So maybe you, rich old white man, should avoid contributing irrelevant noise to this discussion?
The problem is statistical. There just aren't enough jobs, an irreconcilable jobs gap. While it's nice that you had the incredible luck to pivot into a completely different field, that just doesn't matter here. You can't base an economy on every worker flipping heads ten times in a row.
so we should only take advice/input from people who haven't done something that would be suggested or advised? That certainly makes sense. Perhaps we need a few more layers of federal and state government programs on top of the ones we have to fix things for everyone without them needing to do anything more than tick a box?
Wow... why don't we see the same vitriol against multimillionaire 'founders' who build a company, flip it, then advise others to do the same, all the while claiming it was 'hard work'? Perhaps because the majority here want to buy in to that myth?
Of course luck was involved in my situation - I've had good luck and bad luck. I've made some pretty stupid mistakes on my own, involving more zeros than I care to count. But it's not down solely to luck - much of your success or failure is down to how you react, and how you learn from your mistakes. A big part of the problem - and I had this 20 years ago as well - is that young people haven't had enough life experience to be able to make good decisions - you don't get those until you're old/older. And very few younger people listen to older people re: advice - I know I certainly didn't, nor did many people I know, and it hurt us all in different ways.
Yes, it's all relative, and I'm not 23 in today's job market. But I have been both variously fired and laid off, deep in debt, and with nothing but a philosophy degree and minor retail and general work experience. It certainly ain't fun.
Even getting a degree - took 6 years, and I worked part- or full-time the whole time - usually multiple jobs (retail, delivery, food service, etc). I don't typically have a lot of sympathy for students who hit school full time, take out loans for the whole thing, and do not do one lick of 'work' (yes, school is work too, I know) while at school.
Unemployement was ~8% during the early 90s recession - we've certainly had higher this time around, so yes, there's some statistical differences, and the numbers are different. But complaining about broad social/political/economic forces isn't going to do much good for individual people. This reminds me of the food industry criticism - "everyone's getting fat! look at all the stuff they put in the food - we need regulations, etc". Yes, regulating food labelling, food ingredients, etc will probably help the aggregate over time, but it won't help me lose weight. I need to stop overeating, eat better foods, exercise sensibly, etc. Will that advise help everyone? No, because most people won't follow it, but it will make a difference to most individuals who put it to use.
EDIT: Should I even have taken this as personally as I did? Probably not, but didn't want to delete it now. :/
It took me 6 years to get through, with going part time and dropping out for a while.