Remember when money was worth something?
- Thread starter Kreskin
- Start date
I beg people to stop confusing technological progress (distractions) with an increase in living standards. I know if we had our current system but with stone age technology and standards than we would all be in revolt.
In the 1950s, a man working an entry level job at a factory could afford - without decades of loans - an automobile, a home, an annual yearly vacation and the wife could stay at home and raise 2-5 kids.
If we still had the same living standards in our society, than practically everyone who is employed in a full time entry factory or office position would at minimal have a computer or two, a car or two, a home (that the bank doesn't own in a 60 year mortage), et al, without being in significant debt.
Instead in our current society, you can have both couples working as paid professionals (i.e. 120,000 combined before expense) and never be able to afford a proper home in Vancouver unless they sign themselves to decades in mortages.
In the 1950s, a man working an entry level job at a factory could afford - without decades of loans - an automobile, a home, an annual yearly vacation and the wife could stay at home and raise 2-5 kids.
If we still had the same living standards in our society, than practically everyone who is employed in a full time entry factory or office position would at minimal have a computer or two, a car or two, a home (that the bank doesn't own in a 60 year mortage), et al, without being in significant debt.
Instead in our current society, you can have both couples working as paid professionals (i.e. 120,000 combined before expense) and never be able to afford a proper home in Vancouver unless they sign themselves to decades in mortages.
It's the Maritimes.... it's the norm around here. Jobs are not that easy to come by, which is why so many head out west to work on the oil sands.... which is one of the other reasons why I'm moving to Australia. Employers around here have no issues of threatening to replace you with some university student willing to work for far less, because there are thousands of Uni grads around here desperate for a job..... I was one of them.... and considering the amount of colleges/universities around here and being dubbed "Canada's Education Province"..... they're not too far from the truth in regards to finding some chump fresh from college/university to take your job for far less pay.
To be honest, this is one of the better jobs I've had since leaving high school..... and the most I've been paid so far.
Yet it's still less then half of what I could earn out west or in Australia and still far less then what I was told I'd be making from those teaching me in college.
Nova Scotia/Maritimes are a wonderful place to live, great environment, decently friendly people, lots of things to see and do..... but when it comes to jobs, this place is a sh*t hole and employers around here know it.
And people wonder why us Maritimers have chips on our shoulders.
Myself, I am paid more than most people in Vancouver but its hard to keep quiet about the injustices that is the Vancouver's real estate market.
In all likelihood, following my colleagues, I am probably looking into migrating to the United States (as ironic as it sounds) or working out an agreement in which I am working for a western corporation, for a western wage but living in Latin America and, or Eastern Europe, as I am fluent in both Spanish and Russian.
I don't think I was put on this planet to be a slave and to live a miserable lifestyle. Yet, I may tolerate that if I were religious but I am not religious. Much like I would tolerate the status quo if I were binded to a concept of the "greater good", but everyday I am faced with the reality that Canada is a country full of hate, whether it is class-based (this thread is a good indicator), race-based (namely the multiculturalism institution which is hostile towards people like me), or culturally based between the Anglo-Canadians and Franco-Canadians.
Probably a good reason because capitalism thrives much better in an environment in which the masses are divided and conquered and the elites have no means of identification (i.e. no strong national identity which binds the CEOs to the working poor) with the remainder of society and hence no second thoughts about exploiting them.
Want some cheese with that?
I've been here 20 years. Some of my classmates and friends have gone to Alberta; some have come back here.
I've also known people who have moved here from out west and Ontario.
You happen to work for a lousy employer.
Why? To shove it up your ass with a twist?
Sure.
Well whoopty do for you, I've been here for 30..... want to see how big my d*ck is too while we're at it, cuz I'm sure mines bigger too.
What you claim compared to what I've experienced, what my wife is currently going through, what my friends have experienced, what my family has experienced, what my fellow classmates in college have experienced, what many polls and studies have found..... would all generally disagree with your claims.
I guess all of us and all those people flying out to work in the oil sands all just have bad luck huh? I suppose you're the standard everybody should adhere to.
The fact that the only people out of the two college course I have taken who ever really landed a job in the field they went to college for is myself and two others would prove my claims true for the most part...... out of some 80 students in total (about 40 per course)..... the other two that landed jobs had to leave the country to get their jobs and while I've been doing fine for myself in my field while remaining where I am in Nova Scotia.... I've come to realize that I've reached the dead end of where my career is going to take me here.
That's not bitching or complaining.... that's just fact. A fact I long accepted a couple of years ago and is why I'm going to head elsewhere because if I ever want to start a family and still be able to live decently, I'm going to have to..... either that or end up begging the system for money to help raise my kids like half the other families around here who have no other options.
I didn't create the crap-ass employment environment here.... it already existed long before I came along.
The only jobs that are in abundance around here are minimum wage, part-time jobs.... and if you like working two or three of them, or if you're working in some labour job, you don't have much to worry about I guess.
Of course there will be exceptions to every situation.... like you.... but exceptions are not the norm, are they?
I only buy analgesics when they're On Sale and then in Bulk Sizes-companies know how much people need them and charge the earth for smaller sizes.
Razor blades are a racket of an even fouler kind.
Razor blades are a racket of an even fouler kind.
Every time we try to hire someone, we have a terrible time finding anyone with even a small portion of the qualifications we're looking for (and in my opinion, we aren't looking for much). But then again, we now have a computer web design guy essentially acting as our receptionist, 'cause he can't find a job in his field. Maybe it's like every other skill: the demand comes and goes, the job market comes and goes.
Previous generations inflated their incomes out of debt. Very different world we're in now.
Money never has had worth. It is merely a representation or note that backs something that really has worth.
That's exactly it.... for people working in computers around here that is.
When I was going through high school, they had the colleges come in for a couple of days presenting their programs and what sort of careers you can look forward to. Many of them claimed that (this being 1997-98 at the time) jobs relating to computers are sky rocketing, and growing quite well around in the maritimes and now was the time to jump on board to get fancy jobs with great pay.
But when you got to college or university, they taught you the basics of the programs and how to use them..... they gave you the bare bones details of what you might or might not be doing in the work field..... but they never actually focused on the specific jobs available around here, or any specific job at all.
So when you get out of college/Uni, you know the programs and what the tools do.... you know how to apply your own imagination to create something...... but you were never taught the full details of what's expected in the job field, how files need to be constructed in order to be usable or high enough quality to use for large format printing, as an example.... and you basically have to learn that as you go on the job.... if you can get a job that is.
I eventually got my way into graphic design around here by applying part time at a local photography studio as their graphic designer and photo editor. I started off at $7 an hour at a time when minimum wage just rose around $6.50 or so.... big pay I must say :roll:
Eventually I got on full time and ended up as their only GD basically running the entire show when it came to photo retouching, color correction, photo packages, the web site and dealing with virtually millions of photos a year from multiple elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, universities, weddings, family portraits and a bunch of other crap.
And after fighting tooth and nail for almost three years for a raise..... what did I get paid for all those responsibilities?
eventually $13 an hour which the own of this mom and pop company thought was too high...... when freelancing what I was doing would have brought in around $65 an hour..... but freelancing isn't steady, especially around here.
Eventually I got into the sign industry which is where I am now..... being paid a little more then what I was being paid at the photography studio 7 years ago.... somewhere around the $13.50 - 14 an hour range...... I even had to fight tooth and nail just for the two reviews I did get to get paid what I am now..... and due to the excuses of the "Recession" and jobs drying up, nobody's expecting anymore reviews or raises for a good while to come and we should be so lucky not to be laid off. So to put it simply, my career's at a dead end here..... and the moment I go and look for another job in my field around here, the exact same thing will happen that happened in this job, just like the job before that and the one before that....... My pay drops and I end up spending the next two-three years trying to get back to where I am now with no guarantee that my career won't reach another dead end around here.
The universities and colleges don't fully prepare you for what you need to actually know to get a decent job...... those decent jobs are also far and few in between around here in the Maritimes towards what I and your friend does..... and many of those jobs know all of this and use it to their advantage to get the most out of you for as little as possible.
One could move out west, but then when you factor in the traveling costs and the increased living costs out west, it's a bit of a waste of time to bother..... my sister went out west with her boyfriend for him to work on the oil while she worked at a restaurant....... about 4 months later they came back bankrupt...... that doesn't happen to everybody of course, but simply heading out west isn't always a solution for everybody.
And I'm not heading to Australia because I'm bitter or anything.... there's a number of personal reasons beyond just work an a decent pay..... but also, depending on where we move to, our living costs will be about the same as what we're dealing with now, both our pays will pretty much double from what both of us are being paid now..... the exchange from Can to Aus currency is virtually par right now..... and in Australia, you have a crap load more time for yourself, ie: 4 week vacations, rather then 2 piddly weeks a year, so you can actually do something..... like really do something..... or spread it out and have two 2 week vacations a year, or whatever.... and where my wife's from, I guess in Melbourne, the city is very fond and supportive of the arts and I noticed there's a crap load more jobs for what I and your friend does then there is around here.
It's got nothing to do with being whiny or pissed off about Canada or the Maritimes or the crap I went through in life.... we all go through crap...... but I have to look out for myself, my wife and our future family and we'd simply have a better chance there then here..... and it's not like I haven't tried my damn'est to try and make a life here for the last 12 years being on my own. I figured I was born and raised here, educated here and lived here for so long..... I should stick around and try and contribute back to the community and work, rather then take off out west like everybody else.
Well I gave it a shot and now it's time I give something else a shot..... labour, construction and mechanical jobs around here are plenty, but when it comes to computer related jobs, it's still pretty dismal around here.
Try and find a real mechanic. One that can fix things rather than just replace parts the thingie in the lighter socket told them to replace.