Why you need education and a career in mining and engineering to survive these terrible economic times

Nobody can tell and nobody can predict.  The politicians seem to make mistake after mistake.  And the economists cannot agree on causes yet alone solutions.   My son-in-law in California is convinced that balancing the budget will solve all things; even though as a civil engineer he will suffer if we do not invest in new & upgraded infrastructure.  My son-in-law in Iowa is convince that Ron Paul as president will solve all things—even the appearance of a job he has not had in two years.

The kids (40 to 50-years old) in Las Vegas are still scratching along in part-time jobs: a few evenings dealing cards off the strip and a few days organizing furniture shows.  To judge by the crowds in the Las Vegas casinos there is still a lot of money to spend on pleasure.  But obviously not enough to keep all of Las Vegas busy.

In the cool of an Iowa evening, I upbraided my daughter for the political apathy that characterizes the young in a time of economic and social madness.  She tartly reminded me that she and her cohorts are too busy studying (at higher and higher fees) to become protestors or to take on the privileged oldies who make up the Tea Party.  She noted these oldies, in spite of no cuts in government medical benefits, will soon enough be dead and the young will need degrees in engineering to get on with life.

And maybe this is the hard truth:  there are just too many of us old baby-boomers selfishly demanding benefits we cannot pay for.  Maybe the sad truth is that the next ten years will be times of high demand by those who are old, and low productivity by those who are aging.  Maybe the baby boomers just have to get out of the way before things can be made better.

I noted that we have to mine and make more to get the economy going again.  My kids reminded me that the old are so conservative and so powerful in their remaining hippie ideals that they won’t let mines open and they are too old to make anything.  At any rate all the old want is more medicine; and there is not much mined metal in wheel-chairs.

It is hard to believe this is all the result of greedy hippies now become wheel-chair-bound oldies.  It is hard to belive that the baby boomers are going to have to die before the US can once again mine and make things.  It is hard to believe that we, in our conservatism, are the cause of mad politicians like those who now seem to dominate the news and the failure to act.   But as my kinds remind me: we oldies are simply afraid to face death, yet alone the changes that are clearly needed to move forward to a new era.  We are still mired in the mud of old arguments and old concepts.  We are expecting a future old-age, golden-age that replicates the 1960s when we were young and randy.

My defence is that we have wisdom, money, lots of will to advise, and are still ready to consume.

“But you are the guys earning vast amounts, paying low taxes, sitting in expensive houses, and not mining or making,” is the retort.  “You oldies are the guys controlling the propaganda that produces mad politicians and the power of the powerful monied groups.”

I reply in defence: “You will soon enough inherit it all, and pay little inheritance tax.  You will soon be in charge.  You were educated at our expense (read effort) and you can earn lots and enjoy life as we never did.”

Those with education soon enough see my point.  But those without education do not.  They are stuck, without a job, without a future hope,  greedy for what we have had which they will never have, and scared.

Those with education are even now plunging into mining and civil engineering and will do well.  But those trying to deal cards, fix computers, or sell ugly Indian furniture are doomed.  The service industry that has been financed for so long by China is not the way forward.  Only mining and making will secure a future for those educated to participate.