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Best Speech Ever?

Thankfully the U.S. economy is in an upswing and the jobs market here is looking better and better.

Crushing student debt is a problem, but I blame that on society pushing the notion that everyone needs to have at least a four year University degree (even if it's an essentially "useless" degree with little opportunity for employment) in order to be successful. There is nothing wrong with learning a trade and you can make excellent money in the trades.
I know in MA we have a huge problem with the lack of apprentices entering the trades. The average age of a plumber is 52, this is not a healthy average for my trade. At 36 I am the youngest in the company (10+ plumbers/heat techs). I have tried recruiting some young blood but I usually get some eye rolling and then disinterest after they learn that its a five year apprenticeship. Its seems that they would rather continue on complaining about about not having a good job for five years rather than sucking it up and put in the time for five to walk away with a license and a very large earning potential.
I have heard that this is also a nation wide problem. What would the longer term impact would be in 10-20 years as more and more of the old timers retire? I think one of those trolls that hides in a dark closet, staring at economic data and drooling over the chart that its currently creating, could throw out a theory.
 
I have heard that this is also a nation wide problem. What would the longer term impact would be in 10-20 years as more and more of the old timers retire? I think one of those trolls that hides in a dark closet, staring at economic data and drooling over the chart that its currently creating, could throw out a theory.
Subtle. ;)

In Australia it's a nominal three year apprenticeship. :p But we've always had a signoff system between the employer and the the training organisation so some finish a bit quicker while others take a little longer. Just a hassle now for employers to take on apprentices in the first place, few and fewer employers wants to put in the effort over here because everything is on contract these days in the classic trades and margins are so fine for the smaller operators.

But yeah we've also had a problem on the kids side for decades. But they've also had their parents, teachers and anyone of influence pushing them towards university rather than the trades. Didn't help when the Universities lowered their standards around the GFC to people that generally score around 50% in their final exams. Created a tiered system and for a while 'it made sense' since the the professionals generally earned a lot more. But not everyone is cut out for a suit and tie officework. Sure enough the cost of tradies went up as their numbers diminished against the overall population. And everyone needs a plumber/sparky at least once in their life. Saying that it's balancing out a bit now considering words reached the public consciousness that around 1/3 of all Uni graduates in Australia aren't getting jobs once they leave. (And not just from the usual suspect 'Bachelor of Fine Arts' degrees - Nursing and Law grads are included in that mix).
 
@Septic Limb - Love the nickname jokes but in Government it's honestly the older cohorts that don't like them. Silly public servants. :p I'm sorry but that one guy in Contracts looks exactly like Alec Guiness and does know everything, so of course he's called Obiwan.

My current office nickname is "Tibor." Just because at the tail end of a whole lot of database design it keeps failing...
http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Tibor
 
I agree -- this goes back througout human history... even ancient Greece:

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.
Attributed to SOCRATES by Plato


Great point, Rico and so true. In 1000 years, they will be complaining about the younger generation.

I am Gen X and I really like the Millenials. They are MUCH smarter than we were at the same age just because of the vastly better access to information that they enjoy. I wish I was a young person today.

Compounding this, I feel sorry for them. School is not cheap for them. Houses are not cheap for them. The job market is just now starting to ramp up, but it has been bad for them before this. The US is loaded with debt that they may have to pay. They are underdogs and I have always liked the underdog.

At the risk of offending Boomers......a lot of the issues in our country as due to that generation, IMHO. Having said that, my generation (GenX) has thus far failed to correct any of the new problems the Boomers generated, so we don't get a free pass. Maybe the Millenials will be different? Time will tell.
 
In the meantime, it's still fun to complain about them, just like my parents (Greatest Gen) complained about me (GenX....I was born late) taking too many showers (one a day....gasp!) and tying up our "party line" (anyone else remember those?).
 
In the meantime, it's still fun to complain about them, just like my parents (Greatest Gen) complained about me (GenX....I was born late) taking too many showers (one a day....gasp!) and tying up our "party line" (anyone else remember those?).

True enough. My showers were also way too long for my parents. And they had no understanding that call waiting meant that I was really not tying up the phone line.

And it is not all cherries for the Millenials. Every generation has annoying characteristics. As a GenX manager, I am always shocked when Millenials won't answer my emails even though I am several levels about them. It happens very regularly and I had never seen this before in my career. They have a strange attitude about "letting things fall through the cracks," as if people should be allowed a certain number of these. Nope, sorry--you are automatically disqualified for promotions when you do this kind of stuff.
 
A "party line" was actually sharing a land line with one or more other houses. You might pick up the phone and hear one of your neighbors having a conversation, in which case you had to hang up and try again later. They were cheaper than the luxurious "private lines".
 
A "party line" was actually sharing a land line with one or more other houses. You might pick up the phone and hear one of your neighbors having a conversation, in which case you had to hang up and try again later. They were cheaper than the luxurious "private lines".



Wow--I am close to your age and never even heard of one of those. Could that be a rural thing? I was suburban.

My parents were cheap as hell. If a party line was an option, they would have taken it!
 
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