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First, off this country has to stop illegal immigration and should stop taking new applicants for citizenship. We can barely take care of the people who are already citizens so let's not add more fuel to the fire. USA has to make English the only acceptable language in all states. (no forms in spanish, japanese, chinese etc.) Our military should be brought home and the military bases we have spread across the globe should be shut down. If a foreign country needs our military presence they can hire our military force. Our military should focus on the west and east coast and should be utllized to combat gangs and high crime areas. The government will save billions by bringing the military back home.
As far as jobs go, Some Americans don't want manufacturing jobs due to the media. Everyone wants to be a celebrity or a big shot and make easy money. We have become a customer service economy. Unless the media makes manufacturing jobs popular again then i don't see the old USA coming back. Our dependency on foreign countries for everything is very dangerous. It looks like the American empire will soon fall.
I'm a senior buyer for a major US retailer. The god's honest truth is that people say they want to buy things that are made in America, but then they turn around and make the opposite decision with their wallet. A pair of jeans made in Los Angeles by US workers (complete with vacation time, health insurance, workers comp insurance, union involvement, caps on 35-40 hour work weeks, etc) costs the consumer about $150-200. The exact same pair of jeans made in China or Vietnam costs the consumer $30-50. We're talking about working on the same mark-up structure too. Made in America costs 5-10X more for almost any product- a sweater, table, lamp, swimsuit, etc- if you can even find a factory left in America that still manufactures the product.
The American consumer culture has evolved into a "disposable" one where people would rather have 20 $30 handbags (all imported) in their closets than 1 or 2 $300 handbags (made in US). Our grandparents generation had a lot less and paid a lot more for it.
It's not a judgement on America's corporations- who can blame them for giving the customer what she wants? If my company decided to go 100% Made in the USA and hike our prices up 500%, we would not be in business in 3 months.
As for the job market in general, the US has turned into a service economy. We manufacture very little. So the jobs are more widely divided than either- either you're a $8/hr cashier at McDonald's or CVS or you're a 6-figure employee who is creating value and profit for your company through innovation or other "higher-level" thinking skills. The jobs for those in the middle are disappearing quickly, pushing those people down into the service jobs. There are no guarantees the world will remain the way it was. The old US economy is gone, so you can either b*tch and whine about it or you can become someone who adds value & profit to our economy. Start a business. Learn a new skill that IS in-demand. Finish your college education or go to graduate school. Invent something. Sell something. DO something.
I don't really buy the idea that the middle class is disappearing in America.
It may be in decline somewhat, but I don't see it going away. Just look at the rapidly growing healthcare sector, a sector in which nearly all workers besides MDs and HMO/hospital executives can be described as "middle class".
What IS happening is that domestic manufacturing is taking its last breath, as others are saying. C'est la vie.
I think also that a lot of companies who were forced to lay off employees at the bottom of the recession realized that having a few less admin assts or middle managers hanging out at the office and posting on Facebook all day didn't harm their bottom line, at all.
Now that things are looking up, should they rehire unproductive workers just because they can? Of course not. In the case of publicly held companies the people in charge actually have an ethical obligation to keep such monkeys off the backs of their shareholders.
I, for one, would be DELIGHTED if the CEOs of every company in my portfolio could be as bright, pragmatic and serious as Dan Mishek.
First, off this country has to stop illegal immigration and should stop taking new applicants for citizenship. We can barely take care of the people who are already citizens so let's not add more fuel to the fire.
How about immigration for highly skilled foreigners?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Klato
USA has to make English the only acceptable language in all states. (no forms in spanish, japanese, chinese etc.)
So are you going to have people speaking these languages arrested? How exactly do you suggest enforcing this?
I don't really buy the idea that the middle class is disappearing in America.
It may be in decline somewhat, but I don't see it going away. Just look at the rapidly growing healthcare sector, a sector in which nearly all workers besides MDs and HMO/hospital executives can be described as "middle class".
What IS happening is that domestic manufacturing is taking its last breath, as others are saying. C'est la vie.
I think also that a lot of companies who were forced to lay off employees at the bottom of the recession realized that having a few less admin assts or middle managers hanging out at the office and posting on Facebook all day didn't harm their bottom line, at all.
Now that things are looking up, should they rehire unproductive workers just because they can? Of course not. In the case of publicly held companies the people in charge actually have an ethical obligation to keep such monkeys off the backs of their shareholders.
I, for one, would be DELIGHTED if the CEOs of every company in my portfolio could be as bright, pragmatic and serious as Dan Mishek.
The healthcare sector is being propped up by the Feds/State. This cannot go on indefinitely. Medicare and Medicaid, which make up upwards of 40% of all healthcare expenditures, are unsustainable in the long term.
The 2 sectors that have seen real growth since 2000 have been defense and healthcare. What do they have in common? The federal government.
Sad is not the correct term. More like pathetic for a country with a median income in the mid 40k's?
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In a pinch, half of U.S. families can’t find $2,000
By Mark Fisher, Staff Writer
Updated 10:54 AM Saturday, June 11, 2011
Half of American families — including a growing portion of the country’s middle-class — would not be able to cope with an unexpected expense that required them to come up with $2,000 within 30 days according to a study that illustrates both the fragile nature of family finances and the depth of the nation’s financial crisis.
Dayton-area business owners, a credit-counseling official and a local economist said the findings from the study closely mirror the financial vulnerability that many Miami Valley families are grappling with.
A paper titled “Financially Fragile Households: Evidence and Implications,†published in May by the National Bureau of Economic Research, used data from a 2009 global economic crisis survey to document what the authors called “widespread financial weakness in the U.S.â€
The researchers wanted to measure American families’ ability to access emergency funds, so they asked 2,148 people between 18 and 65 the question, “How confident are you that you could come up with $2,000 if an unexpected need arose with the next month?†The amount of money and time frame reflects the cost of an unanticipated car repair, home repair, medical or legal expense.
More than a quarter of Americans (27.9 percent) reported that they would not be able to cope with such an expense, while another 22.1 percent responded that they probably would not be able to come up with the money.
When asked the same question posed to the national survey respondents, Amy DeMordaunt, 43, of Beavercreek, said she “probably could†come up with $2,000 within 30 days — but would likely obtain it by not paying off her entire credit card bill.
“I wouldn’t want to do it that way, but I probably would,†DeMordaunt said.
It may be in decline somewhat, but I don't see it going away. Just look at the rapidly growing healthcare sector, a sector in which nearly all workers besides MDs and HMO/hospital executives can be described as "middle class".
Eh some of those workers like.... home health aides and security guards, do not equate to middle class, more so just over broke... unfortunately this is what things have come to be.
“I want to have as few people touching our products as possible,” said Dan Mishek, managing director of Vista Technologies in Vadnais Heights, Minn . . .
I have to say this this article in the NY Times "Employers Spend on Equipment, Not Workers" tells a forthright story why companies are not hiring more workers as profits increase.
The employee is actually considered the least desirable asset in the modern workplace. The modern corporation wants people to buy its products . . . it just doesn't want to pay people to make them.
It is chilling to see how worthless life is becoming our materialistic, greedy culture, as we put profit above all else. There are dark days on the horizon.
The "Chilling effect" is Liberals... but Bush will continue to be blamed, thats laughable... Obama does no wrongs!!!
First, off this country has to stop illegal immigration and should stop taking new applicants for citizenship. We can barely take care of the people who are already citizens so let's not add more fuel to the fire. USA has to make English the only acceptable language in all states. (no forms in spanish, japanese, chinese etc.) Our military should be brought home and the military bases we have spread across the globe should be shut down. If a foreign country needs our military presence they can hire our military force. Our military should focus on the west and east coast and should be utllized to combat gangs and high crime areas. The government will save billions by bringing the military back home.
As far as jobs go, Some Americans don't want manufacturing jobs due to the media. Everyone wants to be a celebrity or a big shot and make easy money. We have become a customer service economy. Unless the media makes manufacturing jobs popular again then i don't see the old USA coming back. Our dependency on foreign countries for everything is very dangerous. It looks like the American empire will soon fall.
The "Chilling effect" is Liberals... but Bush will continue to be blamed, thats laughable... Obama does no wrongs!!!
Both are wrong, demcrats, republicans, liberals, conservatives all got america into this mess. This economic crisis is unfixable, only way to fix it is to start from scratch, but in a society where everyone owes someone its highly unlikely.
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