Put On Your Game Face for Job Creation

People want the availability of jobs; politicians talk about creating jobs. I just wonder if people and politicians know how to create a job. I seriously doubt most do or we would not find ourselves in our current situation of high unemployment and low job growth. Kind of big picture, would you not agree?

I have created jobs. I have not created many, less than a handful, but more than I can say most people have. Therefore, I can speak from experience.

Let start by defining ‘job’. Webster defines job as “work undertaken…done for private profit.” In other words, a person exchanges their service for some form of compensation. Compensation is typically monetary, but it does not have to be. Maybe one receives on-the-job training (aka education) via an unpaid internship. Theoretically, there are unlimited possibilities in structuring such a deal assuming no regulatory oversight (a post for another day).

The person that seeks to undertake work must be qualified to complete the work, especially so if they want monetary compensation. Additionally, the person needs to solve more problems than they create, which is extremely important and often ignored. I have found most people never bother to think about the problems they may create because they are so focused on themselves (& their paycheck). However, to solve problems requires skill and knowledge gained from an education.

Let's not confuse schooling with education. Have you ever wonder why young adults should have a four year college degree (which saddles parents and the young adult with years of debt) to have the best chance to secure a job that helps cover the costs to provide for oneself? It's because we are doing a lousy job in K-12. We are short changing our youth and jeopardizing our future standard of living.

To quote the Apollo 13 astronauts, “Houston, we have a problem.” I think the problem we face as a nation is just as dire. Similar to the Apollo 13 mission, we can solve our problem, but it requires us collectively acknowledging we have a problem, which is kind of hard when the blind lead the blind.

Republicans love to say education is a state and local issue, yet states (even those led by Republicans in ** cough ** Florida and Texas) continue to gut school funding. Local districts respond by cutting back hours (leads to a host of problems), cutting out PE (and we wonder why children are overweight – duh!) and art. What is not being cut is football. That sounds great, let’s export football! I guess the Republicans want us to home school; now that is local (works for some, but not a best use of our overall resources).

Democrats are not much better. Democrats support the unions first; unions are designed to support their members and the children are not members. Clearly, both parties have forgotten about our children and more importantly, our future.

Sony has a five minute thought provoking and entertaining video on YouTube, which can be found here. Even though it is two years old, it points out how technology and information is changing our world.

After watching the video, one may wonder whether our children are receiving the necessary skill sets with which to solve problems (and have the opportunity to have a decent paying job, which would cover the taxes to support our governmental commitments) in the 21^st century.

I doubt most children are being taught software coding skills, basic personal financial planning/management, etc... How about a second or third language? Even if a 1/8^th of the children in China and India receive such an education, it is more than all our children combined. In some parts of China, the children go to school on Saturday in addition to Monday through Friday. These countries are hungry and they are competitive. This alone should point out why our jobs are going overseas.

Those living in Asia can solve other peoples’ problems at a lower cost, have been and will continue to do so. In case no one told you, your job is not safe.

Instead of improving our football game, we need to improve our education game if we want to stay on top. I have my game face on. How about you?