No, We WON'T Invest in the Children

I read this on OneStdv via Dalrock, and thought the comment had enough merit it was worthy of its own post. it is in reference to men "not growing up" or "manning up;"

Also, jobs are far less stable, which makes guys less stable. The days of working for the same company for 30 years are over. Finally, there are fewer prospects for advancement these days. The Boomers have all of the senior jobs, and don't want to leave them, which means that young guys can't move up as easily.

Also, and this is harder to explain but I am sure there is something to it, I think there is an intangible component to all of this. Back in the day, the institutions of our society actually reached out to young guys. Big companies had "executive training programs," the unions had apprenticeship programs, etc. The institutions of our society were actually reaching out to young men, saying "come work with us," and "we need you."

That stuff really doesn't exist today. Instead of going into an "executive training program" for IBM or GM, most people who finish college do temp office work for a few years until they eventually find something permanent, and then they change jobs every couple of years because they have to.

I am 40, but this is basically what it has been like for me. When I started out doing temp work, it wasn't because I was a slacker who wasn't "interested" in a real job with real responsibilities. I desperately wanted a permanent job. but there just wasn't one to be had. Similarly, no one wants to still be clubbing at 30 or 35. Most guys are a little leery of the responsibility of having kids, but they still want to get married.

It's almost hilarious to think at one point in time there were recruiters approaching college campuses and looking to incorporate young people into the workforce. I, like the commenter, am more or less the same age and now with enough distance between graduating from college and now, I'm actually a little appalled at the blatant indifference of employers and industry had towards employing youth.

Admittedly Gen X was not known for its reliability, but the amount of scrutiny, let alone political and outright corrupt BS I, and I assume others, in my generation had to tolerate was just not justified. Tell me if you haven't had to deal with this type of behavior in your 20's?

1. Misleading job descriptions and titles. "Analysts" "Interns" "researchers." And all you did was file and fax and do meaningless data entry.

2. Psychotic bosses. One 42 year old woman would keep me hostage in her office complaining about work. A conman and a liar who damn well knew what he was doing just to make commission. And an outright megalomaniac who specialized in getting naive Asian investors to invest in his "dotcom" company, as he just took the proceeds and bought cars and flights with it. This one runs the gambit I'm sure, but a disproportionate percent of my bosses had genuine psychological problems or just completely lacked a moral compass.

3. Lack of training. "Must hit the ground running" means "we're too damn lazy to train you and we'll blame your guaranteed future mishaps not on the lack of training, but you." Did ANYBODY out there EVER had ANYONE train them in adequately? I'm not talking an abundance of hand holding, I'm just talking showing people the ropes to the point they're functional on their own.

4. Suffering the inanity of HR. I could go on for pages, but you know precisely what I'm talking about.

5. The BS of "if you work hard and put your time in, you will be rewarded." No, they'll just give you more work, and that's if you're lucky enough to have an employer that is managed well enough to be around and not file for bankruptcy.

Of course at the time, I thought I was a failure. I couldn't find a job, I couldn't find a job that would use my skills, heck, most of the time I couldn't get past the 23 year old girl asking me stupid questions. But then I had an epiphany much like when I was 23 about dating 20 something women. It wasn't me, it was the system.

When I was about 30 I noticed the sheer corruption infecting the banking industry, and how incompetent corporate America had become. I was able to step back and maybe grant myself some credit, and noticed how poorly managed corporate American was by its stewards. I realized just what a psychotic, sick and twisted game our elders were playing on us. There was never any intention of "helping out" the next generation get their feet wet and incorporate us into the working world. There was never any "grooming" or "preparation" for us to inevitably get the experience needed to take the helm as they retired off into the night. And there was never any desire on their part to mentor or train. It was just "forget long term planning and forget long term consequences. Just use them and get rid of them if they aren't a "self-starter." Or they can't handle the "steep learning curve." And, just like men in the manosphere started waking up to the systematic problems in American courtship, people are waking up to this systematic problem too.

There will be a consequence. Heck, there already is. A stale and increasingly ineffective managerial and executive class that can't get this country out of a recession. Additionally a managerial and executive class, that as far as I can tell, can only increase the bottom line through rent seeking, lobbying and graft. None of which will lead to genuine economic growth or a boost in standards of living. They are what the Japanese referred to as "dinosaurs," and is yet another parallel between the US economy today and that of Japan in the 1990's-2000's. Economic decay will be one thing, generational resentment and indifference will be another.

But still, I'd like to think that back in the day, there was a time where such outreach programs did exist to help bring aboard the best talent. I'd like to think back in the day companies wanted you to join their team and would deal with you honestly and directly. Of course, I know those days are gone. To quote a friend of mine whose brother recently graduated with a Harvard MBA;

"So, did he learn anything that common sense wouldn't have told him?"

"Oh, no, of course not. But he didn't go there for that. He went there for the connections. He's got a digital Rolodex of all the children of east coast billionaires who went to school with him."

Surely there is no consequence to cronyism.