Globalization is inevitable. You can't stop it. It's good for all. Get on board or be left behind. To stay viable you need additional education and training.
There is only 1 job available for every 6 unemployed workers. So what exactly do these hucksters want people to retrain for? The economy continues to expand (even if that growth is slower). Workers have simply been cut off from the expansion. Capital has been expanding it's share of the profit, while labor has been left behind.
Most of the new jobs being created require an associate's degree or less. 85 percent of the population in the U.S. have at least a high school degree. Over 27 percent have a bachelor's. The percentage of high school and college graduates has increased since 2000. We have neither an unskilled nor an uneducated workforce. Education as a corrective to the employment problem seems minimally significant.
Technology has replaced jobs. This does not mean, as the 'job training' charlatans would imply, simple advances in automation automatically must equate to reductions in the workforce. Increases in productivity upon one variable in the production process can lead to increased needs for labor at another point in the process.
Historically, wages rose with productivity. It isn't an invisible hand or some magical market force pushing us along. It is conscious policy choice. The nanny state has become an inverse Robin Hood scheme. Rather than providing a safety net, ensuring that the least among us do not fall between the cracks, we now provide corporate welfare, ensuring asset price inflation.
We've transformed from a productive economy to an casino capitalism - filled with risk, speculation, and the endless pursuit of higher yields. Any downside is now covered by the public. This is alongside our funding of much of the research and development taking place, and other subsidization of many industries and sectors within the economy.
For Further Reading:
Debt Delusion
Economy Track
Job Crisis: Fact Sheet
Skills Crisis & Job Training
Unemployed Wait Longer For Jobs
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