Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I buy subpar foreign (and American) made goods because I have no choice, it looks like a giant global conspiracy to manufacture junk (except a few industrues). How can you know the relative value, if you dont have a choice?
Please be specific. What products do you find to be subpar and/or junk? Personally I find the quality of most goods has increased substantially. That would include foreign and American products. In fact, I really cannot think of anything that is lower quality today than a few years ago.
junk is junk and as they say the poor man pays twice . they buy low end stuff and end up having to replace it sooner . either it does not work as planned or it fails .
This is a global problem, the US is not unique, China and now India relied on cheap labor alone to underprice their goods. Then, when cheap labor wasn't enough, the governments of those countries manipulated their currency to give them the financial advantage, but that bubble has popped. Since they rely on others for raw resources, their only alternative is to turn to technology too. Ultimately, we can build machines that can do almost anything a human can do, do it faster, do it cheaper, they don't have health issues, don't have to pay for retirement, their cost is linear. The new paradigm is how humans fit into a future of global mechanization, we need to find the symbiotic balance between man and machine. It will happen, but unfortunately for us, we are experiencing the age of transition.
Please be specific. What products do you find to be subpar and/or junk? Personally I find the quality of most goods has increased substantially. That would include foreign and American products. In fact, I really cannot think of anything that is lower quality today than a few years ago.
education of basic life skills?
Sorry, I don't mean what people can cram into their brains while in school... but common life skills like balancing a checkbook, knowing how interest rates work, knowing how to repair your car without calling service, knowing how to find a place to live on your own... signing contracts...
used to be parents taught that... now, not so much... and yet, parenting got "outsourced" as well...
I suppose it's where you live....I'm rural Vermont by Ethan Allen Furniture. Also, surrounded by maple syrup producers that sell worldwide and a booming craft brewery market, award winning cheese makers and we're the originators of the farm to table movement. The ski/snow sports industry is huge as well. Robotics aren't doing any of that. Toss in building/remodeling/painting houses, like I do, and robotics aren't doing that either. Just because you're in the US, but in a big city doesn't mean the rest is still not going on in you're backyard and thriving quite nicely. Gotta find your niche.
You know, when I hear people use catchy and cliched sayings like "do what you love" or "live for today", I first think "wow, that's what we should do!"
Then i think, the better saying is learn to do some things that there are wages that will be paid to do. It will likely be more than one thing you must learn to do in your life. And these things you learn to do may be more of a means to an end than some pie in the sky dream job.
Me, I wanted to be an actor. I still do it when I can. But for most people like me, it pays nowhere near the wage it takes to live. Too many of us, too little work. So, I got an education and I've migrated my skills from purely accounting to investment sales and where I am now, bank investment operations. No more accounting, rather, support.
Now, support is usually outsourced to foreign countries, so I am prepping for the next stage of my life by passing certain regulatory exams in my industry. And, if I find that to be a useless endeavour, I'll pursue something else. I won't go down sitting on my rear end.
Really? How do you explain why the USA has a GDP/capita that's 4 times that of China? As far as modernized factories, in the 70's and 80's we were still only producing mostly Fords, Chrysler's and Chevy's, today we manufacture or assemble Toyota's, Honda's, BMW's, Hyundai's, Volkwagen's, KIA's, Mercede's, Nissan's, Subaru's, and Tesla's, in addition to American brands, all in modern assembly plants. I work with entrepreneurs every day, they have no concerns finding qualified workers here, and in fact find it far easier to start businesses in The US than Europe or the Asian countries. While China has advantages with manufacturing at massive scales, their bureaucracy is formidable and highly convoluted, that takes a lot of time and capital. The US is, or is becoming a high tech incubator for multiple industries, the picture is not as dire as many people would have you believe. That means a lot of new jobs, new types of competition, new industries, and growing pains getting there. How to get everyone up to speed is the challenge, and if you don't want to change, you'll be left behind.
The days of being paid $20 per hour for bolting bumpers on cars are gone forever. Most simple jobs are now automated.
The new manufacturing jobs require a higher skill set.
There is not much out there for the uneducated.
Under massive pressure from the unions and a sympathetic government, auto companies paid close to $50 an hour in today's money, including rich pension benefits, to "Turn-a-Bolt Bob." IT AIN'T COMING BACK and Bob was never worth $50 an hour. It was monopoly pricing.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
