What This Blog is About

I'm including this clip from Senator Bernie Sanders because he clearly tells us that real unemployment (July 2015) is 10.5%.  That includes the people in the regular "unemployed" category, the people who have given up looking for jobs, and the chronically underemployed people in the U.S.  Ten percent of the population adds up to around 30 MILLION PEOPLE.

"We're going through something historic and people don't recognize it."  -Alvin Toffler



Now people in the political world blame the other party for this.  That makes people cheer at rallies, but what's really going on is much bigger than that.  The three best futurists, thinkers, and researchers I've found, all say that the U.S. is in a chaotic period of transition right now.  They use different terms for it, but basically we've left the Industrial Age, and we're on our way towards the Information Age (or Digital Age, or Creative Age, whatever you want to call it).  This is a long transition, it's already gone on for decades, and it will go on for decades to come (unless civilization collapses).  So the Republicans can blame the Democrats and vice-versa, but they're missing the point, and wasting energy and resources.  The research has been out there for decades.  America's premiere futurists, the husband and wife team of Alvin and Heidi Toffler, wrote about this in their 1980 book, The Third Wave.  They've spoken to business and political leaders around the world, but many have ignored them because their ideas don't fit into the world of short term, political race focused thinking. 

One one hand we now have the internet, "new media, social media, mobile technology and connectivity, and all kinds of  amazing ways to communicate, interact, and do business with people around the world.  On the other hand, we still have the U.S. public education system that was designed specifically to turn kids from farms into factory workers 130 years ago.  We have traditional business people and politicians working from the Industrial Age mentality running most of the country.  We're in a weird neverland made up of the old and the new, all jumbled together.  Basically, nearly everything in society is being re-invented.  That's creating incredible opportunities for some people, like Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey or Elon Musk.  But it's completely baffling lots of the people in our country, and the world.  The job market and work world are changing quickly and dramatically, and millions of people just don't know how to deal with that. 

This blog is about our changing world.  First we need to come to grips with the fact we're in this crazy transition period, and most people simply aren't aware of that.  Most people don't read books by the Tofflers, Richard Florida, or economist Ravi Batra, my three favorite pioneers who have been writing about these issues for years, even decades.  Once people understand that we're in this crazy transition, and that's why it's so hard to find a job, or do the same kind of work they got a degree for ten years ago, then we can move on to the next issue.  If you can't find a good paying job, you might have to create your own.  That's scary.  We didn't learn how to do that in school.  That uses the creativity that school beat out of us. 

In this blog, I'll be writing about what's going on and the issues so many people are facing.  I'll also be doing posts about people who are working in new ways, starting new types of businesses, finding new forms of education, and creating jobs in the world.  In my lifetime of experience, the people who tend to break new ground and create new industries tend to be the freaks, geeks, dorks, and weirdos of the world.  From the crazy fringes of society come the people with new ideas who spark innovation and ultimately whole new businesses, sports, organizations, and industries.  So if any of this applies to you, this blog will hopefully give you some insights and ideas to help you find your place in the world.