Fortunately, my husband retained his CDL (commercial driving license) endorsement. When he applied, online … , he received 63!! yes, 63 phone calls from actual people – wanting him the next day!!!! He returned to work at a “fall-back” career yesterday – a month to the day since his layoff, albeit at half the pay of his previous position. We, as a couple, now earn 2/3 less than we did 3 years ago which, of course, greatly reduces our potential revenue as taxes to our government.

Going to college is best for some…. but our country is desparate for structural jobs in welding, electricity (big projects), large land moving equipment operators, mechanics (all types), and bio-medical technicians.

We have huge numbers of young under or non-employed men who have been raised without angst about searching for work from all walks of life and most young people heard only “go to college” from my generation. I have read that there are more women in the workforce now than men and that the single greatest group of unemployed is young men. Even in our modern era – I would suggest that this may not be the best trend for families and peacefulness going forward. This type of training used to be provided by journeymen trades apprentice training groups and/or technical trade schools (for gree as a type of public schools now defunct).

Now – this training is hard to find – and expensive.

That’s unfortunate – based on what the future is beginning to look like globally. I lived overseas and, in my opinion, we are increasingly unable to compete with Asia, India, and some of the nordic countries for talent and drive in the math and science areas .

We are seeing large numbers of skilled laborers in the categories above who are dying and returing and our corporations and schools have done a miserable job of “balancing the equation” for the future of this country’s workforce. Everything bacame “short-term quarterly shareholder equity” and planning no more than 3-6 month business cycles and meeting analyst projections for profits (profits for whom and for what, we now asked).

Stupidly…. with the current broken recruiting systems (electronic app-tracking, black-hole, internet) in place, corporations are whining (Obama’s Union Address) about the “lack” of finding skilled workers – but I would point to their lack of interest in really sourcing that same talent and becoming a better partner in building and training these workers.

It’s absymal. I spent most of my life in HR and I am disgusted by the lack of putting interested and qualified people to jobs – this at a time when we have more people to deal face-to-face with people than ever before in the history of the planet.

Point of view.
N

What I found most helpful and insightful so far, is your notion that depression is a typical response to a dehumanizing society. My husband and I are quite dismayed to see how our culture has become more and more base and how so many people have become passive and indifferent to the downhill slide of our world. I’m seriously considering getting involved in the “Occupy” movement in my local area.

Pharmaceutical companies are amongst the richest in the world and the “formulary” has exploded with variations of drug-du-jour. To say that pharm companies don’t want more money….. made me laugh! And I’m actually quite sad~!

It would be better if you spent your time making sure that insurers will pay for mental health professionals to assess mental conditions rather than have patients tell the GP that they are depressed and tell the physician their symptoms in 4-5 minutes, and have the GP perscribe the *drug* du-jour and, sadly, most patients go away and are not followed up on…. a distinct change in the delivery of such services from as little as 15 years ago!

Add that, yesterday, a pharmaceutical company in Denmark hopes to trade on an infamous American chef who advocates for high fat and sugar gross concoctions whilst hiding a diabetes diagnosis for 3 years – just to come out and announce that, because of a new diabetes injection that she is taking, we can all “eat in moderation”. just like she does and that “she doesn’t plan to change her style of eating. I am a controlled D2 for 4 years and have done the work….. radical changes to my life.

In a world gone horribly obese – are we going to, yet-again, talk about drugs to to the work that we should be doing ourselves?

AND, now this research on irisin….. the R&D of a possible hormone pill that “shows promise” as a way to get the effects of intensive excercise while not doing the task? Perhaps we need to just do the task. I did. Changed my mental outlook too.

You have a right to challenge Dr. Levine’s point-of-view, however, your sarcasm did not go un-noticed. Shame on you!

During this research – I discovered you and I also have read articles written by British Psychiatrist, Peter Whybrow, who speaks to the current trend in our culture of unsatiated acquisition of “stuff” that we cycle on because we can’t calm ourselves down or be happy just to be alive and have what consistutes peace and happiness. An “addiction” not yet classified in the DSM???

I was raised in a family with “just enough”, as my father described our life and, as most of the other families on my block, we had a life filled with experiences, meals spent together, mom there all the time, and parents who told us we were loved. I rarely felt I needed anything! We got school clothes once a year, like every other kid – and we were raised with discipline and were taught early to respect and obey our parents.

I have tried to do the same things for my children, however, the society around them has changed and their generation (in their 30′s) have evolved their own ideas based on what is around them. They are very anxious and cynical. I mourn for them inside – even as I feel similarly about the mad, mad strange pseudo-social-engineering that is coming from our leaders and their corporate owners. What is said is jaw dropping on a daily basis.

Thank you for your thoughts. It is helping me stay on task.

Take care

If you’re not already familiar with it, find the late Eric Berne MD”s instructional parable about the young man and the promotion he received.

Berne used it to illustrate why “happiness” is not a sufficient parental goal. I’ve used it to illustrate why “a good adjustment” is a poor, even toxic, therapeutic goal (your point 7).