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.
Heartbreaking story in the first segment about a small town economically devastated by the loss of the Maytag factory. Second segment about tax policies and the deficit.
I feel so terrible for the people who are becoming homeless and destitute, despite having worked responsibly all their lives. WHAT is going to happen? Economists have said the "recovery" already happened and it is weak -- not gonna get any better. Are there any community wide efforts to help keep each other afloat? Or is everyone just depending upon government assistance? Eventually that will run out.
That's old news. Everyone knew the factory would close. If they employees would have went to university or vocational school to get additional training, or looked for another job, then wouldn't be in the mess their in.
Yes, it's really quite simple, isn't it?
Of course, the fact that the employees have families to support, mortgages to pay, bills which must be paid to keep the eletricity and heat on means nothing. There's no reason why they can't just scrape up the money to retrain from somewhere, quit working for a year or two and go to class to prepare themselves for the future.
Gee! How foolish of them not to have done that!
ps: In today's American economy, what skill would you recommend they train for? Cashier at a fast food joint? Clerk in a store? Whatever it is, I'm sure it will pay enough to support the lifestyle they've built around their expected income, just as we all do.
Or, would you be in favor of supporting they and their families, totally, during the time they're re-training and searching for what will likely turn out to be a non-existant job? Are you willing to feed their kids, pay their mortgage, put gas in their car etc, etc?
What does our present administration want any more than more and more people depending on them for assistance? The more people that are like that the more votes they will get and that is for progressives.
Yes I am sure that's the strategy, should really help their election campaign having the unemployment at 10%. What a great positive.
I don't think the current administration or progressives in general had anything to do with the buyout and outsourcing of the Maytag brand, Roy. It was just pure capitalism doing it's best to strenghten it's bottom line and increase profits for the shareholders. Corporate business does not view their employees as people. They are refered to as "labor expense" in the P&L statement.
I don't think the current administration or progressives in general had anything to do with the buyout and outsourcing of the Maytag brand, Roy. It was just pure capitalism doing it's best to strenghten it's bottom line and increase profits for the shareholders. Corporate business does not view their employees as people. They are refered to as "labor expense" in the P&L statement.
That is exactly what they are. If the govt would look at the citizens that way, we would not be in so much debt.
Of course, the fact that the employees have families to support, mortgages to pay, bills which must be paid to keep the eletricity and heat on means nothing. There's no reason why they can't just scrape up the money to retrain from somewhere, quit working for a year or two and go to class to prepare themselves for the future.
Gee! How foolish of them not to have done that!
ps: In today's American economy, what skill would you recommend they train for? Cashier at a fast food joint? Clerk in a store? Whatever it is, I'm sure it will pay enough to support the lifestyle they've built around their expected income, just as we all do.
Or, would you be in favor of supporting they and their families, totally, during the time they're re-training and searching for what will likely turn out to be a non-existant job? Are you willing to feed their kids, pay their mortgage, put gas in their car etc, etc?
I think the goal is to get a good education before you have a family to support, major bills to pay, etc. Setting your sights on a dead-end job is never a good idea and just perpetuates the cycle of poverty. And the notion that college is unaffordable is a crock. One can go the route of a community college for the AA and finish up at a university. There are tons of grants and scholarships out there....if all else fails, go the student loan route and pursue a career where there is a chance of repayment without huge financial sacrifices or where the loans may even be forgiven.
I think the goal is to get a good education before you have a family to support, major bills to pay, etc. Setting your sights on a dead-end job is never a good idea and just perpetuates the cycle of poverty. And the notion that college is unaffordable is a crock. One can go the route of a community college for the AA and finish up at a university. There are tons of grants and scholarships out there....if all else fails, go the student loan route and pursue a career where there is a chance of repayment without huge financial sacrifices or where the loans may even be forgiven.
The problem with that is identifying those dead end jobs early enough to avoid committing a significant portion of your life to what turns out be temporary employment. Fortune ball reading isn't a commonly available tool for most of us.
In the case of that Maytag plant, it had been there in that town since the company began and the company was dedicated to its neighbors. The founder of the company is even buried in Newton.
Who knew, or who could forsee, that one day after the founders death, an outside firm with no social conscience, with no committment to anything but it's shareholders and it's bottom line, would come along and do what they did? Who could have guessed that a couple of generations of good, profitable work would end up one day simply blowing away? Could you have seen it?
Probably not. And, neither could the citizens of Flint, MI (whose grandfathers built Buicks there) or of Syracuse, NY (where generations of families built Carrier air conditioners) or of Denison, TX (where refrigerated biscuits were invented and where Pillsbury suddenly pulled out). The list of communities and families devastated by the relentless pursuit of greater profits in the name of globalization goes on and on.
It's easy to play "Capt. Hindsight," (a tip o' the hat to last night's South Park), but that doesn't help those workers and their families caught up in the destruction of American industry. It's too late for them to make the decision to not count on "dead end" jobs. They're caught now, stuck between their committments and a future which has suddenly disappeared.
What do they do? How can they do it without losing everything they've worked for in the process?
Oh, it's quite easy to say, "Train for another job," but that answer is too pat, too simple. It avoids having to deal with the companion questions of just how to do that when you're unemployed and your creditors are beating down the door. It doesn't address WHAT jobs to train for, nor how to determine if that new career might not also turn out to be a dead end.
No, it seems to me that the right, the easy answer, is to make it unprofitable for companies to move their production off shore. Make it hurt when they do it, to the point that the economic incentive to do so is gone. American workers are still the most productive workers on earth and, even if they have to be paid more, can still compete with Joe Chinese, one on one, and beat him at his own game. All it takes is a committment by companies to the workers who make them rich, and that means a committment by The Peoples government to make them quick screwing our people.
You can bet they won't do it volutarily.
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.
