Disconnects. There are disconnects. You become aware of them when you pass from one reality into another. From employed to unemployed is one such transition. It’s hard to understand unless you have gone through it. I would compare the experience to going to war…without all the weapons and death.
Though, for some people unemployment can bring tragedy and much suffering. Again, to those who have never been through it, it’s difficult to understand what the big deal is. It’s sort of like what’s going on now with Occupy Wall Street. What’s the big deal? Maybe they should just get jobs and stop all this nonsense. If they just got jobs they wouldn’t be making messes in our cities, causing traffic jams, having those god-awful drum circles, and ultimately getting pepper-sprayed, dragged, beaten, arrested, kicked, screamed at, barricaded, pelted with rubber bullets, &c.
Wait a minute. Did someone just suggest that the occupiers should just get jobs? Yes. In fact, that has been one of the standard refrains from the opposition. Take, for example, the comfortably cynical office workers around Zuccotti Park who dropped hundreds of McDonald’s applications down to the protestors. Gee, thanks!
This is where the disconnect resides. There are those who have been through the worst our economic system has to offer and those that have not fallen through those trap doors. You don’t learn about them in school. You don’t even realize they are there until you fall through one. But there are many such trap doors and over the last thirty years policy changes have added even more.
It is very possible that by the time my children are ready to enter the economy, there will be even more for them to contend with. If things continue as they have been, they will have no mobility whatsoever and any step they take will lead them further down the economic scale. In fact, economic mobility in the United States has significantly declined according to a recent Pew study. What mobility there is tends to be downward. Moreover, according to a recent study by the OECD, the United States ranks as one of the worst nations in terms of income inequality.
So, let’s get back to “Get a job.” One of the respondents to our recent OWS survey put this as a response. This is to be expected. This is the disconnect once again. This person obviously has not encountered any of the trap doors yet. Perhaps, he/she is insulated by wealth and nepotism, or simply has a job still.
In my experience in architecture thus far, I have come across many trust-fund babies, many who may pursue architecture without concern of financial gain. They can play at will without risk of falling down the economic ladder. Good for them.
But, then there is the rest of us, the majority who took out student loans to realize our dreams of becoming architects, who try to work their way up in firms, or who strike out and start our own firms. Most of us deal with economic risk every day and aren’t insulated from the harsh realities of the present economy as those just above us are.
When I was unemployed I heard “Get a job!” more than a few times. It was usually written in the comments for some article I’d written about the economy. I guess I was ruining the illusion that everything was OK for these people. My perspective now is that they simply couldn’t understand because they haven’t been through it…and hopefully never will.
Thirty years of destroying the American Dream have brought on a divided population. Not just in terms of economic prosperity, but in terms of ideology and belief. Just ask Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law Professor who has been one of those shooting up flares to get the attention of the American public about the dangers of this. It’s almost like climate change. How long will it take for the skeptics to finally admit that this is real and dangerous? Probably when more and more fall through those trap doors.
So, for my unemployed architecture brothers and sisters out there, you have not been forgotten. And, now that Occupy Wall Street has become Occupy Everywhere, you do not have to feel alone anymore. There are literally millions of fellow Americans who now understand they are just as screwed as you are!
For all you skeptics who still believe in Milton Friedman, Ronald Reagan, and trickle- down theories, it might just be a matter of time before you have to change your tune. After all, once there are enough “freak” weather events and catastrophes even the skeptics start to admit that the climate has indeed changed.
Next week: A personal story of unemployment.
Guy Horton is a Los Angeles writer and author of the critical blog, The Indicator on ArchDaily.com, which covers issues ranging from the culture, politics, and business of architecture to theory and aesthetics. He is a frequent contributor to The Architect's Newspaper, The Atlantic Cities ...
21 Comments
great post, guy.
after high diving through the trap door last year - followed up by short term contract/temp work and collecting unemployment in between - i can readily identify. it was an experience, and it can definitely be a challenge finding your way back out. the pinnacle of stress for me was shortly before daughter was born when bosses said there'd be no layoffs, and within a month proceeded to layoff 20% of firm. the hair went from brown to salt & pepper. after final temp job went bust due to firm's light workload, decided to hang my own hat - which has also been an experience. for me, finding my way out was mostly due to a culmination of luck and timing - i had no school loans, our rent is uber cheap, we love beans and rice and had saved up as much as possible in the preceding years, and i was approached about a decent design opportunity. even then, the stress still lingers, and the memory of what i went through hasn't been forgotten. i identify more with the aims of OWS now than i think i would have, otherwise.
btw, douchenozzles john and derek are calling themselves 'the resistance' - though it seems the only thing they're actively resisting is the media finally shedding light on the systemic unemployment issues caused by congressional/corporate malfeasance, corruption and collusion.
Excellent post. I too worry about my kid's future in an economy that essentially hates him unless he's buying things.
speaking as someone whose country has been in economic crisis for 30 years and have fallen through all of the trapdoors... the key term should be ADAPTABILITY. Often times too many of us stick o our guns and refuse to adapt, and this causes unemployment... if you think the US is hard, come here to the Manila Philippines and we can show you a lesson or two in how to do it ;)
That being said, excellent article.
and one of the republican front runners thinks that your children should work as janitors.
so - after firing all the janitors (and afterwards telling them to take a bath and get a job) - he wants your kindergartner regularly using harsh chemicals that could cause brain damage if used incorrectly, cleaning up infected vomit and feces, repairing faulty wiring, and carrying heavy objects up and down stairs.
more on this disconnect.
Thank you for addressing the Reality That Dare Not Speak Its Name.
The field of architecture is ultimately a game of musical chairs with every single one of us positioning themselves not to be left chairless when the music stops. I've discovered that, for me at least, the only way to win this game is to stop playing.
toaster, epsilon and delta kids don't need to study or play if they won't be able to afford/are shunned from attending college like the alphas' kids.
here's an amazing thought. perhaps i am not entitled to a job. i would rather people tell me to get a job than say 'oh you poor thing, you just sit back and blame republicans; and also, demand someone else pick up the tab for your own student loan decisions.'
hooks,
that's not an amazing thought, because no one is entitled to a job, nor is OWS claiming they are. rather, they're demanding a functional government to provide framework for fair competition and economic stability/growth - so people can at least feed, clothe and house themselves.
regardless of how amazing or unamazing or slighty amazing it is, you are right: no one is entitled to a job. and no one is entitled to have someone else pay off their student loans. and no one is entitled to a living wage regardless of employment. -- which are all demands made at one time or another by various groups w/ in the OWS movement.
wow hooks. employed people are not entitled to a livable wage. wow. this kind of heartlessness is a big problem.
As harsh as it may sound, Hook is right; "No one is entitled to a job". And don't think that everyone who disagrees with you doesn't understand your predicament. It's brutal to realize that no one has your back. I've been there twice. If you want the architecture job badly enough, and if you're good enough then there will be someone willing to hire you for some ridiculously low salary to work endless hours. And when you get in the door act grateful, work your ass off and you'll make your way back to where you belong.
wow Micah. i think the actual point being that people want a livable wage whether they are working OR not. and they aren't entitled to this, no matter how heartless you think it is. in fact, heartlessness isn't of my concern. brainlessness. now that's the real problem.
i was looking for a job in architecture for 2 years after graduation. i've experienced this trap door mr horton speaks of, and yet i DO NOT agree with many of his assessments. as hard as it was, i had to take jobs that i guess you could consider being "below" someone w/ a M.Arch or whatever [being that architects have an inflated opinion about their own importance]. but oh well. i had to adapt. so do these kids. every job is a stepping stone to the next. you can't get everything you want when you want it. it takes being a grownup to understand this. and if it takes being a janitor for a few years, then you've got to be willing to do it.
or you can just move to China like me to be an architect.
wait - you moved to a country where the building industry is propped up by the government and you're here railing on "entitlements?"
There's actually something deliciously ironic about Americans going to Asia to take back the jobs. We need to recognize the international marketplace and find the goods/services that we can offer competitively. We can't do it with cars; but lean, mean, and talented American architects can put up a good fight. Good thing we never unionized ;)
Thanks toaster. Hooks, as they say, you've just been skooled bitch. China. Oh, and by the by, ows isn't just about jobs you tool, it's about people sick and fucking tired of having a system that's rigged, fixed to fuck you in the ass regardless of whether or not you have a job. I may not be entitled to a job, but I sure as hell am entitled to not be fucked in the ass by two jag-offs named Tabacco....
ha. yes, nothing is wrong with the way things are. ows is just a bunch of entitled, brainless, young people who's parents told them too much how special they are. no one is profiting from an exploited economic system, i'm sure of it!
look, the lack of jobs in the current economic climate is just one rather small aspect of the occupy movement and anyone who focuses too much attention on "jobs" does this ongoing discussion a huge disservice. to go back to guy's article, this movement is about inequality that has been built into the system by policies created by people who have the power and political influence to do so...in amounts that have never before been achievable. our government should be protecting its citizens, but instead that government has been bought and paid for in order to advance the interests of those top few individuals and extend these inequalities in all aspects of our lives, whether we choose to perceive them or not. the fact that some people refuse to understand this is baffling. one could even call it brainlessness.
the comment above is me, micah. i think this new "post as" feature is glitching.
well thanks b3tadine[sutures]. i didn't realize one was not allowed to work in another country and simultaneously hold the view that people do not have a right to force their services on someone else and then demand compensation in return. i guess 'skooled' would be the only way to put it. i do work in China, which at the moment is booming. but much of this boom, like toaster mentioned, is artificial as it is heavily subsidized regardless of actual market demand; hence your ghost cities. and this is a giant bubble that will eventually burst. and i hope to be gone by that time.
but i do enjoy how people assign statements and views to me. i don't recall believing or saying that there is nothing wrong with today's system. i also don't recall saying that the entire OWS movement was about the lack of jobs. but i assumed, being that the title of this post is "CONTOURS: Get a Job!", that jobs would be the primary discussion point on the board. if that makes me a tool, then sorry for having a different perspective.
so you guys can call me names and/or insinuate my positions all you want. some things i agree w/ in regard to the OWS. some things i do not. same with the tea party. when i speak of brainlessness, i refer to people who cannot differentiate between capitalism and corporatism; people who cannot see the correlation between government expansion and corporate excess; people who cannot see how the federal government creates the demand for these improper relationships via regulatory complexities and hole-ridden tax codes; people who cannot see that corporations only plead free market when it's in the best interest of their profit margin. and, sorry to say, many of the solutions being proposed by certain factions of the OWS movement would only be a contributing the current problem…aka creating more artificial bubbles and more unsustainable deficits, which, from what i've been reading, isn't making for a great situation in Europe.
and if anyone would be interested in working in China, i would highly recommend it. it's been an incredible experience thus far.
The last three decades of prosperity is the result of a culture of credit delusion- that somehow our economy can keep expanding as we keep borrowing beyond our means. Here's another bitter pill: there are too many architects with too few entrepreneurial ambitions (i.e. ambitious rich clients) to keep them around. Architecture has become another white elephant, along with luxury yachts, exotic sports cars, and private jets; just another excess from our hyper consumerist history.
Great post! That makes me feel better about my situation. Not many people understand the feeling of being ashamed to go outside during the day because you may have to face a neighbor and explain why you are home, especially for someone like myself who has worked non-stop since 14 years old and came from a modest upbringing. As for politics, those fools who say "get a job" are the same fools that blame blacks for higher poverty rates and deny the real structural reasons for these problems in society. There is a myth in this country that we are in control of our own destiny, and when people question this, it makes them feel uneasy about their own security (same as global warming does as you mention).
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