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A couple of years ago it was reported that in 2012 more than half of all American wage earners made less than $30,000 per year. The Social Security Administration's new earnings report for 2014 is out and there's still much gnashing of teeth about the dying middle class. With earnings numbers that haven't changed much in 2 years, estimates running as high as 100 million working age Americans without a job, and no one tracking the population of H-1B visa holders, where are the jobs really?
The July 9, 2015, issue of The New York Review of Books carried a very thoughtful piece by Andrew Hacker. In "The Frenzy About High-Tech Talent," Hacker discusses a number of books and reports that address whether or not there really is a need for more tech talent, the justification for the H-1B visa program, and issues in the American educational system.
[...] Throughout his piece Hacker is basically questioning two things:
1. Is there really an unfilled need for STEM graduates, or are we actually graduating too many so that many end up unemployed or employed in different areas?
2. Are there flaws in the American education system, both at the K-12 level and in college, that lead us to be very dependent on foreign STEM graduates?
[...] The texts Hacker is reviewing, and his own information, seem to dwell predominately on overall job projections for the STEM fields. Nowhere does there appear a breakout of the job forecast for computing related job categories. With the increased ubiquity of computing across all industries and employment sectors, it seems unlikely that we will see the "deskilling" trend that may be occurring in engineering (whereby engineers create equipment that means they and others like them no longer have job opportunities). We know that there are many jobs in the "tech sector" but there are also a lot of computing jobs in banking, finance, manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, etc. We can get an accurate picture of future job openings only if we can make a good determination of the computing jobs that exist outside of the "tech sector."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday October 27 2015, @05:15PM
Whenever I read something like that I get the impression that somebody's pissing on my head and telling me it's raining.
Sure, it's probably not likely that a kid can afford the American dream by working a factory job straight out of high-school for 20 or so years, but I'm not buying that "austerity" bullshit -- bring income disparity down, take the money out of politics, and bust corrupt politicians and white-collar crooks. If things don't change for the better of the middle-class then, I just might believe you.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday October 28 2015, @06:06AM
I totally agree that austerity is bull and inequality is a problem-- a huge, ugly problem.
Nevertheless, the current US lifestyle is not sustainable. Our society has extracted vast wealth from the world by recklessly degrading and depleting valuable resources, and by making the environment bear the costs of absorbing and cleaning up our pollution, as if we are somehow outside and above the environment. Though many of these resources are renewable, we are using them faster than they renew.
And then we've allowed the bulk of that wealth that we all worked for to end up in a very few hands. Merely redistributing among ourselves isn't enough. When calculating a fairer share, let us remember the environment's share.
Nor is it all sacrifice. I do not want to mow the lawn at all, I only do it because of city ordinances and social pressure. If it was social pressure alone, I wouldn't mow. I'd gladly give up that bit of housekeeping if not for the ridiculous power the local government has to infringe upon my freedoms and severely and harshly punish me if I do not mow. I am willing to do some mowing for safety reasons, for instance next to roads, to give motorists adequate visibility, and also to reduce the fire hazard, though I know fires are a natural part of a grassland ecology, and it would be better if our homes were built to withstand fires, rather than us having to perpetually fight to prevent fires from ever happening. But the city demands far more, and why? To enrich businesses engaged in lawn care and lawn equipment sales?