No job opportunities here! -We’re discouraged

From 

 Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner;

Here in the USA, the so called “land of opportunity” is letting a lot of us down these days. And that is not just my opinion.
Yahoo News has reported that many people in this country are getting discouraged and dropping out of the work force. According to the article; “Older Americans have retired early. Younger ones have enrolled in school. Others have suspended their job hunt until the employment landscape brightens. Some…. are collecting disability checks.”
Of course that is happening right here in Kansas our Governor Sam Brownback is making sure we are one of the first to cut government jobs and do other things to add to the unemployment rate. I have a friend who is now on disabilities. He is in his late 50s. He has very high blood pressure and although he has always held a job and worked, he now realizes that he can’t compete with the 20 and 30 year olds who want the same jobs he is looking for. Not as young, healthy or energetic, he just doesn’t stand a chance.
I am in my late 50s myself and I have given up looking for a teaching position, years after I got my teachers license. For the last several years, Gov. Brownback kept cutting the education budget, which caused a layoff of teachers the local school system already had. That made it almost impossible to get a teaching job. Now I’m a lot older and I would have to compete with a flood of young 20 something year olds who also have teaching licenses. I have grown tired of finding that my applications to other school systems are piled up along with dozens of others, by younger applicants. So I plan to keep working somewhere, but am looking to retire early, to get out of a work force that simply offers no real opportunity.
I know plenty of younger people who are taking classes at our local universities. Ironically I know of two women in the 30s who are taking classes to get the same type of teaching license I have been trudging along with. They are young and haven’t had the experience of competing for limited jobs yet. I hope them the best of luck.
Part of the problem is the conservative Republicans cutting lots of government jobs to save money on the budget. Those people they throw out of the work force are competing with the already unemployed workers. My own experiences in job hunting have been discouraging. Each summer I have had to get a summer job as I am a substitute teacher. But the last few years the jobs are fewer and the competition greater. It gets so discouraging the job search just seems an outright waste of time.
Neither the Republicans nor Democrats have done anything to encourage job growth. The Republicans just take do whatever business wants and President Barak Obama seems too busygiving more money to Syrian Rebels. He seems to care more about people in foreign countries than people who live here. He is even cutting social security, but in a way so those of us, who will be new to it when we get there, will get less than those getting it now. He has done absolutely nothing to aid the working man here at home. His presidency has been a dismal failure for those who need job opportunities.
Last Friday the Labor Department released the unemployment rate that dropped to a four-year low of 7.6 percent in March from 7.7 in February. But while that looks good on paper, it doesn’t reflect those who have just given up.
Republicans like to claim we are just too lazy to find a job. The reality is they just like to work the few who can get a job to death while just starving out those of us who can’t keep up with an ultra-competitive job market.
So when I retire, I will continue to write and say “good riddance” to the working world of a system that just doesn’t care.