Font ResizePhil Rittenhouse Jr. spent the other morning sifting through the employment opportunities at the state unemployment office and came to a conclusion.
"There are a lot of $7.15-an-hour jobs out there," he said. "I have to pretty much take whatever I can get just to get a job."
The 25-year-old York man was accompanied by his father, Phil Sr., providing an illustration in how employment opportunities have evolved in just one generation. Phil Sr. went to work at Harley-Davidson right out of high school and retired early after putting in more than 30 years.
Those kinds of jobs just don't exist anymore.
Phil Jr. admits he's made some mistakes. He served time for some youthful indiscretions, mostly related to alcohol. He's learned his lesson, he said, and is growing up. A decent job would help, but he said he's going to take whatever job he can find to prove himself and get on with his life.
Still, he said, "It's tough out there."
Yes, it is.
Pay any attention to the economic news and it's all dismal. Jobs and whole industries are disappearing overseas. The banks are in a state of slow meltdown from the mortgage crisis. Gas and food prices are through the roof. The middle class can feel things slipping away, and the poor are getting poorer.
And then you hear on the news that some radio and cable news show bloviator just got a new contract for $100 million and you can only conclude that something is terribly wrong.
You hear the economic adviser to
Not coincidentally, Gramm bears some responsibility for this mess. While in the Senate, he pushed for banking deregulation -- rolling back regulations put in place during the Great Depression -- that led to the creation of the sub-prime mortgage market and to the fact that banks and investors can trade mortgages like baseball cards. He also had a hand in creating the energy crisis by championing energy deregulation that helped speculators reap huge profits while driving up the cost of gas.
In the spirit of the cliché of the season, McCain held a press conference and threw Gramm under the bus. It's getting pretty crowded under that bus.
Try telling the people at the unemployment office that the lousy economy is a figment of their imaginations, or as our current president said at a news conference, "it's psychology," whatever that's supposed to mean. (Speaking of psychology, the unemployment office is now called "CareerLink.")
Try telling Jason Flaherty it's all in his head.
Flaherty, a 35-year-old West Manchester Township resident, moved here from Pittsburgh in December 2005, looking for greener pastures. York, he was informed, had lots of opportunities.
He worked in HVAC - heating, ventilation and air conditioning - for a brief time. That didn't work out.
He then worked with asbestos, but that work dried up. He worked briefly at a factory, but he got hurt on the job.
He then went to get into real estate, but couldn't afford to finish the training, which was just as well because, by then, the real estate market was circling the drain.
"I didn't see it coming," he said. "I just can't seem to find something that's worth my while."
He's currently working for a janitorial service, emptying trash cans for $9 an hour.
He's working part time, not even 30 hours a week some weeks. And with gas prices so high, he's not sure how much longer he can afford to do it. It costs him $6 to drive to a job site where he's going to put in an hour's work. It just doesn't make sense, he said.
"The economy is getting worse," he said. "Gas, food, everything is getting more expensive, and jobs just don't pay," he said. "It's hard to survive."
Politicians, he said, have no idea what it's like for people who have to work for a living.
"They're all taken care of," he said. "They get their expenses paid and cars paid for. They don't know what it's like. And I'm a Republican."
It's tough all over, but especially here in York, he said.
"People here work cheaper," he said. "They don't realize they're being taken advantage of."
He went back to searching on the computer for jobs.
"I just don't see it getting better before it gets worse," he said. "Plants are closing. Even Harley's laying off. I'll take any job I can get just to get by."
That's the sentiment. One guy, a 44-year-old Hellam Township resident named Michael Selway, was looking for a truck driving job.
He has a commercial license and a good driving record. It's just tough out there.
Any job he can find, he'd be taking a $4- or $5-an-hour pay cut from his last job. The cut's even deeper when you consider how much he'd have to pay to get health insurance.
"Our next president will have quite a job on his hands," he said. "It's a real mess."
Mike Argento's column appears Mondays and Fridays in Living and Sundays in Viewpoints. Reach him at mike@ydr.com or 771-2046. Read more Argento columns at www.inyork.com/ydr - click on the opinion section - or visit his blog at www.mikeargento.com.
