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Why
are so many people still out of work?: the roots of structural
unemployment - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/04/why-are-so-many-people-still-out-of-work-the-roots-of-structural-unemployment.html#sthash.zcP03Frm.dpuf

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:25 | Comments (17) | Trackbacks (0)

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The only real danger of early retirement is the need to break completely with your lifetime of social conditioning. From five or six years of age, we are indoctrinated into group helplessness. You must go to school with all the others, play sports as allocated, not be different. The university is the same, you must fit in. Work is, or was, the same suppress the individual for the good of the group, company, union, profession, etc. People joined social clubs and churches, which reward those who conform and punish those who deviate. Don't work and the pressure is massive. Don't work as a man and you will be cast out.

So, if you retire early, you should note, your social structure will retaliate against you. Your church will become a place of being judged. Your social group will push you further away than the couple-based socializing throws out the recent widow.

The study in question, doesn't question this conditioning. Which would actually be more intense on those older now as they came of age at the height of conformity in the 50s and 60s. So, yes, not working during the required time makes one very unhappy unless you break with convention completely. The cattle don't like anyone taking their own head. You must proceed in an orderly fashion....over the cliff.

#1 JKB on 2014-04-07 09:04 (Reply)

I'm still new at this retirement thing but I have to say I haven't noticed any of the effects you've mentioned, especially with respect to my church. I am more active now that I have the time. I have been participating in activities with other retired folks at church, and in general so far I'm enjoying my church community more.

Of the people who know I've retired, they seem uniformly supportive. The one thing I've noticed is a tendency for them to think it is temporary which may be a bit of the phenomenon you are describing. I haven't eliminated the possibility doing contract work (I used to be a computer programmer) but I think it's unlikely for lots of reasons.

I don't discount the dynamic you describe in groups, but so far I haven't experienced it in my circles. But as I say, I'm new at this.

#1.1 mudbug on 2014-04-07 10:33 (Reply)

Did you retire early? If you reach the arbitrary accepted age, it is different than if you drop out in the "working years".

#1.1.1 JKB on 2014-04-08 00:15 (Reply)

I retired at reduced pay in the "working years", changed fields, took a new degree, then worked for a low-stress (and lower pay) non-profit for about 15 years, then consulted at about ½ time for about 10 years, then quit for good when I was good and old. It's worked for me (so far).

#1.1.1.1 BillH on 2014-04-08 10:21 (Reply)

>>isn't it bubonic

it's been awhile since I read In the Wake of the Plague, but the author posted his theory that anthrax was complicit in the mortality of the era - due to warming temps that increased harvest yields and livestock numbers. Although I think he was considerng the cutaneous form of anthrax - the black welts of anthrax being confused with the buboes of the plague.

Not sure why it's breaking news about the poor health of the era - malnutrition as well as the idea that washing your body and clothing was sinful or wasteful (of limited water resources. and unclean water to boot. )

#2 figment on 2014-04-07 10:33 (Reply)

WRT trial lawyers and the Senate Judiciary Committee:

On the face of it, it seems to make sense that a lawyer would help decide legal policy. After all, who else would understand the issues as well?

However, the rest of us are paying for the excesses brought on by the trial lawyer lobby and it's time for someone from the other side of the bench to have a say. I am sick of them! I'm sick of highway billboards that say "Slip or Fall?" and then give a phone number. I'm sick of hearing about huge settlements because something didn't go right in an operating room or a drug had a side effect (that was most likely known and communicated). I'm sick of reading idiot warnings on ladders and buckets (and everything else).

I regularly get solicitations to join in a class action lawsuit because of some dastardly thing a company did with regard to it's stock. I joined one once and because the company was either guilty of the heinous infraction or because they didn't want to fight it, "I" won! I received a check for something like six dollars! Either what they did (I certainly didn't feel harmed until I was solicited) wasn't that bad and was only worth six dollars and the company I had invested lost a lot of money for essentially nothing or it was truly outrageous and I was getting ripped off. In either case, the law firm made out like bandits, no doubt. I have no sympathy for them.

#3 mudbug on 2014-04-07 11:12 (Reply)

"Americans Feel More Violated by Government Data Collection Than Private Data Collection"

"Americans make a distinction between government collection of personal data and private companies collecting personal data because they understand that private companies are using this information to sell them things, and the government is using this information to spy on them," says Reason-Rupe polling director Emily Ekins. "And they think that government spying on them is worse."

Well sure, nothing else needs to be said about that.

And in the target rich environment of today's links, I chose the easy one? Must be gettin old...

#4 W.C. Taqiyya on 2014-04-07 11:53 (Reply)

Raw milk? Freedom to make what could be a bad choice? Works for me!

Retirement: Got to have something do to with yourself and/or spouse. Volunteer for something that looks interesting.

Dems hate free speech cuz GOPers can use it.

AlGoreBullWorming: God knows what might happen if this continues!

#5 Sam L. on 2014-04-07 11:59 (Reply)

Vitamins a fraud? Who knows?

Right now, the ONLY studies that show this are those funded by the big drug companies and the Med School minions who do their bidding! The "why be preventative and healthy, when you can buy expensive drugs and undergo even more expensive surgery?" crowd.

Wouldn't want any competition now would we?

I've actual MD types start prescibing certain vitamins to take while using more expensive drugs, to increase the drug's efficacy and watched while MDs recommend certain natural supplements (cinnamon) as a means to regulate blood sugar---that wouldn't have anything to do with that Havahd Med School study about cinnamon's positive effects on such, would it?

The more the Big Pharma tries to denigrate cheap vitamins, the more I tend to accept them as necessary. After all, the leading cause of premature death in this country is admittance to hospitals, followed closely by physician error. I'll take my chances with vitamins any day!

#6 Earl T on 2014-04-07 14:42 (Reply)

"After all, the leading cause of premature death in this country is admittance to hospitals, followed closely by physician error. "

of course, if you're never admitted to hospital you don't die in hospital...
Same with nursing homes. If they kick out terminal patients they show up better in the statistics as they have fewer deaths on their hands.

Which is why my mother, who has terminal cancer, is being kicked out of the nursing home that's been taking care of her for the last 5 months, now that she's just about run out of time on the schedule her oncologist predicted...
And they openly admit that is the reason too. "Ma'am, you're dying and there's nothing we can do for you, now leave".

#6.1 J.T. Wenting on 2014-04-08 13:50 (Reply)

Actually, I would like to see a couple of non-lawyers on the Supreme Court. It might take a couple of years but I suspect they would pare down the jurisdiction of the Court. If decisions are made based on the Constitution, rather than on precedents or on foreign law, I suspect the number of federal laws would shrink.

#7 indyjonesouthere on 2014-04-07 14:50 (Reply)

Kerry Throws In the Towel.

At long last John F. Kerryman and I can agree on something. Will the Red Sea next be parted?

#8 Gringo on 2014-04-07 14:58 (Reply)

FWIW, I caught the Alanis reference in the "bubonic" headline.

#9 Dangerous Dean on 2014-04-07 16:26 (Reply)

12 Famous Shipwrecks That You Can Still Visit

http://www.amusingplanet.com/2014/04/12-famous-shipwrecks-that-you-can-still.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+amusingplanet+%28Amusing+Planet%29

Wrecksite.eu contains records of more than 148,000 wrecks

http://www.wrecksite.eu/wrecksite.aspx?lan=en

#10 feeblemind on 2014-04-07 20:36 (Reply)

The problem with raw milk is it has the tendency to find it's way into the food stream. It is perfectly fine with me that informed adults choose to drink raw milk. I do disagree with feeding it to children or selling it into the market. What is often missing in this discussion is that the advocates seem to want you to believe that they are merely drinking raw milk when a policeman comes into their business with a gun drawn. What they don't tell you is that they already had their day in court, the judge issued an injucntion against the selling of raw milk and they choose to continue to break the law and even make veiled threats about what they might do if law enforcement shows up.

#11 GoneWithTheWind on 2014-04-08 11:26 (Reply)

I and nearly every other farm raised kid in America drank raw milk in the 50-60's. We also made and consumed butter and cream from raw milk. All cows were tested for bangs and still continue to be tested to this day. (milk maid disease) The only concern at that time was strontium 90 residue on the pasture grasses from all the nuclear testing in those days. Frankly, most of us thought "city milk" lacked any flavor and would only drink it as a last resort. It was a lot like comparing margarine to butter. This is mostly a control issue, the nanny state just can't help but control everything to include global warming and white privilege.

#11.1 indyjonesouthere on 2014-04-08 13:35 (Reply)

It would be naive to think that raw milk is safe. That you didn't get sick from drinking raw milk is hardly proof that raw milk is harmless. In fact in history raw milk has killed millions, tens of millions and perhaps hundreds of millions. It still kills people today in the 3rd world. You don't hear about it, that is the connection between disease and raw milk is generally not made by the media but it is there never the less. As I said I don't have a problem with someone drinking raw milk my opposition is to "selling" it into the food stream. I think most people don't want to be part of an experiment without their knowledge. Milkk sold to the public and product made with milk that are sold to the public should be pasteurized. AND I believe that it is appropriate that the FDA require this and enforce it.

#11.1.1 GoneWithTheWind on 2014-04-09 09:14 (Reply)

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Monday, April 7. 2014

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