The soul has greater need of the ideal than the real for it is by the real that we exist, it is by the ideal that we live

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

a slapdash half assed hot mess

Sometimes I think  I sound like a conspiracy theorist. Sometimes I wish I were.  Then there would be an actual them.

Unfortunately I don't really think it's that organized. I think the education system sucks because we WEREN'T paying attention to it's development.  I think the economy is in such a mess because we just thought "they'd take care of that"  

I also think our lives are changing because we didn't lay the groundwork for our last life, i.e. there were no jobs created for any of the master's of PhD candidates so we wind up selling stuff at a counter, and since there wasn't any real application for all our education we simply became a lot of people with a lot of specialized knowledge in our heads that's not very useful.

Is anyone else looking for a job?

I mean it's not a very rewarding activity, it's pretty much a waste of time and it seldom results in an interview.  Jobs either require you be one of two things, an idiot without any education or experience, for all of which I am ridiculously over-qualified,or, that you be an expert in the field with 5-500 years of experience and 23 specialized degrees and 15 certificates.

The companies that are telling us they want to hire really don't, and it's not that hard to figure that out.

"Just make the jobs only available to two or three people in the whole city and it looks like we're hiring but we're really not.  Then we can complain that we can't find skilled workers." 

Here's a job I found in a relatively simple field, Customer Service.  It doesn't require a lot except the ability to use what tools you are given to solve problems and the ability and willingness to tell a customer you're not going to be able to help them...without getting in trouble in the process.

QUALIFICATIONS Six months to one year Customer Service experience
Bilingual (Spanish/English) preferred
Call center and wireless experience a plus
Customer Service Skills
High School Diploma or GED
Basic PC Skills, able to navigate through Windows based programs
Stellar verbal and written communication skills
Strong problem solving skills Ability to thrive in a lively working environment and multi-task Flexibility and Winning Attitude a Plus

Now, here's a job that a lot of people could do, provided they could afford to work for $10 an hour.  But the bilingual requirement...exempts 50% of the applicants immediately.

Next up is a job that was advertised through my faculty email:

Here's an excerpt-

This program is designed for individuals interested in starting their own business.

We are looking for individuals that are certified as an instructor/coach for the Kauffman First Step Fund or Kauffman FastTrac.

If you are certified and would like to serve as a Business Coach for this First Step FastTrac session, please let me know ASA, and no later than Friday, July 23rd.  

I don't have the qualifications but I did the math anyway.  The job pays $100 a week.  And it's temporary!

Here's a doozy!
· Top-notch customer service;
· Multi-unit management experience(at least 10 stores) – A MUST;
· At least three years high-level supervisory, management, sales experience;
· Collections experience is a plus;
· High school diploma or GED;
· Associates/Bachelors degree or related work experience;
· Experience using Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook;
· Ability to travel (with personal, reliable transportation) within district.

Guess what you'd be doing?

Managing check cashing stores!  Now that's what I went to grad school for...to cash bad checks for people who can't afford to pay their bills cause they don't make enough money.  How gratifying is that?   

So it's easy to see how the mindset works.  Just make the job impossible to obtain and the untrained  worker is to blame.  Then we don't fix the education system, nor make it available and we create this underclass who has to live in trailer parks and drive 25 year old cars if they're lucky and we keep them stupid, unhealthy and easy to push around.  

And I hardly needed my PhD to figure that out. 

I've been reading Tom Franks book "What's the matter with Kansas" this week, and it's really got me going. 

It's funny I never  met him. We seem not to be that far apart in age, we grew up in neighboring areas, traveled in the same circles, yet I never heard of him until now.  Thank Gods I did.  He's so right on the money about this place.

Looking for a way out.  I'm not delusional...well I'm delusional, but...well if you read regularly you know what I mean.  

I don't think it'll be significantly different anywhere else, in another state of likely another country, but I want a different place.  different people different experiences, just different. 

I think what we've done here in America is create the world the corporations really want.  They want us all to be free-lancers, who pay our own insurance, taxes, health care, vacation and sick time, and generally be completely expendable if we cause any trouble at all.  

We get the benefit of doing what we prefer, but without any security.  We won't have company towns, we'll have tenements where those of is lucky enough to get contracts are able (barely) to afford to get by.  

The days of 3500 sq ft houses are done for most of us, IF we ever wanted that.  2000 sq ft will be HUGE to most of us within the decade.  

My first neighborhood out of my parents house was in an area in which most of the houses had been divided into apartments.  We all lived like students, which we were, and parked on the street and had little rabbit warrens in which we lived.  

As adults we're headed right back to it.  These huge homes will get subdivided into apartments so they can be sold, rented, sub-letted, etc, and we'll all be parking on the street again scraping our windows in February cause there aren't any garages that haven't been converted into apartments for the new lower class of worker.  

Thankfully I prefer living in a small space, that way I'm not only more organized, but more mobile as well.  

Hmmm, mobility..a theme I keep coming back to today.

And so it goes: