jobs.

(or rather, higher education which is 100% subsidized by taxpayers), etc.

I remember backpacking through Europe in the early 90s and was struck by the number of men pushing baby carriages in the middle of the day, especially in Germany and the Scandinavian countries. My Austrian friend who was traveling with me explained that there are very generous PAID parental leaves in those countries, with no one thinking it excessive to take a full year off.

And education is free. The teachers are well paid and respected. Sigh.

All the other graduate students I know want out of the US

fighting an uphill battle against a well financed and fanatical enemy

It's unfortunate

Thank you for the sentiment though!

I suspect that we will see a lot of young people flee the U.S. because of this reason.

and training programs for technical workers and artisans.

AND, LAWS THAT PROTECT WORKERS. So many laws that protect workers that we would not believe it was possible.

So what do we get? ALEC and the Chamber of Commerce and employment at will. Hard to say which of those is the worst for the American worker. And I include among workers professionals who are not in top-level management where they work.

I took the drafting class and my brother took the auto shop class. He actually learned to repair cars, and I learned to draft blueprints. That was decades ago. They don't have classes like that anymore. Hell, they don't even have driver's ed. Now the poor kids' parents have to sign them up with some expensive private driving school.

There was ROTC for those going into the military as a career. An auto shop where they learned to be mechanics. Wood working where students learned all about being a carpenter and making cabinetry. There were drafting classes, a beauty school, a shop for metal working; and a few other things, such as languages like Latin to prepare people going into law or medical fields.

Biology, chemistry and physics labs were there, music with band and orchestral instruments; classes for those who wanted to cook, sew, accounting, office or secretarial jobs and arts and things that could make money.

People I knew in rural areas also had FFA or Future Farmers of America to teach them about livestock, farming, tractors, etc. So that they could make a living.

Those were elective classes and worked out by the guidance counselors according to the wishes of the students. Some of the students weren't college bound. Some found jobs from that training at the age of 18. Some got permission to do part time jobs in the afternoon if their families needed the money, in stores or businesses. Others did get their driving licenses in school if they needed it. So the needs of those who did not have a lot of money were met there.

No one left school without the skills to make it in some job or be self-employed. There was none of what is called social promotion. You knew what a 12th grader knew in English, grammar, history, math and the like or you did not graduate at the age of 18, even if you were not disabled. There was a part of the school for students who were blind, deaf or learning disabled, but regular students were not going to leave without basic academic skills.

I've talked with people about this and education in this country seems to be scattering in many areas. Where I live now which is quite liberal, the kids are getting a lot of computer and other skills, they even get the chance if they are able to go community college at the age of 16 if they can handle it; and we have agreements where students can finish their diplomas in Hawaii. We have a lot of kids who are in exchange programs.

This is not a wealthy area, but we always supported our public schools and the results spoke for themselves. Now we have the baggers, libertarians and fundies who want to defund them and it's getting harder. Bush made things hard, too. And after a lot of made up greviances like we see promoted here from media, they finally talked the voters into approving charter schools. This is very bad and we are losing a lot of liberal and progressive ideas to the libertarian and bagger groups. They have out of state money to defeat our home grown candidates. We also have some radical religionists moving into the area. I'm not sure what to do, we have lost all of our media voices now.

are very organized and have both big money and the media behind them.
It is discouraging to watch the process of community deterioration because its not just the face of towns and infrastructure but it is also in the way people think and understand the world around them. We've been divided and conquered.
When we were young there was major investment in Cold War races including the creation of a "brain trust". New colleges were opening every 12 days during the late 60s and early 70s. People were at work manning the Arms Race and the Space. Families could buy a second car.
But it was probably really mainly an investment in propaganda. A very real fear our government (American elites) had during those years was spreading communism, the domino theory. Inherent in that theory is the admission/belief that if people saw communism in action, they would be attracted to it and want to adopt it themselves. If communism was as bad as we were told it was, why would we fear its spreading?
Our uber-class needed us to see that capitalism was the utopia, not communism.
Now that communism is dead, that fear, and the need to buy us off, doesn't exist. The Chinese can make our weapons and computers, the Mexicans can make our cars, and South Asians can harass us when we don't pay our bills on time. What are we going to do? Become Communists?
Terrorism is a superior enemy, it is everywhere, not hidden behind some "Iron Curtain". We don't need much to be convinced that terror is worse than what we have, which is fear.
And you still hear people say, "there is no place better, no place freer, no place with more opportunity, than America".
We will find our voices again, when people take their heads out of their asses, open their eyes, look around, and begin to listen.
But we will have to start from scratch to build a society like the one we once tasted, we have lost many of the skills required for self-governance.

people become mole-men.

system seemed to have everything. I was in the scientific curriculum track, but also took all of the vocational classes too. I love to work with my hands.

I was also very involved in music, and we had all types of musical opportunities, plus very extensive clubs for students with all sorts of interests that met after school each day or whenever for several hours. It was a school system that addressed just about all needs for helping youth get a start in life.

And it was a school system that recognized kids have all sorts of interests. Basically, the school system helped kids channel those interests into being a productive member of society in a way that was fulfilling to the kids. It didn't work all of the time, but most of the time it did.

Now the school system is rated near the bottom of the list. Many jobs in the community have been off-shored and the area has a shabby look. I just look back from when I was a kid and one had the feeling anything was possible, now today it's what might be possible. Our country is eroding and it is not being properly addressed.

But according to my nephew who goes to that school now, they got rid of it in 2005. What a shame!

My wife was a social worker in here in Germany until she retired last year, and my younger daughter got herself a high-paying job (120,000 euros a year, of which she gets to keep half after taxes) down in the Rhein/Main area. Believe me, it's six weeks. My other daughter lives in Manhattan and although she loves Manhattan, she is green with envy at her sister's vacation time.

And there is NOT universal health care here. It is a patchwork system that covers nearly everyone, but there is a ton of paperwork involved, and it is possible to fall through the cracks and not be insured at all in Germany. You have to actively take care of that--they don't hand it to you on a silver platter unless you have a modest-paying job or are a government employee.

The wages are adequate but hardly high, and taxes take an enormous bite--not as ridiculous as in France or Belgium, but high nonetheless. In Europe, it's always the same old dilemma. How can you get away with promising before you can't deliver? And then--how high can you raise taxes before people either flee or decide it isn't worth working any more? Germany has problem number one, is not yet at problem number two. France and Belgium are long there. Germany takes about 50% if you earn a modestly decent wage, plus 19% VAT of every euro you spend. Few have large savings here.

Granted, she's been at her job a long time now. It's been a long time since our backpacking days. But we've stayed in touch and about every few months she sends me a postcard from some exotic place she is visiting. Speaking of green with envy...

Here in Germany, six weeks is standard. My daughter is only 28, and has only been at her job for 2 3/4 years. For a 28 year old that hasn't invented some program that Google decided it couldn't do without, 60,000 euros after taxes and six weeks vacation is nothing to turn your nose up at. Her sister makes less than that in dollars, and that's BEFORE taxes. Her employer MAKES the employees take their full 6 weeks vacation, too, so they don't burn out (they get worked to death for the rest of the year--20 hour days and sudden trips to London or Athens are routine).

She was looking forward to her tenth class reunion in Hawai'i this summer, and then her work came up with some project that she just absolutely was needed for. They are reimbursing her for all the stuff she prepaid, and giving her some kind of bonus as well. She is crushed that she won't see her classmates, or get back to Waimea this summer, but she's thrilled her boss thought enough of her that he said that of all people he needed HER for this project. Consolation prize: it means we'll probably have her for a couple of weeks on Cape Cod.

This is embarrassing!

I'm sure it will kick in any moment now.

As the article pointed out, the depth of the recession was greater here meaning there was a deeper hole to dig out of. An item not mentioned was the stimulus and just how successful that was in stopping the recession in its tracks but it was not renewed and was instead replaced by austerity then doubled down with the sequester so of course our recovery will be more tepid with such strong headwinds. Indeed, this months jobs number is slightly below the monthly average for the last year. If this report would have focused on just private sector job performance this country would have fared far better because the entire 2.1 million shortfall in jobs are lost government sector jobs. But as fast as fiscal policy is putting the brakes on the economy the monetary policy is shoveling money into the economy as fast as it can. It is totally stupid to have fiscal and monetary policy in parallel universes as is the case today. Besides, the Fed cannot continue to buy back bonds at the rate of $85 billion per month -- we just don't yet know where that end point will be. But make no mistake, fiscal policy needs to be relaxed considerably and starting no later than October 2013 (the start of FY 2014). Boehner has so far refused to meet with the Senate to resolve differences in their respective budgets. It is time for the President to call out the Speaker to get cracking on a compromise budget instead of always waiting for another manufactured cliff. And to call out Jim DeMint for interfering with the operations of the United States government with his call for Congress not to legislate. We know who the enemies are so it is time to play hardball and take names.

One will obviously be over the debt ceiling and the other over government shutdowns as the House tries to wedge through continuing resolutions that continue the sequester. This is the whole reason Boehner will not move on the budget. For one, those negotiations would probably take the debt ceiling off the table. For the other, if there is a budget the authorization bills must adhere to the language of the budget and this takes the continuing resolution based on the last budget (which contains the sequester) off the table. Accordingly, Boehner cannot and will not name House members to hammer out a compromise budget with Senate negotiators and will instead defy Congressional rules. As a result we will face the worst government crisis we have faced to date and the silly thing is that Boehner has it in his power to avoid this manufactured crisis -- he just lacks the political will to do what the job requires.

Of course, that's what the thinking short-cutters will say.

The real reason is that Reaganomics never left. Or to be more specific, never WILL leave. As long as fairness has no part in economics, keep looking forward to this.

...and have been seeking hard for a FT job.
As of now, I've decided to give up on the idea of landing another FT job: I am going to cancel unemployment and go the freelance/contractor route.

It's scary because I don't know how it will pan out. But since the sequester has brought my UE pay down to a new horrific low, I need to find another way.

At least I have the option of freelancing. I can't imagine what folks are going through without that option.

You are facing scary times but surviving them will make you better prepared to face any eventualities in your life. In the end you will be more self-reliant and you will develop survival skills you never knew you had plus a variety of other skills to help you earn some cash.
I don't know what sort of freelancing you have planned but you should diversify or add some value/twist/gimic to your product or service that will make customers choose you over your competitors. Build on your skills and develop a niche by your unique approach to whatever it is that you do. As you have had to adjust to getting by on less, during 11 months of unemployment, what was it that would have made that process easier? Answer that and you'll know what to add to your product.
Be creative, have fun, work hard and never go back to being someone else's employee, except under your own contracted terms.
The best of luck to you. When you find the path that leads you from this desolated place, come back and point others in the right direction.

I'm going to copy, paste, save this, and view it from time to time when I need focus.
Thanks again!

I know that it is hard to see at this moment, but someday you will look back on this year as the one when you were set free.
Don't look back but focus on what's ahead and you'll get where you need to go.
Take care and again, good luck.

created under Reagan but that may have been the plan all along considering that certain people in power still admire RR and implement the same or similar policies.

The recession didnt end until June 2009 so why start a Dec 2007? I suspect there would be a different picture if they started the analysis at the proper timing.

inaccurate as well... There have been 39 months of job growth, not 32. But fact-free media is the way to go!

http://www.dpcc.senate.gov/?p=blog&id=172

Oh,...and it helps if you can say, "Times are tough." as you shift more of your profits to your own pocket instead of giving your people a raise.

They straightjacketed those countries into a overvalued currency that is now destroying their competitiveness. The best thing for Italy, Spain and Greece would be to get out of the Eurozone and devalue.
It was a very smart decision by the British to stay out of the Eurozone.

their President, to create jobs.