While I was posting parts of my story here, I let that fall behind due to real life happenings as well as the articles I write for The Examiner.com. If you want the rest of the story then look me up on FanFiction.net under the name Creative Karma.
What I decided to do on here today is actually based in some research I was doing for articles for my job with the Examiner.
A couple of days ago, I wrote an article about how they are going to set up the various branches of the military so women could finally join in "close combat" positions with their male counterparts.
Click
here to read the article
Having my brother in the National Guard officially has me thinking this is a great thing for America to finally step forward and realize that women are all ready in the military and all ready in harms way. Women have all ready died in the military in combat situations and haven't been in "close combat" situations.
I thought it was high time for a change like this. Finally, women could serve their country in a similar way as men do.
And I know what the opposition to this says, I looked it up and had a discussion with a friend about how the other side could be argued. True, women can be raped. We all know this. Women aren't as physically strong as men. That's a given. Women do have limitations based on their anatomy. But of course.
While they can't perform every function that the men can at the same level as men, that doesn't mean that they shouldn't be allowed the same opportunity to try and make it to that level. Don't make the trials easier on women because they are women. If men have to be set to that standard because they are needed to be that tough, then women need to be that tough as well.
Being in the military isn't all about being tough, it is also about team work. A woman won't have to do everything on their own in the military but she has to be capable of pulling her own weight. And I think they can.
While this is a huge step forward for the Congress of America, now we are taking two steps back.
Anyone who has kept an eye and an ear on the news whether on the TV or radio or internet knows about the fiscal cliff. If you don't, follow this
link to read about it.
And if you have been listening very closely, you'll also know that the Republicans and Democrats haven't actually come to a decision about how to save the economy from the fiscal cliff. Now it's being spoken about along with the term "Debt Ceiling".
For a full layout about the Debt Ceiling:
The Fiscal Cliff meet Debt Ceiling
It seems to me that now the Congress has been fighting like high school children for months about the Fiscal Cliff like it's the best ball in the bag and everyone wants to claim it as their own.
Now, with the President having enacted a bill that gives a sort of "grace period" till may 19,2013 to Congress but with the stipulation that they won't be paid either till April or till Congress has ended for this session in 2 years, they are finally seeing their paychecks being cut down like the rest of America.
For years, many Americans have been losing their jobs and not been able to find a new one. Many end up being out of jobs for years and now no employers will even look at them twice. In effect, those who've had quality job experience are now told that doesn't matter and they have to start at the bottom again and get back into the good graces of the workforce.
People are being "punished" for the government not paying it's bills and taking care of business which harms businesses and forces them to cut back making the unemployment rate drop.
It's a nasty cycle and it needs to stop now.
Republicans want to cut payments for Social Security and Disability. How will that help this nation? Speaking as a friend to quite a few people who are using those checks as a means to pay their rent and feed themselves, cutting those checks down only forces them into more dire situations.
How is making the poor classes poorer helpful?
The Democrats see they have to make cuts to unnecessary projects but also want to place higher taxes on the high income earners to help make money to pay off the deficit.
Looking at both sides...despite my Republican upbringing, I'm feeling more like the Democrats have it right. My family and I do have a personal stake in this economy not just because of the taxes we pay but because my father is one of those people who has worked his whole life and is now on Social Security and soon my mom will be one of those looking to get that paycheck.
It's that check that actually helps to pay some very necessary bills around the house. If that gets decreased to the point that it doesn't help...what's even the point then?
They worked their whole lives to send me to school and to earn Social Security benefits.
Well I went to school, worked during school, and got my degree. But when the money problems threatened to prevent me from getting what I needed, instead of going on with my education, I headed out with my job experience to find a job to help make money in order to pay for the necessary expenses.
Now here I am nearly 4 years later and I can't find a job. I'm 27 years old with a college degree and no one will hire me because there are too many people just like me who are looking for jobs competing with people who have just lost their jobs, competing with those who just graduated high school or college and are now heading out to find a job.
Now let's see something here...
Apparently in 2012, my state, (which shall remain nameless), graduated 86% of it's students in high school. Not bad at all, so out of the roughly 2,000 students that go to the high school every year, about 1,720 graduate. But just for argument sake we will say about half of those students go to college. That leaves 860 that go right out into the workforce with 860 that go into college either here or abroad.
As for the community college that many of these high school graduates go to, based on my research there are over 26,000 students typically enrolled there. They have two graduations per year with a combined total of around 4,000 students graduating every year. Just for argument sake I'll chop 1,000 off that number for those students who don't live here having not found the amount of students attending the live in other states or live out of state and take courses online.
So, adding those numbers together gives us the rough total of 3,860 students a years that graduate from either high school or college and look for jobs in my state.
Well that's only one year. I've been out of college for at least 3 years. So, I have to multiply that number by 3 and where does that get me?
11,580...that's the approximate number of students that have graduated in the past 3 years and are looking for work. Now, that is a lot of students but this number still doesn't take into account the other colleges in the state and across the nation that they attend and then come back home. I'm only counting the 860 high schoolers that go right to the workforce and the 3,000 who graduate from college and stay here. Now, say that 860 high schoolers who go off to college let's say half of those attend colleges elsewhere and then come home.
Time to plug that into my calculations...
860 high school graduates go straight to work force
3,000 college graduates
430 high school grads that attend college out of state
----------------
4,290 students looking for jobs a year
Then we multiply this by 3
4,290
x 3
------
12,870 students looking for jobs over the past 3 years
See what I'm getting at yet?
Sure, I'm sure some students have found jobs or managed to get internships because of the college they went to or had a job lined up. Some students found those opportunities.
But for the rest of us...there's a lot of competition out there and it frankly sucks.
So yeah, I'd say we have a rather large stake in what the government decides to do. I think everyone needs to keep a close eye on the way things are being run and actively involve themselves in what's going on around them. Learn about what you can do to help or simply be knowledgeable about politics.
Well, that's all the ranting for me right now. I'm sure there will be more to come in the future and I need to rest my fingers.
This is Creative Karma and I'm looking for a job.
