1967... We Haven't Come a Long way, Baby..

[SoCalDem]

Apparently (according to CNN's "Your Money") THE jobs for the foreseeable future are:


health care
leisure

Jobs are gone from manufacturing & construction

Their experts advise people to "start their own businesses".. Lost a construction job? Get a job SELLING stuff for remodeling..or HEY.. volunteer your remodeling skills to "network"..

The expert never mentions the part about the guy's mortgage , wife, three kids & car payment..or the lost health care..

When I graduated in 1967 (high school), women's lib had not happened, so most girls who graduated with me, either went to college to become a teacher or they went to nursing school to become a hospital nurse or doctor's office nurse..

Or they got married soon after graduation, and started a family.

The boys who graduated, either went to college or got drafted. The ones who flunked their physicals got jobs locally, usually working at the same place their Dads, brothers & uncles worked.

There was no "fast-food" then..no malls..just a vibrant downtown with LOTS of small locally owned businesses, that hired a LOT of local people.. The telephone company was a choice place for girls to work..so were the banks..

Boys hired onto the railroad, the power company (locally owned) the water company(locally owned) or the grain mills (Kansas)..

NONE of these jobs paid very much, but they paid LOCAL people who spent their money LOCALLY.. Women did not work outside the homes much back then, but if they did, it was a part time job a few days a week..

Most of the jobs were truly 9-5..Downtown rolled up the sidewalks at 5:30..Banks closed at 3PM (hence "bankers' hours)

ALL stores were closed on Sundays..EVERY STORE.. A few restaurants were open on Sundays, but that was IT.

But I digress..

Health care?
Leisure?

Those are the jobs we can aspire to?? Really??

Changing Granny's Depends™..?
Y'want fries with that?

Have we mortgaged the future, so that our kids/grandkids can be nurses' aides & waitresses?

Do our boys get to choose between military or unemployment or a drive-thru at Taco Bell?

Are we doomed to be a society where one group (the lower) exists to "service" the other (upper)?

Living in the past is impossible, but at least back then living well was still possible.. It's seeming more and more that living in the present is pretty darned impossible too..

[Wednesdays]

1. Waitresses? You wish!

"Have we mortgaged the future, so that our kids/grandkids can be nurses' aides & waitresses?"

Shoot, most people would give almost anything to be a waitress (or waiter). These days, a realistic goal would be "workin' the drive-thru". Until 4 a.m.

[0007]

2. Reminds me of an excellent film I saw late last night called.

'Everybody's Hero' It is about a little boy that finds a talking baseball and crooks that stole Babe Ruth's baseball bat in 1932.

Watch it if the opportunity presents itself.
Now I must get a copy for my favorite grandson.

Little Boy's name is Yankee Irving.

[China_cat]

3. The society of ancient Rome

2 classes...the very rich and the very poor. About the only chance the very poor had to even exist was to sell themselves into slavery. To serve the very rich.

Sound familiar?

[SoCalDem]

4. I think we are almost there now.. When grownups stand in line

for hours to get an application for a job that teenagers (years ago) would have turned down, it says something..

Last week our waiter was a guy, obviously not used to being a waiter.. he was about 70.. It was NOT a family-owned restaurant, so I doubt that he was an owner/famiy member of the place.. he did an okay job, but you could see how uncomfortable he was..:(

[Tyler Durden]

7. One big difference:

Now the Plebeians have GUNS.

This will get VERY UGLY I'm afraid.

[lukasahero]

5. "Do our boys get to choose between ..."

Why just "our boys"?

Don't our girls get to choose?

[SoCalDem]

15. We all get to "choose".. It's just that the choices are quite limited now

and it's really not even a choice anymore.. The Moms who WANT to stay home with little kids cannot afford to..and yet when they go out an get a job, they find they cannot afford that either..

We are all trapped..No matter what we try, it never seems to be a "good" choice.

[Tyler Durden]

6. What about "Working your way through College?"

University of Michigan was around $475.00 PER TERM with room and board in the Dormitory a fast $1100 for 2 terms.

That won't pay 10% of 2 terms tuition alone without fees now.

[truedelphi]

13. It might, however, pay for the cost of the books ea. semester! n/t

[cynatnite]

8. Fortunately, this isn't 1967

I'm going back to work after being a mom at home for the last ten years. One of the things I'm considering is going back to college. Online education would actually be perfect for my situation. While researching that I came across this list...

Top 10 Fastest Growing Occupations: 2004 - 2014

Home health aides
Network systems and data communications analysts
Medical assistants
Physician assistants
Computer software engineers
Physical therapist assistants
Dental hygienists
Computer software engineers
Dental assistants
Personal and home care aides

http://jobsearch.about.com/od/cooljobs/a/topjobs_2.htm

Health, education, retail and computers...those areas are where the jobs are and where they will be in the next 20 years. Trends change according to a variety of factors.

I'll never understand why folks think the past is so much better...especially 1967. That was a crappy year. Some people will say 1968 was worse.

[truedelphi]

11. The reality for a single woman was pretty harsh

My first job during that era, immediate employment after HS before College in the fall, paid a whooping $ 2.12 an hr.

This was a high end beginning salary. Someone who knew my dad helped get me in the door. Otherewise I'd have made like $ 1.85

Wasn't bad for any teen living at home and being supported by Daddy. But how could any single mom have managed? Even if she was making, say $ 2.75 because she'd worked there ten years?

[raccoon]

12. The reality for married women was pretty harsh too, if a woman was married

to a battering husband. Unless she had a very supportive family of origin.

[SoCalDem]

16. In '67, there were not so many single Moms

and the ones who were widowed, often had a widow's pension from her husband who proabably had a pension plan..(not like today)

and remember, housing was cheaper then, so was everything else..

I got married in '70, and our first grocery store trip as a married couple involved cleaning supplies, spices, clothes baskets, brooms (all the stuff you don;t buy that often) AND food..and two baskets of stuff came to less than $40.

A 2 bedroom apartment ran $70 a month...utilities included..

[truedelphi]

18. One hidden advantage on that scale of economy is that if

You could live on say $ 9 to 12,000 a year, then you only had to pay the Tx Man whatever that rate is.

Now that $ 70 a month apartments do not exist - you have to have at lest $ 30 K a year - and the Tx Man hits you accordingly.

[cynatnite]

19. There were enough of them and they made a lot less than men...

ask my mother and she'll tell you that she trained men who made more money than she did.

[SoCalDem]

14. the problem is that it takes a special person to do those kinds of jobs

Not everyone is cut out to be a dental assistant or a computer engineer..or likes the "touchy-feely" aspect of so many of these "personal jobs"

teaching is turning out to be a difficult field to be in..the cost of the education to GET that degree is not valued enough by the school system to pay enough to re-pay the school loans..

All I was trying to say is that the options are narrowing, and as the number & scope of the jobs shrink, so will the wages..

[cynatnite]

17. The options aren't narrowing...they're changing, IMO....

What I listed were just the top ten. Green collar jobs will probably explode in the next few years or so. Also, our infrastructure is in dire need of work. I would bet we'll see tremendous growth there as well. Jobs in computers, software and networking will continue to be big as they have been for the last ten to twenty years. As our world continues to change so will trends.

I agree there are major problems with wages, but that's because wages aren't keeping up with the cost of living. That needs addressed immediately...no matter what a person does for a living.

Health care will probably have to be handled differently than most of the others. It's not just having a 'touchy-feely' aspect of it. It's having the stomach for it. Anyone who has worked in the health care industry will tell you that it's a dirty job dealing with life and death. Not only do we have a massive aging population...we also have an overweight population that isn't as healthy as it once was.

In order to entice and keep people working in the medical field hospitals, nursing homes, and other facilities will have to offer a hell of a lot.

[1776Forever]

9. I'm serious you are so right on - I have been thinking of going into Home Health Aid again

I did that back in 1980's. I am getting up there but still feel I can do a good days work. I have looked everywhere here in Florida but found nothing. It is getting very very hard to find anything here that pays for $8.00 an hour and that is a good job!

So sad!!!!!!!

[formercia]

10. I remember her

The Virginia Slims Girl. I dated her sister for a few years.

Too good for Goyem.