In five years (or less) we will be in great shape with (at least) most of the baby boomers retiring. There will be a lot more jobs that actually provide truly gainful employment. I know that the favorite quote of many since 2000 has been "service based economy," which was never really true. Yes, the industrial age is over, but we were supposed to be better prepared to enter the information age. We could have done so, but it was also the ushering in of the global economy, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, it was just that the division of certain sectors of the economy had not been as well thought out as it should have been. We were prepared to ship many of the industrial jobs overseas, because this happened in a lesser degree decades before. The truly catastrophic thing is that we found out many in the U.S. lacked the education and skills to be able to step up to the plate and fill information sector jobs. I am not just referring to jobs in IT, but scientific research, engineering, medical, etc. I don't mean to insult the workforce in the U.S., but lets face it, we have been falling way behind in math and science for decades, and there is a trickle-up relationship between education and our economy. I sometimes cringe when I hear that Social Security won't be around in 41-44 years time (when I will be retirement age), but then I think, if I have the need for cancer treatment or open heart surgery, as so many do, there may not be enough skilled professionals in the U.S. to perform these services anyway. There is already a shortage, which in the current day has more to do with superfluous lawsuits and high rates for malpractice insurance. Sorry for getting tangential, but I am bringing the train back around right now. The thing is, I live in a small city that has relied on paper production for too long. A lot of jobs have been cut here, but this has been happening since the 1990s. I saw a real opportunity for our hospital and clinic to develop into a world-class facility, I spoke to some people on the board of directors about this, the sentiment was echoed by many in the community, and it is happening. However, we are struggling to attract the best and brightest in order to become a research facility. There are some additional reasons for this, but when I look at the long-term, I see a tremendous need for our education system to go through some serious changes in order to prepare a workforce that will be able to fill the high tech jobs, not way off in the future, but in the very near future. I think the fast track to college legislation that recently passed (thank you to Sen. Herb Kohl, who is Wisconsin's best Senator in my humble opinion-and an incredibly nice guy, but that is another subject) is a step in the right direction.
On another economic topic, it appears that the housing market is at its rock bottom, so anyone looking at investing in real estate, do it now. The Fed has already hiked mortgage interest rates up again and is expected to raise them even more by the beginning of next year. I don't think we will ever see another housing bubble, and that is for the best, but real estate is, by its very nature, a sound investment (under normal circumstances). I think the wisest investment a person could make right now is to purchase some moderately priced real estate, either a small to mid-size house, and hold on to it for 4-5 years before selling.
