Working for a Living

The article titled “Why the Pain Persists Even As Incomes Rise” found in the September 17, 2017 The New York Times explained the reality for many in our country. Per the article, the research team evaluated actual earnings starting in 1957, for working individuals ages 25 to 55. The findings were disheartening. Back in 1957, a 25-year-old with a high school education entered the workforce with the median income that we will call X. A few years later, a new individual with a high school education entered the workforce with the median income that we will call Y. The trend that was established until about 1967, was as follows. Each new younger worker{Y} entering the workforce would make significantly more money than the older worker {X}. Simply put, annualized lifetime income of men, adjusted for inflation, rose for the younger worker {Y}. After 1967, the median income for the younger worker{Y} entering the workforce declined. This now meant that the annual lifetime earnings of the younger workers decreased over a lifetime of working. In 1957 many of my high school friends entered the workforce. There were many opportunities with good paying employment back then. The so-called American Dream slogan was alive. It superficially suggested that one would get a job, get married, have children and buy a home. Nowadays, that idea is just an old idea. Some statistical figures illustrate changes. For example, the median income for a high school educated individual age 25 in 1967 it was $33,900. However, in 1988, the median income for a high school educated individual age 25 was $29,000. If your high school educated parent entered the workforce prior to 1967, then the male child offspring was unlikely to earn more than his parent. In other words, there were better paying jobs in our country over 50 years ago. Further, one didn’t have to attend college to earn a decent living. That is not true today. Another example of the stagnation occurring in Middle America is as follows. In 1973, the inflation-adjusted median income of men working full-time was $ 54,030. In 2016, the income was $ 51, 640. Doing the math, that’s about $ 2, 400 less. Now in the global economy, the individual has to have a marketable skill. If not, this reality results in doom, gloom and anger. It’s not a surprise, that we have opioid, alcohol, poor health, and suicide on the rise. Without a skill, one might attain a part-time job in large companies. Walmart and Amazon have positions available for part-timers. It’s not uncommon for the high school educated to have more than one part-time job. One alternative is to attend college and go into debt. A second alternative is to attend some trade, technical, or community college program. A third alternative is to become a part-timer and stay with that line of work in order to develop some specialized,-marketable skill, experience or other opportunity. This alternative is much more palatable for those men that disliked high school or had difficulty learning. If one found learning difficult during the school years, one certainly is not likely interested in attending school to experience failure again. PS A recent example of a marketable skill goes to college football coach Jimbo Fisher. Fisher left his coaching position at Florida State and reportedly signed a 10 year $75 million contract to coach Texas A&M.