[ExI] Is unemployment the future?

[Eugen Leitl]

On Tue, Nov 03, 2009 at 06:21:09AM -0800, spike wrote:

> I once worked at an environmental test lab.  We interviewed (and hired) a
> mechanical design engineer who had retired early in 1976, started a country
> store and a wilderness tour company.  Both eventually failed, so he came
> back into the engineering world in 1985 to try to earn some actual money.

Thanks for providing the keyword. Engineering. Noble profession, that.

How many job openings in the US are left in engineering (and I mean real
engineering, not inflationary-engineering like networking engineer or
software engineer)? I mean, assuming the young person has the right
equipment between the ears, and graduates with a good enough GPA, what are 
his chances to actually find a job in his field of study, e.g. rocket
surgery? The young people with the right eqipment between the ears 
are of course quite aware of that, if you look at the statistics. 

The unemployment rate in the US (Europe and elsewhere is not that
different or worse) is pretty close to 20%. If you look at the shift
in quality from around 1970, or so, you'll see it's make-pretend
work in low-skill minimal wage service serf sector. These people are not
happy, strangely enough.

I mean, we can pretend that nothing serious is happening, and tune
the statistics until they shine, but we're not fooling anybody. Not
on the long run, no-how.

> In his interview he commented, "I don't understand this.  Where are all the
> drawing boards?  All these guys, and no one is actually working!  They are
> all sitting around pecking on these little plastic typewriters!"

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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