Exactly, they don't all have to bang away behind a rifle, there's a lot the military do that doesn't involve killing and, here at least, there's simply not enough to do it - people don't want to seem to work as @bozz and I were discussing in another comment in this post.
Perspective, work-ethic, discipline, consistency, persistence, tolerance, team-work, camaraderie, ability to take direction, give it, to lead by example...there's so many things the military teaches and that those lessons can be learned without having to kill someone is of value. The ADF, the Army in particular, is many thousands of personnel short of required recruitment levels and there's no way to get people there despite the money being very solid and the opportunity also...Maybe the threat of war with China holds them away (not a good enough reason in my mind) maybe people just don't want to work. I guess the young people would want to all go in as Generals, Major Generals and Brigadiers and not enlist as Privates. #idiots
I mean, does anyone really want to work?
If I had financial freedom my life would definitely be quite different.
I know it's been a very popular past time to complain that younger generations are lazy, a past time that's existed ever since there was more than one generation, but how excited should younger generations be about going into the workforce? House prices are completely unobtainable, interest and inflation are super high, career progression is extremely hard, education costs are rising, everything seems absolutely intent on bleeding everyone completely dry and I'm sure it's hard to feel optimistic about the future with climate change making everything so uncertain.
One of my mates dropped out of school in Year 10, started as a tradie and had bought his first house before I'd even finished Uni. I was much later to the game but I still managed to get a foothold in. Those same opportunities just don't exist anymore.
If the Army isn't getting the people that it needs, it's just going to have to increase its incentives until it does. Simple supply and demand.
Good point, there's better things to do than work, but getting out of high school and doing those things isn't really going to happen, and so work is required...there's no free rides. The freedom of financial freedom doesn't generally come for free. Maybe no one should work, ever, I wonder what the world would look and be like. No power, gas, medical assistance, no law, no nothing. Some may thrive...but not those who don't want to apply some effort.
Let's see though, less and less are working, the youth don't want to and still seem to do ok...until they do not. They'll reap what they sow.
Yeah, I have no idea. The US unemployment rate is currently at 3.9% which is super, super low, and Australia seems to be at 3.6% so the data suggests that everyone is working - but I don't know if your experience is very different to that.
It's a generalisation of course as clearly people do work however companies and businesses still find it difficult to secure staff, the right staff. We won't have to worry about it when machines and AI take over though.
Although you seem like a rogueish likeable chap, I don't know you that well... but if it's okay with you, I would like to challenge that perception.
If you're trying to sell a product, and no one is buying... what do you do?
You either make the product cheaper, or you make the product better.
Simple economics, if there is more supply than demand, you have to create that demand somehow.
It's the exact same with finding workers.
Lower wage opportunities aren't just competing with their direct competitors, they're competing with the entire job market. So, if companies are finding it difficult to secure staff in near record unemployment markets, they need to outcompete everyone. Either with higher wages or with better working conditions.
Complaining that no one wants to work doesn't solve anything, they need to be aggressive, or innovative so that workers are leaving other jobs to work for them. That's the only way to grow your business during record unemployment.
Let's see how the process goes, I'm young enough to be able to observe the next twenty years or so, unless I die sooner, and time will tell how the situation plays out. Will wages and conditions increase? Will product and service quality decline? Will there be as many jobs? It'll be interesting to see how it goes for people, I don't have the answers, time does.
Yeah, I think about all this a lot. If there aren't as many jobs then people won't have money to purchase the things that all the robots build... so no doubt the next 20 years will be very interesting. Hopefully the ol Hive blockchain will still be around.