Right now I'm working a second job at fast food wage slaver-o-rama, and there is one extreme right winger there who I have named "Dudley Do Right." He's libertarian, he just doesn't know it yet. He hates Obama, thinks he will bring about an Orwellian nightmare, and is in general idiotic about all things politics. The reason I call him Dudley Do Right is that he has a near pathological need to follow rules and loves order. He refuses to be late from his break even by 10 seconds, he cleans everything even if it already is, and in general has no emotions. Good employee? Sure I guess. We get into it a lot about politics, and one day I just turned and said to him:
"Has it ever occurred to you that the private sector doesn't know what it's doing?"
I hate the rhetoric we spew about government, private sector, etc. The problem is these things are not "its." The government doesn't have wishes and desires. It isn't a thing. It's a network of people with ritual, societal approval. Corporations are constructs as well, organizations of people with the legal protection of the government and funding from consumers. Obama won't be around in 4 years, so his only concern is what to do about the way forward and how will his actions affect future presidents. If you remember governments and corporations are made up of people, then we can start to make sense out of what's going on.
I have a Master's Degree. I speak 3 languages fluently, a total of seven at varying levels of fluency. I write books and bring in a little money that way. I am currently teaching at a middle school with very few children that might be on it's way out. I put my best foot forward, and my presence has saved the school from what was certain disaster. I even have some of the kids coming to me and telling me their parents cannot figure out why I continue to work at the school and not work somewhere better. That's a definitely complex question, but for right now, I need money to get teacher certification. I'm out of student loans. I work my main job and then go off to "Have it your way" on the weekend. If I were in another country, I'm sure I'd have most of my teacher certification stuff paid for, but here, I'll have to claw at it for 3-4 years. I've tried scholarships, and they're usually a no go.
I am thankful for the teaching job I have now, because I had put in over 72 job applications at various places and was largely ignored. Very few companies even spent an hour talking to me. Most would just throw away my resume. I even had a friend try to get me a job at his company. I was passed over. Why? "Well, this looks like the resume of a linguist. If this guy told me he wanted to be President of Human Resources in 10 years, I'd think he was lying." My friend got mad, turned around at the recruiter, and said that if the company had used the same logic when hiring my friend (who has thus far received two promotions), they'd be up a creek without a paddle.
Corporate profits are up. Large corporations and big business are swimming in money. America has a very educated populace. Libertarians and their "cult of logic" centrist allies have tried to make it seem as if America is filled with Italian studies majors who don't know how to work a wrench. Dudley Do Right thinks so too. Maybe it's just that corporations no longer know how to find talent. They're so awash in money from government bailouts, subsidies, state corporate tax breaks, and money saved through tax avoidance that they do not feel the pressure to find and cultivate new talent unless it's the cookie cutter version their imagination allows.
"You spoiled brat! You should be happy to work the job you have now! If you had the skills, you'd be in the job! The government doesn't owe you a job! YOU are the one that will have to make it happen."
Lunacy. I work three jobs, so calling me lazy is ad hominem. These were things I heard on DailyKos by cult of logic centrists, and, simply put, people like this never consider that the private sector might suck. They never consider that maybe the lack of hiring is really a power play by most corporations to try and get skilled labor for cheap by complaining about poorly skilled, lazy Americans. How many hiring officers have completely overlooked skilled talent because that person didn't have the right alphabet soup next to their name, or didn't have the right buzz words to fit everyone's prescribed role? How many companies right now could hire people for $50k jobs that would heal the economy, but feel no pressure to hire and are so mismanaged that they don't even know what they need from moment to moment?
Save me the libertarian tripe that the company would dissolve because of its incompetence. Even without government succor, there is a certain amount of inefficiency and largesse that can pool and still allow a corporation to do this when they are awash in money.
I would have soared at the company. I would've added to their profit margin and I would have made them more efficient and organized with a touch of creativity. Drive and outside the box thinking don't show easily on a resume, and you have to be talking to someone that actually can see that. I explained to Dudley Do Right that American companies stab themselves in the eye for just a little bit more gain, but he didn't believe me. Oh well.