President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

I like how his smirky little pals behind just got stone faced at the end, and one vanished.

 

Loves the state constitution so much he knows none of the history and has never considered how it might affect someone other than himself.

 

We convinced a lot of people their niche is something better than making things who have ended up as grist for the gig industry mill.

Then convinced ourselves this was the design of our system: that 80 percent had to fail so that the 20 percent could live their best lives.

It didn’t have to be this way.

 

"It's not a labor shortage per se. What we are seeing right now is a 'great reassessment' of work in America.

-People are rethinking their lives
-People want different work environments/benefits than before
-And different jobs are opening up with different skill requirements"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/05/07/jobs-report-labor-shortage-analysis/

 

Reminds me of the part in Spinal Tap where someone asks the manager about the band’s declining appeal: “They’re not losing fans; the fans are just getting more selective.” Or something like that.

 

MAGA 1:6

 

I don't think it's 100% a question o people thinking they are too good. Economic inequality has reached near feudal levels. The motivation is not always about stuff, or maybe it wasn't as much about stuff until the shank end of the Twentieth Century.

People are presented as meaner and scarier, so there is a lot less security in the idea we can so much as have a good day. Maybe some of these people in the gig economy are seeking what used to be so easily a part of day to day life.

 

Millennials have generally decided work doesn't give them meaning the way Boomers got meaning because they're not getting the same payoff Boomers did. Meanwhile, they do get payoff - mostly through social media - for being a certain kind of intellectual, virtuous, experiential person who goes in a camper van for a year with their kids.

Work does not get you access to cool the way it once did. Morality does. And if you're the child of Boomer parents who were wealthy, and shared that wealth with you - and, a lot of Millennials are - then money is a more abstract reality.

 

122 days ago terrorists ransacked the US Capitol and *hours later* 138-of-202 (68%) House republicans voted to make trump a dictator. They tried to finish the rioters’ job and end democracy. Never forget it.

Death to dictators.

 

I'm not sure I get your point. But if you pursue a dream, you can spot a lot of wreckage along the path and a lot of dreams deferred. Actors working as waitstaff, novelists doing odd jobs. Wannabe cops working as security guards.

I saw many people get disenchanted with newspaper journalism over the years. They used the "gig" as a springboard into other businesses: political staff, public relations, several went to law school while working a day job as a reporter or a night job on the copy desk. Maybe I had a relatively flexible employer compared to some -- it took me 10 years working up the food chain to get there. I was also lucky in that I was ready to retire before things really started to go downhill.

To be competitive in this world, it's wise to keep learning, keep growing skills. In the old days of paternalistic employment, a job might have provided those opportunities. Today, someone younger is coming up with cutting-edge knowledge, and older workers appear underskilled and overpaid. That's not just peculiar to this business.

When I was in college I remember one guy dropping out so he could take a job working the line at the local General Motors plant. He seemed pretty smug, bragging about his UAW wages. Robotics were just starting to take hold in automaking back then. I don't know how his choice turned out, but I do know that the GM plant has been shut down for about 10 years.

 

I think I'm a Boomer or GenX. (The years differ depending on who you ask.) Work is how I get what I need in the material sense. It also keeps me grounded and happy. There have been periods when programs were slashed. People in my area of work were shifted around so much, we would sometimes see each other and have to try to remember which program or unit we first met. The joke was mental health care was as insecure as being an artist.

This is my eighth year with my current job and I hope it sticks around. I can't imagine not working even though I know the sting of being cut because grants were lost and/or parent health care groups changed hands.

 

The most interesting twist is that the 20% often claim suffering/trauma/struggles above and beyond the 80%. The language of the poor and middle classes has been co-opted by the aristocracy.