Where will You Work in a Few years?

Dauntless

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Coordinates: 33°52′48″N 117°55′43″W
https://www.axios.com/mckinsey-automation-may-throw-800m-people-out-of-work-by-2030-2513416488.html

They're talking about what has happened to me in TV. There are jobs in the field, they're different from what I used to do and they pretend being experienced isn't relevant. The article doesn't talk about things like just wanting to play less so they'll go with the inexperienced whether it works or not.

I'm wondering how I'll ever work steady again, some people need to worry about working at all.
 
Assuming they're still around, I'll be where I am now (retail), maybe making a few cents more if I'm lucky.

If not, then I'll have to start over at yet another $7/hour job...then spend a decade or more working my way back up to $10/hour, doing all the crap stuff until just before the place shuts down for good, and then in the last year or two I'll get to do a job I like better than the crap.

It's been that way so far, and I've seen the signs for a few years at the place I'm at now that I did at the place I was at before, where it's obvious the people above store level care way more about their momentary bonuses than the future of the company and the customer base, much less any of the store-level employees.


I get people now and then that tell me I should sell my music, or artwork, or other things, and make a living htat way. But when I ask them what they'd pay for it, thye don't want to buy it, which shows there's no market for it when even the people that think it should sell don't think it's worth anything. Same thing with custom ebikes/trikes/etc.

Similarly, handyman work isn't worth anything to people either--they'll pay an overpriced company to do bad work, but an individual on their own has no value to them.


Exceptions to both of those, but not enough to make a living from (especially with all the required legal and governmental and insurance hassles and complications added in).
 
I reckon I'll keep fixing bikes until that doesn't work anymore, and then if I want to make real money, I'll get into the alcohol industry. That seems to be the only real thriving business left where I live anyway, once you discount foolish things people do with borrowed money/other people's borrowed money. We have real estate and all its spinoff businesses, "high tech" which in this case means mostly apps development and gig economy bullshit, and an indestructible core of university and government activity. But drinking-- now that's a solid growing industry. It's what we do now.

As soon as the central banks turn off the free money tap for commercial banks, this town is going to unzip into a shambles like it should have many years ago. Alcohol? That will stay.
 
I'm hoping to be retired in a few years. But I'll probably do some other job after I retire.

I'm sort of a rarity. I've been at the same job for over 35 years. The healthcare industry is pretty secure.
 
I hope to be retired soon too but, I believe most of the taxes come from payroll deductions (i.e. the middle class here) and property taxes. If the middle class stops paying taxes through payroll, I'm not sure how they'll be paying their property taxes.
 
Been in educational settings 30+ years and will retire in same job. Do not see automation taking over certain blue collar jobs but could be wrong. If you can build or fix things i think you should be ok. JMO.
 
Flipping houses, buying commercial and industrial property

Alcohol manufacturing is liquid gold, Sammy Hagar ex-singer for Van Halen made his $100M that way with his Tequila.

Maybe I could come up with a booze bevy and go on Dragons Den or Shark Tank and get some partners. Marketing is the key, start locally and spread out. Micro-Spirits could over-take Micro-Brewery.
 
I'm retired now, and early one, with S.S. ONLY, after officially entered the workforce in 1970,... think that's when I first had an S.S.# and a job with deductions. Prior to that, jus weekend and summer stuff, bailing hay, pickin' pickles, babysitting, farm labor, mechanic stuff, and even drilling water wells.

But those first 15yrs after '70, were the best, even for an unskilled high-school grad. Mostly industrial labor, some skilled mechanics, even arts & crafts paid well during those years, although some jobs were jus becoming regulated with certifications and such. Retired folks on S.S. then, were jus gettin' by.

By about the early/mid-80's, much of industry was shuttin' down or gone, unable to meet new standards of air & water requirements. Claims of costly labor and such, saw many more jobs gone in following decades. Those remaining, were paying more and more poorly. Some, like photography and even tax prep were sorta still available for an independent venturous soul, but labor rates were becoming severely depressed. Skilled and tech jobs kept my head above water mostly.

The last !5yrs of my working career, from about 1999 or so, were the WORST!!! Independent labor had become too regulated to continue for most, forcing many to work for companies with further depressed wages. Service jobs charges $50-$100hr labor costs, yet only paid their labor worker a minimal,.... citing expenses and overhead costs, ugh! Eight of those last 15 were with a big name corp,... and I was GROSSLY underpaid till I left, even for an older experienced and skilled single guy as myself. Finished with junk summer labor jobs, and seasonal tax prep,... easy office work for an old man!!!

Most of those last years paid worse than what I now receive on Social Security Retirement, that I paid for all those years,.... like many retired today, I get by. I do keep busy fixin' bikes and whatever folks I know need done, doin' whatever I can,.... fixin' AC's, furnaces, cars, plumbin', gardening, mowing or whatever. No need to charge for my labor anymore,.... I still get by.

If you began working after the mid-80's or so, as a wage earner.... your most probably being grossly underpaid and don't even know it! Regardless of education, acquired skills, knowledge or experience. It's become the "norm" today for everybody. I'm glad it's over for me,... but I feel badly for my kids and my grandkids.
 
You remind me of the old man that used to live around here. I grew up with him knowing my family so I saw the odyssey of him owning a house after working at Foster's Freeze and in department stores. And losing it because he went on working in stores. In his later years I was fixing his bikes that he was getting around on since he couldn't afford a car any more. Couldn't afford bikes, either, but when one was stolen someone would give him one that was kicking around their garage and I'd fix it. He was living quite well on his social security check plus the maybe $16k a year he made going right on working. Wasn't doing so well before he turned 62.

The things you say about the jobs going away - I grew up hearing that. And that continued right into my adult years. I developed a saying: 'Things aren't what they used to be - But then they never were.' So getting into television I was reading where the executive producer of 6 count 'em 6 new fall shows talked about the problems with hiring video technicians. Seems the film types didn't want to learn anything different no matter how unemployed they were.

What does grossly underpaid mean? If everyone is underpaid, isn't that just equilibrium? I've worked in TV with whole bunches of people talking on and on about what they SHOULD be getting, generally it's rather unclear why they should be getting it. I'm in a field where people believe there's all this money laying around and they're just supposed to pick it up after it has fallen from the sky and they don't even have to put out buckets to catch it. So there's an overabundance of underqualified people, with many scam artists available to try to screw as many people as possible. With the potential victims telling themselves that success is right around the corner.

You join the union you won't work steady, the pension earns no interest and you won't have contributed much anyway. You work nonHollywood you encounter even worse scam artists working for the City Public Information Office. Plus that's always a day or two at a time. I should WANT it to be over, but I'm still a ways from retirement. I spent the day sweating over the simple desire to get back to it.

So I'm experiencing something like the article warns of. I can tell you from experience that it's a scary thing to have the way you made a living not exist anymore. Those city information offices I hated so much don't have shows on the cable systems anymore, so those jobs are gone. The marketing communications office in the corporate world can shoot with their phone and edit with their computer. Dang, they just don't need me anymore. . . .

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I will no longer work in a few years, except maybe the occasional short term contract when I feel like it. Already have enough stashed away to quit and buy a house in the sun. My girlfriend though wants to work for another year or two to put her kids through university, this is the only reason why I'm still working (Switzerland offers close to the highest earnings in the EU, might as well use it while still here).

What helps is that I am very opposed to spending money :? on what I consider useless luxuries. I see money as the equivalent of life, I can spend 1000 on that but that's 3 weeks of my life. I have the slowest internet possible, just a 23" TV, never bought an Apple product in my life, don't have a car and cycle almost everywhere, my newest computer is from 2008 etc etc. This is a double edged sword, first you save lots of money and second you don't need much so what you save goes a long way.

With respect to the changes as outlined by the OP, I agree that things are changing and that many people will need to change jobs. In my opinion governments should switch from unemployment benefits, social support, rent support and all those type of systems to a universal basic income. Get rid of all the rules and regulations and grant every one a basic income (including minors, payable to their parents). People will still work to supplement their income for luxuries, but takes away the stress and uncertainty of your job being taken over by a computer.
 
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