There is a complete disconnect in Washington from the quiet desperation of American lives. While politicians chatter talking points and claim lobbyists' agendas are somehow sane economic and labor policy, a full 23% of Americans have been fired in the last four years. That is disposable work syndrome and that is the crisis of our time, not the rhetorical fictional spin spewing from the mouths of politicians.
Of the almost a quarter of working America fired in the last four years, a full 22% cannot find another job. That's roughly eight million people.
Disposable worker syndrome has affected the entire nation. One-third of American households lost much needed paychecks over the past four years. A full 79% of America knows someone personally who lost their job. The great jobs slaughter has affected everyone except Wall Street and K Street. The below graphic shows the radiating circles of economic disaster as the job loss waves crashed across working America.
These devastating statistics are from a John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development survey conducted in January 2013. We actually ran their survey percentages against the current unemployment statistics. They match.
Of the people fired who managed to get another job, a full 48% took a step down in position with 46% taking a job below their skill or education level. A whopping 54% reported their new job pays less. A third took over a 30% pay cut to get a new job. Another third got hit with a 11-30% cut in pay. That's economic devestation for millions of Americans, even while working.
The economic impact is permanent to most families. The majority of Americans, 56%, now have less in savings than before 2008. Thirty-eight percent reported they are tapped out financially. Even those with jobs lost savings as over one third saw their nest egg shrink.
Over half of people said they were running through their savings just to get by and 30% said they were borrowing money. Below is the study graphic showing the desperate financial measures people have used to survive since 2008.
People literally are not going to the doctor because they can no longer afford it. Fifty-seven percent of survey respondents said they cut back on health care. Unfortunately the dead don't speak, so we don't know how many actual lives the recession took.
The study was actually released last week and did receive major press. We strongly suggest clicking on the link and read the study in full. The press glossed over in many ways how truly decimated the American people are economically. We've known that for years as we see it every day in the economic statistical reports. This survey brings it home.
The only silver lining to the survey results is we all can feel validated that we are not imagining things and our perception the entire middle class is being wiped out is true. Another truth is our politicians have been on a campaign. Just not the one reported. The campaign really is to destroy the U.S. worker and middle class. It's clear the Washington D.C. position is the American worker be damned and as a result, damned we are.
Comments
The Empty Core
Many companies have disappeared. Time counts. Unemployed and out-of-touch. Soon the wall is hit with no more credit and no way to stay in place. Optimistic for Wall Street/DC to play partisan games while so many suffer like saying "let them eat cake".
more it is the attitude towards the U.S. worker
Corporate profits are and have been at record highs. the U.S. worker, from no high school to PhDs are treated as an expense instead of the key components to make a business profits and successful. Beyond that, there is no sense of responsibility, of loyalty of purpose to employees at businesses. They fire people almost like they are taking target practice at the gun range and instead of even recognizing the devastation that brings, hire PR and HR hatchet men (women) to make sure no one causes a scene or sues them.
People are perceived only as consumers, not producers and especially not as citizens with bills to pay and mouths to feed.
Plenty of regimes have made that mistake - societies fall
No society, none, can keep destroying so many people's lives. It simply can't happen. No society can be sustained that allows a tiny minority (in effect, less than 1%) to rule and get all the riches, safety, security, health benefits, protection of laws, handcrafted laws, etc. History is replete with fallen governments that thought they could keep pushing and pushing and pushing. At a certain point, everyone outside the super-minority realizes they are being screwed. Tax base gets whittled down. Schools collapse. People's health goes down the crapper and more inmates in prisons - greater burden on those paying taxes, but the super-minority are exempt from real taxes and no one else has jobs = no tax base.
One relative gets fired/long-term unemployed, okay, maybe tolerable. Two? Three? Entire families long-term unemployed? How pissed is that family and are they going to be lavishing praise on anyone connected to the regime?
And if the super-minority think they can keep going at it, they are wrong. Cops, prosecutors, corrections, teachers, everyone sees their pensions being stolen from, they see hedge fund managers making billions (literally, billions for managers) just for sitting on the money or losing to the market and being born into the right circles in the first place. Private security? Those folks get paid pathetic sums of money.
So, no jobs, no tax base, public servants that might be pro-regime see they are just another expendable line in the ledger. And so it crumbles. Toss in the rampant corruption, kids to people in their 90s getting screwed, no jobs, destined for a life of unemployment and crushing debt and only a delusional PR shill or politician thinks that could last.
Egypt, Tunisia. EU. Africa. China - as corrupt and oppressive as they come. USA. Look around the globe - no one is immune. And if banksters and the top levels of bureaucracy that do nothing but make money from having money or destroying people think there's some paradise where servants and peasants would love to serve them we'd like to know where that country is because everywhere they are hated. Delusional people think that somehow because they vacation in Bora Bora or have $50 billion in the bank that they are immune from caring. 25,000 miles around - it's a small world with an ever growing population of really, really disenchanted people. Things don't have to be this way, if only the majority of people actually had a voice in the system instead of being purposely ignored and crushed at every turn.
Neither Holy, Roman or an Empire
Live in a world where the 'Good Jobs' belong to so very few. Work long long hours for the the same or less. What about outsourcing? Suppose you are the best of the best. Go to the best schools, go to even better graduate schools. What do your get?You will be in charge of out-sourced labor. Become a stranger in your own country.
Be objective on the metrics. In Tech today, (best the working stiiffs can hope for)
these are the metrics. Eighteen percent of Tech jobs will be held on shore, the rest off-shore. Worse sitll, the eighteen% on-shore are composed of 95 percent Visa Workers. So the real domestic percent is miniscule.
These 'standards' are held by the 'industry' as 'metrics', enforced by local Vendor Managment Offices, or what was once called the local Fascisti. In other words,as Voltaire said they are neither 'Holy, Roman or an Empire'.
South Asia has a U.S. domestic component of those who emigrate. The U.S. component is equally small the minuscule U.S. on-shore component. So when Obama proposes manufacturing expansion due to market forces, he also kills domestic tech workers with his expansion of Visa Workers. Yes, Virginia, there is a real Left.
The proposed manufacturing expansion happens at the time of sacrifice of tech workers.In the 80s, we were told not to fear the loss of steel and autos, because tech would fill the gap. Now that 6 million manufacturing jobs have been lost, and tech domestic tech workers are reduced to less than 5 percent of the tech work force, we are told by to be happy. If this is happy, count me proud to be subversive.
Burton Leed
Lawyers now being offshore outsourced
I was waiting for this. Hopefully now that it's happening to lawyers with 6 figure law school debt they might take those newly minted law degrees and raise holy hell on labor arbitrage.
Bottom line every job that they can labor arbitraged, corporations are gunning for them.
Even people in Singapore are pissed with the situation
Look at Singapore, a very, very tightly controlled dictatorship city-state. Folks out there are so pissed they are actually protesting (which is very dangerous to one's safety in most dictatorships). Oh, why are they pissed? Because they can't find jobs, there aren't enough jobs for citizens, and the government wants to import more foreign workers. But, but, but I thought only "racist" and "xenophobic" American citizens (not sure how people of all colors and histories can be deemed "racist" without justification, but why bother asking questions) cared about border control, illegals, and actually having jobs for local citizens. Nope, it seems border control, labor arbitrage, and governments actually serving the citizens of nations has nothing to do with racism and xenophobia, but actually has to do with governments looking out for their own citizens. Are the citizens of Singapore racist? Greece? Spain? America? Nope, Americans and Greeks and Spaniards and Singaporeans of all colors know their governments are supposed to serve them, and them alone. And it seems politicians around the world also swear oaths to the same effect. And all the BS one-world, elitism rules, banksters get rich while the 99% in every country get screwed is being called out for what it is, the rich and powerful screwing their own citizens and not batting an eye about it because they admit they are in it for profits and themselves only. So, do we as average Americans have more in common with the displaced and replaced Singaporeans and Greeks or with the folks in Congress and trading on insider information and making billions on Wall Street and in DC and every state capitol building?
foreign worker importation hits all high wage countries
I'm sure their corporations are trying to claim now Singapore is full of stupid, fat and lazy people, as they tell us here in America and that's the reason they must fire their citizens and replace them with foreign guest workers.
It is a global agenda, to labor arbitrage and displace, as well as a clear objective of India. They think labor arbitrage is "services" and displacing citizen workers is "trade". Trading people is not trade, unless one wants to look at the slave trade.
We can have millions protesting but it is to no avail. Remember the orchestrated shutdown of OWS?
Walmart didnn't get the memo - unemployed people don't shop
We're finally seeing the endgame now. Walmart is shocked, shocked I tell you, by a dismal quarter. And of course the Walmart folks no doubt blame regulations or uncertainty. Of course they absolutely ignore the fact that a country where it's impossible for a massive % of people to find jobs, stay employed, and survive will, at some point, stop shopping. Pretty simple concept. But that will be ignored. It's always uncertainty, always too many taxes, profit issues (despite recent record profits by US companies), etc. Nope, "American" companies simply refuse to acknowledge that 28+ million people without jobs and no hope actually do affect the bottom line. And when those people don't earn money or enough to survive and the tax base disappears, then yes, Walmart at some point must face the obvious truth: corporate tactics destroy lives and the bottom line for companies too. Almost forgot, anyone in jail from Walmart for bribing Mexican officials?
Walmart is a classic case of race to the bottom
Henry Ford got it. $5/day was a revolution in wages back in 1914. It was the act of one corporatist who really started the ball rolling. He got one needed a middle class, disposable income to buy a car and that could only come from much higher wages.
Walmart started the race to the bottom on wages and it's no surprise the chickens have come home to roost. No union, no health care, making sure people work "32 hours" so they cannot get full-time status and benefits...
As we look at economic statistics everyday there is one thing that is really outrageous. Americans are viewed as consumers instead of producers. There is a disconnect in economic statistics on wages, income, wealth of the U.S. worker to consumer spending. Wall Street will bemoan when consumer spending drops and there will not be a word about wages, jobs, income for the American worker in their whine. Wall Street cheers when layoffs are announced, buys up more stock when companies offshore outsource.
Tweedles Dum or Dee
This grumpy old Perotista didn't see the whole picture until recently. I was always culturally, conservative, fiscally libertarian, and suspicious of power in the hands of government or industry.
Clinton's Community Reinvestment Act didn't FORCE banks to lend to welfare queens. It was Classic Clinton - the deal looked like populism but favored condo flippers. Paul Harvey said in one of his last broadcasts - that of the 14 trillion in sub prime loans - a full 11trillion were the result of speculation. Again.... classic Clinton.
He's the one who brokered the meltdown and looting of America. That was followed by the abomination we know as the Bush/Cheney years.
I went to the polls those years to vote for fringe candidates and NO retain all judges.
When I finally voted Obama - it turned out to be date rape. I'm not gay or illegal l- so nothing for me or mine.
Just so you know - I am not a wage slave. This is the political point of view of a life long self employed Main St merchant. I've watched as malls hike rents on independents to subsidize this week's Anchor Blue or Shoe Pavillion - only to have those "national's go bankrupt.
Our entire way of life has been a lie. This corn fed boomer swallowed it whole - even as the lives of those around me followed the downward spiral of corporatism and police state tyranny.
I would call my politics now Anarchism. I root for bank robbers and cop killers... yes, I wanted Dorner to escape, if only to spotlight the pathology of those who gravitate to 'enforcement' work.
Not only are we prisoners to the "all war all the time" model, we must also be afraid of returning sociopaths - who now police our roads and airports.
So anybody who resists the multi national recipe for prosperity for the 1% - has few options to resist the tyranny.
And THIS is the rambling of a somewhat prosperous entrepreneur. I'm still standing - and my children are safely self employed in the economies of San Francisco and Denver.
If this 65 year old bedrock citizen roots for those who would burn the place to the ground.... what of the disposable worker?
Something to ponder as we await more heroes like Dorner.
Its all about votes
The only thing politicians care about are votes. If you aren't part of a constituent group then you might as well not vote because your vote doesn't count. Today, its the Democrats who are garnering votes en masse - the unions, minorites, illegal aliens - and these numbers are substantial enough (with the help of the media of course) to sway elections. Middle class Americans might as well forget about it, your politicians arent looking out for you, you're not part of a tightly shoehorned constituency class.
There is a cognitive dissonance between what i see and hear personally versus what is reported on tv. I simply cant watch the economic euphoria they report about and then talk to business owners and well paid professionals who simply cant make ends meet anymore. 10 years ago these folks would be buying boats and vacationing in Europe. Today we are worried about paying bills and saving for the kids college. Eventually something in the economy is going to break and this whole artificial economy the Fed has created is going to come crashing down. I just cant wait what excuse Obama and the media will create to blame it all on the House Republicans.
Unemployment Age Descrimination
The millions of seniors that were booted out of the workforce as the economic recession began to squeeze businesses for profits is a study that I would love to see. Age descrimination is truly rampant. A once proud, hard working mass of seniors have been slaughtered in the last 5 years.
The sad fact is that older employees became the number one target when it became time to reduce a companys workforce. Most of these unemployed terminated seniors had great value regarding work ethic and skills. Then why would the older employee be cut of out of the work force.
Cold hard profits!!!
Age cannot be suspended or reversed. Data clearly reflects more health costs as a person enters their senior years. A high number of these senior employees had given their blood, sweat and tears to improve their skills and upward mobility within their company thus....they were among the higher paid employees within most companies. The EEOC of our government is a joke when it comes to enforcing age descrimination. Millions of us out here have had our pride and spirit severly damaged by their companys cunning and unlawful processes that were used for termination or layoff.
Our naivety that we would be treated fairly through these tough times was our largest mistake. The burden of proof has shifted to the employee to prove age descrimination. We did not see it coming. We had no idea our employer would be so ruthless and unerhanded in their tactics to avoid any age descrimination repercussion. We didn't carry a hidden voice recorder as our employer harassed us and made false accusations about our performance. We failed to collect documentation that would clearly show the employer using false and harassing tactics to build their case of termination. We were under the old patriotic mindset that the U.S.A. would never allow greedy Corporations to target the older generation knowing the they were the most vulnerable. Many of us have gone through the trauma and embarassment that we can no longer be the proud provider for our families and are beginning to get our spirit back. Our numbers are large...millions of us babyboomers! I for one will be involved in activities that will change the way our older generation is treated. Seniors are not dummies and we are not going to lay down and watch our country make a mockery of itself.
Here's Probably Why
Then perhaps 23% of America needs to stop doing the following:
- Reading email and the internet on the job
- Showing up to work late if at all
- Listening to iPod while on the clock
- Demanding more and higher pay while doing less
- Starting office gossip
- Undermining and attacking the good employees
- Lying to employers
- Stealing company property
- Exhibiting overt insubordination
- Threatening to sue when one does not have a case
- Bringing guns and tasers to work
And other offense for which I fired five fellow Americans in 2012.
I am an employer, I am a small business owner, I am in my 40s, I am American, and I will never hire other Americans or persons under the age of 35 again. From now on I want Asian-Americans and workers over age 35. Asians perform the job with less drama, and Generation Y is unhireable.
If you are concerned about how many Americans have been fired, and not concerned by why, you're part of the problem. Americans are being fired because Americans have become demanding, insubordinate and lazy. Improve the work ethic, less chance of being fired. It's not rocket science.
Improve ourselves, America, and get back to work.
you're completely full of it
That's just pure b.s. and if you hired 5 bad apples, that's on you for whatever ridiculous, wrong hiring and recruiting you're doing in the first place.
Good god, you justify your guilt by discriminating against Americans? You should be sued, and often.
Robert is correct.
Please move to Asia. Obviously you are an incompetent business man. We need good management so maybe you should set up shop over there.
Wow, you Sir (or Madam), need lessons in grammar.
Amazing, I simply love being lectured by someone with the grammatical and logical skills of a dunce. Fantastic! So which boardroom are you in? How many HR employees do you employ to ensure people that might exceed your IQ and writing skills are never hired because they would put you to shame? Sir (or Madam), you prove our point with every word. Given this little blurb, it's fair to say most Americans are absolutely overqualified and will never get hired by folks like this. The more degrees we obtain, the greater our experience and skills, the more we would simply outshine this cadre of mediocrity. Damn, it's sad, but once again, it proves why so many great people struggle and why so many in positions of power didn't do anything involving brains, skill, or integrity to get there (and they sure as Hell will do everything in their power to make sure those that deserve to be there never get in).
Hey
So I don't get to work for you? Shucks.
Oh BTW
I'm helpdesk and I'm not blocking anyone you pompous jerk. Your logic is out there isn't it? You extrapolate a lot. Do you live in some dream world? Is that why illiterate dunces have to lecture you? My boss is a bit out of touch also so don't feel bad. If thats possible.
What? My response is to "Business owner"
@Salunga, why are you writing to me? My post is in response to "Business owner." The text of my response and the actual positioning of the post show it's a response to "Business owner," not you.
I apologize
I'm an idiot. I cannot stop laughing. You'll probably never see me here again so its been fun.
Salunga, I think you misunderstand
and this might be my bad on how the comments work. I've been so busy with major server bugs I haven't gotten back to the comments and how they work.
Kurtz was blasting "business man" and you I think meant to blast "business man" but the way the comments are you instead blasted Kurtz and then confuses "business man" with Kurtz, who agrees with what you are saying "generally" as well as calling out "business man".
We want your input so I will try to fix these so it's more clear. The reply toggle will still be there and these are threaded, so to see replies you have to click that toggle.
The entire reason the comments are this accordion type of display is due to mobile and space. Without it, reading articles and comments becomes impossible on small screens.
I'd be laughing except this is like a bad gunfight at the OK corral where people are getting hit with friendly fire due to me changing the signs on the barn!
(oops!)
I did misunderstand
Thats why I apologized. I felt so dumb I could only laugh at myself. I apologized to Kurtz and now you. It was me entirely. I don't want your blog to look like the OK Corral.
This site is the economic OK Corral
The entire point of this site is because "we do math" and "we do economic theory" and so much of what is out in the press does not.
The other point of this site is to talk about the real economy, not this never ending super rich and powerful worship that goes on in most press.
Take it to heart that I'm paying attention in terms of fixing the comments. The point is they should be much easier to read and reply on all devices. Working on it.
Eurozone utter collapse - it's all coming to a head now
Eurozone collapsing, Germany can no longer "save" itself (it shrank .6% last quarter), let alone Europe. Meanwhile, unemployment here still out of control with no hope.
For real amusement, every unemployed person in the US should check Linkedin - start with big banks and other corporations to see who's getting hired. For example, check the banks implicated in money laundering and other crimes or tech giants that endlessly claim a lack of qualified Americans - it's a real treat to see who's hired. Then check HR positions to see who's ensuring the unemployed and overqualified wind up destitute and homeless at every age. Now maybe they are only "following orders," but that excuse never really flies.
Good people locked out, criminals getting rich and hiring only those that won't stand up to them. Let's see how this plays out because when the developed world has 20%-50% unemployment figures and central banks can no longer print and print and print, the fireworks will be arriving very soon. And to realize how little the governments really care about us, just think while austerity is being rammed down our throats and the unemployed are kicked to the curb, the US Government is opening up new "wars on terror" in many different countries in Africa. Because as long as there are perpetual enemies in some corner of the globe, the Government can spend billions and trillions overseas, just don't expect to see a dime of it if you are a hurting American.
Deflation
I have a bad feeling we are not far away. Kurtz I think you have a good grasp of the near future. We had a chance to turn this around and the corporate prostitutes in the Republican party (among others) fought it tooth and nail. Resulting in this sequester disaster. With the European employment nightmare, that you described, we cannot afford to screw around. As you said "The fireworks will be arriving soon". It may will be in the form of social unrest that will make the riots in Greece look like a picnic. We need stimulus to create revenue so badly. I like the idea of the minimum wage hike. Its pure populist and gets McDonalds, Burger King, Walmart and the like involved in some direct stimulus of our economy. So maybe we can see some money stay here in the states.
Never forget how the unemployed were treated - never
28 million of our fellow Americans purposely locked out of working and contributing to our Nation, that's despicable. Other countries too. But some people say karma will get those who don't hire the unemployed, or lock people out because they are too young, too old, or some other crap reason. All of this coming from people that make six or seven or eight figures that have no problem with the status quo, not hiring vets and people with experience in all fields because they might outshine the dimwits in charge. Well, screw karma. When people without jobs and that faced crushing daily defeats or daily soul-crushing non-responses from 1,000+ job submissions lose hope, families, homes, and lives, we should never forget what happened. What, should we buy the products from companies that bar the unemployed from getting hired? Buy products from companies that bribe foreign officials while claiming the unemployed are lazy? That pay CEOs $20 million while laundering money for Al-Qaeda? Why should it be forgotten? Who benefits? The abusers do and their puppets in government. So screw that, never forget the politicians, the HR folks, the corporate masters, the kleptocrats that take tax-dollars but treat the unemployed taxpayers as scum. Karma? Nope, justice, in this world. Forget it? 28 million+ people are going through Hell, how will they forgive and forget that experience?
JP Morgan firing 4,000 people - but Dimon always safe
Always a fan of the big banksters and the way they run things. Apparently all is well at JP Morgan according to Dimon, but they still have to fire 4,000 people according to headlines. A rational human in another country would ask why Dimon continues to be safe in his gig and earn tens of millions in salary and bonuses yet things are going so poorly they need to fire 4,000 people? Simple, it's rule by banksters and boardrooms. Dimon still unaccountable for bribes in Jefferson County, still not held accountable for "The White Whale," derivatives still threatening the world, manipulating the energy market, for JP Morgan's part in Corzine's still unpunished MF Global crimes, money laundering, etc.
This is America - everyone outside the boardroom and the government elite are expendable - everyone inside is "the best and brightest" no matter how much they lose, who they hurt, or how many companies they run into the ground. Someone only needs to watch Senators gushing over Dimon aka "their paymaster" aka "the only constituency that matters" to see why this continues to go on.
In 2011 JP Morgan donated resources valued at $4.6 million to the NYPD. How many jobs could have been saved if that money wasn't donated? How many customer fees could have been eliminated or reduced? But apparently that donation was very important for some reason. Occupy happened shortly afterwards.
CEO pay while they fire at random
They also pay more to CEOs than in taxes, see this post. Notice how executive compensation is just another major public outrage that has gone by the wayside?
In order to keep or get a job, kiss ass and stay ignorant
Follow the CEOs' path to success, because with all this "uncertainty" that scares the self-proclaimed Muppet-bashing Masters of the Universe, people that want to keep their jobs need to stay dumb, kiss much ass, and not get too old. Also, if they want to get hired, they need to stay young and party with the right people at the right schools. They also need to make sure they were born into the right connections because that's what really counts. Now I'm going to sell this advice as a job coach or propagate it on Linkedin because it'll surely be helpful to the unemployed, especially those that haven't had an interview in 2, 3, or 4 years despite endless degrees and experience (green shoots - yeah!)/sarc.
These things are certain - corporate America loves sycophants and people that don't question the system or those at the top. It also can count on people in boardrooms getting outrageous bonuses and being assured of job security in their current jobs or getting a new job within minutes of destroying their old companies. Job insecurity, fear, despair, age discrimination, being overqualified, that's all for the commoners, Versailles has its own rules. And we all know Versailles' rules always work out for the best of the Nation (yes, more sarc).
Linked in - general comment
Honestly, it's like high school. One gets an account on linked in because everybody else got an account on linked in. But what is it about that one must pay money to do a basic limited job search and so on? What service does linked in even provide besides some glorified brag sheet and photo collection? I've yet to find it. I sure haven't gotten a single job lead and so on from linked in. I track a few mailing lists simply because they are there, but honestly, the real developer lists hosted elsewhere are much more full of information that i can see.
It's like a grandfalloon,to me and am waiting to figure out what I am doing wrong in using it, but ya know, any site trying to make money off of my professional status, right there I'm cynical and that includes professional Journals!
It's a place for groupthink and for bashing unemployed
Anyone that says they need help (e.g., unemployed) is blamed for their own situation and/or not helped in the endless useless groups and discussions. It's endless spam and tens of millions of "experts" that want to sell something or advice. Countless phony names and jobs. But it's a great tool for those questioning the status quo to verify The Matrix actually does exist - many of those in power in corporate and government positions really do not belong there and are hell-bent on keeping anyone that might question them out. It's fun for seeing who rises to the top and screens people out. But that's all free, like you said, no need to spend money.
Also, Linkedin brass are huge fans of visa rules being eased for "skills gap." Probably because that will create more unemployed Americans, so that's good for more Linkedin users - see, that's a business plan in 2013, create misery and profit from it. Sort of like JPMorgan handling SNAP cards, they love unemployment because they profit from it.
good god, good thing I pay no attention
If you're really looking for a job, just forget whatever that is and join developer lists of whatever technology and projects you're interested in or field you're in. These are often older lists, hosted through universities or the project site and so on.
I've thought of creating an account for The Economic Populist on linked in, just because people want to see some sort of page or site with an RSS into it.
Seems in terms of real use and usefulness, twitter is the one which really shares and enables real discussion, at least that's what I see going on from the traffic to here.
Linkedin filled with corporate lackeys spying on honest folks
It's just like Facebook - a good way to screen "troublemakers" before an interview. Regarding gigs, many sectors of this shite economy are royally f'd, there's no amount of $ they can command, it's all internships, or outsourcing, etc., quality has been boned and schools keep pumping grads for tuition/loan cash. Everything from graphic design to STEM to law to health to education to writing - it's all screwed. All gigs available will pay jack and demand 24/7 attention for the honor. Even in fields strictly controlled by "professional bodies," kids are graduating with debt that will take 20+ years to pay off. USA, USA.
If I'm on Linkedin, it will be to connect with my betters and to secure a sweet assistant gig next to Dimon or Blankfein because they are doing "God's work." I'll use my real name - Mark "Screw The Gilded Age Redux, Bankster Scum, and Their Whore Politicians" Twain. Oops, that's not it, I meant Samuel "Screw The Gilded Age Redux, Bankster Scum, and Their Whore Politicians" Clemens. I'm curious, do the assistants throughout banksterdom and DC-puppetdom have relatives boned by the .1 or 1%? Do they have overqualified and long-term unemployed friends and relatives that outsmart their bosses and are becoming increasingly pissed off?
Oh, for a real check on balls and integrity and doing "God's work," how would Sophie Scholl compare to every single politician globally? Every single bankster? Every single CEO and HR employee? Eh? How much did she earn in salary and bonuses? Food for thought.