The Social Cost of the Loss of Job Stability and Careers « naked capitalism

Sunday, June 26, 2011

The Social Cost of the Loss of Job Stability and Careers

As much as the rest of the world has chosen to look down on Japan in its post bubble era for its failure to clean up its banking mess and resultant stagnant economy, it has managed its relative decline in status with considerable aplomb. It still has the longest life expectancy in the world, universal health care, not bad unemployment (3% to 5%) and ranks well on other social indicators And now that the US is going down the Japan path, it might behoove us to take heed of their example.

One of the striking difference between the cultures is importance ascribed to job creation. The Japanese understand full well that the workplace for many people is a far more important community to them than where they live, and so in contrast to the US, generating and preserving employment is a high priority. For example, Japanese entrepreneurs are revered for generating jobs, while in the US, personal wealth is proof of success.

McKinsey had Yankelovich survey the attitudes of young people a decade ago, and even then, the results were pretty disturbing. Yankelovich projected that college graduates would average 11 jobs by the time they were 38 (!), yet found they were demanding of their employers, wanting frequent feedback (as in lots of attention) and quick advancement. But if you are not likely to be around for very long, no one is likely to want to invest in you all that much (McKinsey, which was competing for a narrow slice of supposed “top” talent and not offering Wall Street sized pay opportunities, might have been more inclined to indulge this sort of thing than other employers).

But these rapid moves from job to job, and now a much weaker job market, are producing behaviors that old farts like me find troubling. One is rampant careerism. I’ve run into too many polished people under the age of 35 where the veneer is very thin. It isn’t hard to see the opportunism, the shameless currying of favor, and ruthless calculations of whom to help and whom to kick, including throwing former patrons under the bus when they are no longer useful (I can cite specific examples of the last behavior). The world has always had its Sammy Glicks, but now we seem to be setting out to create them on a mass basis.

The economic effects are also not pretty. A 30 year mortgage made sense when people would spend a decade or more with a single employer. And more frequent job changes means not only more total time unemployed over one’s working years, but also the very high odds of falling out of a highly or even moderately paid career path to a much lower one as the work place continues to be restructured.

A New York Times piece tonight describes the latest stage of this sorry devolution: “job jugglers” who hold down multiple part time jobs to make a living. This sort of thing used to happen only to lower income people, artists, or people who live in resort areas. The article makes clear that this is often a hand-to-mouth, high stress existence, although the interviewees put a brave face on it. And we aren’t necessarily talking having one income source in the days and another in the evenings: three of the individuals featured had four jobs. Even then, they barely cover their expenses.

Yet it could indeed be worse:

Still, Ms. [Mia] Branco, who graduated magna cum laude with a degree in musical theater from American University in 2009, says she feels lucky to be employed at all. “The majority of the jobs I have right now are because people were laid off and they didn’t want to hire back full-time employees,” she said. “My willingness to have a hodgepodge schedule makes me more
marketable.”

But the “marketable” benefits are only short term.

A national study by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies found that young women who worked primarily in part-time jobs did not make higher wages in their 30s than in their 20s…The reason is that part-time jobs generally provide fewer training opportunities and often don’t put workers on a track for advancement.

And many of these jobs are clearly stopgaps:

More college graduates are working in second jobs that don’t require college degrees, part of a phenomenon called “mal-employment.” In short, many baby-sitters, sales clerks, telemarketers and bartenders are overqualified for their jobs.

Last year, 1.9 million college graduates were mal-employed and had multiple jobs, up 17 percent from 2007, according to federal data. Almost half of all college graduates have a job that doesn’t require a bachelor’s degree.

I see this in my own building. One of the new doormen, a clean cut, high energy fellow, is a college graduate who is going to work on his graduate degree at night. One who has been here about a year also went to college. That was unheard of until recently.

Even though the evidence is that these jugglers would do better financially and probably in terms of lifestyle if they got on a career path, some seemed to have been imprinted by their multi-job routine and seemed loath to give it up, even though they recognized that it is not conducive to having a family.

These part-time jobs may just be another feature of this recession, but the odds are that it will become yet another aspect of the “new normal”.

101 Comments:

ambrit says:

June 26, 2011 at 4:23 am

Mz Smith;
This ‘multi-job’ paradigm is also creeping upwards in the over 50 age group. Lots of potential employers pass on by over 50s, as I have experienced. When cornered and taken to task, one mid 30s Human Resource Manager for a big box store I had applied to, (for a job I actually qualified for,) said plainly that “older people are too much trouble.” When pressed on that statement, she continued, “You older folks know too much. You call us out on the B— S— that every big outfit uses to keep the kids in line. Face it, you’re a threat to the system.” Evidently, overqualified also means having a social conscience today.
I do pity the young folks today though. They’re growing up in a new Dickensian Age.

Daniel Pennell says:

June 26, 2011 at 8:48 am

I suspect that that apart from the reasons already given, that there is one more to consider.

Work, in a broad swoth of the economy, is becomeing increasingly project based and the work ends with the end of the project.

For example, if McDonalds wants to put up a half dozen new stores in a region, they will hire the resources they need to acquire and build the stores in that region. Once the stores are built there is no more need for those skill sets in that region until they need to build again. So..lay off the staff that located and constructed the store.

In my work as a program manager for Federal IT projects the work is inherently based the duration of the project and the contract and when the project ends you usually recieve whatever back PTO you have and 2-4 weeks salary. You will likely also get about a month from the end of the project until you get laid off to find something internally or another job.

Another aspect of this way of doing business is that as projects near their end it is very difficult to keep people around to finish the job. Most people with any sense start looking for a new contract about 4-6 months before the end of the one they are on. Often we reach a point where we have to offer bonuses to those who are left to keep them around.

It used to be that if you worked for a consultancy or a contractor that you would simply work very very hard for a period of time and then either take a vacation and move to the next project or you had a couple of months of very slow downtime to do training or catchup on other tasks and then move to the next project. Now…you are billable or you are gone. Nothing to do with skill (though it may have to do with salary), the business just needs to get you off the books.

It was not that long ago that the people in a position to fuction this way was limited to people like myself, senior analysts with very specific knowledge, or to project managers. Now, a company that shall remain unnamed, just hired a dozen college grads and people with years of expereince, to do a bunch of proposals, technical writing and graphics work. They are all on 1099s and they are all gone after about 4 months. Pay your share and that of the employers share of the employment taxes. No benefits. No disability. No retirement contribution.

It is unfortunate, but this is the way we are heading. It is beomeing every man or woman for themselves. But then..that has been the plan of corporate America for 25 years at least.

NOW…all these companies gotta figure out how to deal with consumer that has a variable and insecure income.

How does a 30 year mortgage work in this environment?
- DownSouth says:
  
  June 26, 2011 at 9:26 am
  
  Daniel Pennell said: “Work, in a broad swoth of the economy, is becomeing increasingly project based and the work ends with the end of the project.”
  
  One of the first discoveries made by a society of normal people is that it is superior to the new [pathocratic] rulers in intelligence and practical skills, no matter what geniuses they seek to appear to be. The knots stultifying reason are gradually loosened, and fascination with the new rulership’s non-existent secret knowledge and plan of action begins to diminish, followed by familiarization with the accurate knowledge about this new deviant reality.
  
  The world of normal people is always superior to the deviant one whenever constructive activity is needed, whether it be the reconstruction of a devastated country, the area of technology, the organization of economic life, or scientific and medical work. “They want to build things, but they can’t get much done without us.” Qualified experts are frequently able to make certain demands, unfortunately, they are just as often only considered qualified until the job has been done, at which point they can be eliminated. Once the factory has started up, the experts can leave; management will be taken over by someone else, incapable of further progress, under whose leadership much of the effort expended will be wasted.
  
  …The psychopathologist was thus not surprised by the fact that the world of normal people is dominant regarding skill and talent. For that society, however, this represented a discovery which engendered hope and psychological relaxation.
  
  Since our intelligence is superior to theirs, we can recognize them and understand how they think and act. This is what a person learns in such a system on his own initiative, forced by everyday needs. He learns it while working in his office, school, or factory, when he needs to deal with the authorities, and when he is arrested, something only a few people manage to avoid. The author and many others learned a good deal about the psychology of this macrosocial phenomenon during compulsory indoctrinational schooling. The organizers and lecturers cannot have intended such a result. Practical knowledge of this new reality thus grows…
  ▬Andrew M. Lobaczewski, Political Ponerology
  - Philip Finn says:
    
    June 27, 2011 at 3:00 am
    
    “One of the first discoveries made by a society of normal people is that it is superior to the new [pathocratic] rulers in intelligence and practical skills, no matter what geniuses they seek to appear to be.”
    yeah, that’s what we now have reason to believe brought down the Pharaohs, caused the Reformation, gave birth to the Enlightenment, pulled us out of the Black Death into a Middle Class…so what’s your point? How many will have to suffer and die under the New Gilded Age before something is done?
- tyaresun says:
  
  June 26, 2011 at 9:42 pm
  
  Is it called just in time hiring by the Ivy League MBAs?
- Francois T says:
  
  June 26, 2011 at 11:29 pm
  
  “How does a 30 year mortgage work in this environment?”
  
  It does not, as well as tons of other features of a normal and civilized society.
  
  The fundamental drama of this situation you so eloquently describes is simple: Efficiency comes at the cost of robustness.
  
  The quest for ever higher degree of efficiency makes society AND the economy extraordinarily brittle. One speed bump at the wrong place and the wrong time and oooops! there is a mega hosing of doodoo all over the place, it stinks and everyone is splashed thank you very much!
  
  And that is under the best scenario; a system that is geared for peak efficiency, without robustness and redundancy will ineluctably get obliterated much faster and more completely than a system with built-in redundancy and robustness.
  
  So, why do we burden ourselves with such systems?
  
  The short of it is: greed, short-termism and hyper-individualism, this Après moi, le Déluge! attitude of those who reach the top. Each of their decisions is “rational”, yet, makes no place for anything else than the immediate task at hand. Their workers, children, descendants, their community…none of this matters enough to modify their thinking.
  
  I have always wondered how can men like the CEO of Exxon or the Koch brothers can look at themselves in the mirror and think with a straight face that the climate denial machine they’ve set up won’t profoundly affect their progeny. Maybe they hate them that much, who knows?
  
  But I digress! What is obvious that such a way to operate is condemned to fail. My only hop is that it does os before it becomes the modus operandi of the greatest number of corporations. Because if it does, in case of financial or ecologic collapse, it is the very foundations of our society who would collapse too.
  - Skippy says:
    
    June 27, 2011 at 3:49 am
    
    F1 motors last one race but, wow look at them go….gosh.
doom says:

June 26, 2011 at 11:09 am

That ‘threat to the system’ business is also a factor in attacks on liberal education. People who are educated and not just trained are more resistant to the sillier kinds of workplace indoctrination. We’re going to wind up with an education system that gives critical thinking skills only to the people with enough cultural capital to compensate for their subversive education – and that’s people who were born in the dominant class. Mumpsy and Throckmorton can get away with immersing themselves in the trivium and quadrivium. Then they take their finely-honed bullshit detectors to work, and blow off a lot of the nonsense, and thrive. So people who can objectively view the system, and work it or change it, are going to be a different group than the victims of the system. Maybe that’s the point.
- nobody says:
  
  June 26, 2011 at 8:55 pm
  
  After a few unpleasant years in temp and permatemp positions in the corporate world, I’m now in the social sciences, and I’d have to say that the indoctrination levels and other defects in contemporary “liberal education” make it look, to my eye, more like than unlike the corporate workplace. I’m really not seeing a whole lot more critical thought than I did in corporate America, and the continuities and similarities between the two domains are striking.
Jojo says:

June 26, 2011 at 10:33 pm

“This ‘multi-job’ paradigm is also creeping upwards in the over 50 age group. Lots of potential employers pass on by over 50s, as I have experienced.”
——-
Agreed! And tricking up your resume to reduce your displayed experience (as is often recommended by career consultants) in hopes of snagging an interview is no longer a viable strategy when your age is easy to obtain from public info databases like http://www.spokeo.com, http://www.zoominfo.com, http://www.pipl.com and many others.

DOB and age should be considered non-public info, just as your SS# is!

attempter says:

June 26, 2011 at 5:46 am

“My willingness to have a hodgepodge schedule makes me more
marketable.”

Talk about identifying with one’s oppressor and internalizing his ideology and propaganda.

More college graduates are working in second jobs that don’t require college degrees, part of a phenomenon called “mal-employment.”

One the few good signs is the way the system seems determined to produce an unemployable, debt-indentured cohort of educated intellectuals. As a rule this type will happily serve as system lackeys as long as the system takes care of them, but becomes a revolutionary talent pool where the system neglects or in our case swindles and then assaults them.

This is one example of how the kleptocracy is so psychopathic and short-term obsessed by now that it’s incapable of any kind of rational, self-interest-based retrenchment at all.

ambrit says:

June 26, 2011 at 6:03 am

Good morning sunshine;
Who ever said that ‘educated’ and intellectual necessarily go together? Also, it depends on what your ‘rational self-interest’ really is. If what you’re after is to loot and plunder, both the essence of non-productive enterprises, then the present system is just right for you.
I have to agree with you about the root of the problem: The abandonment of the social contract that had established the hybrid capitalist welfare state. But no, someone had to get greedy. I’m beginning to buy into your narrative. Gordon Gekko is going to meet Leon Trotsky, and it will not be pleasant to watch.
- attempter says:
  
  June 26, 2011 at 11:33 am
  
  Who ever said that ‘educated’ and intellectual necessarily go together?
  
  Not me. But the post is about college grads, so that’s what we’re discussing.
  
  Also, it depends on what your ‘rational self-interest’ really is. If what you’re after is to loot and plunder, both the essence of non-productive enterprises, then the present system is just right for you.
  
  The criminals’ rational self-interest arguably would involve some retrenchment, some kind of plan other than every looter for himself, and for the maximum for himself. (Not to mention a more rational plan for the remaining fossil fuels.) But they’ve bet it all on infinite greed and violence (and the self-brainwashing of ideology), that they’ll be able, without taking even the slightest precaution, to forestall the inevitable political (revolution) and natural (e.g. pandemics from their CAFOs, crop failure from their zombified soil and GMO monoculture) counteractions reality imposes on such berserkers.
- Mark P. says:
  
  June 26, 2011 at 9:18 pm
  
  ambrit wrote:’Gordon Gekko is going to meet Leon Trotsky, and it will not be pleasant to watch.’
  
  Oh, here in the 21st century it could be worse than that – Gordon Gekko may meet Ted Kaczynski.
  
  For example, there’s second-hand stuff on eBay nowadays that can enable one or two people with skills to do in a garage what required fifty-some scientists in a fancy lab in Novosibirsk twenty years ago.
  http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=dna+synthesizer
DownSouth says:

June 26, 2011 at 8:30 am

• attempter said: “…the system seems determined to produce an unemployable, debt-indentured cohort of educated intellectuals.”

“Debt-indentured,” that’s the other side of the neoliberal coin. So there’s not only the factor of diminishing job and pay prospects, but also a mountain of debt.

CNN has a great click-through this morning showing 10 young people struggling with the debts they incurred to get their university education, My degree isn’t worth the debt!. It helps put a human face on neoliberalism, even though it is benign in comparison to the violence neoliberalism has unleashed on countries like Mexico.

• attempter said: “This is one example of how the kleptocracy is so psychopathic and short-term obsessed by now that it’s incapable of any kind of rational, self-interest-based retrenchment at all.”

That’s why I think it’s helpful, in addition to looking at the world through the lens of morality, religion/ideology, politics, history and economics, to also look at it through the lens of psychology. Many of the people with their hands on the levers of world power are psychological deviants, driven by a plethora of other motivations besides rational self-interest. Self-interest does not explain it all, as the simplistic constructs of neoclassical economics would have us believe. Our current economic and political leadership in the United States is not only a danger to others, but also a danger to itself.

As Andrew M. Lobaczewski puts it in Political Ponerology:

The pathocratic world, the world of pathological egotism and terror, is so difficult to understand for people raised outside the scope of this phenomenon that they often manifest childlike naiveté…

One of the things I took away from Political Ponerology is that the takeover by pathocrats is not an event, but a slow decades-long process. As Lobaczewski explains: “Ever-increasing control is thus necessary until full pathocracy can be achieved. Those leaders whom the central authorities consider to be effectively transitional can be eliminated…”

As I was reading Political Ponerology, I couldn’t help but thinking that the West currently finds itself in conditions not unlike the late 19th century which caused Nietzsche such great consternation. I can’t help but believe that dark clouds are gathering, just like they were then.
- DownSouth says:
  
  June 26, 2011 at 9:04 am
  
  In regards to the decades-long process in which psychological deviants slowly infiltrate and eventually come to dominate a society, I found the following from Ponerology to be quite realistic:
  
  The traditional interpretation of these great historical diseases has already taught historians to distinguish two phases. The first is represented by a period of spiritual crisis in a society, which historiography associates with exhausting of the ideational, moral, and religious values heretofore nourishing the society in question. Egoism among individuals and social groups increases, and the links of moral duty and social networks are felt to be loosening. Trifling matters thereupon dominate human minds to such an extent that there is no room left for thinking about public matters or a feeling of commitment to the future. An atrophy of the hierarchy of values within the thinking of individuals and societies is an indication thereof; it has been described both in historiographic monographs and in psychiatric papers. The country’s government is finally paralyzed, helpless in the face of problems which could be solved without great difficulty under other circumstances. Let us associate such periods of crisis with the familiar phrases in social hysterization.
  
  The next phase has been marked by bloody tragedies, revolutions, wars, and the fall of empires.
  - Moneta says:
    
    June 26, 2011 at 10:52 am
    
    Everyone seems to focus on the disaffected who are stuck going down that route but that’s not always the case. Many highly marketable workers are also choosing the contractual route even if it penalizes them financially.
    
    I’m 42, with a skill set that can get me a full-time permanent well paying job offering career advancement but every time I have done it, after 6-9 months, it has been like walking around with a ball and chain.
    
    They hire me for my experience and skill set but once in there all they want me to do is mindlessly execute. Decisions are made at the top with barely any imput from the lower levels. They are all based on maximizing value ASAP so those at the top can exercise their options, IPO or profit from some other form of financial engineering.
    
    The work environments have been short-term results oriented, stifling, unethical. After a few months I start having trouble getting out of bed or tolerating the people around me. After quitting my last 3 jobs which offered only more of the same, I have given up on the permcnecy aspect and have decided to go the contract route and get to leave when the honeymoon period is over. Debt is not an issue in my case so this gives me great flexibility.
    
    What I have noticed is that my peers are swamped with debt so they are ready to sacrifice all ethics to keep their overindebted materialistic lifestyles.
    
    I don’t know if my case is rare but something tell me I’m not the only one who is doing whatever it takes to stay sane.
    - ambrit says:
      
      June 26, 2011 at 11:31 am
      
      Dear Moneta;
      You have described one of the ‘less felicitous’ aspects of the “New Normal.” Believe me and, I would bet, most of the older cohort here, when I tell you, it was diferent ‘back in the day.’ The short term thinking you describe slowly infiltrated and took over the corporate elite. The same phenomenon occured in all aspects of life. An instance: Back in the days when buffalo roamed the plains, television had strict limits as to how much commercial time was allowed per hour. (I believe it was seven minutes per hour.) This was a function of the concept of regulation of the airways as a public good. Then Ronnie Reagan, (whom I hope is presently toasting marshmallows in the Infernal Regions,) did away with those regulations. In the interests of ‘market reform,’ such appropriation of time for commercial purposes was given over to the ‘invisible hand’ that everyone “knew” would more efficiently regulate the airways. A “Bonanza” of sorts ensued, and everyones life became just a little more hectic and aggravating.
      As the people commenting on this and some other blogs will tell you, IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY. Yes Moneta, there was a “Golden Age.” Some of us can remember it, and strive for its return. Don’t despair, history shows that sooner or later the process brings about radical change, springing from internal forces.
      As for contract based employment, in my field, construction, it has always been so. The secret is to try and find those jobs that pay just enough more to tide you over the slack periods. I’ve reached the point where my skill set is no longer considered usefull enough to offer that extra bit more. H—! The whole field is constricting due to overproduction and a general fall in quality standards. (Your short term thinking again.) So, as we used to say, ‘The squeeze is on.’ On the bright side, after all the rioting and civil insurrectiions are over, someone will have to rebuild the country.
    - DownSouth says:
      
      June 26, 2011 at 11:32 am
      
      Moneta said: “Everyone seems to focus on the disaffected who are stuck going down that route but that’s not always the case.”
      
      I don’t think that’s true.
      
      Any legitimate study would have to take persons like you into account, such as the study I linked below, General Aspects of the Informal Economy. To wit:
      
      1.3 Clasificación de la economía informal de acuerdo a las utilidades que genera
      
      Aunque en este punto se divide a la economía informal, la situación es mucho más compleja que la descripción de una división de individuos o empresas en dos segmentos,20 pero para efectos de este estudio se utilizará una clasificación basada en las utilidades que se obtienen de las actividades comerciales, profesionales y de servicios, debido a que básicamente en ello radica la posibilidad de pagar impuestos.
      
      1.3.1 Comercio informal de subsistencia.
      En el sector informal existe una gran proporción de personas con bajos recursos, con bajo capital humano, bajos niveles de escolaridad, sin acceso al crédito, que encuentran en la economía informal su única alternativa de empleo. Este tipo de empleo puede considerarse como de “sobrevivencia”. Este sector de la población en la economía informal está estrechamente ligado a la pobreza.21
      
      [….]
      
      1.3.2 Comercio informal de rentabilidad.
      En esta tendencia, los empleados informales se encuentran en esta condición por su propia voluntad y con un sentido de empresarialidad, dado que en dichas actividades obtienen mejores ingresos y condiciones de autonomía laboral, frente a los empleos formales disponibles.24 Estas personas tienen la posibilidad de trabajar formalmente, pero deciden hacerlo dentro de la informalidad porque consideran que maximizan su utilidad al no pagar los impuestos que les corresponden.
    - DownSouth says:
      
      June 26, 2011 at 12:00 pm
      
      Let me try to translate that:
      
      1.3 Classification of the informal economy according to the benefits that it provides
      
      Although at this point we divide the informal economy into two parts, the actual situation is much more complex than a description with a division of individuals and business into two segments. But for the purposes of this study we will utilize a classification based on the benefits provided by businesses, professionals and service companies…
      
      1.3.1 Informal subsistence enterprise
      In the informal sector there exists the grand proportion of persons with few resources, with low human capital, low levels of schooling, without access to credit, who find themselves in the informal economy as their only alternative for employment. This type of employment can be considered as “survival.” This sector of the population in the informal sector is closely linked to poverty.
      
      1.3.2 Informal profitable enterprise
      In this trend, the informal employees find themselves in this condition of their own volition and with a feeling of entrepreneurship, given that in these activities they obtain greater incomes and conditions of autonomy, in comparison to employment in the formal sector. These people have the possibility to work formally, but opt for informal employment because it maximizes their benefits and they don’t pay corresponding taxes.
    - Valissa says:
      
      June 26, 2011 at 12:29 pm
      
      Moneta, I think there are many people who think as you. At the risk of saying something terribly trite… people are different, have different needs, and different values. Many people are quite happy with a well defined and secure career track, and actively seek that… and I say bully for them! Others feel that “ball & chain” and prefer the thrill of the unknown and seek out new and unfamiliar situations. Some people are more motivated by Money (and it’s cousin Security) than others… and so on.
      
      As of my late 20′s, and having an excellent resume, I was well positioned to have a big career in the defense industry (there are many interesting jobs there). Last year, when I was reading the big WP expose on how all the folks with Top Secret clearances could easily get well paid jobs, I thought… but for the grace of the goddess I could have been one of those. But I chose freedom over career and money, and I have NEVER regretted that choice. With a career, your mind gets full of your career related issues… when you just have a job, your mind is freer to go where it will.
      
      For many years I did temp work, contract work, odd jobs, etc. and was content enough with that approach because it freed me up to experience life more fully. Fellow employees who made way more $$ than I did seemed to envy my freedom. I had time to read, think and study and to do some low budget travel. One can live pretty decently on a low income if one has low overhead, even in today’s harsher work environment.
      
      However now that I am over 50, I confess I am rather glad my husband (I finally married in my late ’40s) makes a good enough income for the both of us so I don’t have to go out and hunt for some type of side jobs for survival. I have the luxury of doing part-time work I enjoy and plenty of time for reading & thinking (and gardening!). It does get harder to get hired into more ‘traditional’ corporate jobs (retail is pretty corporate too) when you are older, but many people manage to find/create interesting solutions for themselves.
      
      A friend and I have both observed that some people are able to figure out what jobs or careers are more valuable at this time in history and then ‘just do it’. It’s surprising how many well educated coporate type people don’t know how to do anything other than work in a corproate environment and therefore are clueless when they get laid off. We observed that some people seem to very slow to realize changing job and business trends whereas others looked around them, paid attention and then took appropriate action. And between us, our examples of acquaintance’s stories spanned socio-economic, racial, degree-of-education and age-based groups.
  - kievite says:
    
    June 26, 2011 at 10:05 pm
    
    The 6% group [of full-bore psychopaths] constitute the new mobility; the 12% group [of less extreme psychopaths and other psychological deviants] forms the new bourgeoisie, whose economic situation is the most advantageous.
    
    I think that this 12% group is by-and-large consists of RWA(right wing authoritarians) types
    See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_authoritarianism
    
    RWA or in common language “kiss up, kick down” personalities tend to dominate as they hire/promote strictly with thier own group.
    
    According to Wikipedia this personality type
    
    “is defined by nine traits that were believed to cluster together as the result of psychodynamic, childhood experiences. These traits are conventionalism, authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression, anti-intraception, superstition and stereotypy, power and “toughness,” destructiveness and cynicism, projectivity, and exaggerated concerns over sexuality (sexual repression).[1] In brief, the authoritarian is predisposed to follow the dictates of a strong leader and traditional, conventional values.
    ”
    
    See http://www.softpanorama.org/Social/Toxic_managers/authoritarians.shtml
- attempter says:
  
  June 26, 2011 at 11:22 am
  
  Another example is how, whereas previous totalitarian systems tried to provide the atomized individual (a potential rebel, if he can latch onto a new idea/movement) with at least a sham way of belonging (e.g. the Nazi Volksgemeinschaft, “Community of the People”), neoliberal capitalism relentlessly strives to destroy all possible bases of social cohesion.
  
  Those leaders whom the central authorities consider to be effectively transitional can be eliminated.
  
  Corporate liberals are the obvious example. Also the way the system is now starting to liquidate its own flunkey professional class.
fifi says:

June 26, 2011 at 10:10 am

Yup. A systemic collapse is only one disaffected, alienated engineer or IT guy saying “screw it” and working to destroy it all. What stake does he have in the system if he if unable to afford to get married or have children?
nonclassical says:

June 26, 2011 at 12:44 pm

“Contracted workers” are to be the new reality..no benefits, no pay, even, without generating profit..and no
messy unemployment benefits..

vlade says:

June 26, 2011 at 5:58 am

From what I know of the current Japan, the tempization of jobs is a huge problem there, and it did start in the lost decade. So US (and UK, I can see it here too, although to a lesser extent) is on that path, and given the previous attitude to work, moving considerably faster.

One thing I wish we would stop saying is assuming overqualification because someone has a degree. I’d say it’s more overpromising – the system (for various reasons, including dealing with youth unemployment) promised young people that they will have better jobs if they get a degree.

That is manifestly not true, as if you imagine that 100% of the population got a degree, the number of jobs that require a degree is more or less the same.

jimS says:

June 26, 2011 at 7:21 am

I agree with vlade. I noticed the article was in danger of mixing up a problem (insecurity of employment and exploitation of workers) with a non-problem (being a graduate doesn’t get me special privileges anymore!).

I think 100% graduation is a good thing to aim for, and if that means your plumber has a degree in English, well, what’s wrong with that? It does leave us with the moral requirement that that plumber should have a long and satisfying career, with appreciative clients, and be able to afford a home fit for him and his family. But I believe we already owed the plumber that when he didn’t have an English degree.
- Dan Duncan says:
  
  June 26, 2011 at 10:22 am
  
  What a joke this JimS comment is…
  
  “…(we have)the moral requirement that that plumber should have a long and satisfying career, with appreciative clients, and be able to afford a home fit for him and his family. is one of the most ridiculous comments ever made in the English language.
  
  The only positive to this statement is that the dumbass, plumber who took on $50,000 in student-loan-debt to get a useless English degree might just get his money’s worth analyzing this tripe.
  
  “We have a moral requirement that plumber’s have appreciative clients”
  
  That is freaking hilarious.
  
  I can see JimS in the confessional at this moment:
  
  “Forgive me Father, for I have sinned: My plumber does not have appreciative clients.”
  - ambrit says:
    
    June 26, 2011 at 11:52 am
    
    Dear Mr Duncan;
    Oh my, you seem to have misunderstood jimSs’ comment. He ends with: “..but I believe we already owed the plumber that..”
    I myself am an overeducated plumber. I don’t have a degree, but I have been told, “You read too D— much!” by an otherwise reasonable employer. Consider the underlying assumption behind the ‘categorization’ of people into ‘classes.’ It is implied that ‘working people’ are incapable of reasoning and analysis. This dog wont hunt my friend. A great deal of a persons world view is based upon their adaptation to the expectations of the society around them. If you are told that “plumbers are too dumb to analyze english,” literature or functional communication, most prople, if they find themselves in the Plumber “Box” will not even try. This does not even require any “higher education.” Just an unfettered curiosity, and some resources. It is the question of resources that brings in the matter of ‘leisure time’ and financial security. Some form of each is needed to ease the process of personal improvement. It’s no accident that the Victorian concept of “Individual Improvement” rose alongside the rising standards of living for the emerging “Middle Class.” The present assault on the Middle Class betokens a yearning for the good old days of Feudal social arraingments.
    So, yes, depending on your world view, we do owe that plumber, and ofice worker, and even burger flipper a better life, in all respects. That’s what all the shouting is all about.
    - Valissa says:
      
      June 26, 2011 at 3:12 pm
      
      “It’s no accident that the Victorian concept of “Individual Improvement” rose alongside the rising standards of living for the emerging “Middle Class.””
      
      That is a popular misconception. According to a fascinating book* I read recently, Americans have been interested in self-improvement and character building from colonial times onward (as seen in diaries), and this interest became more popular after the Revolutionary War.
      
      *Made in America: A Social History of American Culture and Character, by Claude S. Fischer (highly recommended!)
    - jcrit says:
      
      June 26, 2011 at 7:56 pm
      
      Laser true! Anyone who has had to fight with getting cheap Chinese brass fixtures to not leak definitely deserves our fullest consideration.
nonclassical says:

June 26, 2011 at 7:27 pm

Vlade,

It may NOW be “manifestly untrue” in the states, however, having taught (secondary) in states and Europe, it is not true there (Germany). Actually, one must recognize, it was never “true” in states, as only 20% of Americans graduate from 4 year university or vocational equivalent..as opposed to 70%+ of Euros. Of course Euro goals involve making certain all are paying into expensive social systems through
taxes, while U.S. goals involve cheap labor force.

While Americans are encouraged by mainstream media to castigate U.S. education as “provider of opportunity”, it was never educational opportunity people sought.

In states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, circa 2005, study shows average wage necessary for family of 4=$45,000.00 per year. Agricultural, rural areas less, urban cities, more.

But TOTAL number of jobs PAYING that $45,000.00 per year, was only 20% of jobs.

I suggested to our Superintendent of Kitsap Schools, Washington State, that she work to DOUBLE the 20% currently
graduating, heading off to 4 year university. She replied,
“But then there would be no jobs for them”…I stated, “Yes,
and then it’s no longer an “educational problem”…

The U.S. may begin to look like Egypt-where so many youth are university educated, with no possibility of gainful employ.

But of course we have the “Tea Party” anti-intellectuals to marginalize them…let’s remember, intellectuals historically appear to either lead change, or be exterminated by it…
H. Alexander Ivey says:

June 27, 2011 at 12:17 am

vlade
Over promising, not over qualified! An excellent comment and one I will most happily steal, as I have lived large chunks of my life in that pursuit of the perfect collge degree. Fortunately I did that when college was cheaper so I lived financially to tell the tale.

Abusive Workplaces says:

June 26, 2011 at 6:51 am

Corporate ‘Murica hires and fires like the use of tissue paper. For some reason, we’ve accepted this as normal, or beneficial.

Richard says:

June 26, 2011 at 11:45 am

It’s interesting how this perspective changes when one moves between labour and management. A salaried worker has different incentives than a partner. A recent article showed that doctors in Maine are gradually moving to salaried hospital positions, causing their politics to shift.

This reminds me of the genius that was the Bush Ownership Society. While it failed to come to fruition, I can only envision how different society would look like if more people have a (paid off) personal stake in property and blue chip firms.

Rex says:

June 26, 2011 at 7:11 am

Yves wrote, “It isn’t hard to see the opportunism, the shameless currying of favor, and ruthless calculations of whom to help and whom to kick, including throwing former patrons under the bus when they are no longer useful”

My, my. Sounds like the general thrust of reality TV, like “Survivor” or that Trump show I never had the stomach to watch. Too much shallow TV may be part of the problem.

Yves again, “One of the striking difference between the cultures is importance ascribed to job creation. The Japanese understand full well that the workplace for many people is a far more important community to them than where they live”

I think Japanese are much more focused about bonding into social groups (the team or tribe valued higher than the individual – at least relative to the USA). The aspirations of an individual perhaps slightly impeded by this respect for the social unit, but also those in leadership positions balancing greed against the bigger social good.

Some of that is maybe due to longer history and less immigration. In periods of rapid growth a looser, dynamic society is probably good. In our current trend some more respect for social units might ease the extremes of pain until it degenerates down into survival of the fittest.

The me-me-me ego models we are getting from TV now can’t be the best examples — Survivor, I Can Sing Better Than You, I Look Good So I Win, I’m Petty or Revolting Enough to Hold Your Attention, etc.

I think the US could use tighter social memes like Japan, but they did teach us about TV shows that turned into Wipeout, so I could be wrong.

DownSouth says:

June 26, 2011 at 9:44 am

Rex said:

Yves wrote, “It isn’t hard to see the opportunism, the shameless currying of favor, and ruthless calculations of whom to help and whom to kick, including throwing former patrons under the bus when they are no longer useful”

—————————————-

The 6% group [of full-bore psychopaths] constitute the new mobility; the 12% group [of less extreme psychopaths and other psychological deviants] forms the new bourgeoisie, whose economic situation is the most advantageous. Adapting to the new conditions, not without conflicts of conscience, transforms this latter group into both dodgers and, simultaneously, intermediaries between the oppositional society and the active ponerolgical group, whom they can talk to in the appropriate language. They play such a crucial role within this system that both sides must take them into account. Since their technical capacities and skills are better than those of the active pathocratic group, they assume various managerial positions. Normal people see them as persons they can approach generally without begin subjected to pathological arrogance.
▬Andres M. Lobaczewski, Political Ponerology
- DownSouth says:
  
  June 26, 2011 at 9:48 am
  
  Oops! Should read “The 6% group [of full-bore psychopaths] constitute the new nobility…”
  - psychohistorian says:
    
    June 26, 2011 at 6:50 pm
    
    And they do the bidding of the inherited rich, those psychopaths.

Morning Fish says:

June 26, 2011 at 7:22 am

This generalization is decades wrong:

“These part-time jobs may just be another feature of this recession.”

I can clearly remember the mainstream media’s embrace of “temp work” starting in the 1980s. With the rise of S-corp body shops, wretched defense contractors and the “pink slip” mode of operation where Wall Street said we aren’t going to take care of workers anymore. Hard work, advanced degrees will *sometimes* affec

asset strippers says:

June 26, 2011 at 10:03 am

I believe the idea of the temp work strategy was that it was supposed to be temporary and in the 1980′s was a response to downsizing, layoffs and restructuring back when corporate raiding was all the rage.
Yves Smith says:

June 27, 2011 at 2:22 am

Temp work was largely a scam to avoid paying FICA and providing benefits. One of my sisters in law worked for 7 years as a GM temp in the 1980s and was effectively running an administrative department. They weren’t short term and they weren’t part time, just underpaid for the actual work done, by making it “no longer an official job”.

Morning Fish says:

June 26, 2011 at 7:22 am

This generalization is decades wrong:

“These part-time jobs may just be another feature of this recession.”

I can clearly remember the mainstream media’s embrace of “temp work” starting in the 1980s. With the rise of S-corp body shops, wretched defense contractors and the “pink slip” mode of operation where Wall Street said we aren’t going to take care of workers anymore. Hard work, advanced degrees will *sometimes* help.

PaulArt says:

June 26, 2011 at 7:30 am

USA and Japan are chalk and cheese. The attitudes in Japan and the USA to materialism and riches are absolute opposites. Self-aggrandizement is looked down upon in Japanese culture whereas it is glorified in the USA. Given this reality the poor over qualified and temporarily employed and mal-employed sods in the USA don’t have a prayer. This is a very timely piece Ms.Smith and I commend you for it. One of the other comments from an over-50 who detailed why he was being passed over for jobs he was qualified for – ‘you old people know too much and don’t accept the BS of the management like the youngsters’ – that was chilling to hear. Its time at least to start de-fanging the CEOs because it seems they are the ones at the wheel in most big Corporations and all this kabuki is orchestrated by them for their own pockets. Pump and Dump – acquire and merge, layoff and layoff, increase the bottom line, go to the Board with your pals on it and vote 100s of million dollar raises for yourself. This seems to be repeating itself ad nauseum and that naif in the White House seems to be obsessed with the idea that the way to create jobs is to suck up to these leeches more and more. Where will it all end?

pepe says:

June 26, 2011 at 1:16 pm

Why do you assume he’s a naif, and is unaware of the implications in his actual policy goals? Why do you take him at his word that he actually wants job creation?

He is an elite. He is one of them.

The lives of others says:

June 26, 2011 at 8:11 am

Better never to have been: the harm of coming into existence, by David Benatar.
I just started reading this book, but title tells all.
There is something wrong with the premise of life, at least on this planet.
It is largely based on predation, opportunism, etc, in a broad sense of these words. Life= harm.
This blog and the news all over the world is long a litany of harms.

craazyman says:

June 26, 2011 at 9:33 am

holy shit!

Too deep thoughts for a Sunday morning. That’s the kind of stuff you go to church for and no way am I going to do that. Way too lazy or hungover. And why bother with all that wretched nonsense anyway — all the altar boy humping, the guilt trip, the tepid singing, the sentimentality, the wooden benches. (However, I am amazed by the brave good works done by Church organizations in many places around the world. Truly impressed on that one.)

My theory is it’s all a big school. I’ve read it many places, especially in fringe metaphyisics. Most people fail. You wonder what happens afterward. They probably just disappear completely or may be some fraction, some little puff of anonymous nameless soul breaks off and starts over again, without a clue what it’s in for, like a house fly emerging from an egg on a piece of dog shit.

Like South said of Nietsche, I recall commenting many months ago that it seems we’re going to have to relive the 20th century all over again. It seems like the skies are sick with the syrupy Golden thickness of some degenerate sun and behind the sun are thunderous clouds moiling with red and black energies. A new labor movement seems pre-ordained, revolutions seem pre-ordained, I just wonder where the holocaust will be this time — probably not in Germany and probably not the Jews or the Cambodians or the Hutsis and Tutus — hard to know just who will get the big smack this go round — maybe it will just be the ultimate abstraction — the poor everywhere will die in a million different ways in the millions and millions from neglect and it will be seen as a natural event, like a tsunami or a forest fire. And whover is left will smile and thank God that they were favored by the Lord of Shopping and Kitchen Appliances. And then that god will be torn down in a second conflagration. LOL.

It’s like Mr. Marley wrote:

There’s a natural mystic blowing through the air;
If you listen carefully now you will hear.
This could be the first trumpet, might as well be the last:
Many more will have to suffer,
Many more will have to die – don’t ask me why
- gs_runsthiscountry says:
  
  June 26, 2011 at 11:28 am
  
  “My theory is it’s all a big school. I’ve read it many places, especially in fringe metaphyisics. Most people fail. You wonder what happens afterward. They probably just disappear completely or may be some fraction, some little puff of anonymous nameless soul breaks off and starts over again, without a clue what it’s in for, like a house fly emerging from an egg on a piece of dog shit.”
  
  —
  Iris Gaines: You know, I believe we have two lives.
  Roy Hobbs: How… what do you mean?
  Iris Gaines: The life we learn with, and the life we live with after that.
  –Bernard Malamud-[The Natural]
  - lambert strether says:
    
    June 26, 2011 at 11:46 am
    
    Keats: The world as a vale of soul-making. Could be true!
  - diddy wa diddy says:
    
    June 26, 2011 at 11:59 am
    
    See also G.I. Gurdjieff and P.D. Ouspensky.
    - Binky the perspicacious bear says:
      
      June 26, 2011 at 6:51 pm
      
      See also:
      David Lynch: Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway
      Jacques Vallee: Forbidden Science I and II
  - nonclassical says:
    
    June 26, 2011 at 7:38 pm
    
    hopefully, youth learn “balance” with the tool of life..
    either that or they shall, with the tool of death..
    
    looks to me very much like force determines..
    
    most are exquisitely disempowered..
    
    only one form of power remains in Ameri”K”a..(“K-Street”)
ambrit says:

June 26, 2011 at 11:58 am

I’m thinking that ‘crazyman’ might be thinking along the lines of H. P. Lovecraft.
darms says:

June 27, 2011 at 5:34 pm

Wow, just browsed inside that book at Amazon. That’s some heavy stuff. Coincidentally I happen to share his philosophy which is why at 54 I am not a breeder and neither is my wife. It’s always been cats instead of kids… There’s also a bit of revolutionary aspect, indeed possibly the ultimate form for by not breeding I have told the world that although you have screwed me over many times and have never paid a price you have lost the right to screw over any progeny I might have had and you will lose whatever genetic information I possess. (Incidentally I’m a highly experienced (38 years) tech who learned the last three years I won’t get another job in my field in my lifetime)

za says:

June 26, 2011 at 8:18 am

For many of us, the Nazcrash never ended. I don’t know about others, but for me, my entire career – not just a specific job – is day-to-day.

For over a decade now, I’ve pinched every dime and lived entirely without debt – neither mortgage, auto or credit card.

When the headhunters start ringing the phone off the hook again, I might consider some discretionary spending. Until then, though, it’s only food, home maintenance, the minimal acceptable attire and basic transportation. I would never consider taking on any debt again.

I think we’re hitting a point where we need a new WPA program that will guarantee a job to anyone who wants one. “Getting out of the way of the job creators,” or whatever silly little catchphrase it is this week, has utterly failed.

nonclassical says:

June 26, 2011 at 7:40 pm

“za”,

I can recommend many, many years living on sailboat..free to cut ties

skippy says:

June 26, 2011 at 9:08 am

Work / Job / Toil – equals – *Human Dignity Paradigm*.

Skippy…Bawhaha ad infinity[!!!!].

ambrit says:

June 26, 2011 at 11:59 am

Add infinity and you become Bouncy!

jm says:

June 26, 2011 at 9:15 am

It just so happens that I’m reading this from a hotel in Sapporo near the end of my first trip to Japan in eleven years. Being able to read and speak the language fluently and having 40 years experience with the country, I can say with some authority that it’s made substantial progress since I was here last, despite being supposedly in a long economic slump. I’ve been travelling on a Japan Rail pass, and most of the rolling stock is quite new (and all is in tip-top shape). With the Shinkansen having been extended to Kagoshima in March, the only part of the nation without high-speed rail is Hokkaido, and it has excellent and fast conventional express trains.

The major railway stations have been thoroughly renovated since I was last here eleven year ago — better materials, and elevators up or down to most of the platforms for people with heavy luggage.

A lot of new housing has been built, probably exactly because the end of the bubble has made it affordable.

The restaurant food is better, with more variety, larger portions, and better quality.

I’m staying in a clean, modern, comfortable hotel just a few minutes walk from Sapporo station for under $100 a night, with free internet.

Mainstream media in the US would have us believe that Japan has been wallowing in a deep recession since its bubble burst. It doesn’t look that way to me.

Jojo says:

June 26, 2011 at 11:02 pm

Exactly as this article attempts to expand on.
——
The Myth of Japan’s ‘Lost Decades’
By Eamonn Fingleton

TOKYO, Japan — In this slot a few days ago I posed some historical questions that, judging by the email I have been receiving, have perplexed a lot of readers.

Let me now fast-forward to our own time and try some questions that will probably prove almost equally perplexing. They concern the Japanese economy, that erstwhile juggernaut of world trade of the late 1980s, which, we are told, has been mired in stagnation ever since.

Question 1: Given that Japan’s current account surplus (the widest and most meaningful measure of its trade) totaled $36 billion in 1990, what was it in 2010: (a) $18 billion; (b) $41 billion; or (c) $194 billion?

Question 2: How has the yen fared on balance against the dollar in the 20 years up to 2010: (a) fallen 11 percent; (b) risen 24 percent; (c) risen 65 percent?

The answer in each case is (c). Yes, all talk about “stagnation” and “malaise” to the contrary, Japan’s surplus is up more than five-fold since 1990. And, yes, far from falling against the dollar, the Japanese yen has actually boasted the strongest rise of any major currency in the last two decades.

How can such facts be reconciled with the “two lost decades” story? I don’t think they can. There is clearly a contradiction here, and after studying the facts on the ground in Tokyo for decades I find it hard to avoid the conclusion that the story of Japan’s stagnation is a media myth.

Certainly anyone who visits Japan these days is struck by the obvious affluence even among average citizens.

…

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/02/the-myth-of-japans-lost-decades/71741/

m.jed says:

June 26, 2011 at 9:48 am

Regarding universal health care, Japan has a 30% co-pay for employed persons under the age of 70 and for couples over 70 making Y5.2 bn (about $65,000 now because of Yen strengthening, but was just under $50,000 when last amended) or individuals making Y3.8 bn. For the elderly earning less, co-pay is 20% for ages 70-74 and 10% for 75 and over. There’s also a broad recognition that their health care system is fiscally unsustainable and they’ve been taking steps to rectify – as an example, the elderly co-pays that were last amended in 2008 were raised from 2006, which were in turn raised from 2002. . . 2001. . .and 1997. In 2007, according to a survey by the Japan Life Insurance institute, almost 2/3 of respondents viewed the National Health System as inadequate.

I don’t think this is within the mental framework that people have in mind when discussing Japan’s universal health care especially when trying to contrast it to the U.S.

DownSouth says:

June 26, 2011 at 10:04 am

m.jed said: “Regarding universal health care, Japan has a 30% co-pay for employed persons under the age of 70 and for couples over 70 making…”

Co-pay is an interesting concept, which doesn’t always tell the whole story. For most of my doctor visits and medications here in Mexico, my out-of-pocket cost, paying the full cost, is about the same as what the co-pay is for those with insurance in the US.

Many prescription drugs here in Mexico sell for a fraction of what they do in the US.

That may help to explain why Mexico ranks only slighly behind the United States in life expectancy, one of the best indicators of the efficacy of a country’s medical care system.
AH says:

June 28, 2011 at 12:04 am

Since medical procedures are extremely cheap in Japan that 30% co-pay is not the equivalent of a 30% co-pay in the US.

From: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89626309

” The Japanese Health Ministry tightly controls the price of health care down to the smallest detail. Every two years, the health care industry and the health ministry negotiate a fixed price for every procedure and every drug.”

“If somebody comes in with a cut less than 6 square inches, [Dr.] Kono gets 450 yen, or about $4.30, to sew it up.”

brian says:

June 26, 2011 at 9:59 am

a better job needs to be done directing students into fields and majors in college where some degree of marketable skills are provided

and not all can/should go to college

student loan programs and institution of higher learning have created an educational industrial complex where students are freely encouraged and funded to pursue dreams unaware of realities and are left in debt with the inability to find a job or face a future of low wage marginal jobs

DownSouth says:

June 26, 2011 at 10:18 am

brian says: “….a better job needs to be done directing students into fields and majors in college where some degree of marketable skills are provided”

Well that’s certainly the neoclassical view, as discussed in this paper:

1.2.3 Escuela económica neoclásica

Analiza la informalidad con base a la Ley de Say, la cual indica que, en condiciones de equilibrio (macroeconómico), toda oferta crea su propia demanda. Rechaza la idea de escasez de vacantes o de barreras en el mercado formal para absorber a todos los individuos. La informalidad se debe más bien a que las vacantes disponibles en el sector formal no cubren las expectativas de los trabajadores.

De acuerdo a esta perspectiva y basada a partir de la oferta, el empleo informal se debe a tres razones fundamentales:

- factores de tipo friccional que llevan a los individuos a estar desempleados o subempleados por cortos periodos de tiempo mientras encuentran una opción en el mercado de trabajo formal;

- la existencia de un desempleo voluntario en el que el sujeto no encuentra un empleo que satisfaga su curva de utilidad, medida ésta a partir del salario y las características propias de los puestos de trabajo disponibles, y

- las externalidades o fallas del mercado (rigideces, trabas burocráticas…) que interfieren cuando la oferta y la demanda no puedan regularse automáticamente en el corto plazo, pero sí en el largo plazo. El ajuste entre oferta y demanda se determina en una demanda laboral rígida, en la cual los empleados informales no encuentran muchas opciones debido a las fallas del Estado.
- DownSouth says:
  
  June 26, 2011 at 10:47 am
  
  I’ll try to translate that:
  
  Neoclassical economic school
  
  It analyzes the dearth of formal employment based on Say’s Law, which indicates that, in conditions of equilibrium (macroeconomic), all offer creates its own demand. It rejects the idea of scarcity of job openings or failures of the formal market to absorb all the jobseekers. Informal employment is due to the available job openings in the formal sector not meeting the expectations of the workers.
  
  According to this perspective where the employment being offered is based on what the potential employees are offering, informal employment is due to three fundamental reasons:
  
  ▬Frictional factors that cause individuals to be unemployed or sub-employed for short periods of time while they find an option in the market for formal employment,
  
  ▬ The existence of voluntary unemployment in which the individual doesn’t find employment that satisfies his qualifications, this having to do with the salary and characteristics of the positions of work available, and
  
  ▬The externalities or interventions into the market (rigidities, bureaucratic obstacles…) that interfere when the offer and the demand cannot adjust automatically in the short term, but could in the long term if the market were left to its own devices. The adjustment between offer and demand is determined by a rigid labor demand, in which the informal employees find few available options because of government intervention.
nonclassical says:

June 26, 2011 at 7:48 pm

great, Brian,

So, what’s the goal? How many should go? Personally, I chose classes (70′s-80′s) based on U. bookstore shelves=what
I chose to read…”liberal arts” might lead to learning how
to thinnnnkkkkk…

perhaps I learned as much from small group coming together
to train physically…

what’s your goal?
As one of that group asked early on, what’s your “vehicle”
for that goal?

mine was personal, rather than career..

Dan Duncan says:

June 26, 2011 at 10:09 am

It really is amusing to read Leftists praising Japanese stability while utterly ignoring the fact that Japan–to this day–boasts a racial purity that would make a card-carrying Nazi blush. [Do you think this is mere coincidence? Hell, even the UN said "Japan racism is deep and profound.]

Japan doesn’t deal with messy issues like immigration and race. And yes, this refusal to accept anydiversity within its social structure does affect something as basic as unemployment rates.

Secondly, the Japanese practice of “Lifetime Employment” has codified a system where pay is linked to age. That’s not a problem, so long as the economy avoids deflation. When deflation hits, however, then the younger workers start out at lower and lower wages. Soon enough its prohibitive to start a family and before you know it birth rates go to zero. Fast-forward to 2030 and you have a situation where there are only 2 workers for every retiree, whereas as recent as 1990, it was 6 workers for each retiree.

In 2030, Japan’s median age will be an unprecedented 52. And by 2050, it’s population is expected to shrink by almost 1/3. These are staggering numbers.

The Japanese model not sustainable and at the expense of supporting this generation of workers, Japan’s very culture is on the verge of a death spiral. How is it a sign of health that the entire Japanese culture got so old, so fast?

Time and again, I’ve read on this site how corporations are evil and how the US economic situation adversely affects US birth-rates…yet here is a post praising the conglomerate-dominating, soul-crushing, testosterone-depleting, risk-fearing, racial-purity-loving Japanese model.

Ridiculous.

DownSouth says:

June 26, 2011 at 11:06 am

The problem with your entire tirade is that it is based entirely on a comparison between the way things currently are (reality) to the way you imagine things will be in 20 or 40 years (fantasy).

Reality never fares well when pitted against fantasy.
- nonclassical says:
  
  June 26, 2011 at 7:52 pm
  
  “They say they have built a bridge to Koguru…to what will
  I now compare myself?”…
  
  Japanese culture favors the group over the individual…individual question above…
  
  Might I recommend, “Red Beard”…
Tush Bachmann says:

June 26, 2011 at 11:48 am

“Time and again, I’ve read on this site how corporations are evil” and it makes me so mad I’m ready to have a stroke.
Communist jealousy and liberal whining are threatening the sacred Consitutional core of our republic. We’re it not for the values and courage of our founding forefathers you’d all be dressed in grass skirts – and then liberals – you’d finally be forced to hunt for your meat. Mexican and Arabs must not be allowed to tax me to death and destroy our military. Not on my watch traitors! One must work to eat!
- ambrit says:
  
  June 26, 2011 at 12:05 pm
  
  With a name like that you have to be a Spoof. Invert the values espoused in your mini-rant, and your location in “Leftie Disinformation Central” becomes clear. (I would have called it “Leftist Disinformation Systems” but I didn’t want to insult some Mormons I know.)
  - Feral Jackson says:
    
    June 26, 2011 at 8:12 pm
    
    The smartest minds at Heritage warned us that the leftists would stop at nothing to subvert the truth. This is real envy folks. Once again, the liberals will attempt to steal both the hard work and the wealth of those, through the grace of our Lord, are business leaders, bankers and politicians. I urge students of history to remember the time of Ronald Wilson Reagan, who was blessed as Christ’s disciple, crusaded a defeat of Soviet Socialism, without a shot fired.
Anonymous Jones says:

June 26, 2011 at 12:27 pm

Well, must admit that I agree (if only in spirit) with DD.

These comparisons never work. We’re talking about hundreds of millions of self-conscious, independent variables in completely different contexts of geography, history and culture.

I mean, yeah, for sure, the 30,000 foot view is sometimes a useful abstract, but don’t kid yourself that it tells you the whole (or even much) of the story.

Think back to Yves’ great shout-out to Poincare the other day. These organizations of hundreds of millions of people are *way* beyond the three-body problem, and comparisons and predictions are always going to be mostly shots in the dark.

[Again, not saying we shouldn't try! Just saying we should realize the limitations involved.]

Philip Pilkington says:

June 26, 2011 at 10:18 am

Excellent piece, Yves.

“Yankelovich projected that college graduates would average 11 jobs by the time they were 38 (!), yet found they were demanding of their employers, wanting frequent feedback (as in lots of attention) and quick advancement.”

And I think the lack of these things makes for a less than talented workforce. Attending university doesn’t teach the skills needed to enter the workforce — indeed, I think it often impedes developing these skills as arrogant college graduates think they know better.

You talk to most people in career positions and they have this nagging feeling that they’re ‘faking it’; moving day-to-day just trying to get by and hope that no one catches them out.

This is more so a lack of self-confidence — due to, as you put it, a lack of feedback — in my opinion. However, it has very real consequences. One of them that people will be more inclined to follow the herd mentality. And we know where that leads.

“…rampant careerism.”

MAJOR problem. I’m of the generation and I notice that people spend more time cultivating their political panache than their skills. Again, this leads to herd mentality behavior as the workplace begins to be seen as a political party. Bad consequences follow therefrom.

nonclassical says:

June 26, 2011 at 8:00 pm

PP,
one might postulate that “following” anyone or anything, will take one to the ends you describe…
pws4 says:

June 26, 2011 at 11:51 pm

“I’m of the generation and I notice that people spend more time cultivating their political panache than their skills.”

Yes, but cultivating my skills lead to layoffs and to a career dead-end. Cultivating my political panache has lead to me surviving layoffs and getting modest promotions and pay raises. My career is still not going the way I want, but I feel if I had developed my political skills earlier rather than focusing on my technical skills, I would be doing what I wanted now and not what I “fell into.” (As an aside, I feel we are headed into a Medieval apprenticeship system nowadays… you can’t successfully change careers once you are on a very narrow career path. I’m reminded of an episode of Blackadder I saw recently, where Baldrick was fired by Blackadder. “Well, I guess you’ll go back to dung gathering now, Baldrick,” and Baldrick says, “Oh no, it took me years to work my way up to that job, I’ll have to start over at something lower.” )

I’m an intelligent person, and I have to do what works. I do occasionally work on improving skills I value, for my own personal satisfaction, but I know I will likely not get to use those skills at work.

Riggsveda says:

June 26, 2011 at 10:53 am

Yves, the issue of workers moving from job to job has a chicken-or-egg aspect to it. The fact is that it was the corporate community that broke its contract with the towns and cities and employees that help build its profits. Business saw the advantage in cutting loose many of its long-time workers to rely on part-timers and temps, and it worked hard to make those it retained became easily replaceable on an ongoing basis. Once that implicit contract was broken, and people knew they could no longer rely on an employer to stick with them, it was a matter of survival that forced workers into a life of temporary gigs and catch as catch can. It was spun in the best possible light (“versatility and mobility make you more attractive to employers and give you a better shot at advancement!”), but it was spin born of a hopeful desperation. The kids of the generation you highlight learned this lesson from their parents, who were the first generation to lose the unions, defined benefits, and job security that their grand- and great-grandparents had fought so hard to get.

ECON says:

June 26, 2011 at 7:21 pm

Right on Riggs ! No truer words given.
nonclassical says:

June 26, 2011 at 8:05 pm

Those of us who work(ed) education might note the U.S. has never attempted to construct a “fully educated workforce”..

goals run contrary to “cheap labor force”…

of course one would need to comprehend relative international educational experience to quantify..

Jim says:

June 26, 2011 at 11:04 am

The big question then becomes:

To what extent does this exercise of power rely on the construction of particular selves?

And how exactly does this take place?

ECON says:

June 26, 2011 at 7:36 pm

Henry Ford apparently recognized that he had to pay Ford workers sufficiently fair wages to purchase the autos they produced on the assembly-line. As an economist, the western democracies have nothing on their radar screens to think about
the next several decades of a labour force without the traditional middle class income to support the product of a hyper-neoliberal state. Maybe the inversion will occur similar to the Carribean islands whereby the few wealthy live surrounded by the many low paying indigenous workers. As Eric Janszen says–”…we were never as rich as we thought we were…we had a blast, but it’s over.”
- 'Murican says:
  
  June 26, 2011 at 9:39 pm
  
  I don’t know why this myth still exists – Ford hired goons to break skulls, and being able to buy from the company store wasn’t any reasonable deal at all. Explosive violence brought better jobs, I wonder what it will take today.
  - pws4 says:
    
    June 26, 2011 at 11:40 pm
    
    “Explosive violence brought better jobs, I wonder what it will take today.”
    
    I fear you’ve answered your own question there.
nonclassical says:

June 26, 2011 at 11:51 pm

Jim,

Where will you look for answer-inside, or outside?

cheale says:

June 26, 2011 at 11:18 am

The really interesting question is the one about the 30 year mortgage and consumption. If people have no money they won´t consume, so what happens to the businesses that supply them.

Frans Dragull says:

June 26, 2011 at 9:43 pm

Much more lucrative are prisons, weapons, and sole-source contracts. Scum borrowers are an easy grift, liquor store/pay day loans are ghetto ambiance. 30 year mortgages are a relic of another era, plus the hustle has been discredited and is too “hot”, organized crime already games life, death and events better than before. Adapt, consume, profit!

the.Duke.of.URL says:

June 26, 2011 at 11:39 am

A future not unlike Elizabethan times then, which was in effect a police state. Currying favor was a necessary social skill, but opportunities were hard to come by and patrons were more than useful, they could be life-savers. Anyone with half a brain reading about such times would surely not wish to have them recreated, however minimally, in our own time.

PQS says:

June 26, 2011 at 12:55 pm

Excellent comments. I particularly liked the “older workers won’t buy the BS” story from one of the first commenters!

I believe another major issue that hasn’t been brought up yet is that the foundation of school funding in the US is based on property taxes.

If nobody can afford to pay them because they can’t afford the attendant mortgage, where will school funding come from? I’m thinking also that as many large apartment complexes are corporate owned, they will be in a position to lobby the local governments to have their taxes reduced to enhance their “competitiveness” and provide a “business-friendly” environment…..

I wish I were more optimistic that our “leaders” were thinking of the long-term consequences of their short termism, but I’m not. So few of them will blame the banks for their bad behavior, even now, when it is so obvious what they’ve done. And I swear it’s like everyone in DC gets some kind of implant when they arrive, so they all parrot the same nonsense over and over….

nonclassical says:

June 26, 2011 at 8:09 pm

PQS,

..taxes have been shifted from (15 years ago) 23% by corporations, (now 3 1/2%) TO homeowners..obviously unsustainable..INTENTIONALLY..read Naomi Klein’s, “The Shock
Doctrine-The Rise Of Disaster Capitalism”=privatization, at taxpayer expense…as in Central and South America, 70′s-80′s.
- pws4 says:
  
  June 26, 2011 at 11:38 pm
  
  “Make the economy scream,” s in Allende’s Chile.
  
  We’re all Chileans now.
  - nonclassical says:
    
    June 26, 2011 at 11:53 pm
    
    ..Alliende’…
    
    September 11, 1973..
    
    Video=”Bloody September”..
    book=”Killing Hope”..

Stallworth says:

June 26, 2011 at 6:00 pm

Drop population and decentralize production. Why is population drop looked upon so negatively? Sure, it is a problem for pay as you go system but does it not also make commodities cheaper on the local level.

check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIsHKrP-66s

Stallworth says:

June 26, 2011 at 6:02 pm

@ the video: Jefferson would be proud.
PJC says:

June 27, 2011 at 4:54 pm

The problem today with “population decrease” is that the US population increase is driven entirely by immigration. We would be shrinking except for all the third-world folks coming here for a slice of the pie. And attempts to cut back on the folks streaming in are met with cries of racism, elitism and anything except facing the facts.

In fact, the US population is increasing from immigration faster that most of the rest of the world is growing. Many of the countries feeding the immigration pipeline are themselves looking at declining populations.

Dj says:

June 26, 2011 at 7:37 pm

There also may be another factor at play here and that is; these people actually work and take these part time jobs. Where are the ‘qualified’ not ‘over-qualified’ who are supposed to be working at these jobs?

pws4 says:

June 26, 2011 at 11:35 pm

“Though better known for his charitable donations, Mr. Okawa was dedicated to the success of Sega and personally supplied $40 million to the production of the Sega Dreamcast. He pushed for the Dreamcast to operate over a network, and his ideas continue to influence Sega’s software to this day. After the failure of the console, Mr. Okawa made the decision for Sega to abandon the hardware business and to pursue independent software development for cel phones, handhelds, home consoles, and the Internet as well as their traditional arcade platforms. This move has since made Sega a very profitable company.
Before he died, Mr. Okawa forgave Sega’s debts to him and returned all his shares of Sega and CSK stock as a gift to help the company survive the restructuring process from a hardware manufacturer to a software developer.” — http://wiki.igda.org/Memorials/Isao_Okawa

Maybe an American CEO would do that, but that’d be a rarity, at the very least.

PQS says:

June 27, 2011 at 12:23 am

If we could get even a low level member of any large firm on Wall Street to apologize for what they’ve done – as the executives from TEPCO have apologized for Fukushima – it would be a start.

Hugh says:

June 27, 2011 at 12:22 am

I’ve had a comment on this thread apparently in the spam filter for most of the day.

dbk says:

June 27, 2011 at 2:48 am

Apropos of this thread, see the NYT story that’s up on the same subject:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/sunday-review/26leonhardt.html?hpw

Cf. “The evidence is overwhelming that college is a better investment for most graduates than in the past. A new study even shows that a bachelor’s degree pays off for jobs that don’t require one: secretaries, plumbers and cashiers. And, beyond money, education seems to make people happier and healthier.”

Note that this article cites a 33% university or vocational/technical graduation rate in the U.S., which is considerably higher than the figure cited earlier in this comment thread (20%).

And could sb explain what appears as the biggest difference cited in the article, i.e. that for dishwashers (19,000 for non-college grades, 34,000 for college grads)?

arbp says:

June 28, 2011 at 4:33 am

The college degree is being used as a susbstitute for an IQ test. The adminstration of iq-based tests by employers has been partially made illegal. Education is seen by the investor class as another sector of the economy, one poised for greater growth and greater accumulation of capital. Supply is fixed and alternatives are limited. *Really, education is probably the most profitable sector in the developed world, behind finance . The student loan companies make so much money they sometimes give some money to the school for delivering to them so many debtors.

*Many “technical schools” these days are pro-profit, with tuition rates equitable to regular colleges. The supply of plumbing and electrician apprenticeships seem to be carefully limited. There’s strong demand for electricians and plumbers , yet there’s clearly a limited supply. Why is that?

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