Near me there are gardeners EVERYWHERE, not a day goes by that I don't hear a lawnmower or leaf blower. Remember back 20 years ago when everyone did their own gardening, no one wanted to pay someone to do their hedge trimming, today everyone has a landscaper no matter what the cost.
Hmmm, sounds like a recession proof business. I think the important thing in this political and economic environment is to not get completely demoralized. If you lose all hope and think all your efforts are in vain, you won't even try. All the energy drains right out of you. You have to keep moving forward. Try different angles. Be relentlessly resourceful. Keep trying different things until you find something that works and then do more of that.
How many of them are actually looking for work, as opposed to just being worthless bums with mental illness? San Diego has no shortage of mentally ill bums.
I don't believe in the "jobless recovery" it's illogical and despite the recent poor job reports; jobs have declined since the recession ended and have for the past 3 months been adding to the payroll. Regardless of the short-term outlook I don't think the world's largest economy is going to become stagnant; we suffered a cruel recession much like the 80s. Except the 80s were considerably worst; commodity hit all time highs, inflation hit double digits, unemployment was higher and the previous decade suffered from multiple recessions and stagflation. So in that context things are better; also a popular phrase in the press is "some jobs will never come back". Yeah I'm sure this is true to a very small degree as you expect in any recession however the media never states which jobs or why. Important questions. If you look at the data 25 percent of those who lost their jobs were in construction and the remaining majority were in manufacturing and retail. Manufacturing jobs have declined regardless of economic conditions since the 70s and will continue to do so yet it is not a bellwether of a negative future because those jobs have been replaced by the knowledge economy. Economies go through transitions; agrarian>industrial>knowledge. Retail will recover and I have no doubt construction will as well. We are the fastest growing industrialized country on the planet; we grow at 3 percent and will continue to do so. That's millions of people per year who will need additional housing, services, blah blah blah and replacement/restoration for existing buildings. So yeah things suck now but I'm betting America as always will triumph.
What comes after the knowledge economy? You sound like a buy-and-hold investor, somewhat Buffettesqe. I don't know if your premise is sound. Rome had its day, but hasn't been much of a power since about 471 AD. Spain was quite a power in her day too, but was eclipsed by the British Empire. And what has happened to the British? Eclipsed by the upstart Americans.
Only problem with that is that the engineering and comp sci professions have shrunk significantly over the past decade, and nearly all new hires in engineering/comp sci over the past decade have been foreigners on the H1-B visa program. Even MIT CS grads are having serious problems finding jobs these days. I personally know many unemployed EE's and CS grads, who send out hundreds of applications and maybe get a response from one or two.