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Out of curiosity, what’s the ideal job for some of you?
Harem administration and maintenance.
I believe those positions have been filled around here.
Ever since moving here, my butt has gotten so much bigger.
A good thing…?
Gosh, the hipsters with 100K in school loans a head didn’t team up to fix the late capitalist economy that Wall Street and government have screwn beyond disrepair sine at least Glass-Steagall? Shame on them!
Yes, screwn is a word.
And “sine” is a trig function.
There are some problems with this viewpoint. I’m a member of this so-called creative class and I’d like to make a rebuttal. I’m going to speak for all of us, which I don’t like doing but it will keep this argument more coherent.
I’m part of the best educated, most underemployed generation this country has seen. We’re all dressed up with nowhere to go. What to do? For many of us, we can’t get a job that we hate that puts 2 sedans in the garage and pays for 2 kids like our parents’ generation. It’s not an option for many of us. Instead of sitting around and moping about it (ok, we’ve done some of that) we go out and create a job that we like. The creative cohort that I’m in are neither here nor there – we’re not technically unemployed so we don’t get government benefits. We live somewhat off the grid and above the social safety net.
Second; I don’t like the cultural homogeneity, but when you try to construct an economy and way of living by throwing money into a “plan” that has worked else where, don’t be surprised that what you get is something that feels like it is from elsewhere.
In addition, we’ve seen the increased productivity of the American worker get sucked up by shareholders and executives, then invested in abstract inventions of the banking industry which get wiped out, leading to employers squeezing more productivity out of their workers that get… you get my point. Maybe if some of those billions wiped out by reckless speculation had been invested in innovation and capital in this country my generation would be in a better position to get these “jobs of the future” which have yet to materialize. Where’s your flying car mechanic? Same place your flying car is, nitwit.
Nobody paid for my education for me – I did it myself. And I’ve got loans that are enriching some fat cat someplace because they told me the jobs were waiting at the end of the tunnel. More like end of the rainbow. And this writer has the gall to ask “What have you done for me?” Screw your traditional economy. Jezebel, get off my ass. I never said I was going to fix the economy that Wall Street broke. I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got, and most of that has not been given to me. We’ve gotten dealt a bad hand. Just be glad we haven’t folded.
What advanced degree did you obtain?
I currently have an A.A. I have 3 semesters remaining of a B.A. in Economics.
And you’re part of the best educated? I’m shocked that you haven’t soared to the pinnacle of success.
With a B.A. in Economics, he might get a job managing a Hardee’s. The Big Time! Perfectly positioned to steer our economy to Utopia and beyond!
And I thought “advanced degree” referred to post-graduate degrees, Masters & PhD. A Bachelor’s is “undergraduate”. As in beginner.
He never said he had an advanced degree, you did. He said he was *a member* of an over-educated, under-paid generation, and you haven’t provided a bit of evidence that he was wrong in that statement, just tried to knock down his own education as insufficient. That’s not having a conversation or an argument, it’s just internet nit-picking. Kind of like this comment.
I did not say “advanced degree”, Scott did, but Mr. Fletcher implied it when he call himself “part of the best educated, most underemployed generation this country has seen.”
If you took out a loan, then you DID NOT pay for it yourself. You took the same easy way out that government has done for decades, so don’t act so superior. And those fat cats that you are slave to are clearly smarter than you. Talk to us when your loans are paid off.
That’s a pretty thin response, Big Al. It appears that you only read the last paragraph. That’s like putting on six Star Wars movies and fast forwarding til you get to the Ewoks.
Most of your discussion was about the economic system in general, which I have no real opinion on, and don’t think yours is in any way remarkable, so no comment was warrented.
But when you close with a paragraph that is all about YOU, and in two sentences it goes from “Nobody paid for my education for me – I did it myself.” to “And I’ve got loans that are enriching some fat cat…”, then I cannot help but point out your hypocrisy.
As for “because they told me the jobs were waiting at the end of the tunnel.”, well, my Army recruiter told me a lot of neat “mint on my pillow” stuff, too, but I had half a brain and knew that it would really be a lot of prolonged boredom occasionally mixed with sweat, dirty and noise. I have no regrets, because I did not not burden myself with delusions.
Real Life means preparing for the worst before hoping for the best. So grow up.
You have a very strange understanding of loan requirements, especially student loans, which don’t go away even if you declare bankruptcy. Paying for something with a loan means you are absolutely paying for it yourself, you’re just taking a longer period of time to do it. Your hostility comes across as bizarre and uneducated.
I don’t equate loans as paying for something. Loans are what people do when they refuse to deny themselves instant gratification. And no one who is in debt but tells me they paid for something has any credibility with me. I am a successful medical professional, and I paid for every dime of my education, so I feel completely entitled to stick a pin in people who claim to be accomplished and educated yet indebted all in the same breath, and all the while ranting about how the system is what is broken, when in reality, THEY are.
Education loans in particular are one of the only avenues for people to ascend the economic ladder. Advanced education can be extremely pricey and all but unattainable for someone who doesn’t grow up with a certain economic advantage.
It seems pretty myopic and privileged to suggest that someone ought to be able to save up hundreds of thousands of dollars at a lower-wage job before attending secondary school.
Additionally, home loans and car loans are the only way that the vast majority of Americans can afford these goals.
Should people max out credit cards on video games and music? Of course not. But reasonable low-interest loans are a very sensible way of “paying” for school, houses, etc.
Meh, this Kotkin vs Florida contentiousness has been going on for a decade now. Understand who has been funding Kotkin’s research- CoC, housing developers, Christian right. And, as is typical of Kotkin, he has completely distorted Florida’s perspective. Richard has, since at least tROCC, contended that creative economy will create the inequities we are seeing.
Here is Florida’s response to Kotkin:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/21/did-i-abandon-my-creative-class-theory-not-so-fast-joel-kotkin.html
Thank you for posting Florida’s response. I read it when it was first published. It’s important to see this decade-long debate from the right wing.
You’re really hitting the hornet’s nest with the stick here. Probably good for your web traffic. Also, I’m not sure the article cited leads to the conclusions that are drawn. How come when you put something controversial on this site, you always put the words in someone else’s mouth?
Huh. Interested how you see citing someone else’s article as putting words in someone’s mouth. The only comments from Ashvegas are telling you where the article came from originally. You sound determined to be upset.
Asheville obviously has different socioeconomic demographics than a Detroit or a Cleveland – one of the most important being that most of the industry here comes in the form of outside dollars (tourism) from bigger cities. As I see it, this influx of money from larger cities can effectively prop up our creative class, insulating our local economy from the bigger ebbs and flows of the national economy. When people aren’t coming here from NYC or DC, they can come from Charlotte or Atlanta. There will seemingly always be people with money who want to come here and spend it.
But….wait….too. Many. Facts. That. Are. Contrary. To. My. Worldview.
I’m waiting for the inevitable “But Asheville is different” comments. Post this on the West Asheville Watch Facebook page and watch the freakout ensue. Pure entertainment.
Silly hippies.