You can’t fool all of the people all of the time
Though many students are liberals on social issues, the economic reality of a weak job market has taken a toll on their loyalties: far fewer 18- to 29-year-olds now identify themselves as Democrats compared with 2008.
Its a recession if someone else is unemployed
Its a depression if your unemployed…
See bed
Make bed
Lie in bed
Delicious irony that the age group most supportive of the O has the highest unemployment rate.
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/unemployment/demographics/
It is difficult to be liberal when you cannot afford to be that stupid. No work means no pay which means no play. When dad and mom are out of work or cutting back too, I suppose there is nothing left but hard cold facts. Come to think of it, we should have had a recession long ago. Work, real work, burns the stupid right out of people. Not being able to afford I-Phones and a Prius only adds insult to injury. They will unlearn what they were taught in the “education” mill, that feeling good is good enough.
Enjoy working at McDonald, frat boys… if they will even hire you. If not, I might have some shoveling I could let. Oh, and how is that major in art history working out for you? Or even business or computer gaming design?
Funny the article describes Ft. Collins, CO a town I can describe as nice but not reality. It is a place where there are four places to buy Tibetan goods in a three block area of downtown, where Obama stickers, Native American artwork and Organically grown healths foods stores abound. Alas poor Ft. Collins, I knew it Neo, before it had that appointment with the hangman.
Bob, that reminds me of my state. The economy is composed solely of organic tibetan hand woven tofu baskets for $90 a pop. And the ruling class loves it. the basket weavers wonder why they can’t make a living.
I have said it before, and heard others say it as well: I would applaud a difficult depression if it meant that I would not also have to go through it myself.
Get this piece of drivel:
“Philip Stricker, 21, a biology major who voted for Mr. Obama but says he has not been paying much attention to politics lately, uses a nontechnical term to describe the phenomenon.
“There’s a vibe,” he said on a recent afternoon, while pumping weights at the gym. “Right now it seems like Republicans just care a lot more than Democrats.” ”
They CARE about the LITTLE GUY!!! Hope and change and unicorns!!!
Ugh, I am ashamed of my demographic. I am going to legally declare myself to be 85 years old.
They wont learn, they are signing up for Americorps…
AmeriCorps saw a tripling in the number of applications in the first two months of the year, said Sandy Scott, spokesman for the Corporation for National Community Service, the federal agency that oversees AmeriCorps and other programs. Some 9,000 people applied in February, compared with 3,000 applicants in February of last year….”
Instead of going straight into a 100-hour-a-week job at an investment bank, they are pursuing less lucrative but potentially more satisfying opportunities in public service, enrolling in record numbers in the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and Teach for America. Other students seeking refuge from the recession are flocking to graduate schools, increasing competition for admission.
How else do you get people to join something they wouldn’t join otherwise… see how distant parts work together to make a functional whole? how in the synoptic, you can see the herd moving to where its needed, and the ones that are most receptive, get plucked out of the crowd.
And everyone thought that building a youth corps, which is critical to certain systems, would not be possible. But when did I EVER say that people would have choices, or did i say circumstances would be constructed to facilitate ends?
My son is an Americorps alum. As far as I know, he saw some sort of opening or posting about an Americorps position in his college community, applied for the position, and got hired. He really enjoyed the experience and it was a wonderful growth and learning experience for him — but as his parent, I had absolutely no involvement in the application process so I don’t have a clue as to what that entailed.
bet they don’t know what ideas are passed on either
one only needs to plant seeds, not full blown finished things, ideas with no alternatives that sit for a long while.
AmeriCorps seems great at first. An education award ($4725), and a living stipend ($10,600) seems like enough to get by on. It isn’t.
1. The Education award is taxable, and that’s even if you earn it. Only about 50% of my class will actually be finishing their 1700 in order to earn their award. This is because the program is set up to have you finish in August when everyone else is applying and getting new jobs in May.
2. $10,600 averages out to about 2$ an hour. There are many other fulfilling organiztions you can go work for that will pay you a real salary.
3. AmeriCorps lied to me and just about everyone I know about what our actuall job assignments would be. My time this year that I thought would be spent mostly tutoring has instead been spent checkin my email constantly and mastering Sudoku.
and what do they do, or who do they work for that lower than $2 an hour?
The place I volunteered was a tiny, very fledgling grassroots nonprofit, and what they needed was a trained teacher to develop and run a new tutoring and mentoring program. But they couldn’t have paid a teacher’s salary, so they were dependent upon programs like AmeriCorps and my program to supply them with people with the skills and the desire to help, but who were willing to do so as a volunteer. Which is exactly how I ended up doing it. Nobody was exploiting me. I was what they could afford, and fortunately for them, I was a trained teacher who was willing to work within their terms. By the time my year was over, they were launched and on their feet enough that they COULD afford to keep me on for a small salary.
So its a incubator for front organizations to help bootstrap the 5th column? OR will they just help any old grass roots organization ramp up work on voting, local banks, etc?
I want to make it very clear that this program may NOT be suitable for people who have accumulated assets and benefits from previous work experiences, because the chance that you’ll lose what you’ve gained is pretty high. You shouldn’t need to have thousands of dollars in savings to be able to do AmeriCorps – that would have been the only way I could have been able to get through the program, even if I had wanted to stay. The living allowance they provide is supposed to help you cover your living expenses, but what it DOESN’T do is ensure that you’ll be able to maintain your quality of life (the rationale is that you’re supposed to be at the same income level as the people you serve). If you have a car, good health insurance, and a nice apartment, chances are good that you’ll have to give up those things to make ends meet.
—
The interesting thing is that many of these programs depend on you using your personal vehicle to get around. While Americorps provides “health benefits,” after a full month of tenure, I had yet to recieve my card. They also insist that if you have other insurance, you use that as your primary because, well, the benefits aren’t that good. I STILL HAVEN’T RECIEVED PAY STUBS or endorsed copies of all those forms I signed in duplicate, but they sure yanked my payroll entry fast after I quit.
however this next statement makes it obvious why she didnt like it – she can think…
Basically, anybody with enough smarts to apply for food stamps and section VIII and such before entering Americorps will do so.
And can someone explain to me the point of enlisting volunteers to go out and help the community when those very volunteers are DRAINING THE SYSTEM OF THE LIMITED RESOURCES IT HAS TO GIVE OUT? UH, duuuuuuuuuuuuh!
The real kick in the ass is that because you’re a “paid volunteer” and not an employee, if you have to leave the program you can’t apply for unemployment benefits. Americorps doesn’t make any effort to help participants re-enter professional/academic society smoothly after their service year. True, if you apply for the “stipend” instead of the educational award, they’ll give you $1000 or so at the end (broken up over several pay periods) for the purpose of transitioning out of the program. In a lot of cities, you can’t even put a deposit on an apartment without a full month’s rent – who are they kidding?
its interesting to see which ones have complaints and which ones think its enriching… yet no one mentions what organizations, or what place in the political spectrum they are.
and the smarter ones, who have apartments and such, they are a bit more in tune with how the socialists are using them, and how they dont want to be used. (but this negates the army of people who are there and who are lowering real employment)
I am in Americorps VISTA right now and I’m ready to print and fill out the termination of service form. Who are they kidding when they state the living allowance is able to cover your living costs!!! Well not if you live in Los Angeles and your rent is more than your whole months salary! I also have to depend on my personal car to get to events by my organization and my car is so old already, my poor car and I’m not compensated for the gas or the wear and tear. I have also noticed that the peple I serve are actully doing beeter than I am because they are reeping off the govenment and getting SSI and I can barley affird to eat. Honeslty, the educational award was attractive to me at first but I would rather take out another student loan at this point. You know what really makes me laugh about these non-profits, they really expect so much from us that we have to give up everything, for example, preparing to return to school, I was filling out some college paperwork and got the stinky-eye for not being productive! I wanted to laugh so hard, like my duties are really that important! Half the time I am paper-pushing and making cold calls to other partners that are annoyed by hearing from us.
I’m quiting as soon as I get a position in the same field that pays more.
its a kind of ‘full employment’ program where everyone has a job, but there isnt enough work.
[as was famous in another country]
The stories are VERY interesting and the gaps wide
they are volunteering, and they are griping about pay, jobs they are doing, insurance, etc.
(odd notion of volunteer, eh?)
delete the prior post… i give up..
here is a eye opening post related to the last, but if you read between the lines and think of the big picture..
blownfuse.mu.nu/archives/200275.php
What’s the old saw? A conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged by reality? Rash of muggings of late, don’t you think? And if they called a cop, would Barry say they acted stupidly?
I suppose we should welcome our ‘wet behind the ears’ conservatives to the fold.
Well put. And equally true of worry, real worry.
“Adulthood,” I believe it’s called.
Why read stuff like this in the NYT? Interviewed are a bunch of young airheads out of 25,000, two of whom are communications studies majors, most are likely state residents so they’re living off the taxpayer. It is classical stupid journalism to make a thesis by citing a few personalized examples so we can all “relate”, but the thesis remains unproven, dealt with only superficially and with bias.
I read this only because it was Neo’s topic. My NYT reading is limited to scanning the headlines (that’s all one needs to see the spin) and reading the obits for the latest Leftist loony artsy demise.
“”I suppose we should welcome our ‘wet behind the ears’ conservatives to the fold.””
Turfmann
Next thing you know they’ll be growing hair on their back, drink black coffee and watch a lot of news.
“”reading the obits for the latest Leftist loony artsy demise””
Tom
And reckon what God does with a demised full blown liberal? I vote he just shakes his head and chuckles a few minutes or starters.
I guess they’re finding out that jobs don’t just grow on sugarplum trees.
One of the inherent assumptions of the whole liberal/leftist philosophy is that wealth just exists. It’s out there sitting in a big puddle and the only real question is how to “distribute” it. They can never seem to get it through their heads that it’s hard, slogging, stressful work to create wealth and jobs. Penalize and harrass that sort of effort and you’re going to get a lot less wealth and a lot fewer jobs. And then what are you going to distribute?
While I definitely empathize with the majority opinion here that seems to say that this particluar demographic is getting exactly what they deserve – I’d like to point out that this is yet another opportunity to instill a fundamental change in the direction of their political leanings.
If we don not take this opportunity, they could well one day be 30 somethings that somehow (gasp, weep) survived the Great Recession and are on their way to complete reliance upon government handouts for their entire lives.
No reason to be ashamed, anna. We’ve all been through it.
Consequences. I’ve often thought there are only two parties: the party of those who are responsible and the party of those who have no responsibility.
Artfldgr Says:
September 3rd, 2010 at 6:45 pm
Yes, I can see it, and that was a perfect illustration.
I don’t suppose you can blame those too young to have voted, although their cheerleading leaves them tainted at some level.
I would be interested in whether they actually know why things are so bad, or do they simply associate things being bad with Obama and want a new father-figure.
Being socially liberal is interesting. The guy who thinks it’s fun for his family to go to the church potluck and listen to a returned missionary is going to be at work earlier the next day than the guy who went to the casino until two in the morning. He’ll have more money left over, too.
Hence, making a stretch, the rise of the “repressed” middle class following the Restoration and the Regency.
Anna:
Are you then going to apply for Social Security benefits? 🙂
You can’t fool all of the people all of the time
True, but unfortunately, you can fool all of the fools all the time.
Occam. And that’s usually the swing vote.