+1
Many years ago, a friend of mine was interviewing applicants for a brokerage firm where he was a VP. He told me that the candidate who was clearly most qualified was also the oldest one, and he decided that the guy was “too old”.
Now, my friend is in the same situation as the “old” guy who he failed to hire. I wouldn’t say this to him, but it surely seems like karma to me.
Lol minimum 10 characters.
May I offer a suggestion that has worked with my students and colleagues? Recruiters rarely will interview anyone unemployed. Doesn’t matter why. They just don’t.
So I tell people volunteer to work for a nonprofit doing same job you are interested in. It can even be part time. Put that on your resume. No need on resume to state it’s unpaid. But always be honest if they ask. They usually won’t.
This way you’re employed when the recruiters call.
Another thing I used myself was to teach as an adjunct at a college while I was job searching. I was only teaching one class part time. But when recruiters call and asking what I was doing I would tell them I was adjuncting at the college. Even if I said it was only part time they were like great! “Let’s set up an interview.”
I run my own consulting company, so I am “employed” once recruiters see me, even on a zoom call, the interview is quickly over.
I can’t comment about all of the above because I lack the personal knowledge but when a company sells off entire divisions, the result is often a distinction without a difference. The acquiring company retains the assets while creating “efficiency” by disposing of the unwanted “obligations” (Staff)..
For example, “GE Capital was the financial services division of General Electric. Its various units were sold between 2013 and 2021, including the notable spin-off of the North American consumer finance division as Synchrony Financial”. When that happened a lot of lower level jobs were lost and quite a few upper level jobs too.
But back to my original point, For Profit firms by definition focus on Profit but the focus has become more Short Term. Logically, if you wanted the largest immediate (Payroll) result you’d focus on the highest paid employees first but my experience has been that it rarely happens.
So instead of reducing high level payroll and benefits by an aggregate $1 million and losing no staff, the typical solution would be to terminate many more Lower-Income staff, starting with new hires. i.e. Instead of asking asking 20 upper level staff to temporarily reduce their income and benefits for the long term benefit of the organization, it’s easier to terminate 10 new engineers with fresh ideas.
And yes, I have seen rare examples where upper management has made voluntary cuts or mandated accross the board reductions but they’re few and far between.
If you change that from “highest” to “higher”, then it does happen and quite often based on my experience. When they come sniffing around for reductions, it is often the higher paid R&D folks that get the axe before direct labor. It makes little sense from a long term perspective. Direct labor is typically easier to replace than higher skilled indirect labor and you’re sacrificing people working on your next generation products that will continue to fill your factory in the longer term. But if you can let go one IL person for $X rather than 2-3 DLs for the same amount, then that’s often the choice made.
So many good points made here. Our real downfall can be traced back to Reagan.
It would be nice if we could have the option available for a basic new car that everyone could afford, or at least many more can afford
A basic, no frills vehicle with no ■■■■ woo gadgetry. Yes ill say it, 4 wheel drum brakes, carburetor or cheap reliable throttle body injection, none of this ridiculous direct injection nonsense. A car for the people.
The problem is not many would buy it. They would rather buy a used fancy car from a buy here pay here and when it breaks and requires 10k in repairs on its complicated systems then just let it get repossessed.
There are so many angles to this problem, everyone shares at least a little bit of the blame. The only exception is people that are driving smart vehicles like the Mitsubishi Mirage, people will shame them but there is no shame in driving a sensible, manageable vehicle.
Why did you not buy one ?
@Old-Days-Rick, @ChrisTheTireWhisperer and @George_San_Jose1 would be the ONLY Americans lining up to buy such a Vehicle
Great strawman argument. You original argument is that laying off people who they newly just hired is a common experience. It’s NOT. Now you’re arguing about layoffs and corporate sell offs. Never once did I say that never happened. Of course it happens. It’ll only happen frequently during hard times like 2008 crash or the DOT Com bubble bust of 2000. Companys will make adjustments at times, but not on the scale you’re eluding to.
That is by far the dumbest way to lay people off. And I’ve seen some companies try it and every single one fails….especially in the Tech sector. If you laid off your senior (highest paid workers) you are losing too much of your knowledge base. The technical term is called brain drain. I know of at least one company that was going through a round of layoffs and upper-management decided they know more about who to layoff then the frontline managers. They started with some of the most senior people (highest paid). When they left they were hired immediately by the company’s competitors and that company then proceeded to run the layoff company out of business because they didn’t have the knowledge base anymore.
I meant to say that people that don’t have much money for the automotive budget.
I have enough of my Tahoe grenades an engine or transmission it would not be catastrophic to my finances. I wanted a V8 engine, maybe the last. I think the smart money is now on electric cars. But I like hearing the engine roar, may as well be a V8. One last blast if you will.
Part of that problem is defining what people can afford. Sticker prices for cars tend to be similar across the country. Wages do not.
Just a few miles down the road from where I’m sitting right now minimum wage is over $20. A typical auto mechanic may be making $30 in some low-cost parts of the country but in an urban area that same guy would be flagging $50/hr or more.
But having said that, there are new cars available for $25K. Are they the top sellers?
If that vehicle appealed to enough consumers, it would still be widely available. The hatchback model is no longer sold in the US, and production of the entire Mirage line is ending sometime this year.
But… a word of caution for you:
If you do decide to buy one, please be aware that they have both fuel injection and disc brakes.
Gee, what do you think Rick may say when he finds out some cars actually have TWO separate fuel injection systems for the engine? 
TN does not have a state minimum wage law, goes by the feds of $7.25 an hour… But most younger people jobs start out at least $9.00 an hour…
Looks like a lot of states are using the fed $7.25 minimum wage…
And its a joke. Does anyone even pay minimum wage anymore? I couldn’t see anyone being able to attract any employees at minimum wage.
The minimum wage should have been 15 dollars 8 years ago. Now it should be more like 25. This is getting ridiculous, with all of the nonsense and inflation.
The problem is that safety and emissions standards have become too strict, and it costs too much to make a vehicle which will meet them. If there was an exemption to allow companies to import a certain number of “low cost economy cars” that meet lower standards, we could have an affordable basic car again.
And fuel economy standards have just shifted buyers to pickup trucks which consume more fuel and pollute more than cars but have higher emissions limits.
Imagine a 2025 caprice? It would get 30 mpg and just float down the road like you were riding on a cloud. Unfortunately those days wnded in 1996 and 2011 with the discontinuation of so.e of the best cars ever made, the Ford Panther platform. Now many of those buyers will buy a pickup instead.
I will say my Caprice is likely a gross polluter with its catalyst that is probably no longer effective and me monkeying around with the carb. But I like a nice snappy throttle tgat only a proper carb will get you. Even the fastest of mew vehicles have a delay
Imo minimum-wages jobs are for when you’re in.your teens and early 20s and probably still living with mom and dad
Then you go to college, trade school, join the amy, etc. learn more skills and get yourself into some job/career that values you and pays accordingly
What I do NOT agree with is the notion that minimum-wage jobs are “supposed to” pay nearly as much as skilled labor jobs that require an apprenticeship, certification, accreditation and so forth
Minimum wage is like sales tax. The state can have one and then county and city can add theirs. City minimum wage is often significantly higher than state.
I wouldn’t bother working for $9. My paycheck wouldn’t be worth anything. Like many high school kids my son had a part-time job his junior and senior years, worked at a restaurant washing dishes and rolling pizza dough. Minimum wage plus the crew split tips. Over a 2-year period averaged out to $27/hr. Is the cost of living 1/3 of what it is elsewhere?
A new basic Ford Fairlane cost $2500 in 1963. A similarly base vehicle today can be had for $25,000, which according to an inflation calculator is about the same money. The problem isn’t the price of cars, the problem is nobody wants those cars.