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How does someone get into that position? Are public schools so bad that people come out with no marketable unique skills that would give them natural job securi

How does someone get into that position? Are public schools so bad that people come out with no marketable unique skills that would give them natural job security?

charlesu 6y ago
What jobs have natural job security? Either you’re protected by a union, a professional association, or having a rare and valuable skill set. The unions have been busted, professional associations are exclusive by their nature and most people definitionally do not have rare and marketable skills. As a result, an increasingly large fraction of jobs are gig work, part-time, or on contract. That includes work in law and software engineering. Precarity is the natural state of an unregulated, de-unionized job market and it is not a bug but a feature. It has little to do with our public schools.
NoThisIsMe 6y ago
Massive deindustrialization is a huge part of it in the US. There aren't many decent blue collar jobs anymore.
i_haz_rabies 6y ago
Unique skills are rare by definition.
- mminer237 6y ago
  Each individual skill may be rare, but given how many thousands of different skills there are, the trait of having some rare skill should be common.
  - hntrader 6y ago
    But that doesn't mean that it's going to be valued by the market. If it's not valued by the market, the fact that it's rare doesn't help you. For a high market price, you need the intersection of a scarce skill (low-supply in labor market) that provides value to other people (high-demand in the labor market). Being a good software engineer is an example - low-supply and high-demand, therefore high wage/salary.
anonuser123456 6y ago
> Are public schools so bad that people come out with no marketable unique skills that would give them natural job security? Yes, but that's not the only issue. Some people are incapable of managing their own affairs. Showing up to work on time, not drunk is not in their personal capacity. It's not really their fault; we are not the authors of our neurobiology.
- pc86 6y ago
  There are plenty of alcoholics who can show up to work and wait until afterwards to get drunk. There is a certain level of choice to being so egregious about it that you reek of whisky at a meeting, even if that choice is just saying "f it."
  - anonuser123456 6y ago
    Choice is an illusion, a story our brain tells itself to feel better about the reality our consciousness is largely just a witness too.

How does someone get into that position? Are public schools so bad that people come out with no marketable unique skills that would give them natural job security?

charlesu 6y ago

What jobs have natural job security? Either you’re protected by a union, a professional association, or having a rare and valuable skill set. The unions have been busted, professional associations are exclusive by their nature and most people definitionally do not have rare and marketable skills. As a result, an increasingly large fraction of jobs are gig work, part-time, or on contract. That includes work in law and software engineering. Precarity is the natural state of an unregulated, de-unionized job market and it is not a bug but a feature. It has little to do with our public schools.

NoThisIsMe 6y ago

Massive deindustrialization is a huge part of it in the US. There aren't many decent blue collar jobs anymore.

i_haz_rabies 6y ago

Unique skills are rare by definition.

mminer237 6y ago
Each individual skill may be rare, but given how many thousands of different skills there are, the trait of having some rare skill should be common.
- hntrader 6y ago
  But that doesn't mean that it's going to be valued by the market. If it's not valued by the market, the fact that it's rare doesn't help you. For a high market price, you need the intersection of a scarce skill (low-supply in labor market) that provides value to other people (high-demand in the labor market). Being a good software engineer is an example - low-supply and high-demand, therefore high wage/salary.

anonuser123456 6y ago

> Are public schools so bad that people come out with no marketable unique skills that would give them natural job security? Yes, but that's not the only issue. Some people are incapable of managing their own affairs. Showing up to work on time, not drunk is not in their personal capacity. It's not really their fault; we are not the authors of our neurobiology.

pc86 6y ago
There are plenty of alcoholics who can show up to work and wait until afterwards to get drunk. There is a certain level of choice to being so egregious about it that you reek of whisky at a meeting, even if that choice is just saying "f it."
- anonuser123456 6y ago
  Choice is an illusion, a story our brain tells itself to feel better about the reality our consciousness is largely just a witness too.