May Day demonstrations

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(F8L @ May 5 2007, 03:57 PM) [snapback]436117[/snapback]</div>

I believe global warming is going to finish the peoples of this world if we don't do something fast. I do not want to be around when all the things you mentioned start happening. It seems I should have been born about 75 yrs. ago. I would have done well in that time period.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Walker1 @ May 7 2007, 06:47 AM) [snapback]436776[/snapback]</div>

Yes, you would have. Non-caucasions had no rights whatsoever and were denied any but the most menial employment. Women were barred from all the high-paying jobs and could only work as secretaries, or in sweatshops. Positions of authority, where decisions were made regarding hiring or the management of businesses, were reserved exclusively for English-speaking white males. In half of the country, Black people were denied the right to vote, and were lynched if they tried to vote; they were not allowed to eat in restaurants or drink from public water fountains. Rest rooms were segregated and in many places there were no rest rooms for Blacks. An old or infirm Black worman was required by law to give up her seat on a bus to a healthy white man.

75 years ago you would have done very well indeed, because well over half the population would have been barred from any job worth having.

We live in hard times.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ May 7 2007, 12:00 PM) [snapback]436873[/snapback]</div>

Being a college grad I keep thinking of Ward Cleaver & the Leave It To beaver show. In that time period if a guy like me got a Bachelor's degree success was almost guaranteed. All the things you mentioned above worked well for every group except mine. Some of us have paid a heavy price even though we had nothing to do with what the elites ruling our country did to others. As long as I have been posting on this forum I have not been able to get gainful employment. To some folks that may be nothing, but to me it's everything. I have never been a lazy person. I would enjoy working in a position worthy of a college grad with my background and prior business exp.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Walker1 @ May 7 2007, 09:52 AM) [snapback]436908[/snapback]</div>

I can empathize completely. I graduated with an AS in Computer Science and it wouldn't even get me a oot in the door unless I obtained 3 other certs AND had experience or good connections. There are so many more qualified people looking for jobs out there that it makes things very difficult for us. This is the very reason I promote a rastic change in our economic models with an emphasis on human capital and the elmination of the "mechanistic" thinking that pushes for efficiency and reduces human jobs.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Walker1 @ May 4 2007, 12:38 PM) [snapback]435506[/snapback]</div>

And I, on the other hand, think that my comments are warranted...given the confrontational nature of your posts.

Hmmmm...is this what they mean by a "Mexican Standoff"?

Let's see: a "majority" of Americans were for slavery...a "majority" were for segregation...a "majority" were against interracial marriage...

Score: zero to three.

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Regarding your employment search: Keep at it, and don't lose confidence! I like to think that, like love, 'success' and 'fulfillment' are not finite...there's enough for everyone, including yourself.

Yes, the world has changed, and not always for the better. Sometimes I still wish that I was a homemaker and had a kind and benevolent husband to look after me...others, I'm glad that I don't have to trust my fortunes to my looks (no snide comments please!) and ability to attract and keep a man...and instead can rely on myself to more directly have an impact on my own future.

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And, if I might add one more thing: don't EVER expect anything to be guaranteed. Those sorts of expectations can lead to disappointment if they diverge too far from reality. Leave it to Beaver was a TV show. The percentage of the population which ever achieved the then current version of the American Dream was in fact a distinct minority. The homogenous and unified nature of the country was, as Daniel, I believe alludes to, primarily due to the repression of opposing racial groups/religions/political viewpoints.

The thing you've taken to heart was, for the most part, a chimera.

 

we live in a fast-changing world. what got you a lot back then, gets you very little now. nothing, at any time, ever, was guaranteed except hard work and sacrifice.

no sense in lamenting, the earth is gonna continue to circle the sun regardless. go out and change what needs to be changed, don't wait for the world to come to you 'cause it's never going to happen.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ May 7 2007, 03:39 PM) [snapback]437071[/snapback]</div>

Or, to say it with a bit more vulgarity: When you've got them by the short hairs, their hearts and minds will follow.

Go grab 'em by the short hairs!!

Using tungsten for a filament was no more apparent to Edison than MSDOS (a bad example, perhaps?) was to Gates, or the jet engine to Whittle.

Also, remember that not everyone judges a person by her earning power...and that some of us place a value on labor, and the reasons behind it...and don't focus quite so much on the compensation.
[heartfelt smile]

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Walker1 @ May 7 2007, 09:52 AM) [snapback]436908[/snapback]</div>

I sincerely wish you the best of luck in finding a job. But you entirely misunderstand what I'm saying:

The the days of Leave it to Beaver, you'd have been guaranteed a job precisely because all women and all people of color would have been excluded from those (good) jobs by racist and sexist discrimination. Now that those people are no longer excluded, there's more than twice as many people competing for the same jobs. Nobody is discriminating against white men. But white men no longer get all the good jobs automatically, which means there are more people competing for the same jobs and they are harder to get.