Dog eat Dog

One of the most difficult challenges out there is finding the right jobs. There doesn't seem to be a sensical way to match up people and jobs and the competition is fierce. More often than not, it's pure luck if you find something that you're happy with.

Barbara Ehrenreich explores some of the pitfalls of finding a middle class job in today's economy in her latest book, Bait and Switch. She goes through career coaching, personality testing, boot camps, job fairs, and networking events to study the white collar unemployed. Unfortunately, a lot of that stuff turns out to be a scam. There are over 10,000 "coaches" out there who for a fee can assist you in finding your passion. There are unscientific personality tests that have nothing to do as predictors of performance that are used over and over again, (again for a fee).

Networking is the only thing that seems to work at all, but networking events are pretty useless. All you'll find is other unemployed people. Networking needs to be more organic than that.

It's hard out there. Those without work are looking hard, fearful of downward mobility. Often they've done everything right. They got the degrees, they give the right attitude, and sometimes it's still not enough. And from the other side, even if you have a job, there's the contstant fear that you're going to lose it.

This book is basically the experience of one invetigative journalist, it's not a very scientific study or anything, but I think there are some interesting conclusions to draw.

1. Coaches and others will tell you there are jobs out there, the problem is YOU. Maybe the question needs to be What's wrong with this Picture.
2. Much of the job seeker's work, internet searches, and applications is uselss except to fill time.
3. Keeping a winning attitutude means letting go of negative thoughts, never questioning.

Each of these points explain why the basic system never changes. I'm not advocating the overthrow of capitalism or anything like that, but these criticisms make some sense. Capitalism has built in checks even for the unemployed to keep people from really thinking collectively about systemic changes in our system. There are still jobs out there. The fact you can't find one has nothing to do with anyone's economic policies. It's just you.

I wish I had answers. I don't. All I can right now is point out that this is one of the ways America's middle class is under attack these days.