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I feel like any life script involves people going into a dominant industry. It would have to be known for years that this industry is up and coming or well established enough that it can accommodate everyone at good salary for their entire lives. I know that I personally want to instill the value into my kids that they when they come of age, they should have a good look at the world, consider what are the major dominant fields, and get a degree that will help them get a job in a dominant field. Doing this drastically reduces the luck required to be and stay gainfully employed. I know too many people with English degrees who have far too much trouble finding work, or finding work that pays more then $50k/year. Also, any industry where the labor market it demand-driven is going to make employees more comfortable, whether we are talking about salaries, benefits, or even just the leeway to not have to be "on" all the time.
For the boomer generation, I'm tempted to say that this dominant field was education. For whatever reason, I know a lot of teachers from that generation. And I certainly know that they were paid much better then teachers are now, including amazing benefits and pension. However as we all know, education generally no longer offers benefits like that and no longer offers even middling salary.
For our generation, perhaps the dominant industry is software. Of course it's possible that now software is under threat of no longer being able to hold this title. There are fewer jobs, lots of layoffs, lower salaries, and everyone feels under threat. Perhaps this is what happens when the boom is over and an industry is no longer dominant. In which case, I only hope that there will be a new dominant industry that springs up so my kids (or even I) can feel like there's a new, safe way to have our lives be supported.
For boomers, all white collar industries were huge growth industries; whether it was accounting, consulting, finance, it didn’t really matter.
Not just white collar, though; this was the era of the unionised blue-collar job where you got great pay, great benefits, and could look forward to a good pension.
True, there were good times. But they ended in 2008.
Imagine you're a boomer. You work a GM plant making very good pay ($70/hr total comp). Then 2008 happens and you're laid off. You're 58 years old. Too young to retire, too old to retrain.
One the other hand, white-collar Boomers had it truly good. Hell, my Boomer parents earn more now than they did when they were working with all their pensions, investments, etc...
I've visited factories and they don't seem like places I'd want to work. They do the same tasks over and over. It seems like hell.
Can confirm. For a while I worked in a factory making dish detergent. 12-hour shifts, on your feet the whole time, doing repetitive tasks, never seeing the sun.
On the other hand, I got really trim working there; and I had a lot of time to think, which I did like. But yeah, life would stretch out awfully long if you had to spend it there.
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