The more I keep seeing articles in every publication and on major news sites about the long-term unemployed in this nation (and in the United Kingdom), this line—the one about “eroding experience” of workers—is always trotted out as a primary excuse why companies won’t consider them for employment in the workplace. To me, it’s a lie; given that companies are making profits—enough of them that they can invest in technical upgrades and other equipment—the primary answer is that they absolutely refuse to make investment in anyone who doesn’t fit within the accepted conventional wisdom of human resources departments across the country. That stuff you saw recently about certain companies placing explicit notices in their job ads stating that “unemployed need not apply?” That’s the mindset, whether they post it or not. That is the new conventional wisdom.