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This is not good news. This is a shuffle. All the points have been hit on already. 1) Increase demand for Mcdonalds is an act of substitution, not added economic spending (it is in fact, net contracting). 2)These jobs don't support a household, so there's nothing to write about. These are below subsistence jobs, mere subsidy to an already insolvent household. These are the jobs that make our poor not want to get off their ass. Good bad or indifferent, that's the truth.
The key is re-educating the workforce. The problem with the agenda of accepting 3 career changes in one's lifetime is that our society does not make it cheap to attain said retraining, not to mention the non-economic valuations of [proverbially]: "Im a diesel mechanic and I like my vocation, Im not gonna become a nurse just because it's in demand (for a decade anyways) and for which I may or may not have the aptitude for, I like being a diesel mechanic!" To treat human beings as tooling that can be reformatted modularly, is callous and disconnected.
Which is what you see in the UK with the flare up of 'yobism'. I.E. "Ill sit on my rear over doing something that's not gonna get me to where I was before I fell on my ass". Mickey Ds falls in that category. Yeah if you have no education sure there's no downgrade, but if you were previously gainfully employed, you ain't going to go to Mickey Ds as a bona fide replacement, just so some ivory tower posters on CD can declare "all is well, everybody is employed". As if employment equaled 'gainful employment'. Even if everybody had the aptitude to pull a rags to riches move on the Mickey D job (most don't to begin with) and go corporate on the company, the numbers don't support that level of employment upgrade for the majority (which means, for those who fell off the logic bus here, you're manning the fryer for life @ 8/hr). The former is what most people would consider the opportunity cost of living in America to be. You remove that potential for the majority, and in the absence of blue collar employment able to sustain a household to lower middle class standards, you're gonna have rampant "yobism". And I dont'blame them. If I'm not gonna 'make it', Im not gonna toil 60 hrs week to be one paycheck above the welfare crowd. Welcome to America.
But yeah, if you're gainfully employed today, this all seems made up. We're awesome at muting the world that surrounds us.
It's funny that you see it that way. The way I see it, we don't have enough tech and science people because the jobs pay poorly relative to the financial industry. The smart students go where the money is, and the only way to make the salaries go higher is to stop allowing 200,000+ tech visa applicants into the country.
companies in tech pay quite a bit for a lot of these positions, but they are not finding the american candidates as being qualified enough for them, so they are seeking folks from india and the rest of asia to fill them. it's a known problem. if you cut off the visas, you'd just have open positions, or they would be lower paying because the talent pool is inferior. it's quite sad actually.
It's funny that you see it that way. The way I see it, we don't have enough tech and science people because the jobs pay poorly relative to the financial industry. The smart students go where the money is, and the only way to make the salaries go higher is to stop allowing 200,000+ tech visa applicants into the country.
Bingo. Im sitting on two engineering degrees, and I never even set foot in indsutry. Why? Because quantitative drudgery sucks. And I ain't kosher doing it for 50K/yr and laying me off every 5 years. So have the visa crowd do it for 35K with a smile. They won't be smiling for long. They too want the prize, they too will get "entitled". They aren't saints. Give the educated and aware the economic incentive to doing something few people consider attractive work. Or let the foreigners race themselves to the bottom. Again, yobism. And this is scary because we're no longer talking unskilled labor, we're talking about people with a quantifiable amount of education opting to sit on their degrees rather than toil for peanuts. this country is in trouble. Brazil or Spain, I've said before and I'll say it again. That's the outcome of the labor class/capital class staring contest we got going on in this country at the white collar level.
Bingo. Im sitting on two engineering degrees, and I never even set foot in indsutry. Why? Because quantitative drudgery sucks. And I ain't kosher doing it for 50K/yr and laying me off every 5 years. So have the visa crowd do it for 35K with a smile.
I can tell you haven't set foot in the industry, with such a skewed sense of the salaries in it.
The McDonalds dollar menu is actually very attractive in these economic times. For me, when gas was $2.50 it was Sushi and Steak, and now it's McDonalds and Taco Bell.
I seriously doubt this is true, that the price of gas has driven you from lunching on steak and sushi to the dollar menu.
Virtually every adult American has, right now, the last good job they will ever have. This has been generally true since the 80's, but nobody realizes that until they themselves lose that good job, and start showing real estate or selling used cars. An overwhelming number of new hires are people younger than you are, and when your job ends (which it will), you are at the end of your productive and remunerative working career. And that goes for the physical therapists, too.
Are you saying that the CEOs, and the financial managers in businesses like software, etc.--and the legal professionals, healthcare professionals, teachers, academics etc. are going to lose their jobs....over what?
Or are you implying it's the lower end jobs that will disappear (any why??)
What is this view founded on, other than pessimism?
companies in tech pay quite a bit for a lot of these positions, but they are not finding the american candidates as being qualified enough for them, so they are seeking folks from india and the rest of asia to fill them. it's a known problem. if you cut off the visas, you'd just have open positions, or they would be lower paying because the talent pool is inferior. it's quite sad actually.
This is not the case. You are buying into a scam perpetrated by the owners of these multi-billion dollar companies, to keep wages relatively low. Getting paid quite a bit is fine, but these jobs require a tremendous commitment, and the best and brightest figure, "If I'm going to make sacrifices of this magnitude, I'll make them in business for a much bigger payout." Your statement "if you cut off the visas, you'd just have open positions, or they would be lower paying because the talent pool is inferior." goes against all free market principles.
Are you saying that the CEOs, and the financial managers in businesses like software, etc.--and the legal professionals, healthcare professionals, teachers, academics etc. are going to lose their jobs....over what?
Or are you implying it's the lower end jobs that will disappear (any why??)
What is this view founded on, other than pessimism?
I'm not saying anybody will lose their job. I'm saying when in a person loses his job, it is very likely that he will never find another job that good. Don't read any more than that into it.
It's founded on observation. How many people do you know, in the past 20 years, who had a good job and lost it, and went on to a better or equal job. I'm not talking about people who quit in order to advance. I'm talking about people who worked hard to rise to their level of professional advancement, got caught in downsizing or shutdown or offshoring or budget crunch, and were given a pink slip.
By the way, just in the little town of Benton Harbor, Michigan, last month, twenty school administrators were fired. Do you think there are a lot of school boards wanting to snap up those administrators?
I'm not saying anybody will lose their job. I'm saying when in a person loses his job, it is very likely that he will never find another job that good. Don't read any more than that into it.
It's founded on observation. How many people do you know, in the past 20 years, who had a good job and lost it, and went on to a better or equal job. I'm not talking about people who quit in order to advance. I'm talking about people who worked hard to rise to their level of professional advancement, got caught in downsizing or shutdown or offshoring or budget crunch, and were given a pink slip.
By the way, just in the little town of Benton Harbor, Michigan, last month, twenty school administrators were fired. Do you think there are a lot of school boards wanting to snap up those administrators?
OK, I get what you;re saying, most likely true.
How come there were TWENTY school administrators in little Benton Harbor??
Seems like an obvious overkill that needs adjustment.
The town gov't of Benton Harbor has been completely dismantled. I did just read that they laid off every single public school teacher in Detroit!!
Financial martial law is now in effect throughout MI. Is this the sign of things to come elsewhere in the U.S.??
The name of the game is reinvention, and as others here have noted, constantly upgrading transferable skills. A journalist, for ex, can report, write, edit, write grant proposals, put together a publication, do research, etc. We need to diversify our skill base.
Last edited by RiverBird; 04-20-2011 at 06:14 PM..
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