In response to the Statistics: The Real Lost Generation

In response to the Statistics: The Real Lost Generation, in particular to the European nation’s solution, does the words: The Road to Serfdom seem to ring a bell? It does to me, and in the worst way- deliberately making jobs for people is not a lasting or stable solution. Given it is a solution but I fear for the long term effects (spillover costs) that it is going to generate. The money has got to come from some were, and it feels like it is coming out of the right pocket and going straight to the left.

Limitations: before I go on, I feel it necessary to point out the limitations and failings of this article. The information is vague, so beware- what we need to know is not a generality but specifics. Who, what class, skill levels, level of educations, relationship to age? Without these, we are dancing on the rickety branch of generalities, and are courting problems. But sticking with the numbers…

I do not find the number of unemployed students who have graduated or left school to be that alarming. From my own experience (from high school) after approximately 70-80% drop out rate, for graduation that there were a bunch of people who did not poses the necessary skills to get a job at graduation. In short they had book knowledge but had no practical skills in the work place. I was fortunate and worked full time throughout the summer as soon as child labor laws permitted and before that by my dad. During high school I worked at the cafeteria.

As a result when I graduated I had several well placed references and was able to find a job without difficulty. The lack of professional references I suspect is what killed most peoples chances of getting a job. Whose fault that is I leave open, though I believe they have no one to blame but themselves. This is because I worked very hard to get ready for a job outside of collage, and from those I talked to (my fellow students) very few had even had a job yet.

The best flight simulator pilot with over a thousand hours logged will still not hold a candle to a rookie pilot who has logged 200 hours of real flight time.