I find it truly amazing and even humorous, that I wrote a letter to every possible representative of mine from local town government all the way up to US senate and house and have gotten so little feedback that it is almost insulting. I wrote regarding my experience in applying to social services and wanted to see what could be done to make changes in the treatment of people seeking help. It seems that nothing will be done regarding this though. I got a couple of automated responses, one person from within the organization asking for the name of the individual/s I dealt with (I've heard nothing from them since I responded), one response telling me that times get tough and I should just keep my head up and keep trying, and one rep which covers the office location that I applied in - but not my home - that they weren't my rep and thus should look for help elsewhere. As if the issue wasn't relevant to them even though it happened in their jurisdiction. To one person's credit though, I did get a phone call expressing regret (Kudos to that rep), yet I have never heard anything since. I sent things to probably 20 people and two emails, one phone call. Sad.
But I'll tell you what is absolutely atrocious, is that I seem to have gotten my email address on the marketing and mass mailing lists of some of the representatives - none of which responded to my inquiry at all. Are you serious?!?! You are not actually interested in representing me, but you are interested in sending me your propaganda in an effort to tell me how great you are!! Listen if you aren't going to help me (i.e. do your job) then don't expect me to help you - let alone like or vote for you. No I understand that you have so many people to represent and its tough to speak to them all - but don't take my email and use it for your purposes but not respect efforts.
But what can I really say, if it was just one person that didn't respond I could blame them, but it is not. It is all of them, which means it is the system itself that produces representatives that don't actually represent the people they should. These reps only care about getting re/elected, and as i only have two choices, can I really vote for someone else? Does this incident actually matter? I will bet you this though, if I was a wealthy donor I bet you they'd take my call, respond to my email, and maybe even take me out to a strip club and make sure I'm taken care of. But no, I'm on food stamps. I'm underemployed. Just trying to put one foot in front of the other. To make ends meet. I can provide nothing for them, save fulfillment of their constitutional duty, their job description, and their own respect as they look in the mirror. But then again, why would that ever be important?
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
A Job Clearing House
The more jobs one applies to the more one realizes that the system is set up for us to fail. I recently started approaching my job hunting in a different way. I was simply looking at opportunities through various media sources and searches, but then more recently I started focusing more on networking type of opportunties, volunteering, etc. My chances suddenly looked up. People tell you about jobs you might not have found otherwise, maybe you even have conversations with people about them. They'll "put in a good word... blah blah blah". But then what? I still have no interviews. Friends, family, acquaintances, professionals, etc. It doesn't matter how qualified I am. Companies have hundreds of applicants to hire from, if I don't have the job title on my Resume/CV, ten others might, and probably do.
This is one of the foundations of capitalism - a 'reserve' labor force. That is why they always say that 4% unemployment is actually good for the economy. This 'excess' puts the strength at the negotiating table in the hands of the producers rather than the laborers. This keeps wages down, as if one person doesn't want that job for that wage, there is always another one that will. Think sweatshop labor in the developing world, they'll take what they can get just to have a job - no matter how suspect the conditions are.
So... what can be done to better employ others while we wait for 'systemic evolution'? I had a thought the other day about how the job search process could be aided. As the current problem is that the people that you are applying to really have no clue of who you are or what your work capabilities are (other than the two pieces of paper that you sent them), why not find a way to neutrally evaluate people. A clearinghouse of sorts that could act as an evaluator of personal ability for prospective employers. A way for them to 'know' more about you specifically, the things that don't necessarily fit neatly into bullet points on a piece of paper. It is people, not experience, that get jobs done.
I guess the bottom line for me is that my experience doesn't fit nicely into a cookie cutter. I have lived in many places, had many different jobs, and studying a quite a few different things. But I don't have the step by step employment history that seems to be desired. Does this mean I am not capable of doing the job or even perhaps doing it better than others? Of course not. As a friend of mine said, "I can't believe that these people I work with have jobs and someone as capable as you does not." But that's the system we live in. Everything is subjective and specified. Gone are the days when you would walk into an office, shake a person's hand, and deliver your resume. They see you, they interact with you for a moment, they get a sense of 'you' - not the narrative you. Everyone interprets things differently and one piece of paper is never enough to sum up a life's work.
So how about it? What if there was an neutral agency that would evaluate people and give them a score or evaluation of some sort to show there current day capabilities. There could be an interview process, resumes, recommendations, whatever. This would give everyone the chance to be 'interviewed'. To become more than a piece of paper. If a person can never sit in front of someone and state their case as a living breathing human being, how can they ever differentiate themselves from others?
This is one of the foundations of capitalism - a 'reserve' labor force. That is why they always say that 4% unemployment is actually good for the economy. This 'excess' puts the strength at the negotiating table in the hands of the producers rather than the laborers. This keeps wages down, as if one person doesn't want that job for that wage, there is always another one that will. Think sweatshop labor in the developing world, they'll take what they can get just to have a job - no matter how suspect the conditions are.
So... what can be done to better employ others while we wait for 'systemic evolution'? I had a thought the other day about how the job search process could be aided. As the current problem is that the people that you are applying to really have no clue of who you are or what your work capabilities are (other than the two pieces of paper that you sent them), why not find a way to neutrally evaluate people. A clearinghouse of sorts that could act as an evaluator of personal ability for prospective employers. A way for them to 'know' more about you specifically, the things that don't necessarily fit neatly into bullet points on a piece of paper. It is people, not experience, that get jobs done.
I guess the bottom line for me is that my experience doesn't fit nicely into a cookie cutter. I have lived in many places, had many different jobs, and studying a quite a few different things. But I don't have the step by step employment history that seems to be desired. Does this mean I am not capable of doing the job or even perhaps doing it better than others? Of course not. As a friend of mine said, "I can't believe that these people I work with have jobs and someone as capable as you does not." But that's the system we live in. Everything is subjective and specified. Gone are the days when you would walk into an office, shake a person's hand, and deliver your resume. They see you, they interact with you for a moment, they get a sense of 'you' - not the narrative you. Everyone interprets things differently and one piece of paper is never enough to sum up a life's work.
So how about it? What if there was an neutral agency that would evaluate people and give them a score or evaluation of some sort to show there current day capabilities. There could be an interview process, resumes, recommendations, whatever. This would give everyone the chance to be 'interviewed'. To become more than a piece of paper. If a person can never sit in front of someone and state their case as a living breathing human being, how can they ever differentiate themselves from others?
The True Value of Work
What a world, what a world we live in. As you may have seen from some earlier posts, I am not exactly making ends meet these days. I am underemployed and not finding 'gainful' employment. But does this really matter? So what if I did have a job? I have a friend that is employed in their career path, through a respectable institution, and still has to take on other employment. They went to school specifically to train them for the career they are in and they have had great success in working their way up the ladder to a management position. Yet even with this position, they still can't quite make the ends meet as they'd like and are in danger of having to move back in with their parents. As per the 'American Dream' and our 'ownership society' they should be trying to buy a home, yet instead they are realizing that just making rent may be too much. There is something tremendously wrong with this picture.
What happened to the days fifty years ago when an entire family could live well and own a home off of a single salary? Today a couple that has no children is in a tough spot simply trying to obtain a 30 year mortgage, let alone actually be able to pay off that loan. So many people are defaulting, or never buying because they just simply don't have the means. And not because they aren't trained, experienced, or good at what they do, but because jobs just don't pay as well enough. My friend works a full time job, and now has picked up random work on the side: part time retail, some coaching, and high school officiating. They are looking for other opportunities, trying to not have to move back home, trying to buy a home. But come on, why should a person like this, trained, experienced, and good at their job not be able to make a functional wage? This is the true sham of American society. That hard working, qualified people still don't make enough, still can't have access to some of America's cornerstone dreams.
We as a country are closing the door on ourselves. In an effort to make our selves richer, we are in fact making the most of us poorer as the system increases wages slower than prices. My friend received a 3 percent raise this year - as mandated in their contract - yet their actual pay went down as the cost of their insurance went up. This is before they even had any money to consume with and inflation makes the cost of goods higher (usually averaging 3%). Since the 1970's real wages have been shrinking and people like my friend are definitely feeling the affects.
So would it matter if I even had a job? They have a job, a good one on a career path that they are trained to do, and having success in. But this doesn't matter, it doesn't even pay what is an appropriate living wage. Fact of the matter is, we are all in trouble no matter what. Job or no job, we just don't make enough money. Something has to change...
What happened to the days fifty years ago when an entire family could live well and own a home off of a single salary? Today a couple that has no children is in a tough spot simply trying to obtain a 30 year mortgage, let alone actually be able to pay off that loan. So many people are defaulting, or never buying because they just simply don't have the means. And not because they aren't trained, experienced, or good at what they do, but because jobs just don't pay as well enough. My friend works a full time job, and now has picked up random work on the side: part time retail, some coaching, and high school officiating. They are looking for other opportunities, trying to not have to move back home, trying to buy a home. But come on, why should a person like this, trained, experienced, and good at their job not be able to make a functional wage? This is the true sham of American society. That hard working, qualified people still don't make enough, still can't have access to some of America's cornerstone dreams.
We as a country are closing the door on ourselves. In an effort to make our selves richer, we are in fact making the most of us poorer as the system increases wages slower than prices. My friend received a 3 percent raise this year - as mandated in their contract - yet their actual pay went down as the cost of their insurance went up. This is before they even had any money to consume with and inflation makes the cost of goods higher (usually averaging 3%). Since the 1970's real wages have been shrinking and people like my friend are definitely feeling the affects.
So would it matter if I even had a job? They have a job, a good one on a career path that they are trained to do, and having success in. But this doesn't matter, it doesn't even pay what is an appropriate living wage. Fact of the matter is, we are all in trouble no matter what. Job or no job, we just don't make enough money. Something has to change...
Friday, March 26, 2010
How far can you pee?
I think it is worth listening to this piece about testosterone, and its possible contribution to the financial crisis we're in. It was music to my ears. For years I have attributed much of our problems to men. As a man I feel the inner drive and determining aspects of self that push from within. Granted no two people are the same, but I have seen what I would consider the dark side of men, and I work quite hard to tame it. I have been a very big proponent of balancing man and women, of realizing an egalitarian leadership structure for our world.
I always come back to the James Bond and Tomorrow Never Dies quote from "M" when it was proposed to her that perhaps she "didn't have the balls" for her job. To which she replied: "that means I don't have to always think with them". It has to me forever been a a perfect example of some of the world's problems. I think that men are too agressive and with the systemic instilations of capitalism this is being accentuated. We grow up, harnessing and instigating testosterone based lives. We bocome arrogant and far to self-assured and asertive.
This show itself spent time looking at the biology of financial traders and the male dominated society that the financial industry is. Even as evidence was being sited that showed how diversity and gender equality in corporate and decision making processes tended to lead to better performance, many people calling and commenting seemed to brush this possibility off as gendered grandstanding. But I will say this, my first job was in finance, and I can tell you it was so thoroughly testosterone/machismo based and overtly arrogant that I got out as soon as I could. I have been that guy, and I don't see how it is truly productive and helpful for society.
The dialog itself was great, however I did have one issue with it though. When it was brought up by a caller that to start thinking that testosterone could do such a thing would eventually lead to drawing a correlation between this male arrogance/agression and political policies throughout the world. That wars such as the one in Iraq could have fallen sway to such biological inspiration it was quickly dismissed. Not even worth discussion. I certainly think that this is not only discussable, but likely. I distinctly remember George Bush's hubris over attacking Iraq and his personal vengence for Saddam Hussein, who had 'tried to kill his daddy'. And in fact, more importantly, the foundation of modern international relations theory - 'realism' - is continually compared to a 'pissing contest', or a 'my dick's bigger than yours' scenario. It is not only not a stretch, but is wholly realistic to think that with possitions of power being domminated by men that the world is a much more 'testosterone' based place. More machismo, more I'm bigger, I'm tougher, I'm stronger, you're weaker, you're smaller, you're lesser.
Fact is, that if the world could find a way to balance itself in terms of gender in leadership roles we would get A, a leadership representative of our population, and B, a softer, less aggressive political and social lifestyle. I am not saying that people would not still fight, but a world with less 'machismo' would certainly be a safer and far more inclusive and inviting place. I mean after all, why can't we all just be happy with whatever it is that we've got, no matter what 'size' it is?
I always come back to the James Bond and Tomorrow Never Dies quote from "M" when it was proposed to her that perhaps she "didn't have the balls" for her job. To which she replied: "that means I don't have to always think with them". It has to me forever been a a perfect example of some of the world's problems. I think that men are too agressive and with the systemic instilations of capitalism this is being accentuated. We grow up, harnessing and instigating testosterone based lives. We bocome arrogant and far to self-assured and asertive.
This show itself spent time looking at the biology of financial traders and the male dominated society that the financial industry is. Even as evidence was being sited that showed how diversity and gender equality in corporate and decision making processes tended to lead to better performance, many people calling and commenting seemed to brush this possibility off as gendered grandstanding. But I will say this, my first job was in finance, and I can tell you it was so thoroughly testosterone/machismo based and overtly arrogant that I got out as soon as I could. I have been that guy, and I don't see how it is truly productive and helpful for society.
The dialog itself was great, however I did have one issue with it though. When it was brought up by a caller that to start thinking that testosterone could do such a thing would eventually lead to drawing a correlation between this male arrogance/agression and political policies throughout the world. That wars such as the one in Iraq could have fallen sway to such biological inspiration it was quickly dismissed. Not even worth discussion. I certainly think that this is not only discussable, but likely. I distinctly remember George Bush's hubris over attacking Iraq and his personal vengence for Saddam Hussein, who had 'tried to kill his daddy'. And in fact, more importantly, the foundation of modern international relations theory - 'realism' - is continually compared to a 'pissing contest', or a 'my dick's bigger than yours' scenario. It is not only not a stretch, but is wholly realistic to think that with possitions of power being domminated by men that the world is a much more 'testosterone' based place. More machismo, more I'm bigger, I'm tougher, I'm stronger, you're weaker, you're smaller, you're lesser.
Fact is, that if the world could find a way to balance itself in terms of gender in leadership roles we would get A, a leadership representative of our population, and B, a softer, less aggressive political and social lifestyle. I am not saying that people would not still fight, but a world with less 'machismo' would certainly be a safer and far more inclusive and inviting place. I mean after all, why can't we all just be happy with whatever it is that we've got, no matter what 'size' it is?
Factually Unprecedented
I was listening to a speaker the other day and they kept refering to past times and speakers as authorities. They refered repeatedly to the founding fathers and the constitution repeated and to the 'original intents'. I realized something that I had been harping on for a while, but suddenly made sense. We base our entire informational lives on 'precidents'. The american legal system is based on previous decisions, previous interpretations of laws and the constitution. Our entire science system is also based upon 'standing on the shoulders of giants'. We use what other people have said in the past and turn their interpretations of life into 'fact'. When someone quotes 'Sir' Thomas Paine, what does that mean? Does it mean that an idea is automatically a good idea? Perhaps it was and is, but it also could not have been and is not. I see no authority in the individual that spoke and/or the concreteness of time in regards to an idea, but think that ideas should stand on their own merits given current contexts, times and places.
Think about the US constitution. It is one of the great documents of human history, but so were many other doctrines and legal foundations. Slavery, Colonialism, Manifest Destiny. Every society seems to have its reasons/rationales for doing what they think is/was right or wanted to do. Yet customs and acceptible principles always change with time. It was just over 50 years ago that various races were legally different and people of some were seen as inferior to others - this still goes on in many places, legal or otherwise. On top of those social implications, one look at the technological changes that has happened in our lifetimes - the internet for one - and nothing more needs to be said about changing contexts.
We live in a highly fluid world and with each moment a new idea or technology changes the way the world acts and sees itself. So why then must we hold so much faith in our 'precedents'? Why is it that we think that a good idea yesterday is automatically a good idea today? The constitution was revolutionary, but the founding fathers were living in a completely different world than we are today. Do we really want to go back and live 250 years ago? Do we want to give up all the trappings of modern life - transportation, medicine, food, shelter, security (if it is safer today) - and go back to a time without all of the 'luxuries' of today? To forget all the lessons learned up to today? No, I think most people do not. As times change, so to must ideas and so to must our concepts of what live is and should be.
The US constitution was written for different times, just as Locke, Hobbes and all those great thinkers of the past were. This does not make their ideas rubbish, but it also does not make them sacrosanct. Every day should usher in a new day, and with this new day we should take nothing for granted - no matter how dear it is to our hearts. Even the US constitution has its flaws and its areas of misinterpretation in current day. No precedent is 'fact', and should never been seen as anything more than the current days 'most likely' scenario, or even better yet, as today's 'most educated guess'.
Think about the US constitution. It is one of the great documents of human history, but so were many other doctrines and legal foundations. Slavery, Colonialism, Manifest Destiny. Every society seems to have its reasons/rationales for doing what they think is/was right or wanted to do. Yet customs and acceptible principles always change with time. It was just over 50 years ago that various races were legally different and people of some were seen as inferior to others - this still goes on in many places, legal or otherwise. On top of those social implications, one look at the technological changes that has happened in our lifetimes - the internet for one - and nothing more needs to be said about changing contexts.
We live in a highly fluid world and with each moment a new idea or technology changes the way the world acts and sees itself. So why then must we hold so much faith in our 'precedents'? Why is it that we think that a good idea yesterday is automatically a good idea today? The constitution was revolutionary, but the founding fathers were living in a completely different world than we are today. Do we really want to go back and live 250 years ago? Do we want to give up all the trappings of modern life - transportation, medicine, food, shelter, security (if it is safer today) - and go back to a time without all of the 'luxuries' of today? To forget all the lessons learned up to today? No, I think most people do not. As times change, so to must ideas and so to must our concepts of what live is and should be.
The US constitution was written for different times, just as Locke, Hobbes and all those great thinkers of the past were. This does not make their ideas rubbish, but it also does not make them sacrosanct. Every day should usher in a new day, and with this new day we should take nothing for granted - no matter how dear it is to our hearts. Even the US constitution has its flaws and its areas of misinterpretation in current day. No precedent is 'fact', and should never been seen as anything more than the current days 'most likely' scenario, or even better yet, as today's 'most educated guess'.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Depressingly Real...
So many people in America right now are in dire straights. They can't pay the bills, they struggle to eat, lose their homes, can't find work, whatever an individual's reason is, so many are truly struggling. The toll that this life style takes upon an individual can be immense. Most everyone seems to have some aspirations, goals, desires, things that motivate them and things that they would like to get out of life. When a person can not attain these goals, or at least feel like they are working towards them in the right direction, it is very easy to get down and to even sink into elements of depression. The true problem with this is that our society seems only to accentuate these issues. The system that we live in singularly promotes the individual and the individual's primacy in affecting all aspects of their life. All of the onus for success is put in the individual's hands. If a person is hard working, diligent, and talented they can easily find a way to success.
But what happens when society itself takes opportunities away from this person? What happens when through no fault of individuals themselves, the world crashes into crisis, recession, depression? A person with no job, no way forward - yet still with dreams, goals, and desires - is forced to face that life of need and want every day. They apply to job after job - each one bringing a huge glimmer of hope - only to hear nothing back. Every job application a person puts in has a piece of their heart and sole inside it. They spend hours writing a cover letter, redoing a resume to specifically fit each job, references, samples, getting other people to proof read it all. An entire day can be spent on one job application.
What then happens when over and over again, they receive nothing. No response, no "sorry we decided not to interview you", no nothing. They are left with a littel hole in their heart where all that effort and all that imagining went into an application. And it slowly festers until they come to an evolutionary place of realization that that job is not going to call. Every day, every week, job after job. Its like cold-calling; you don't know the people at these companies and they don't know you. You keep trying anyway, dial after dial, but they aren't interested in buying what your selling - you. They have 300 plus applicants from all over the country. What makes your piece of paper any better than anyone else's? If you don't have the job title on your resume already, best of luck.
But what then? What happens when each day you wake up and have less and less motivation to keep that job search going? You start new pathways, networking, volunteering, friends, family, starting your own business, whatever. But then if things still seem not to move in your direction, what's next. Hopelessness sets in, your on food stamps by now, you struggle to pay rent and bills, an underemployed existence, degrees sitting on the walls collecting dust, right next to your intellect and your heart.
There you sit, is it really worth it to keep looking for another job? What is the use? What is it they say? Doing the same thing and getting the same bad result is the definition of madness? At what point do you just start trying to maintain an existence? Maintain sanity. When do you just stop wasting your time?
But the true problem with it all is that it may not even actually be up to you. The road paved above is one of despair, it is one of depression. That is where this story seems to end up. But then how does that play out? How does one pull themselves out of a depressed state? No health care to see someone about it. No motivation to keep pushing. Even knowing what needs to be done isn't enough, because you still have to get up and do it. A general feeling of hopelessness as no help is to be found. This is what our society does. It puts all the onus on us as individuals to make our lives successful but then truly and fundamentally affects us on a systemic level. How do you harness the power of your intellect, courage, and drive, if the system takes it away from you? How do you work hard as an individual when medically speaking you have lost the capabilities?
People in states of depression don't take initiative, they don't jump up and keep fighting, they dont' care about the American dream as they have been defeated by it so many times that they are tired of fighting the same fight and continuing to lose. It becomes biological, not just mental. Yet our system still puts everything on our own shoulder. How do you rise up and keep trying to fight the idiotic fight when you don't have the strength to stand? How is this possible? How is this fair? How can we do this to good people?
But what happens when society itself takes opportunities away from this person? What happens when through no fault of individuals themselves, the world crashes into crisis, recession, depression? A person with no job, no way forward - yet still with dreams, goals, and desires - is forced to face that life of need and want every day. They apply to job after job - each one bringing a huge glimmer of hope - only to hear nothing back. Every job application a person puts in has a piece of their heart and sole inside it. They spend hours writing a cover letter, redoing a resume to specifically fit each job, references, samples, getting other people to proof read it all. An entire day can be spent on one job application.
What then happens when over and over again, they receive nothing. No response, no "sorry we decided not to interview you", no nothing. They are left with a littel hole in their heart where all that effort and all that imagining went into an application. And it slowly festers until they come to an evolutionary place of realization that that job is not going to call. Every day, every week, job after job. Its like cold-calling; you don't know the people at these companies and they don't know you. You keep trying anyway, dial after dial, but they aren't interested in buying what your selling - you. They have 300 plus applicants from all over the country. What makes your piece of paper any better than anyone else's? If you don't have the job title on your resume already, best of luck.
But what then? What happens when each day you wake up and have less and less motivation to keep that job search going? You start new pathways, networking, volunteering, friends, family, starting your own business, whatever. But then if things still seem not to move in your direction, what's next. Hopelessness sets in, your on food stamps by now, you struggle to pay rent and bills, an underemployed existence, degrees sitting on the walls collecting dust, right next to your intellect and your heart.
There you sit, is it really worth it to keep looking for another job? What is the use? What is it they say? Doing the same thing and getting the same bad result is the definition of madness? At what point do you just start trying to maintain an existence? Maintain sanity. When do you just stop wasting your time?
But the true problem with it all is that it may not even actually be up to you. The road paved above is one of despair, it is one of depression. That is where this story seems to end up. But then how does that play out? How does one pull themselves out of a depressed state? No health care to see someone about it. No motivation to keep pushing. Even knowing what needs to be done isn't enough, because you still have to get up and do it. A general feeling of hopelessness as no help is to be found. This is what our society does. It puts all the onus on us as individuals to make our lives successful but then truly and fundamentally affects us on a systemic level. How do you harness the power of your intellect, courage, and drive, if the system takes it away from you? How do you work hard as an individual when medically speaking you have lost the capabilities?
People in states of depression don't take initiative, they don't jump up and keep fighting, they dont' care about the American dream as they have been defeated by it so many times that they are tired of fighting the same fight and continuing to lose. It becomes biological, not just mental. Yet our system still puts everything on our own shoulder. How do you rise up and keep trying to fight the idiotic fight when you don't have the strength to stand? How is this possible? How is this fair? How can we do this to good people?
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