Yes, could be the case as Andrew Yang warns. However, I think new skills requiring a human element will arise. An interesting comparison is looking at how medicine has evolved. The advances in testing and medical devices which can in many cases provide the initial diagnosis have not made MD’s obsolete. Perhaps certain practices have become more commodity like with non-MD’s taking over certain functions at lower costs. Not such a bad thing.
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One area that I think AI will have a challenge with is empathy. So much of how we interact with others is understanding how others feel because of our humanity. A machine/computer might be able to predict responses based on preprogrammed algorithms but it won’t have the experience of being a human. So long as AI is a tool and not some dystopian nightmare I think that will always be key.
This is a myth that is being pushed by corporate interests via corporate media. The basic wage has not realistically increased since when you started working, but CoL has increased, and so have the qualifications needed for jobs.
It is cheaper to pay WSJ or Business Insider to write an article about some made up 25 year old “John Smith” who is “only willing to work for the right job” than it is to pay retail workers enough money so that they can afford rent, food, AND healthcare, not to mention allowing these workers to take sick days.
The jobs that are being offered to colleges graduates often pay minimum wage, have no benefits, no healthcare, and no prospects of promotion or raises, and no prospect of job security. At the same time, these work places are toxic. At the same time, these companies demand that employees demonstrate “loyalty” by coming to work when sick, working overtime without extra pay, and not taking their vacation days.
During the various recessions and mini-recessions over the past few decades, they have also had their pay and hours cut, while top people are walking away with millions in bonusses.
Moreover, companies that claim that they are desperately looking for employees are treating their job applicants as supplicants. They are ghosting interviewees, playing games of bait-and-switch, and making interviewees jump through hoops just to get noticed.
The economy has constantly grown for decades, while the paycheck of middle and low level workers has been stagnant. That means that Millennials and Gen-Zs are working increasingly harder, and producing more, than people did when you started working, while the only people who are benefiting from this are the wealthiest.
The paycheck that entry-level workers paid for a lot more when you started, and most jobs provided benefits. There were many more prospects for promotion, wage increase, and bonuses for entry-level workers, as well. None of this is true now.
There is, however, an entire class of people who have been getting wealthier and wealthier by demanding more work without paying more who don’t want this to stop, so they are spending billions trying to paint these workers as being spoiled and whiny.
Millennials and Gen-Zs aren’t lazy or entitled, they are simply done with being treated like crap by people who are making a ton of money off of their work.
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I don’t hire “made up John Smith’s”- I hire real live human beings. My company does not hire unpaid interns, we don’t classify full time workers as contractors to avoid paying benefits and payroll taxes, and we don’t ghost interviewees (although we get ghosted all the time- Zoom interviews, sign of the times- but people increasingly just don’t log on).
MWolf- I don’t deny the reality that you write about- particularly in retail, nursing homes, etc. But c’mon- there are legitimate employers out there who in good faith are having trouble finding talent. It’s real. And it’s not a crisis created by the Wall Street Journal as you claim.
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See the page linked in post #212.
Or the image on that page.
New entrants to the workforce are looking for a piece of the declining share of economic rewards that are going to labor, while those who have already “won the game” (accumulated (or sometimes inherited) substantial capital) are getting an increasing share of the economic rewards that are going to capital.
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@MWolf Interesting that you complain about the corporate narrative but then spin one of your own.
Bingo.
Let’s accept your premise for the moment - what’s the solution for the underemployed graduates of elite colleges who are angry, upset, regretful over their degrees. Stew? Complain? Continue to be underemployed until when exactly- their social security payments kick in?
Or figure out a plan to right size their careers?
They’re mad they didn’t major in CS and spent their senior thesis writing about Henry James. Hey, sign up for a coding academy. If they can turn a supermarket grocery clerk into someone earning 80K after a 12 week guerilla warfare program, I’m betting that magna cum laude English major can do it too. They’re mad they studied history instead of finance? Sign up for the CFA. Level one is relatively straightforward, and it’s ALL self study… put those research skills to use- there are dozens of certificate programs in data analysis, finance, logistics.
So sure, your premise is correct. They’re mad they aren’t in high paying professions, and they are tired of earning minimum wage. But what are they doing about it?
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Sounds about right.
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What’s to say that they aren’t doing those things? I know three grads already who are looking into coding academies. It’s just the regret they feel (i.e. “Why am I going through a coding academy when I could’ve done a CS major?”). So you’re not too far off the mark here.
Gosh I wish my journalist friends knew about these billions of dollars being paid to the WSJ and Business Insider. They would find it hard to reconcile with the poor pay and continuing layoffs that are causing many of them to retire or quit (or start Substacks of their own).
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The money does not go to the low-level workers, of course, it never has.
I’m not talking about new grads looking at entry level, low pay, no benefit jobs. I’m talking about kids turning down engineering jobs with great benefits and very competitive salaries because they aren’t perfect.
This is an incredibly transactional view of college, which I find amusing to contrast with those parents who argue it’s worth paying $300K for college so their kid can be part of a community of intellectual peers.
So there’s really nothing to be gained from the intellectual experience of studying a subject that fascinates you? Surely it wasn’t just a default choice?
It’s always been the case that most humanities graduates will have to pivot to get a job: my brother (with a geography degree) ended up as an accountant. That’s much easier for an HYPS graduate, because a graduate from those colleges should be immediately recognizable as smart enough to do almost any job.
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Why are people getting a college degree to go get a minimum wage job? That can be done with a high school diploma or less. Is it the degree that the student is getting that sets them up for a low paying job? What degree ends up paying someone minimum wage and why would anyone want to do that?
I went to community college to get a degree that would allow me to get into a field where I could make more money. I also had an interest in that field which made it easier. I just don’t understand investing in a higher education that isn’t going to further you intellectual as well as financially.
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This is a big problem. I think that many people mistakenly feel that a college education is an automatic ticket to to high/higher paying jobs. Many students just go to off to college, some ill prepared, and graduate with debt and without skills that make them attractive to anything but lower paying jobs.
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No. College is too long and too expensive of an investment to “study what intellectually fascinates you.” You can do that on your own for free with a library card in your after-hours. And ironic you mentioned accounting as an example of “HYPS grads smart enough to do almost any job” — you’d be much better off going to a state school and majoring in accounting or finance in the business school.
Listen, I am SICK and TIRED of the wealthy parents on this website treating all college students as if they come from the same SES of most College Confidential students. Unless you’re wealthy, college is for social mobility. Period. As much maligned as majors like accounting or finance are on this site (RE: Blossom’s comment), the accounting or finance major from Penn State is better off than the unconnected middle class HYPS grad in the humanities. Especially post-COVID and post-‘08.
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Also I think this is absurd. Actually you see a lot of parents even on CC push back against this. And I’ve never really understood this sentiment, given that I’m currently at an elite school and I don’t find that my peers often (or even sometimes) discuss academic material outside of class.
So what did you (or your friends?) do while studying humanities to build the connections to enable that social mobility? Internships? Career related clubs? Meeting some of those wealthy friends’ parents and asking for introductions/referrals? Contacting alumni and asking for informational interviews?
Any state school graduate would have far fewer opportunities than an HYPS student has to do all of that.
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Bloomington019 himself/herself isn’t majoring in Humanities.
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