Our leaders have failed us

There has been some talk about how many college graduates cannot find work.  I don't know what the numbers are, but I can believe the story because it is my story.  I fully relate to that situation because it is my situation.

I graduated in 1982 from the University of Houston.  I got a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science.  It was supposed to be a "good" degree and in a field of rapid growth.  Yet that didn't work for me.

It wasn't until years later that I learned that I could have received better training.  This may have made a difference, or it may not have.  Hard to say, but at the very least, I would have had a better chance.

My impression is that most employers wanted people who could come in to work and begin immediately.  My education, as it could be called, was not such.  Any company that hired me would have had to have given me time to go through a learning curve until I learned the ropes.  I think this fact made it harder for me to succeed than would have been otherwise the case.

The responsibility for getting the best possible training lies with myself, of course.  But should I be required to shoulder all the blame?  Why should the University of Houston be held blameless for my lack of success?  They took my money and led me to believe that this would be adequate for my goals.  Do they not have some responsibility for failing to educate me to the extent necessary for success?  Why should they be let off the hook?

I think the facilities at the University could have been better.  I think they could have had more relevant equipment to study with.  When I left there, I wasn't ready.

The rest of the story is this.  After failing to find work in what I wanted, I began driving a truck for a living.  I've been doing that since.  But during that time, I have sought to improve myself the best I could.  One thing I looked at was training at a private school.  This was quite expensive for me at the time, and although I may have been able to pull it off, I decided not to do it.

Instead I have followed another path, which so far has not been fruitful either.  I tried programming and getting my wares published.  This failed.  When that failed, I tried marketing it myself.  That failed too.

I think my ideas had merit, but the execution may have been better.

As mentioned in prior posts, and having had given up on a programming career, I went into stocks.  This didn't work out either.  I did have some minor successes, but nothing that could raise my standard of living.

There has never been a lack of effort or desire.  There just hasn't been any success.

Now we are at the point in the history of this country where opportunities are getting harder to come by.  Kids cannot get hired out of school.  Is it their fault?  How much blame do you give to them and how much blame belongs to the society itself?  I think it is a mistake to blame the kids entirely.  Some of that responsibility may lie within themselves, but I suspect not all of it.

In my own case, I suspect my own lack of success was due in some part to the inadequate training I got.  I think it could be the same for the kids today.  For that, I blame the leadership.

For I have seen plenty of evidence elsewhere since I began this blog that the leadership is failing us in many other ways.

We need better leadership, but how do you get it?  We still have the power to choose our leaders.  But we must choose wisely.  But how when the media won't tell the truth?  The media is in service to the Democrats.  They will not fairly report what is news and is propagandizing us instead.

So, there will be a State of Union speech tonight by the President.  One thing I saw yesterday was the proposal to cut corporate tax rates.  I am opposed to this.  I think it runs counter to our Constitution in that the original Constitution did not allow a tax on individuals.  Taxes on individuals should be less, and taxes on corporations should be higher.  There used to be an import tax.  That should return, and individual rates cut to give relief to individuals.  And so on and so forth.  Everywhere you see, the individual is being oppressed by the combined powers of the powerful.  The corporations and nation states are examples of this.

No doubt the President will want more money for job training.  I don't think this is helpful because the problem isn't a lack of money, it is a lack of leadership.  He's not providing it.  He has had enough time.  He has no more excuses to make.