GotIssues,
Obviously you're an employer. It's equally apparent that you do not know anyone who is in the job market, or has been for the last several years.
I was previously unemployed for over a year and a half during the worst part of the recession and I am not an employer, just a simple professional level peon.
Because you would know that there are still people with masters degrees lining up to get a dish washing job.
I also have my master's degree. It hurt me more than helped me in my job search. Why? Because employers don't want to hire a highly over-qualified individual that they know for fact will be looking for other jobs. It costs money to hire people. A lot of money.
People who are more than qualified are competing with people who are also more than qualified for any position. Where does that leave the new entries to the job market, or how about those that are slightly older than an employer might like? What about those that just got out of taking huge college loans, to find that the job market is flooded with people who went through the same courses that they did, but have a year or two's experience as well?
So employer's should be held responsible for the decisions of students to get expensive degrees in over-saturated fields? Why aren't the students held accountable for making a terrible decision?
How about someone who was laid off, and found out that they are pregnant? No one will hire them knowing that they will need maternity leave.
What about a company that is going under if they don't cut costs where they can?
The information that you're receiving from job seekers cannot represent what most of them have actually gone through to try to find a job, or they would never get hired. Before you try to defend your position by declaring "Entitlement Warfare", why don't you check to see if that strategy will only make you look more out of touch with reality. These people aren't asking for hand-outs, they're looking to survive. Which, by the way; they are entitled to do.
And you aren't receiving the information from the employers on what they have to go through to fill positions. They don't want to continually refill positions. They have 100 applications for one position and have to find 1 person who will do a good job and remain there. They want to fill their positions. They don't want to refill the same position in 3 months.
I live in an at-will state, I have to tell you; if you think that the employee has any of the power in that situation, you need to really evaluate both parties positions; I think you may have missed some important details. Go crack a book sometime, and maybe talk to a human that doesn't employ people, and you don't employ.
Why is it that in your entire post, no person is held accountable for any of their actions?
I don't employ anyone. I've gone through an extended bout of unemployment. I ate mac and cheese and ramen noodles 10 meals per week. I made sacrifices and my career has been set back several years.
I am just aware that there are more rights involved than just mine. You spent your entire post trying to bolster your arguments through pity of extreme examples and wrong assumptions, and never once took into account the rights of the companies because you aren't concerned about the rights of others, just your own.
It seems as though you are the one that needs to crack a book and gain some perspective.