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Forty years ago I was a skilled machine builder that could turn raw stock into cast, machined and welded devices on a one off basis. Even then I realized that profession would guarantee me relatively low wages, long hours, cold concrete floors and being treated like a "worker" by carpet walking fools. When the opportunity came I studied science and engineering and have worked mostly in air conditioned offices ever since. I made more money as well.
I am very glad that I am not a recent college graduate. There are very few jobs out there that would pay enough to make the loans let alone rent my own apartment. Our contrived economy is now doing to college grads what it was doing to skilled machine builders 40 years ago. They are flooding the market with workers to drive down wages for their own profit.
I think the answer to these problems is to restrict imports with countervailing tariffs (don't worry about trade wars. We are already losing this one) and spend our money on making our own infrastructure reliable and efficient, including making our own oil, instead of being the thug of the world. We need to make things in America by making imported stuff far more expensive. The resulting increased employment would provide the money to buy the products.
Forty years ago I was a skilled machine builder that could turn raw stock into cast, machined and welded devices on a one off basis. Even then I realized that profession would guarantee me relatively low wages, long hours, cold concrete floors and being treated like a "worker" by carpet walking fools. When the opportunity came I studied science and engineering and have worked mostly in air conditioned offices ever since. I made more money as well.
I am very glad that I am not a recent college graduate. There are very few jobs out there that would pay enough to make the loans let alone rent my own apartment. Our contrived economy is now doing to college grads what it was doing to skilled machine builders 40 years ago. They are flooding the market with workers to drive down wages for their own profit.
I think the answer to these problems is to restrict imports with countervailing tariffs (don't worry about trade wars. We are already losing this one) and spend our money on making our own infrastructure reliable and efficient, including making our own oil, instead of being the thug of the world. We need to make things in America by making imported stuff far more expensive. The resulting increased employment would provide the money to buy the products.
Good post, and I would add that we can do something China and India can't: produce enough food to feed ourselves. Our ariable land and water resources are our big ace in the hole long term.
Why should people have to become subservient to employers? I am insulted by the assumption that individuals are supposed to “make themselves marketable” so they are desirable employees. This is bassakwards!
Businesses are the entities that should be changing themselves to attract employees. They should be saying “Look how well lit and comfortable taking care of our machining centers can be. We will also teach you how to do this and pay you a good wage. If you stay here long enough you will get a decent pension.” Businesses need to do the recruiting not desperate people begging for an income.
Making desperate people compete with more desperate people for a chance at an income is immoral.
Making desperate people compete with more desperate people for a chance at an income is immoral.
I couldn't agree more. Have you read Dicken's "Hard Times"? It's a sobering description of where we've come from and where they intend to take us back to again.
US culture has huge pockets of anti-intellectualism.
Sorry, my sympathy well has just run utterly dry. Kids running around with sports-sports-sports being the #1 determinant of popularity and success up until around age 18 for most of them. Well, keep clinging to that turd folks.
The days of being able to make a good living by stumbling out of highschool and going to work at the local factory are over.
lol...glimpsed a portion of MTV's teen mom. She was studying for her GED and was talking about her dream of going to college. She scored 39% on the math portion....of the GED....wow. Anyway, I bet she can name the cast of jersey shore.
Well, desertdetroiter, we will never have the massive manufacturing employment again, as quite frankly, even when we get stuff, robots can do a tremendous percentage of functions once done solely by people. So we could wait for Wal Mart to employ 150 million-is that your suggestion (sar)? Oops, RFID will wipe out most cashier jobs nationally within a few years.
Your moniker includes the poster child for city abandoned by manufacturing : Detroit.
Wow...ya know, i never realized that?
And Detroit still has tons of manufacturing. Just not as much as use to have.
You clearly WANT the nation to be bereft of manufacturing jobs, and i can tell by your post that you do. But if we don't bring back our manufacturing base and hold on to whatever base we have presently, we're gonna be in deep doo. And we're not gonna climb out with engineering jobs.
US culture has huge pockets of anti-intellectualism.
Sorry, my sympathy well has just run utterly dry. Kids running around with sports-sports-sports being the #1 determinant of popularity and success up until around age 18 for most of them. Well, keep clinging to that turd folks.
The days of being able to make a good living by stumbling out of highschool and going to work at the local factory are over.
lol...glimpsed a portion of MTV's teen mom. She was studying for her GED and was talking about her dream of going to college. She scored 39% on the math portion....of the GED....wow. Anyway, I bet she can name the cast of jersey shore.
Okay. But still, we're not going to sustain a middle class on engineering jobs no matter what you think.
This nation like all first world nations needs a low skilled, decently paid (notice i said decent, not high paying) manufacturing base. Without it, throw in the towel.
This nation like all first world nations needs a low skilled, decently paid (notice i said decent, not high paying) manufacturing base. Without it, throw in the towel.
OK, who can we compete with for manufacturing jobs? The GM autoworker in China who makes $2 a day? Or TATA in India who is building the Nano, a new car that gets 40 mpg and costs $2000 brand new? Step up and share your plan with us please. Even Mexicans can't compete wage wise with Asia.
Here's one example:
Originally Posted by Boss Its funny that the Furn. and mill jobs that went away are slowly comming back. They are being offered at a pay rate of $9-$10 rising to $13. Thousands of people reply to these jobs. Even in NC you cannot live on $400 a week. Families will still be able to keep there EBT. It reminds me of the early 1930'S
Sad. I made $9 an hour during the Summer break in the mid 1980s running telephone lines in office buildings. It was a horrible low paying job then. You know what $9 is worth today adjusted for inflation since 1985. $4.42 cents. That same job today would be need to pay $18.50 per hour. If you have no perspective on how things suck..you'll settle for anything. The USA will look like these ghettos in Brazil before people wake up to this right wing propaganda they've been spoon fed for 30 years.
What right wing propaganda would that be?
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