Do They Look Familiar? Unemployed Seniors
State of the Economy and Work Force
The United States has at least 15 million underemployed individuals and the number of unemployed (not defined by the U.S) is about 6 million. That’s amazing considering the total labor force at 135 million.The 6-7% unemployment number the US Govt is using, is bogus. In credible statistical terms, it is more like 10-12%, just like it is in Europe today…Same type of economies as the US. Seniors have been fired or laid-off from their jobs primarily due to their age, in order to make way for the corporate hiring of younger, lower wage cost employees in skilled jobs.
Humans (Seniors) are a valuable resource we have of people with work skills and managerial ability to be employed and add to the prosperity of the US economy.Higher employment levels of seniors, creates more gross income across the economy, and hence the financial means to afford higher education for the youthful people coming into the work force, behind our seniors after attaining age 65.
Traditionally, manufacturing was the means by which many Americans made a living. Today, low-cost imports from developing world countries, like China, have displaced US manufacturing production and senior age job opportunities.“Made in America” needs to be re-discovered. That is Doable.
When touring France a couple years ago, it was near impossible to find China and Asian imported goods. France’s nationalism spirit protects their work force.In the US, a Core Issue today is “how to achieve a more fully-employed worker economy over the next 10 years”. The challenge is to design community private sector visions and plans for rebuilding the country’s work opportunities across the USA, especially for disenfranchised seniors that have lost their higher paying jobs, before they have reached age 65 to qualify for SS and Medicare benefits..
Global Employment and Inequality Conditions
Global economic and employment well-being is very unbalanced as large economies in Asia and especially Japan and China, do not promote “openness in imports” from other countries, like from the US. However, I think it is becoming clear, like it or not, humans are reliant, on each other. And for every human left behind outside the work force, we are destroying our collective consciousness and life style equalities.
Our global collective consciousness can be likened to a table cloth made of many strands of fabric woven together. If the fabric unravels, the table cloth is weakened, and employment balance is weakened globally across all major countries. Washington’s geo-political policy has been ineffective at promoting and correcting disparity in global employment conditions.
China’s GDP is growing at 7% and recently near 10%, while the US and Europe has been near 2% growth. A balance needs to be reset there in geo political initiatives. We need a type of "U.N." for more global employment equality and balance that the Private Sector has no global influence over. Global organizations need to address the job losses of capable seniors willing to be back to work for life-style sustaining wages (Not a Minimum Wage of $10) and welfare benefits to help these workers be financially sustaining until age 65.Most advanced countries only have the senior age welfare safety nets for workers past age 60s.
Continue the Economic Success in the U.S.
We have done well in the United States maintaining an excellent standard of living, in general. Yet, much of the apparent prosperity is from growth in Government Services and Government Employment, not from absolute wage prosperity and senior’s jobs growth in the “private sectors” of the economy. In 1985, the Government was 15% of the economy, now it’s 25%.Government does not produce much in tangible value across the economy, it primarily “regulates and impedes” the private sector. It is hard to turn that trend into reverse, even with many politicians in favor of “smaller federal government”. It is unlikely that the government will have the Guts and Self-interests desire to make itself smaller in scale compared to the whole of the economy. If visions & actions of new US jobs, especially for seniors, are to be made, it must come from Visions & Plans & Actions from the private sector, and mainly from dedicated people in communities…this means a lot of grass root micro-economic solutions that are jobs-creating.
Establish Local U.S Collective Community Efforts
It is the responsibility of ethical and energetic people to put one foot in front of the other. We can use for-profit commercial strategies and Social Enterprise Businesses to improve human and environmental well-being (Create new jobs in pollution abatement and recycling & reusing our waste).We cannot continue to overlook those left behind underemployed families and seniors, by laying the responsibility off on government.
The Government does not focus on “New On Ramps” to career employment growth in the private sector. They focus on “Programs of Dependency”…food stamps, 2-year unemployment benefits, excessive OSHA and mandated healthcare financial burdens on employers. The Government needs to “get more out of the way” of private job creation models, and offer more incentives that enables the private sector to find and employ its needed solutions.
We have only stated the obvious. We mentioned collective consciousness, which is life. And by whatever power that sustains our lives, our collective conscious is our responsibility. It’s amazing to us that we are not embracing this resource to empower ourselves and to enrich lives more at the Community Level.We have become complacent, attempting to endow our local and federal government with this responsibility. They do not “Get It”, so we have record high unemployment and underemployment of seniors as US jobs race offshore.It’s our citizen’s responsibility to use this collective connectivity to promote well-being for humanity and the environment across our communities. Government regulates and retards, it does not Create anything.
How do we determine direction, formalize mission goals and objectives? We suggest through superb processes we can develop our community mission, goals, and objectives, and the means to execute them. We have been given this time and this space. Let us not continue in complacency.
Summary…The End??? No, This is Just the Beginning!
Where did this idea of recycling human resources evolve? It is through the collective conscious of Thought Leaders…like You and Us. How do you build a house? The classic answer is with a sound foundation; someone mentioned, “you must dig a hole first’. We have dug the hole. We have left many people behind, especially seniors and our economy is questionable at best. How have we responded? Think about it. We are now conscious that we have a big elephant in the room…unemployment and underemployment of seniors and youth. Let’s unleash and rev-up our minds and visions to create more jobs and more sustainable small businesses across our communities!
One Foot Forward…The Ideas…
1. Chair a working committee of diverse small business and economic talent to discuss the Vision. What is that Vision? How can communities be creative and cooperative across its citizenship (Absent Local Government) to be proactive in growing more community based small business?
2. Can we (Meaning any community based pro small business group) assemble economically justified visions and plans to encourage, nurture and support small businesses that create more local jobs?
3. Can non-profit organizations become expansive in “social enterprise businesses” (Like Arrowhead Golf Club, park district golf facility, yet a Mega local hospitality center for a bar, dining and large reception events…AKA Municipal Enterprise for Wheaton.) and create business revenue that creates jobs and adds to their humanitarian service capacity?
4. Can we attract the many thousands of Castaway unemployed in their 50s and early 60s to Onboard with us to have their skills and competencies assessed for finding “Best Fit” and reasonable paying jobs for them at Plus $20/hour?
5. Can we do good assessments of the skills and competencies of the managers and workers to Hold and Promote in a “Worker Employee Bank”?
6. Can we find local companies that are family-owned by near-retiring owners and seek friendly take-overs by talented teams of well-matched operating managers and workers to carry on and grow these businesses?
7. Can we gain support and commitment of local municipalities to purchase their service and product needs from local small businesses within the same or at least adjacent community businesses?
8. Can we entice local bankers to advise and help set up small business “Buyout and Start Up” programs to grow and sustain more local businesses?
9. Can we organize “Oversight Management Boards” from existing executive manager level talents of volunteers in the community, to oversee and proactively advise our small business in “Best Business Practices and Operating Policies”?
10. Can we liaison in Small Business Loans for buying out and starting up new local businesses?
11. Can we interest Private Equity or Angel Investors to help us on the important “equity capitalization” of our firms that is needed for us to get access to SBA, Owner Carryback, and Bank financing plans?
If you are a person age 50 or over and are an “employment castaway”. Having lost a good paying job, and desiring a return to the work force to a good paying job…We want to hear from You?
Would you like to be a “Player” with us and our visions?
Please give us your comments and ideas that support the initiatives and visions discussed above…
What Do You Have to Say?
Charles J Dushek, Margaret Dushek, Phil Sweeney are Thought Leaders in bringing positive transformations in senior re-employment opportunities. To know more about Chas Dushek ,Marge Dushek, Phil Sweeney and Charles Dushek please visit here : - http://charles-dushek.blogspot.com/
