Worse than imagined...

Now for the "Tell me something I DON'T know" department:

From "The Atlantic" magazine web site in an article titled
"How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America" written by Don Peck:
---
Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, notes that if the recovery follows the same basic path as the last two (in 1991 and 2001), unemployment will stand at roughly 8 percent in 2014.

“We haven’t seen anything like this before: a really deep recession combined with a really extended period, maybe as much as eight years, all told, of highly elevated unemployment,” Shierholz told me.

“We’re about to see a big national experiment on stress.”

(Regarding the college aged youths who will be entering the job markets in the next few years):

"..It is intuitive to think that youth will be spared the worst of the recession’s scars. But in fact a whole generation of young adults is likely to see its life chances permanently diminished by this recession."

People who entered the workforce during a recession “didn’t switch jobs as much, and particularly for young workers, that’s how you increase wages,”

This behavior may have resulted from a lingering risk aversion, born of a tough start. But a lack of opportunities may have played a larger role, she said: when you’re forced to start work in a particularly low-level job or unsexy career, it’s easy for other employers to dismiss you as having low potential. Moving up, or moving on to something different and better, becomes more difficult.

“Graduates’ first jobs have an inordinate impact on their career path and [lifetime earnings],” wrote Austan Goolsbee, now a member of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, in The New York Times in 2006. “People essentially cannot close the wage gap by working their way up the company hierarchy. While they may work their way up, the people who started above them do, too. They don’t catch up.” Recent research suggests that as much as two-thirds of real lifetime wage growth typically occurs in the first 10 years of a career. After that, as people start families and their career paths lengthen and solidify, jumping the tracks becomes harder.
---

OK, my immediate future is fucked. The prospects for my children and their future employment seem equally fucked.

Something's got to give. Where is the WPA for this age? Why can't our government step up and hire all of us out of work people to help fix our aging infrastructures and build new networks for the communications future? It's simple really, and it works.

(The information below is from Wikipedia.. I know, probably the worst place for "facts".. but quick and convenient nonetheless).
---
The Works Progress Administration (renamed during 1939 as the Work Projects Administration; WPA) was the largest New Deal agency, employing millions to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media and literacy projects. It fed children and redistributed food, clothing and housing. Almost every community in the United States had a park, bridge or school constructed by the agency, which especially benefited rural and Western populations. Expenditures from 1936 to 1939 totaled nearly $7 billion.

(Hmm, 7 billion. That's quite a bit LESS than we gave to the banks and financial robber barons recently.. Surely we can benefit more by dedicating funds to something that helps the masses rather than the "banks".)

Created by order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the WPA was funded by Congress with passage of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 on April 8, 1935. The legislation had passed in the House of Representatives by a margin of 329 to 78, but was delayed by the Senate.

The WPA continued and extended relief programs similar to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), which was established by Congress in 1932 during the administration of Roosevelt's predecessor Herbert Hoover. Headed by Harry Hopkins, the WPA provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States. Between 1935 and 1943, the WPA provided almost eight million jobs.

Until ended by Congress and war employment during 1943, the WPA was the largest employer in the country. Most people who needed a job were eligible for at least some of its jobs. Hourly wages were the prevailing wages in each area; the rules said workers could not work more than 30 hours a week, but many projects included months in the field, with workers eating and sleeping on worksites. Before 1940, there was some training involved to teach new skills and the project's original legislation had a strong emphasis on training.
---
It's called a jump start.. and it's along the lines of the "something.. ANYTHING" train of thought.

one word: HELP!