The American Dream

[MattM]

....the upper middle class:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/business...ream&st=cse

 

Among the gems:

 

“Scott has got to find somebody who knows someone,” the grandfather said, “someone who can get him to the head of the line.”

 

About the young man's dad:

 

"He joined one of those companies — owned by the family of his friend — and he has stayed in manufacturing, particularly at companies that make hand tools."

 

Yet based on their descriptions (a retired stockbroker and plant GM respectively) I'd bet dollars to donuts dad and grandpa winge about how the poor and minorities just need to "suck it up" and "work harder" to succeed, "just like they did". I understand that this is the way the world works, but the hypocrisy is what galls me.

 

Don't just read the article, check out the comments, too. Some of them are priceless. I especially liked number 19.....

[ExiledInIllinois]

Here is the problem, SPOILED:

 

"...Over the last five months, only one job materialized. After several interviews, the Hanover Insurance Group in nearby Worcester offered to hire him as an associate claims adjuster, at $40,000 a year. But even before the formal offer, Mr. Nicholson had decided not to take the job.

 

Rather than waste early years in dead-end work, he reasoned, he would hold out for a corporate position that would draw on his college training and put him, as he sees it, on the bottom rungs of a career ladder..."

 

Still... Gainfully employeed and getting payed not too unreasonable is better than nothing at all.

 

AT least the father gets it (sorta):

 

"...He was braced for the conversation with his father in particular. While Scott Nicholson viewed the Hanover job as likely to stunt his career, David Nicholson, 57, accustomed to better times and easier mobility, viewed it as an opportunity. Once in the door, the father has insisted to his son, opportunities will present themselves — as they did in the father’s rise over 35 years to general manager of a manufacturing company.

 

“You maneuvered and you did not worry what the maneuvering would lead to,” the father said. “You knew it would lead to something good...”

[ExiledInIllinois]

Here is another glaring problem:

 

"...They are better educated than previous generations and they were raised by baby boomers who lavished a lot of attention on their children,..."

Another telling statement is this:

 

"...The outlook this time is not so clear. Starved for jobs at adequate pay, the millennials tend to seek refuge in college and in the military and to put off marriage and child-bearing..."

 

How can they say it is "adequate pay"... It has to be something else? I can see seeking refuge in college, but the military... Or is the military like college now? Than say my father's generation (born during the depression). And pay there is totally not adequate.

 

What really are these kids looking for?

[yall]

Here's a thought: get a degree that's actually useful.

[....lybob]

Just goes to prove that in terms of happiness, trajectory means more than absolute position- in a land where the expectation is that every generation will do better than the previous generation, there is probably going to be a widespread psychological depression until people realize that such a expectation was never realistic over the long run in the first place.

[birdog1960]

....the upper middle class:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/business...ream&st=cse

 

Among the gems:

 

“Scott has got to find somebody who knows someone,” the grandfather said, “someone who can get him to the head of the line.”

 

About the young man's dad:

 

"He joined one of those companies — owned by the family of his friend — and he has stayed in manufacturing, particularly at companies that make hand tools."

 

Yet based on their descriptions (a retired stockbroker and plant GM respectively) I'd bet dollars to donuts dad and grandpa winge about how the poor and minorities just need to "suck it up" and "work harder" to succeed, "just like they did". I understand that this is the way the world works, but the hypocrisy is what galls me.

 

Don't just read the article, check out the comments, too. Some of them are priceless. I especially liked number 19.....

I think it's also meant to make the point that things are really bad when the well connected graduating from prestige schools can't find "appropriate" work. Admittedly, it's clumsily done and it's impossible to sympathize with this spoiled kid or his family. I recently read an article on the ROI for various colleges and the really good bets are few and far between. Consequently, they are highly competitive , usually very expensive and dominated by the children of the already wealthy and powerful. Now that the recession has hit the upper middle class schools, can the truly elite American schools be far behind? If that happens, we can be assured that we are witnessing the end of the American dream as we've known it.

[KD in CA]

"Scott has got to find somebody who knows someone," the grandfather said, "someone who can get him to the head of the line."

Yes, because who you know is only a benefit for the upper middle class. No one has ever been given a job on a factory line or with the local highway dept because someone's father knew the boss.

 

 

But this kid is clearly an idiot and his father gutless for not forcing him to take the job he was offered. The rationale provided the biggest laugh in the article:

Rather than waste early years in dead-end work, he reasoned, he would hold out for a corporate position that would draw on his college training and put him, as he sees it, on the bottom rungs of a career ladder.

Newsflash kid: You haven't been 'trained' for anything in college; you have just received a basic background (and really not even that since you were too lazy to major in the area where you want to work). Someone is going to have to teach you how to be useful and productive.

 

If you've been sitting around the house for 2 years, you take a job at friggin Burger King and start paying rent.

[GG]

Yes, because who you know is only a benefit for the upper middle class. No one has ever been given a job on a factory line or with the local highway dept because someone's father knew the boss.

 

 

But this kid is clearly an idiot and his father gutless for not forcing him to take the job he was offered. The rationale provided the biggest laugh in the article:

Newsflash kid: You haven't been 'trained' for anything in college; you have just received a basic background (and really not even that since you were too lazy to major in the area where you want to work). Someone is going to have to teach you how to be useful and productive.

 

If you've been sitting around the house for 2 years, you take a job at friggin Burger King and start paying rent.

 

But wait a minute, as a heartless conservative, aren't you supposed to feel sorry for this guy. After all, as the OP suggests we should have a different opinion on him because he has a college degree from a name school.

[DC Tom]

When did the American Dream become "Have everything handed to you fresh out of college, because working for it for 20 years is just too damned hard"?

 

I hope every job this kid applies to responds "Hey, I read about you in the Times. !@#$ off."

[Dante]

Get a trade. Always have work. Lots of opportunity to work for cash. That way, you can keep it instead of the government confiscating it

[IDBillzFan]

But this kid is clearly an idiot and his father gutless for not forcing him to take the job he was offered.

 

This is the part that made no sense to me:

 

The daily routine seldom varied. Mr. Nicholson, 24, a graduate of Colgate University, winner of a dean’s award for academic excellence, spent his mornings searching corporate Web sites for suitable job openings. When he found one, he mailed off a résumé and cover letter — four or five a week, week after week.

 

What daily routine are we talking about? The daily routine of getting up and having some breakfast made by your mom before you plunk down in front of a laptop where it apparently takes, on average, an entire day to mail off a single resume and cover letter?

 

If it takes you all day to get one letter and resume in the mail, you may not even be cut out for grunt work.

[KD in CA]

This is the part that made no sense to me:

 

 

 

What daily routine are we talking about? The daily routine of getting up and having some breakfast made by your mom before you plunk down in front of a laptop where it apparently takes, on average, an entire day to mail off a single resume and cover letter?

 

If it takes you all day to get one letter and resume in the mail, you may not even be cut out for grunt work.

 

Not to mention, "searching corporate websites" WTF??

 

As in, "I want to work for a cool company like Apple or Red Hat so let me check their websites first!!" Hey kid, ever hear of Monster.com?

[/dev/null]

Newsflash kid: You haven't been 'trained' for anything in college; you have just received a basic background (and really not even that since you were too lazy to major in the area where you want to work). Someone is going to have to teach you how to be useful and productive.

 

If you've been sitting around the house for 2 years, you take a job at friggin Burger King and start paying rent.

 

Working at BK or taking the "Lesser" $40k job would teach that kid more in 4 months than he learned in 4 years of college

[Chef Jim]

Not to mention, "searching corporate websites" WTF??

 

As in, "I want to work for a cool company like Apple or Red Hat so let me check their websites first!!" Hey kid, ever hear of Monster.com hitting the pavement?

 

Just made a little correction in your post.

 

My top candidates are people I've met at career fairs. Also does no one know how to pick up the phone and actually talk to people anymore.

[....lybob]

Just made a little correction in your post.

 

My top candidates are people I've met at career fairs. Also does no one know how to pick up the phone and actually talk to people anymore.

 

To be fair though there are a lot of companies who will only engage you over the internet at least initially - they don't want to meet you, they don't want to talk to you over the phone, they don't even want to receive anything from you by snail-mail. I went to a job-fair where they didn't want resumes, had no applications to fill out, everyone gave a brief overview of their organizations and directed us to their websites.

[Rob's House]

If you think your Poli Sci degree makes you too good for a $40k/yr entry level job, you need to go fornicate with yourself.

 

And to the OP, hate to burst your bubble, but that's hardly a conservative publication playing the violin for this poor upper-middle class brat, and I don't hear the more conservative elements of this board shedding any tears for him either.

[ExiledInIllinois]

Just goes to prove that in terms of happiness, trajectory means more than absolute position- in a land where the expectation is that every generation will do better than the previous generation, there is probably going to be a widespread psychological depression until people realize that such a expectation was never realistic over the long run in the first place.

 

[ExiledInIllinois]

Get a trade. Always have work. Lots of opportunity to work for cash. That way, you can keep it instead of the government confiscating it

 

He does... Mows lawns and fixes fence post moorings...

[Chef Jim]

To be fair though there are a lot of companies who will only engage you over the internet at least initially - they don't want to meet you, they don't want to talk to you over the phone, they don't even want to receive anything from you by snail-mail. I went to a job-fair where they didn't want resumes, had no applications to fill out, everyone gave a brief overview of their organizations and directed us to their websites.

 

And I'm willing to bet there are a hundred fold more companies that would rather talk to you in person or at least over the phone. I need to see and hear my candidates before I would even consider them. There are so many phoney resumes out there.

[....lybob]

The whole higher education system has to rethought- there is a trend where the rate of return for a college education has been shrinking and for some degrees has gone negative, any parent and student should think hard about investing $40,000-$100,000+ dollars . I don't think the every child must go to college model is applicable anymore, some should go to college, some should learn a trade, some should work and get a college degree online, some should try a small business where succeed or fail they are going to learn as much as any college.