Young Men Are Playing Video Games Instead of Getting Jobs

twonunpackmule said:
Difficulty gets confused and sold as impossible too often. It isn't impossible.
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Technically winning the lotto is also not impossible though. Should everyone play the lotto then? Its just difficult to win right??

OK yes that is hyperbolic but then so are all the people downplaying the difficulty getting a good job and getting ahead in this economy.

The economy has been failing wage earners since at least the .com bubble bust, what with most of the blue collar jobs that paid well either being outsourced or eliminated while more and more of the new jobs being added have been low paying service crap with no benefits, is it really so surprising all of this is now starting to come to a head and present as odd social issues in society?
 
mord said:
I work in IT, but I work for a large construction organization. They can't get people to work. Constant worker shortage. Like was mentioned previously, blue collar jobs are below below people, and so many young people certainly have a "I deserve..." mentality. Every young generation has lazy people, sure. The last 10 years have been nuts though.

My example. The org I work for will take anyone that can rub two brain cells together. They pay well over min wage while they put you through 3 to 5 years of training. You work part time, but get paid for full time. Each year as long as you show up and even half ass your work you get a 20-30% raise. After you get out of training, you make 2-3× the local median income, plus they have crazy good benifits.

Now, to top that off, they have a scholorship/grant program that if you ask for it, they will buy you clothes, tools, books, whatever you want (about 5k a year) in addition to training.

They can't get people to work. The people they get at least half quit. I've asked some why. Not a single one has said the job sucked, or didn't like the people they work with. Most just disnt like working. Many said they earned enough to buy a car, pay off debt, etc. and don't see a need to keep a job.

wth. Kids, you will have to buy more stuff later! Keep a job!
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Yeah, they can't find workers... Sure the fuckers can't I am sure they get treated like shit kicked to the curb, and worse if whoever was a bit of a ' complainer' it would be flagged a troublemaker not to ever be hired. That plus if they set the computer to kick out the currently unemployed or those with gaps, surely they ' cant find anyone'
 
mesyn191 said:
Technically winning the lotto is also not impossible though. Should everyone play the lotto then? Its just difficult to win right??

OK yes that is hyperbolic but then so are all the people downplaying the difficulty getting a good job and getting ahead in this economy.

The economy has been failing wage earners since at least the .com bubble bust, what with most of the blue collar jobs that paid well either being outsourced or eliminated while more and more of the new jobs being added have been low paying service crap with no benefits, is it really so surprising all of this is now starting to come to a head and present as odd social issues in society?
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Winning the lotto is closer to impossible. Musical chairs is the best way to think of it. If you try real hard, you'll probably get a chair, until some more get taken away later on at least. So that works for one person, but ultimately, not everyone gets a chair who wants or needs one. A lot of people look at this situations as since they or someone they know was able to get a job by working hard, the system works, even if the larger picture is more complicated than that. Even for blue collar jobs, we really do have a shortage of those, but if every single one of those was filled, that won't make up for what we're looking at losing from automation. The classic economic system is transitioning into something else, less wages and worker rights are just symptoms of something larger.
 
tetris42 said:
Winning the lotto is closer to impossible. Musical chairs is the best way to think of it. If you try real hard, you'll probably get a chair, until some more get taken away later on at least. So that works for one person, but ultimately, not everyone gets a chair who wants or needs one. A lot of people look at this situations as since they or someone they know was able to get a job by working hard, the system works, even if the larger picture is more complicated than that. Even for blue collar jobs, we really do have a shortage of those, but if every single one of those was filled, that won't make up for what we're looking at losing from automation. The classic economic system is transitioning into something else, less wages and worker rights are just symptoms of something larger.
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Funny thing is when people at work in my state talk about, they 'cant do that or the other' .. fantasy shit, I went on reading actual laws and, worker's protections and rights are so fucking thin, certainly magnitudes less than what many of my co workers think...
 
Uvaman2 said:
Yeah, they can't find workers... Sure the fuckers can't I am sure they get treated like shit kicked to the curb, and worse if whoever was a bit of a ' complainer' it would be flagged a troublemaker not to ever be hired. That plus if they set the computer to kick out the currently unemployed or those with gaps, surely they ' cant find anyone'
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As someone who has worked in lots of these fields, no, just no.

Hard work is not treating people bad, and at most of these jobs people are treated just fine, so long as you show up and do your job, something that is VERY hard to find today. Being in a trade field and being higher up and getting to deal with part of the hiring process and seeing/dealing with the people we hire and trying to train them, it's shocking the sort of people we go through. Fact is most are not willing to put in the work or effort and want it handed to them, even though my company PAYS for training, when I first started I got the same treatment, my schooling was covered and when I had a week long test I needed to take, I was paid for the time I was taking it. Example, I have a friend who was working, but his job was slowing down and he was just not making hours and he just got married. He saw what I could afford and knew round about what I make, so he asked me about a job where I work and in the department I work in. I said sure! No problem (we were in bad need of people anyway), So I tell my boss and he said for them to come in and apply but they would (assuming nothing criminal) get the job without question and to be ready to train him in the next few weeks and get him ready for some field classes. He goes in and they offer him the job and offer him $3 more an hour that what he was making at the time (with zero experience, free training/schooling etc), along with however many hours he wanted, he acted MAD to me because the pay was so much lower than what I made so he turned them down. Needless to say that convo didn't end well and I didn't speak to him for probably 2 moths after that and will sure as shit never help him with a job again. This is, by and large, the attitude we get from people.

What I have found now dealing with stuff like this is that most people who complain about being treated badly by every single company they ever work for, are really just shitty workers. Harsh, but the truth.
 
BlueFireIce said:
As someone who has worked in lots of these fields, no, just no.

Hard work is not treating people bad, and at most of these jobs people are treated just fine, so long as you show up and do your job, something that is VERY hard to find today. Being in a trade field and being higher up and getting to deal with part of the hiring process and seeing/dealing with the people we hire and trying to train them, it's shocking the sort of people we go through. Fact is most are not willing to put in the work or effort and want it handed to them, even though my company PAYS for training, when I first started I got the same treatment, my schooling was covered and when I had a week long test I needed to take, I was paid for the time I was taking it. Example, I have a friend who was working, but his job was slowing down and he was just not making hours and he just got married. He saw what I could afford and knew round about what I make, so he asked me about a job where I work and in the department I work in. I said sure! No problem (we were in bad need of people anyway), So I tell my boss and he said for them to come in and apply but they would (assuming nothing criminal) get the job without question and to be ready to train him in the next few weeks and get him ready for some field classes. He goes in and they offer him the job and offer him $3 more an hour that what he was making at the time (with zero experience, free training/schooling etc), along with however many hours he wanted, he acted MAD to me because the pay was so much lower than what I made so he turned them down. Needless to say that convo didn't end well and I didn't speak to him for probably 2 moths after that and will sure as shit never help him with a job again. This is, by and large, the attitude we get from people.

What I have found now dealing with stuff like this is that most people who complain about being treated badly by every single company they ever work for, are really just shitty workers. Harsh, but the truth.
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I wonder which state you at.
 
kju1 said:
LOL, yes but at their age I was getting laid a lot and I played more video games than I do now. GF learned quick how to make me turn the game off....just get naked.
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Yea, gotta love that....doesn't help if after they get naked they start trying to distract your 'focus', or 'block' you view...lol...i immediately stopped whatever i was doing....or as a challenge didn't stop and kept trying not to crash or die in the game...
 
Smashing Young Man said:
Do these guys not have any testosterone? At that age, my hormones would never had allowed me to do nothing but sit home and play games. I thought about sex all the time, and spent most of my free time in pursuit of it.
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Let's be honest, you were probably getting as much action as the pale young men sitting behind their keyboards AMIRITE?

Chris Rock has a pretty good skit about college kids talking about sex all the time, however, the reality of most awkard late teens is not all the pussy slaying it's cracked up to be for most men.
 
BlueFireIce said:
As someone who has worked in lots of these fields, no, just no.
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As someone who has worked for decades and only seen things get steadily worse over time, I can say he is pretty much spot.

BlueFireIce said:
Hard work is not treating people bad
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"Treating people bad" is stuff like messing with your schedule constantly, micromanaging employees to try and hit some stupid performance metric for the month, etc.

And hard work can be a form of bad treatment if the pay is shit which isn't all that unusual these days.

Also just-so personal stories aren't useful when talking about broad swathes of the population.
 
Uvaman2 said:
I wonder which state you at.
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Texas, says in my profile.

mesyn191 said:
As someone who has worked for decades and only seen things get steadily worse over time, I can say he is pretty much spot.


"Treating people bad" is stuff like messing with your schedule constantly, micromanaging employees to try and hit some stupid performance metric for the month, etc.

And hard work can be a form of bad treatment if the pay is shit which isn't all that unusual these days.

Also just-so personal stories aren't useful when talking about broad swathes of the population.
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None of those are treating people badly.

If that is what you think of as poor treatment, I think I see the problem.

Lots of jobs have changing schedule, and if you are working "blue collar" jobs, lots of them are contract and time table based, get used to it, it's a job, not a "fit my time table payout".

Hard work is not bad treatment no matter the pay, hard work is expected, if you don't like the pay then learn more skills to move up or get another job. Good God, "hard work can be a form of bad treatment if the pay is shit", this is exactly the kind of people I was talking about that refuse jobs because the pay or job is beneath them.

"just so personal story" was to give an idea of what I have seen first hand with hundreds of personal interviews I have done for hiring over the years, which has progressively gotten worse.
 
oldmanbal said:
Let's be honest, you were probably getting as much action as the pale young men sitting behind their keyboards AMIRITE?

Chris Rock has a pretty good skit about college kids talking about sex all the time, however, the reality of most awkard late teens is not all the pussy slaying it's cracked up to be for most men.
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In my teens, no, I was not a lady killer. I did quite alright in my 20s, though. Being a good looking—if I do say so myself—guitar player in a rock band definitely helps one score women.

Even so, anyone who is actually out trying to get laid will have more success than someone not trying at all. You only try if you really want it, though. I just don't understand how young men these days seem to not want it. Testosterone is powerful. I was utterly at the mercy of my hormones at that age. That's why I cannot fathom how a young guy can be content to do nothing but sit around and play video games.
 
BlueFireIce said:
None of those are treating people badly....Hard work is not bad treatment no matter the pay
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Hahahaha so I could mess with your schedule as a boss, changing it every other day so you can't have a life, and you'd be cool with it? AND I could micromanage you and the rest of the staff to score worthless brownie points with upper management and stroke my ego?! AAANNNDD I could pay you min. wage no matter how hard you worked, with no raises or benefits, no matter what good you did and you'd be totally cool with all that?!

Man your bosses must looove you.

But guess what? Everyone else is gonna call that "getting treated badly" and either quit the first thing something better comes along, do a crap job, and/or act out.

BlueFireIce said:
Lots of jobs have changing schedule, and if you are working "blue collar" jobs, lots of them are contract and time table based, get used to it, it's a job, not a "fit my time table payout".
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A contract job isn't likely to be "blue collar" unless its quite high paying though, and these days contract jobs are all about finding ways to avoid worker protections as well as cutting pay so unlikely, and people have lives outside of work and if you don't respect that why in the world would you expect any employee to respect the boss or the work place? This is like Management 101 stuff.

BlueFireIce said:
"just so personal story" was to give an idea of what I have seen first hand with hundreds of personal interviews I have done for hiring over the years, which has progressively gotten worse.
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Yeah but the thread and story are all about talking about young men in general, plus I mentioned my personal experience too if you want to play the anecdote game so you're posting isn't making a whole lot of sense really.
 
Smashing Young Man said:
That's why I cannot fathom how a young guy can be content to do nothing but sit around and play video games.
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Why its almost as if the socio-economic conditions of today are worse for them then you understand and they've had to find what little joy or happiness anywhere they could.
 
BlueFireIce said:
Texas, says in my profile.



None of those are treating people badly.

If that is what you think of as poor treatment, I think I see the problem.

Lots of jobs have changing schedule, and if you are working "blue collar" jobs, lots of them are contract and time table based, get used to it, it's a job, not a "fit my time table payout".

Hard work is not bad treatment no matter the pay, hard work is expected, if you don't like the pay then learn more skills to move up or get another job. Good God, "hard work can be a form of bad treatment if the pay is shit", this is exactly the kind of people I was talking about that refuse jobs because the pay or job is beneath them.

"just so personal story" was to give an idea of what I have seen first hand with hundreds of personal interviews I have done for hiring over the years, which has progressively gotten worse.
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Sorry i barely look at profiles or user names.. never blocked anyone's messages since i don't keep track who says what ... Thanks for the reply.
 
I'm a 30 yo single, living with my parents still but I do have a job and have more money than my now recently retired parents (they had poor salaries). I don't sit around gaming all day but I usually spend a lot of time on my YouTube channel though. It's a mutual benefit for both me and my parents, I often pay a bit for various products or whatever we want to buy, obviously pay rent for my living and we generally help each other so they don't mind having me around at all, in fact they quite like it and I get along with my parents just fine.

Biggest reason I haven't left home is probably "conveniency". Less daily choirs and more YouTube project time. I'm a bit lazy or convenient as a person but I believe that's the natural development of the human race anyway, we want to live as conveniently as possible, if we could live without working and robots doing the work for us, we probably would. It's probably only in US the "must work for the country and provide your part to the society or else you're a nobody" mentality which probably have lived stronger than elsewhere in the world, here in europe I feel people aren't nearly as workaholic as in US which statistics obviously also shows.

I find so much joy in making other people happy through my YouTube channel that I don't mind if I'm wasting my precious time to find a girl and it also saves me a lot of heartache in the process, it's just convenient. :p
 
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mesyn191 said:
Hahahaha so I could mess with your schedule as a boss, changing it every other day so you can't have a life, and you'd be cool with it? AND I could micromanage you and the rest of the staff to score worthless brownie points with upper management and stroke my ego?! AAANNNDD I could pay you min. wage no matter how hard you worked, with no raises or benefits, no matter what good you did and you'd be totally cool with all that?!

Man your bosses must looove you.

But guess what? Everyone else is gonna call that "getting treated badly" and either quit the first thing something better comes along, do a crap job, and/or act out.


A contract job isn't likely to be "blue collar" unless its quite high paying though, and these days contract jobs are all about finding ways to avoid worker protections as well as cutting pay so unlikely, and people have lives outside of work and if you don't respect that why in the world would you expect any employee to respect the boss or the work place? This is like Management 101 stuff.


Yeah but the thread and story are all about talking about young men in general, plus I mentioned my personal experience too if you want to play the anecdote game so you're posting isn't making a whole lot of sense really.
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Hehe shit so true the first paragraph.. they done that shit to my wife, change the schedule within a day, then write ups for calling out ( knowing that was what was going to happen) oh shit.. that shit not funny, but i think many that have not lived it or had one close to them ( like me) think they have ' protections ' against all that
. And more really.
 
mesyn191 said:
As someone who has worked for decades and only seen things get steadily worse over time, I can say he is pretty much spot.


"Treating people bad" is stuff like messing with your schedule constantly, micromanaging employees to try and hit some stupid performance metric for the month, etc.

And hard work can be a form of bad treatment if the pay is shit which isn't all that unusual these days.

Also just-so personal stories aren't useful when talking about broad swathes of the population.
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No union I guess?

I've worked in and around blue collar jobs most of my career. Never seen anything like that.
 
Smashing Young Man said:
In my teens, no, I was not a lady killer. I did quite alright in my 20s, though. Being a good looking—if I do say so myself—guitar player in a rock band definitely helps one score women.

Even so, anyone who is actually out trying to get laid will have more success than someone not trying at all. You only try if you really want it, though. I just don't understand how young men these days seem to not want it. Testosterone is powerful. I was utterly at the mercy of my hormones at that age. That's why I cannot fathom how a young guy can be content to do nothing but sit around and play video games.
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Pussy killer
 
Well I am glad unqualified men are not having kids. This will alleviate the children growing up in poverty situation.

I've heard this story before a few months ago. I am sure it is true to an extent. The main take away should be that men with no self motivation live in their parent's basement, don't have jobs, don't interact with people in person and play video games to occupy their time.

Half of this is becoming the norm with everyone of their generation.
Property value has been going up everywhere and more and more kids are living with their parents until they get into a stable relationship.
The internet has really put a dent into social person to person interaction.
 
I think there's a difference between living with your folks while working and getting shit sorted, I had to do it while married d/t wife medical issues, and sitting around content with unemployment.
 
While I find it a little hard to wrap my head around, I know people like this. Work *just* enough to pay the bare minimum of bills, food, weed, and cheap beer/booze. No drive, no ambition, no nothing. But hey at least they work and pay taxes. I don't even want to talk about people milking welfare as a way of life.

Personally, I could not WAIT to get out of the house. Literally 2 months after I graduated HS I was gone, baby, gone. Never looked back. And living outside of the safety net requires money, which requires jobs (or crime, but that's another topic).

RPGWiZaRD said:
I'm a 30 yo single, living with my parents still but I do have a job and have more money.... :p
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I think that can be summed up as your parents are not buttheads. I wouldn't know anything about that.
 
mesyn191 said:
No its that those "blue collar" construction jobs usually pay crap, treat their workers like crap, highly seasonal and/or don't offer steady employment, and are quite hard work too. Nobody sane or sensible is going to want to do that.


You realize pre and immediately post WWII the young would either strike or riot if they didn't get good wages, benefits, and/or treatment right and frequently joined up with a union for extra protection on top of that right? This generation's response to the crap tier labor market and economy has been relatively mild compared to what has happened in the past. The closest you saw to any of the sort of movements of the past recently was OWS and they were too disorganized to do much of anything.


[stdh.txt]
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I actually agree with some, even most of what you said. I strongly support workers rights.

It is hard work. That's why they call it "work". the benifits are WAY better than anything else in the area. I live in a fairly low cost of living area. Not rural, but not a huge city. median income for a family of 4 is 37k. These jobs pay a minimum of 65k a year. hourly, and the overtime is optional. If you work it, it's 1.5 to 2.5x overtime rate.

Maybe it's that my view is if you need a job, get a job. if it's mostly good except certain things, fight to make it better.

Sitting on your ads at home complaining there are no "good" jobs doesn't make good jobs.
 
mesyn191 said:
Hahahaha so I could mess with your schedule as a boss, changing it every other day so you can't have a life, and you'd be cool with it? AND I could micromanage you and the rest of the staff to score worthless brownie points with upper management and stroke my ego?! AAANNNDD I could pay you min. wage no matter how hard you worked, with no raises or benefits, no matter what good you did and you'd be totally cool with all that?!
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Whoa whoa whoa now, let's get real. A lot of those just-in-time scheduling jobs with zero hope for raises, benefits, promotions, or stability and unpaid overtime loopholes can pay $9 an hour, not minimum wage. High rolla!
 
BlueFireIce said:
Texas, says in my profile.

None of those are treating people badly.

If that is what you think of as poor treatment, I think I see the problem.

Lots of jobs have changing schedule, and if you are working "blue collar" jobs, lots of them are contract and time table based, get used to it, it's a job, not a "fit my time table payout".

Hard work is not bad treatment no matter the pay, hard work is expected, if you don't like the pay then learn more skills to move up or get another job. Good God, "hard work can be a form of bad treatment if the pay is shit", this is exactly the kind of people I was talking about that refuse jobs because the pay or job is beneath them.

"just so personal story" was to give an idea of what I have seen first hand with hundreds of personal interviews I have done for hiring over the years, which has progressively gotten worse.
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mesyn191 said:
Hahahaha so I could mess with your schedule as a boss, changing it every other day so you can't have a life, and you'd be cool with it? AND I could micromanage you and the rest of the staff to score worthless brownie points with upper management and stroke my ego?! AAANNNDD I could pay you min. wage no matter how hard you worked, with no raises or benefits, no matter what good you did and you'd be totally cool with all that?!

Man your bosses must looove you.

But guess what? Everyone else is gonna call that "getting treated badly" and either quit the first thing something better comes along, do a crap job, and/or act out.


A contract job isn't likely to be "blue collar" unless its quite high paying though, and these days contract jobs are all about finding ways to avoid worker protections as well as cutting pay so unlikely, and people have lives outside of work and if you don't respect that why in the world would you expect any employee to respect the boss or the work place? This is like Management 101 stuff.


Yeah but the thread and story are all about talking about young men in general, plus I mentioned my personal experience too if you want to play the anecdote game so you're posting isn't making a whole lot of sense really.
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I've worked blue collar for over 20 years now and you BOTH have valid points about employers demanding more for less and the quality of folks sitting down at the interview table. My simple philosophy is that, bottom line, I'm paid to do a job. I'm paid to make money for my employer so that they can, in turn, pay my wages. I live in the South and can say that only one in five candidates are worth what they are being paid. Overtime is random and it is very common to find out I have to work an extra 4 hours and find out when I walk in the door that day. Simple. I plan on working 12 hours every day and consider only having to work 8 as leaving early. :D There are too many whiners that complain when they are popped the extra 4 hours. Making production goals is part of manufacturing life and overtime is usually the way to solve that. I'm not going into too much detail but it just burns me that I have to work extra-hard in order to carry the weight of others that are just there to get paid and do a sub-par job. That has definitely gotten worse over that past 10 years or so. I just don't understand it. Constantly staying busy is what makes the grind go faster.

When I was a late-teen, early-20s, I HAD to have a job in order to play games. Those suckers cost 25 cents for three lives and took A LOT of quarters to get good at them. Then there was the personal computer revolution which required a substantial investment to have a decent system. A Commodore 64 was $600 and a 1540/41 floppy drive was $350 in 1983 dollars.
 
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mord said:
I actually agree with some, even most of what you said. I strongly support workers rights.

It is hard work. That's why they call it "work". the benifits are WAY better than anything else in the area. I live in a fairly low cost of living area. Not rural, but not a huge city. median income for a family of 4 is 37k. These jobs pay a minimum of 65k a year. hourly, and the overtime is optional. If you work it, it's 1.5 to 2.5x overtime rate.

Maybe it's that my view is if you need a job, get a job. if it's mostly good except certain things, fight to make it better.

Sitting on your ads at home complaining there are no "good" jobs doesn't make good jobs.
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Benefits! 65K! WFT?
 
Pusher of Buttons said:
I think there's a difference between living with your folks while working and getting shit sorted, I had to do it while married d/t wife medical issues, and sitting around content with unemployment.
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For sure. Housing and rent have become so expensive, its the logical choice. There's really nothing to debate. Not as long as homes are anywhere from double to triple that inflate rate adjusted prices that my own parents paid, while salaries only continue to go up at the rate of inflation. I already told my girlfriend that if/when we have kids, I'm fine with them sticking around until ~25 to help pay off student loans, and build a small emergency fund and/or savings that can start compounding or be used for investments elsewhere.

As far as what my game is now... I spend my time thinking about and pursuing avenues that may make working full time optional. Or at least work for myself, when I want, where I want.
 
Honestly some of these open world games that stretch on for hundreds of hours, you'd have to be under or unemployed to have the time to play them. Between my job, a pregnant wife, and restoring an old house, I'm lucky if I can find an hour or two every other weekend to play games. I played games a lot when I was in undergrad, but I just don't have free time like that any longer.
 
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blade52x said:
For sure. Housing and rent have become so expensive, its the logical choice. There's really nothing to debate. Not as long as homes are anywhere from double to triple that inflate rate adjusted prices that my own parents paid, while salaries only continue to go up at the rate of inflation. I already told my girlfriend that if/when we have kids, I'm fine with them sticking around until ~25 to help pay off student loans, and build a small emergency fund and/or savings that can start compounding or be used for investments elsewhere.

As far as what my game is now... I spend my time thinking about and pursuing avenues that may make working full time optional. Or at least work for myself, when I want, where I want.
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I actually wonder how much shittier wages would be if these non-working people DID join the workforce.
 
Cmdrmonkey said:
Honestly some of these open world games that stretch on for hundreds of hours, you'd have to be under or unemployed to have the time to play them. Between my job, a pregnant wife, and restoring an old house, I'm lucky if I can find an hour or two every other weekend to play games. I played games a lot when I was in undergrad, but I just don't have free time like that any longer.
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Yeah stupid home ownership will do that even without a remodeling project. I have a top 10 list of crap to do around the house 24x7, and stuff moves up or down the list depending on how broken or urgent it is. Paint the rooms I've been talking about painting for the last 5 years? That's #10 (or even lower, LOL). The sink disposal locks up or a toilet won't flush? Those move up to #1 real quick.

I find as I get older, I like the idea of gaming more than actually doing it. Because by the time I finally get everything I done I'm going to accomplish in one day, it's usually like 1-2 hours left before bed. Watch 1 TV show and a little Colbert and I'm passed out on the couch, game controller sitting on the coffee table. Weekends are about the only time I can rub an hour or 2 together in between chores to blow stuff up.
 
You know who needs these video games? Old people. Sitting around, no jobs, no chores, nothing to really do. Increased morale in nursing homes too. Who wants to make a few billion dollars by designing the first Old People centric MMO?
 
Blakestr said:
You know who needs these video games? Old people. Sitting around, no jobs, no chores, nothing to really do. Increased morale in nursing homes too. Who wants to make a few billion dollars by designing the first Old People centric MMO?
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BlueFireIce said:
By my 20's I had done a number of jobs, with all sorts of experience, lots of it sucked balls and paid almost nothing, but it was skill building.
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There's this myth that this generation has, that previous generations had good jobs handed to us when we got out of school. They get this from TV. FRIENDS has a bunch of twenty somethings with expensive apartments, and even the ones with crappy or no jobs have great digs. So when they can't land a job for $80K a year, they don't even bother. Seems very few are willing to take an entry level job. They think their 'entry level' should have an office, instead of a broom closet. No one expects to have to work just to find work anymore. Spell that L A Z Y.
I have several co-workers who should have retired, but have grown children they still support. Two of these grown children have children of their own, so grandma and grandpa are now the breadwinners for the grandkids, while their own kids do.....nothing but complain about the lack of opportunities. One 68 year old man is now putting a 33 year old son into the third trade school. Kid went to the schools, and when he got out, didn't like the jobs he could get. One was Lincoln tech; trained to be a mechanic. Turned out, he didn't like getting his hands dirty and smelling of dirty grease.
Every one of these situations, the old folks have been divorced. How much of this enabling is due to guilt from getting divorced? I don't know. But we have a rather large number of unemployed adults who are no longer counted as unemployed, because they've stopped looking for work.
 
RPGWiZaRD said:
I'm a 30 yo single, living with my parents still but I do have a job and have more money than my now recently retired parents (they had poor salaries). I don't sit around gaming all day but I usually spend a lot of time on my YouTube channel though. It's a mutual benefit for both me and my parents, I often pay a bit for various products or whatever we want to buy, obviously pay rent for my living and we generally help each other so they don't mind having me around at all, in fact they quite like it and I get along with my parents just fine.

Biggest reason I haven't left home is probably "conveniency". Less daily choirs and more YouTube project time. I'm a bit lazy or convenient as a person but I believe that's the natural development of the human race anyway, we want to live as conveniently as possible, if we could live without working and robots doing the work for us, we probably would. It's probably only in US the "must work for the country and provide your part to the society or else you're a nobody" mentality which probably have lived stronger than elsewhere in the world, here in europe I feel people aren't nearly as workaholic as in US which statistics obviously also shows.

I find so much joy in making other people happy through my YouTube channel that I don't mind if I'm wasting my precious time to find a girl and it also saves me a lot of heartache in the process, it's just convenient. :p
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I'm in a similar situation. I'm 27 and still living with my parents, for a few reasons. I found a nice job in the area (actually, less than 5min away) that looks like it will be a career. I thought about buying a house in town and moving there, but I didn't like any of the prospects, and none of them were better than the property that my parents owned. In the end, I decided to buy my parent's property, rent it back to them, and build my own "apartment" off to the side, Financially it was significantly cheaper, and I know the history of the building, so I avoided all the "new home surprises" (bad wiring, failing septic, failing furnace, water encroachment, etc.) that people get. My parents love it because they don't have to worry about maintaining the property any more.

Then I decided to use the money I saved to start my own business, so now I have no free time anyway.

My boyfriend plays Final Fantasy XIV Online, and I can see how you could say some of them treat it like a job. There are "clans" on there that post requirements that members must play from 5:00pm to 11:00pm M,W,F, and missing a day gets you kicked. People spend all day memorizing the steps to fights so that they can clear content. Its insane.

I can also believe the "they don't want to work" stereotype. I see a lot of friends, and friends of friends complaining that they can't find a job better than fast food. But when I try to get them to look at something like construction, they have a million excuses and "disabilities" that "prevent" them from "working" in any field that requires manual labor. The contractor that's building my "apartment" has been trying to find help for a year, and he just can't find anyone that wants to work. The work isn't fun, but unskilled construction laborers make significantly more than minimum wage retail/server jobs, and you typically have more consistent hours.
 
wizdum said:
I can also believe the "they don't want to work" stereotype. I see a lot of friends, and friends of friends complaining that they can't find a job better than fast food. But when I try to get them to look at something like construction, they have a million excuses and "disabilities" that "prevent" them from "working" in any field that requires manual labor. The contractor that's building my "apartment" has been trying to find help for a year, and he just can't find anyone that wants to work. The work isn't fun, but unskilled construction laborers make significantly more than minimum wage retail/server jobs, and you typically have more consistent hours.
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Have your friends try welding. For whatever reason the group of welders I'm pals with are all big time nerds like me (maybe the sparks/loud noises and fire attract us for some reason?). Job wise a lot of the older gents are leaving--and the young ones don't come fast enough. A lot of the places I know of will hire you if you have ~ 6 months of welding experience (courses at colleges count) which isn't much if you think of it for a career path.
 
nightfly said:
There's this myth that this generation has, that previous generations had good jobs handed to us when we got out of school. They get this from TV. FRIENDS has a bunch of twenty somethings with expensive apartments, and even the ones with crappy or no jobs have great digs. So when they can't land a job for $80K a year, they don't even bother. Seems very few are willing to take an entry level job. They think their 'entry level' should have an office, instead of a broom closet. No one expects to have to work just to find work anymore. Spell that L A Z Y.
I have several co-workers who should have retired, but have grown children they still support. Two of these grown children have children of their own, so grandma and grandpa are now the breadwinners for the grandkids, while their own kids do.....nothing but complain about the lack of opportunities. One 68 year old man is now putting a 33 year old son into the third trade school. Kid went to the schools, and when he got out, didn't like the jobs he could get. One was Lincoln tech; trained to be a mechanic. Turned out, he didn't like getting his hands dirty and smelling of dirty grease.
Every one of these situations, the old folks have been divorced. How much of this enabling is due to guilt from getting divorced? I don't know. But we have a rather large number of unemployed adults who are no longer counted as unemployed, because they've stopped looking for work.
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I remember an addiction to Evercrack; after catching myself plan an entire weekend to camping for some stupid boots, (I literally said, "it will be a lot of work, but it will be worth it)...I caught myself saying "work" in a game, and immediately uninstalled and smashed the cds, swearing off MMO's forever. I don't know what to say to someone who doesn't have enough self-awareness to recognize what is happening to them and it's sad that's all they do. While I'm usually against coddling, I think the psychologically addictive nature of MMO's has been proven. I wouldn't be against a Surgeon General's warning about how Addictive on the startup screens--(hell, that would probably sell more copies even)

One thing that makes the problem worse but it seems the vast majority of American's aren't targeting is the speed of technological change and automation. If I have a 3D printer and robots and I own a factory, why would I employ a thousand workers? If they perfect automated trucking, all of those truckers are out of a job. All those small, midwest towns that rely on Truckers stopping for the night, for some food, or whatever, go under. So the truckers start looking for a new job. All of this means more competition for any available jobs and anyone who can't find one is either lazy or stupid.

One of the reason my generation whines so much is that schools were stupidly slow when it came to recognizing big changes. They weren't able to tell us the stark truth because some baby-boomer Mom would complain that someone told Johnny his dreams weren't realistic. And rather than back up the guidance counselor, "Lady, I'm a guidance counselor, not a dream counselor", the administration sides with the dumb ass parent every time. (It was so bad that when I informed my parents, both teachers, that I was entering the fire service, they breathed a collective sigh of relief..."Better a quick death," my dad said, "rather than a slow one over many years." Schools were telling us all that if you didn't go to college you were essentially throwing away any chance of a great life, because twenty years before, college grads could command a great entry level job. Nobody told me that plumbers or electricians made decent money or that an underwater welder would make more than a lawyer. Of course, some of my generation, myself included, didn't just accept what we were told and double/triple/quadruple checked the research. It's not hard to look at a trend and recognize a job market is becoming saturated. Schools did nothing to prepare most of us for the real world and unless you hit the parent lottery, or were just lucky, you ended up making a huge financial mistake that followed you the rest of your life.

It is a jungle out there. There is always some opportunity for those smart enough to discern them but I always question, should it be this uncertain? Should it be this savage? Basically anyone with a brain is looking online for opportunities, but that is going to lead to more saturation, more competition, less benefits. Automation, 3D printing, Autonomous cars, are going to destroy a huge number of jobs. While I'm worried for the future, one thing that gives me hope is these companies have to sell their products to someone and if 99% of America has no money because they are on minimum wage and own no property, well, it's going to be a tough time for business too. I think the next 20 years are going to be extremely interesting.
 
Blakestr said:
I remember an addiction to Evercrack; after catching myself plan an entire weekend to camping for some stupid boots, (I literally said, "it will be a lot of work, but it will be worth it)...I caught myself saying "work" in a game, and immediately uninstalled and smashed the cds, swearing off MMO's forever. I don't know what to say to someone who doesn't have enough self-awareness to recognize what is happening to them and it's sad that's all they do. While I'm usually against coddling, I think the psychologically addictive nature of MMO's has been proven. I wouldn't be against a Surgeon General's warning about how Addictive on the startup screens--(hell, that would probably sell more copies even)

One thing that makes the problem worse but it seems the vast majority of American's aren't targeting is the speed of technological change and automation. If I have a 3D printer and robots and I own a factory, why would I employ a thousand workers? If they perfect automated trucking, all of those truckers are out of a job. All those small, midwest towns that rely on Truckers stopping for the night, for some food, or whatever, go under. So the truckers start looking for a new job. All of this means more competition for any available jobs and anyone who can't find one is either lazy or stupid.

One of the reason my generation whines so much is that schools were stupidly slow when it came to recognizing big changes. They weren't able to tell us the stark truth because some baby-boomer Mom would complain that someone told Johnny his dreams weren't realistic. And rather than back up the guidance counselor, "Lady, I'm a guidance counselor, not a dream counselor", the administration sides with the dumb ass parent every time. (It was so bad that when I informed my parents, both teachers, that I was entering the fire service, they breathed a collective sigh of relief..."Better a quick death," my dad said, "rather than a slow one over many years." Schools were telling us all that if you didn't go to college you were essentially throwing away any chance of a great life, because twenty years before, college grads could command a great entry level job. Nobody told me that plumbers or electricians made decent money or that an underwater welder would make more than a lawyer. Of course, some of my generation, myself included, didn't just accept what we were told and double/triple/quadruple checked the research. It's not hard to look at a trend and recognize a job market is becoming saturated. Schools did nothing to prepare most of us for the real world and unless you hit the parent lottery, or were just lucky, you ended up making a huge financial mistake that followed you the rest of your life.

It is a jungle out there. There is always some opportunity for those smart enough to discern them but I always question, should it be this uncertain? Should it be this savage? Basically anyone with a brain is looking online for opportunities, but that is going to lead to more saturation, more competition, less benefits. Automation, 3D printing, Autonomous cars, are going to destroy a huge number of jobs. While I'm worried for the future, one thing that gives me hope is these companies have to sell their products to someone and if 99% of America has no money because they are on minimum wage and own no property, well, it's going to be a tough time for business too. I think the next 20 years are going to be extremely interesting.
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I work for a public school in the US (in IT), and we're still seeing that. Telling kids they have to go to college, and cutting Home Ec and Shop classes because they're expensive. The end result? A boatload of kids with 4 year degrees in useless fields that now have to work two crappy minimum wage jobs to pay for rent AND student loans.

We don't have money for useful classes like Shop, or Economics, but we have loads of cash to piss away on "Standards Based Grading" (grading on feelings, rather than performance).
 
Blakestr said:
One of the reason my generation whines so much is that schools were stupidly slow when it came to recognizing big changes <snip> Nobody told me that plumbers or electricians made decent money or that an underwater welder would make more than a lawyer.
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Two things: 1. the public school system wasn't made for the benefit of the citizens. It was made to create able workers for the corporations. At that time, ignorant people were the vast majority, and so there was too much competition for them, costing the employers too much even when they could find capable workers. 2. No man would want those 'trade' jobs. With the woman's lib movement, there was this expectation that every woman could 'have it all'; that being, a top 5% income husband with a high status job. Men who worked in ANY type of manual labor position were looked down upon by most women as unacceptable as mates, and also treated like dirt by guys who sat at desks, you know, those pricks who get rich off of fleecing working people of their savings.

But today's schools no longer prepare kids for the jobs that are available. As you mentioned, all they produce, are more of the same, people who've gone to school for an extra four years, going into tremendous debt, while learning stuff that is absolutely worthless.
 
Smashing Young Man said:
Even so, anyone who is actually out trying to get laid will have more success than someone not trying at all. You only try if you really want it, though. I just don't understand how young men these days seem to not want it. Testosterone is powerful. I was utterly at the mercy of my hormones at that age. That's why I cannot fathom how a young guy can be content to do nothing but sit around and play video games.
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I'm guessing you're a little older like me. Have you seen the modern young woman? They're mostly insufferable, entitled cunts with huge partner counts nowadays. If I were growing up now I'd want very little to do with them and I'm hoping to instill that knowledge into my son in the hopes of keeping him from being divorce raped too early in life.
 
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XGY67WQ

This is very good documentary about in part about what is going on with men. Very much related to this stuff.
It helped me see some stuff even within myself, as even though sometimes as a ' joke' I would de- value myself, or discount my own feelings.. I am trying not to that shit ain't right and its very much a social norm, culture, for men.
Btw included in prime
 
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mesyn191 said:
OK yes that is hyperbolic but then so are all the people downplaying the difficulty getting a good job and getting ahead in this economy.
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You're talking in a condescending manner to someone who's been in and out of employment for 8 years. Yes, I'm aware of how difficult it is. No, it isn't impossible.
 
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