Tech Talk Talks To The Iceman

 Last Thursday Tech Talk with Tyrone Thompson and JM McSwain had a special guest: Popular You Tuber The Iceman. This was a rock solid hour of information and intelligent conversation. You can download the show here,

I’ve been a member of the Iceman family for over a year now and he always shares a lot of valuable information with listeners about women, relationships and business on his YouTube channels MadVooDooMan and thaicemanshow as well as his former blogtalkradioshow. After graduating with his MSW this year from the University of Texas, The Iceman has launched his official website www.asktheiceman.com . Asktheiceman.com is where people can pay to subscribe to view The Iceman’s exclusive Ustream videos.

Users can also schedule counseling sessions with the Iceman as well on www.asktheiceman.com . The Iceman is a licensed counselor with a wealth of wisdom and advice who can help a lot of brothers and sisters get their lives in order and take themselves to the next level. A subscription is only $29.95 and that money will be the well spent. One session with the Iceman is an investment in your future.

From the show I learned a lot about the changes to the GED or General Equivalency Diploma. It turns out that the GED is going to be a lot harder to get. In the past the GED was the equivalent of an eighth grade education. But the new GED will require students to have the skills of a college bound High school graduate. The New GED exam will feature content such as science, history and advanced math such as algebra.

I also learned that the GED was a program from World War II. Originally meant for soldiers and veterans the GED was a public nonprofit program. Now it’s being run by educational corporation Pearson, who also administers exams such as CompTia’s A+ and NetPlus exams.

In addition to learning about the GED and the privatization of the GED, I learned from the show Pearson is also raising the price of the GED exam. What was once a $50 exam will now cost $300 or so. That’s a lot of money for a person who is working for minimum wage. And in the case of other Pearson exams, if you fail, you lose that money and have to spend more money to take it again.

Even more disturbing is the fact that the GED will no longer be taken with paper and pencils, but the exam will only be taken with computers. So a person will have to be computer literate in order to navigate the menus and have strong analytical and critical thinking skills in order to answer multiple choice exam.

I understand the negative impact these changes to the GED will have on struggling students and poor people. Most entry-level jobs and certain divisions of the military require a minimum of a High School diploma or GED. While the exam may be changing to focus on a more college bound direction, it may be more of a challenge for those who want to go on a road towards a vocational/trade career path.

These changes in the GED seem to show a difference between the haves and the have nots and how having an access to financial resources will determine the difference between living well and living in poverty. So Black people need to get their priorities in order from day one.

The Iceman has talked in great depth about these changes on his YouTube Channels and his blogtalk radio shows. And what he talked about on Tech Talk Thursday was another call to Black folks especially Black men to get their houses in order. To stop chasing women, stop buying junk items like big screen TVs, cars, big speaker stereo systems and Air Jordan sneakers and start investing in their futures. Black people really need to start focusing on education; because education is the foundation to building wealth.

All of what the Iceman, Tyrone and JM McSwain talked about on Tech Talk last Thursday was stuff I learned in an Organizational Behavior class back in Monroe College back in 1994. There, I learned that the job market was going to change. That the unskilled and semiskilled middle class jobs such as factory workers and office workers like administrative assistants were going to be phased out and that there would be only two types of jobs: Jobs for college educated people with specialized skills and low-wage work paying $4.25 to $7.00 an hour.

And in 1997, Tony Brown warned Black people to start buying computers and learning about computer technology on his PBS show Tony Brown’s Journal.

Twenty years later everything I learned in that Organizational Behavior course has come to pass. Adjust the wages of those minimum wage jobs to inflation and they roughly are $4.25 to $7.00 an hour in 1994 dollars.

And close to 20 years later everything is done by computers. So Tony Brown was also correct in his prediction for the future.

And those unskilled and semiskilled jobs like receptionist, Administrative Assistant, Office Asssitant, Clerical and are being phased out as computer programs like Microsoft Office can do the job of five or six workers.

From the show it’s clear to me that the world is changing. And Black people need to change with it if they’re going to have a chance to compete in it. It would be best to heed the advice of someone like The Iceman who has the vision to see where the world is going.

Tech Talk’s interview with The Iceman was a solid show with a lot of valuable information for listeners. It was great to hear Black men having an intelligent conversation about serious issues. My only gripe was that the show was only an hour long. If you want to get more great advice and watch more videos you have to go to www.asktheiceman.com  and do the paypal dance and pay for a subscription. It’ll be money well spent!