I absolutely love fast food. Back in the day when my metabolic system actually functioned, my standard fare included a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, large Fries, 8-piece McNuggets with barbecue and mustard sauce, and a large Coke. While studying abroad at Mansfield College, Oxford I even made it a point to taste this combination in Oxford, London, Cambridge, Bath and Stratford-Upon-Avon -- just so I could say my love of Quarter Pounders with Cheese demonstrated my taste in foreign cuisine.
But after reading about today's unemployment figure climbing back up to 9% and then learning that of the 244,000 jobs created last April, 62,000 (a full 25%) of those positions are at McDonald's; it continues to make it difficult to explain to my college students why they and their parents are financing such a fortune for a college degree.
Hooray for McDonald's for operating a great business that provides a fantastic service. This is welcome news for those young persons needing that first job. Young person unemployment is reportedly around 25%. But I hope all of those college-educated economists that decide administration policy and regulations will use this information to guide their thoughts on the effectiveness of their designs.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report, 51,000 jobs were created in the area of Professional and Business Services during the same period. Given this month's college graduation ceremonies that will inject an estimated 1.75 Million new graduates into the system, those policy makers may wish to choose a different approach. Unless this situation is unfolding exactly according to plan. My university offers courses in comparative philosophy and comparative religion. I'm assuming our leaders have studied comparative economic theory. As a science major I took a course in Political Systems & Ideologies over twenty years ago. While others often complain about the liberal arts, I acutely remember the concepts covered in this class. And I am currently witnessing their application.
See, I think a big part of the problem is that most of the people with solid educational backgrounds who can think creatively and apply a variety of different disciplines to problem solving aren't policy makers in Washington- they're teachers like you or research scientists in labs or engineers in private business. And they're doing truly brilliant things- but they're not advancing government policies.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I see policy makers speak I’m always struck by how, regardless of their education or potential, limited they are in their view. They see the people disagreeing with them and give in to petty blame or they look at the scope of the problem and come up with statistical analyses of how long it will effect the population. They don't spend all day trying to coming up with solutions. And it seems that the people who do come up with solutions get stymied by red tape or straight forward disregard.
My experience, while terribly limited, has been that those who are really passionate about making a change tend to be attracted to jobs where change is actually possible.
Exactly.
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