"To which the 20-something laughs, having graduated into an economy where peers spend years vainly looking for a job, finding only unpaid internships or low-wage contingency labour, often while living at home. A funded graduate program, with health insurance, seems a welcome escape."

that's right. people don't go to grad school in order to get a good job. people go to grad school because they're not able to get a good job.

employers place a large amount of value on the ability of an employee to bend the rules without being caught. they want to hire the worst people they can find; the more of an asshole you are, the further you will go in the corporate hierarchy.

bookworm losers that are obsessed with outdated ideas like "truth" need not apply.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/11/surviving-post-employment-economy-201311373243740811.html

it's sort of sad to see these "protestant work ethic" arguments that plead with people to adapt and work harder rather than arguments derived from looking at actual economic data and drawing empirical conclusions.

we're undergoing an experiment in global trade. there's no reason to think this experiment will lead to permanency. it's not the end of history. for right now, capital has become mobile, creating a global labour market. this has coincided with massive mechanization, reducing the demand for labour, and incredible increases in health technology, exponentially increasing the supply. as with everything else, increases in supply and decreases in demand produce a decrease in price.

some of this is local. the price of phds has collapsed because the supply has grown faster than the demand. throw a dart in a subway, you'll hit a phd. it's nothing special anymore.

but, most of this is global. shitty wages are a function of global population growth and economic integration. if this is the game that capitalism wants to play, then workers need to respond by coming together and globalizing their resistance.

placing things on an even footing, though, only solves half the problem. ultimately, we need to take two radical truths into consideration:

(1) the most efficient means of global production, insofar as it is measured in surplus value, is not necessarily the most advantageous to local communities. local production may be less efficient, but the jobs it creates are more important.
(2) our current population is many times larger than our current labour potential. there is necessarily going to be a class of unemployed people and it is going to continue to grow. so, how does society adjust to that new reality?

consider: bangladesh just increased it's minimum wage by 77% (or something like that, the article was a little unclear). capital has threatened to get up and move. if market forces are allowed to play out, unabated, then the wage increase will need to be rolled back to reattract investment.

but if there was co-ordinated strike action throughout east asia, that couldn't happen. the threat of moving location would be met by further strike action. ideally, those striking workers would get together to force a regional labour agreement that would act as a counterbalance to the free trade agreements.

there are obstacles. first, class consciousness has to overpower nationalistic interests. second, it has to be demonstrated that self-interest is maximized through collective action. the second point is actually very easily demonstrated through a simple argument in game theory, to all who are willing to learn. classic prisoner's dilemma. third is fighting the tendency towards co-option. the labour movement needs to begin with the basic assumption that governments will never act in their interest.

if such a thing could be sustained, and global wage requirements could be met (and keep in mind that this was once a very mainstream aspect of nafta that clinton and chretien both promised), the logic of local production would reassert itself. indians producing for indians. canadians producing for canadians. trade based on comparative advantage.

the idea of canadian, european and african workers consistently striking in solidarity with asian workers may seem utopian, but it's the necessary reaction to global trade. it's the only way to reverse the currently absurd level of mobility in capital.