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Make no mistake, a doctor from India, an engineer from china, and a financial analyst from Russia have little overlap with the elitist white liberal class. They do not need much welfare, affirmative action, or high property tax.
They don't need these things, but they still tend to vote liberal/democratic. I've always been a bit befuddled by that, but it is what it is.
Don't blame the companies for not being willing to train, but blame the employees that have trained the company to quit offering training.
Wait a minute .
It was the EMPLOYERS who did away with rewarding employees for being loyal. Why wouldn't an employee leave when a better offer comes along when loyalty is generally not rewarded?
Last edited by mysticaltyger; 05-02-2014 at 03:47 AM..
Up until the last few years (08, if not before) ANY degree worked. English majors could get jobs and not just as writers or teachers, history majors could get jobs not just in museums or teachers, etc. and I bet even the "underwater basketweaving majors" could get jobs in corporate America. Those transferable skills was not a problem until the recession at all. The world change yet teachers and colleges still blindly tell unknowing youth and their parents ANY degree works.
This is a gross exaggeration. Liberal arts majors have always made less, on average, and had a harder time finding employment than those with business/engineering type degrees. It's no surprise this situation would get worse after a major recession.
LOL, not even close... And we also work more hours in a given year when compared to most 1st world developed nations. The average American makes slightly more in a year than a German, but the German gets a whole month off and then some. So, the German worker is actually coming out ahead hourly.
Ragnarkar might have exaggerated a bit, but his point still holds. Compare the education/skill level of the average American with the average German. I bet the average German wins pretty easily. I bet most of them speak and write English better than Americans do. We complain about becoming a 3rd World country but we are a country with borderline 3rd World education/skill levels.
Ragnarkar might have exaggerated a bit, but his point still holds. Compare the education/skill level of the average American with the average German. I bet the average German wins pretty easily. I bet most of them speak and write English better than Americans do. We complain about becoming a 3rd World country but we are a country with borderline 3rd World education/skill levels.
They have a social democracy there which invests in it's citizens.
Companies have a hard time filling open positions. Some of them hire others to find talent. It's mindboggling that with such a high unemployment rate and all the cynicism toward "job creators," there are in fact open jobs that pay decent salaries and no takers.
There are plenty of people looking for employment, but they don't have the right skills.
Not only do people not always have the right skill set but sometimes they don't live in the right area of the country and the employer will not always pay for relocation. Also employers tend to want employ younger people rather than middle-aged ones who have a tougher time of getting rehired after being unemployed for a while.
This is a gross exaggeration. Liberal arts majors have always made less, on average, and had a harder time finding employment than those with business/engineering type degrees. It's no surprise this situation would get worse after a major recession.
I am not saying those majors were perfect majors for people to do. I am not sure where you got that. All I said was that it wasn't uncommon for them to still get jobs based on the fact they had a degree. Now a days even the good degrees don't ensure finding employment.
Ragnarkar might have exaggerated a bit, but his point still holds. Compare the education/skill level of the average American with the average German. I bet the average German wins pretty easily. I bet most of them speak and write English better than Americans do. We complain about becoming a 3rd World country but we are a country with borderline 3rd World education/skill levels.
Pretty well shows how much of a presence America, and to a lesser extent, the UK, has in the world. If the German wants access to the American market, they better learn English. Obviously, many have followed suit. This is quite convenient for the American who is interested in doing business in Germany though. With so many English speaking Germans around, the American will do just fine with their one language.
American scores are quite average in math, science, reading, etc. At this point, we are running on fumes and past achievements. Our significance in the globe is still huge, but it is fading with marked regularity. Usually, a nation looks to their young people as the nation's future. Instead, we would rather look to our past and marvel over what previous generations have accomplished. This is how we justify our egotistical attitude of "American exceptionalism".
News flash America... Prosperity is not something you take ownership over. First you must work for it. Then you must work to preserve it. At some point, you may have to work to defend it. As a nation, we have done all of this. Today, I'm afraid all is for not, because we are letting it slip away. Heck, I think our politicians would gladly package it up and ship it away if the price was right... Actually, I think that's exactly what they have done
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Originally Posted by s1alker
They have a social democracy there which invests in it's citizens.
We pay plenty to educate young people. You can't throw money alone at problems and expect to come out ahead. Unfortunately, the quality of the education is closely tied to the quality of the government overseeing it.
I am not talking about the widget maker being a college prof. But too many ex widget makers wait for widget manufacturing to return. We make the mistake of letting them via EUC. We need to stop that, and far more will retrain for hundreds of new occupations instead of sitting idle awaiting their ex job to come back.
It is not 1955. Layoffs are firings , 99% of the time, in 2014.
Yes, because cutting off people's income completely will make it a lot easier for them to afford retraining...
Oh, and then there's that little problem of the lack of jobs - 2.6 to 5.1 people out of work per job opening:
But, sure - clearly if we keep shuffling the deck chairs around on this Titanic, somehow we can make that ratio go to 1 - all we need are "more skills" - not more jobs... or so we're supposed to believe...
Finally, even if we ignore the lack of jobs - and the fact that most job opening out there are low-paying, not the mythical "high skill" positions some believe - AND ignore the fact that cutting off social safety nets does not make it easier for people to afford retraining, there's also the dirty little secret that companies aren't interested in hiring people without years of experience anyway.
So, sure - let's tell Joe the Factory Guy who's out of work that we have a solution for him: We'll cut of his unemployment so he go hungry, and then encourage him to get into debt for a degree of some sort. A few years later, assuming he's not homeless by then, he'll graduate with a nice, new shiny degree. And find himself competing with at least 1 to 2 other people - who are probably younger - for every job opening in his field... oh, and then there's the fact that he probably won't have the needed experience to get hired in his new field anyway. It's such a brilliant solution... I wonder why nobody else thought of this...
But, sure - clearly if we keep shuffling the deck chairs around on this Titanic, somehow we can make that ratio go to 1 - all we need are "more skills" - not more jobs... or so we're supposed to believe...
What lack of jobs?
Really... there are rather few things that NEED doing that aren't getting done now.
Of the few that aren't being done... far more about priority choices (doing X vs Y)
and could be done quite well enough by shifting assignments ... no new blood needed.
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So, sure - let's tell Joe the Factory Guy ... I wonder why nobody else thought of this...
It's easier than accepting the actual reality than NEITHER end of the equation want to face.
We need to find something ELSE for all those Joes to do.
And to do it (read: pay for this social welfare measure) by reallocating money
we are already spending on such measures but far to ineffictively.
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