
If nearly 40% of Americans aren't Working, What are they Doing? - roymurdock
http://qz.com/516023/if-nearly-40-of-americans-arent-working-what-are-they-doing/
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hwstar
I suspect rampant age discrimination in the US keeps a lot of the 50+ crowd
from working. Companies prefer younger employees who don't know that they are
being taken advantage of, and that don't have a high health insurance cost.

In my case, I may be retiring early as San Diego's engineering job market is
pretty terrible at the moment. Qualcomm and HP doing layoffs does not help.
Fortunately for me, I have rental income and investments to live off of.

The job market would be more equitable if we had single payer health
insurance, and there was a limit on exempt employee working time (Like the
EU). Enacting this two things would increase workplace diversity, increase the
number of jobs available, and significantly reduce age discrimination.

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ap22213
We live in a strange time. Many of our ancestors worked very hard to provide a
better life for 'us', their future generations.

And, here we are. We've reached a point where there's not much 'real work' to
do for most people, perhaps because of lack of education, lack of information,
natural ability, health, location, or access to capital.

In olden times, maybe those people would have perished. But, we have
accumulated enough wealth and productivity to keep a lot of them housed, fed,
relatively well, and perhaps even entertained.

Instead of celebrating this, we shame them. Maybe it's reasonable to do so.
The ever smaller portion of the world has to work harder to give these others
continued benefits. But, I doubt that they're all 'not useful' to us as a
society. Maybe they're editing Wikipedia, or writing reviews, or posting on
online forums, playing online games, clicking on ads, or playing with their
kids even.

I don't know. I'm not an economist. I don't know what's 'right'. But, in a
way, I'm happy that we are at a point like this. Instead of 'getting them to
work', maybe we can give them new types of work that help keep the world
moving forward.

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runamok
Right. We have reached a point of post scarcity. A tiny portion of humanity
(at least in first world nations) provides food, shelter and things like
medical care.

Personally I suggest we just get rid of the concept of "non-exempt" workers
(without paid overtime). Boom, instant work-life balance and less
unemployment.

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Mz
Eh, the increase in people on disability may suggest something else: We are
better at keeping people alive in the face of things that previously would
have killed them, but that doesn't mean we are necessarily able to keep them
able-bodied or restore full functioning.

Also, people can be doing things for reasons in categories not offered in the
study. I am homeless and "unemployed" and not looking for a normal job. I do
freelance work, get alimony and I am still working on developing my web
projects, with dreams of that leading to a more comfortable future. I likely
would not bother to tell that to anyone in a study, both because there
probably is no category for that and because I get told a great deal that it
is unrealistic, wishful thinking, etc. I have no reason to invite that kind of
dismissive criticism from someone doing a study, assuming there is even a
plave to talk about it. And even if I did, it would get lumped into the catch
all category of "other." Yay.

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Camillo
> Eh, the increase in people on disability may suggest something else: We are
> better at keeping people alive in the face of things that previously would
> have killed them, but that doesn't mean we are necessarily able to keep them
> able-bodied or restore full functioning.

That's a possibility, but it doesn't seem the most likely to me. The article
only treats disability as significant for older people (55-64), but just by
eyeballing the three charts, and considering the different scales, it seems to
me that it's just as significant across the board. I'd venture to guess that a
lot of this is due to changes in eligibility decisions. I think there has been
an increase in diagnoses of psychiatric disabilities in working-age people,
for instance.

I don't think you would receive dismissive criticism for your choices, btw.
There _is_ something to criticize about the idea of someone choosing not to
look for a normal job while getting alimony, but it can be a rational choice
on the person's part. I think it's the laws that should be criticized, not the
individuals.

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Mz
Oh, well, I am significantly impaired but do not qualify for disability. A
normal job is a big problem for me. I left a corporate job because of my
impairment. My job was an obstacle to getting healthier. I do feel fortunate
to have alimony and therefore the privilege of choice to some degree, though
it certainly isn't enough for a middle class lifestyle.

I base my comment in part on the fact that people are living longer and the
longer you live, the more likely you are to have cancer, as just one example
off the top of my head. I have several relatives who habe had cancer more than
once, one of whom may have to take early retirement on disability because of
the long history of repeated cancer diagnoses. This individual is extremely
competent and lived with a 15% chance of survival in part by doing things like
flying to another state for the best care and being patient zero in a cutting
edge study. Nonethless, multiple surgeries and years of chemo and radiation
have taken their toll.

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eimai134
So many jobs have been shipped overseas it's not surprising. I know a lot of
one-income households who are barely getting by - the other spouse wants to
work but they're holding off for pay that is more than daycare. Many people
doing from-home businesses too, many under the table.

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ju-st
There are retired 16 to 24 year olds?

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ChuckMcM
Yes, although I suspect some fraction (perhaps a large fraction) of that are
trust fund kids who won't ever have to work to begin with. Nick D'Aloisio, who
was 17 when Yahoo! paid him $30M for Summly is basically retired. So it does
happen :-)

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ccvannorman
Perusing hacker news

