The United States' high rates of unemployment lead to uncertain futures

 

A dentist appointment over fall break served as an eye opening experience for me this year.
As if my hatred of the dentist was not enough, when I climbed into the dentist’s chair the dental hygienist asked if I was in school and what year.
When I told her I was a senior she asked what my major was and where I wanted to move when I graduated.
My response was, “I will move to wherever there is a job opening for me.”
She chuckled and proceeded to tell me how hard it was going to be to find a job in the journalism field.
My understanding of how much a dental hygienist knows about the job market for journalists aside, I could not help but think that she had a very valid point.
But what are my choices? What if I can’t find a job? I could choose to go to law school for the next three years in hopes that by then this whole dilemma will be solved.
I could fill out a Fulbright application and pray that I get it. But none of those options are certain.
So here I am a senior in college, both looking forward to my last year at Mercer and dreading the fact that the U.S. unemployment rate is still over 9 percent with no guarantee that it will decrease any time soon.
What does this mean for me? For my graduating classmates? For every other graduating senior in America? For the thousands of college graduates and unemployed already looking for work?
I have no idea, and quite frankly it scares me senseless that my future is so uncertain.
So now instead of planning my future around where I want to live or my family, I am planning my future around wherever I can find a job.
It occurs to me how unfair this is, not only to me, but to every person searching for a job in this economic downfall.
But the question remains, what can anyone possibly do to combat the ever increasing unemployment rate?
My first thought leads to our Congress. Are our representatives and senators truly qualified to pass legislation about the unemployment rate?
Let’s look at the job they are doing with settling on the national budget as a starting point. That indecision and greed really makes me worry about the future of our country, let alone the unemployment rate.
Are they really the ones that we should be trusting with these matters when they are not the ones struggling with the bad economy and the dismal job market?
They are employed after all.
My next thought goes to President Obama’s State of the Union Address, when Obama proclaimed he wanted to create jobs for approximately 100,000 new math and science teachers.
I recall thinking, “Did he really just say that, when there are thousands of teachers out of work already. Let’s focus on finding jobs for them instead of focusing on 100,000 new math and science teachers.”
So is Obama truly qualified to be in charge of finding solutions for our unemployment problem?
I am still unsure about that one.
So here’s a wild and crazy thought, why not let the people struggling with the job crisis be a part of developing the solutions.
How much could it hurt our already high unemployment rate for the government to ask the people they serve if we have any useful ideas for solutions?
They may just find that someone who is removed from the drama of the political world and is more focused on the economic world could have truly beneficial ideas.
I know that it’s an insane idea that will never happen, it is a dream after all, but I cannot help but think that maybe, just maybe, someone who has actually lived the unemployment crisis may have a better insight into the matter than congressmen.
But then again, I am just a lowly college student.
What does my opinion matter anyway?

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