While uncomfortably contemplating my inability to sleep at night anymore, I began considering what careers our grandchildren who are in college might pursue upon their respective graduations.
The first series of challenges I imagined included the impacts of wars in Ukraine and Gaza, war-like activities involving Iran and Syria, protests at home over free speech, abortions, education, extreme weather, inflation possibly leading to a recession, upcoming national elections, etc. I started to dwell on the effects these situations will have on the potential careers of graduates.
Even in such prestigious professions as medicine, these world-changing: events have caused prices of equipment, salaries of staff, and the availability and cost of office space to increase to the point that these professionals have felt impelled to reduce staff, hire lesser-trained individuals, and manage shorter appointments so a larger number of patients can be assisted.
In the real estate industry, mortgage rates have caused the recent increases in sales to pause, and the concentration on rentals to increase.The inflated prices paid not so long ago have stalled or declined, causing small investors in particular to suffer losses in disposing of these assets.
Even in businesses like publishing, costs of ink and paper have increased substantially, advertisers are holding their purse strings tighter, and writers have little time to draft articles of interest while their own businesses are suffering from lack of staff.
This discussion could proceed through a long list of professions and types of businesses, but the conclusion would be the same. With the state of the world and our country, the available career paths are fewer than in past years and a reversal of this trend in the near future is not anticipated.
The best and most realistic advice today would be to stay in school, concentrate on the activity for which you have a passion, learn something about as many pursuits as you can so you are well-rounded in your knowledge, and hope our leaders and those around the world can straighten out this mess before you embark on a course that may not enable you to build a suitable block on which to support your family and your desired way of life.
This is a different world and it has to be approached differently in all respects.