning, but it was worth it.

 

[Comshaw]

Apologies for bumping this thread up, but I was in the same boat just a month back, looking for a job that could help me afford more than just the basics.

With the constant evolution in technology and market dynamics, I feel it's all about keeping up and adapting. I ended up transitioning from a traditional blue-collar role into tech, which involved some learning, but it was worth it.

Tech? And what does that mean, really? Auto mechanic? Do you realize how much "tech" is in your average new car? In the microwave you cook your snack with?

That aside, would you like to make north of $100,000 a year minimum? There are blue-collar jobs open and begging for people that will pay that. What are they? electrical linemen. But if you don't want to do a bit of hard labor, be out in all kinds of inclement weather and be exposed to conditions where you might get fried like a catfish if you make a wrong move, then by all means stay at your desk and do the "tech" thing.


Comshaw

 

[jaF0]

Tech? And what does that mean, really?

Spammer. Soon to be. They just didn't add the link to whatever they're spamming for yet. Sometimes they come back in a few hours or days. Sometimes they just forget to.

 

[LargoKitt]

By "old" I mean as it was in the 1950s and 1960s, when a white man, at any rate, with only a high-school education could earn a middle-class income and good benefits from a blue-collar job.

But, that was only possible because of:

1. Strong labor unions.

2. A world where every other industrial power that fought WWII was devastated by it and had not yet entirely recovered, leaving America the global market in manufactures.

3. A domestic economy where the corporations had not yet discovered offshoring, outsourcing, and automation.

Trump implicitly promised the white working class that he would bring back those days, but he does not appear ever to have had any actual ideas in mind for achieving it.

Does anybody?

I don't think skin color has much to do with it, except that white folks walled people of color out of certain job markets. Still, Detroit was filled with African-Americans coming north to work in the auto industry and its support industries. But we live in a global economy now with effectively global companies. Toyotas are made in Mexico and iphones in China. Online help is in Bangalore. Can't stuff that genie back in the bottle. Maybe a new model in which all workers get a bigger share of the profits. NO reason for it all to flow to the top.