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I'm kind of thinking the one poster may have been on the right path with subsidies. The bread and cheese line.
I've told this story before and will risk repeating. In Bermuda, as it has been explained to me, the only way you can get government help for living is if you work doing something.
Please don't take this wrong. Unemployment has been paid for by the employee and employer. Those that qualify deserve that money until they find better.
Off on a whole other tangent here is why we keep sending money to foreign countries when our own is in such rough shape. No, this doesn't address getting able bodied people working but is just something else that annoys.
While we are at it, let's get rid of those pesky labor laws as well. If businesses didn't have to worry about safety, overworking their staff, or pollution regulation, they could make so much more money. And we all know rich people and corporations are the only reason we have jobs.
Leave it to a liberal to wave their flag as they go off the cliff.
Now it's math time.
7.077 billion people on planet earth.
315.632 million people in the U.S.
The U.S. is 4.4618% of the world's population.
The U.S. uses 25% of the world's resources.
Now what's the most logical thing that's likely to happen?
The ROW will gain the status and lifestyles of Americans where the total population of planet Earth uses 5.6 times the Earth's resources? Or is it more likely Americans will lose their share of planet Earth's resources till it's closer to the 4.4618% that its population is?
No, this isn't a trick question.
So why don't you explain to everyone how you plan on employing most Americans as the amount of resources they can use drops to 1/5th of what it is now?
Please, no knee-jerk responses since you've already covered that.
That's a bold assumption. I understand all too well the issue of global overpopulation. And I am all too familiar with the excessive consumption of resources in the American economy.
Let's not be so myopic. This trend of demonizing American workers started many years ago with first free trade being trumpeted by presidents, other politicians, and businessmen as the key to economic prosperity (for the rich.) Free trade has completely subverted the American worker. It has led to the erosion of domestic industry and driven down the collective wealth of our society. It has served only to boost the profits of multi-national corporations that have no allegiance save for the almighty dollar. And this was wrought by the hands of our politicians, who act more and more like corporate lackeys than representatives of the American public. The American public were manipulated into accepting this change as politicians and corporations played upon the American view of laissez-faire capitalism where everyone gets a fair chance to compete; however, there is nothing fair about competing with nations that are willing to destroy their environment and their labor force to extract as much profit as they can.
Now as domestic industry has fallen to historic lows, the American worker has found himself at a point where his wealth has diminished tremendously. And without any source of wealth, it won't matter how cheap the goods are because no one will be able to afford them. The only people to have profited from this are the corporations and the politicians they have sponsored. The ability to create wealth as we once did has been robbed from us and we have become reliant upon the issuing of debt to maintain our living standards.
And now you want to remove another protection the average American has from the unscrupulous by destroying minimum wage. At what point is the American patient declared dead? He has been drained of everything. Yet he must bear the cross that will crucify him because he is the source of this country and the world's ills. You also conveniently ignore that life costs a hell of a lot more here in the United States than it does in other places. A minimum wage is necessary, otherwise people will not be able to live at all.
We are accelerating in the direction of a neo-feudalistic world where debt peonage is an omnipresent reality. And where our business masters dictate that we are the problem that needs solved.
I want to add that I am not against Americans reducing their consumption of resources. I do not drive and I am a vegetarian. I consume far less resources than the average American; however, we need to tackle our problems without trying to destroy the American wealth and by turning everyone into paupers.
So it's more prosperous to give people welfare that will ever ever see their job come back? Or is it more logical to accept reality, put those people back to work and have them learn to do more with less?
Welfare isn't stimulus despite what the morons in Washington say. Welfare transfers money from the productive to the unproductive who then send that money straight to China. That wouldn't be so bad but next it will be sent straight to C. Eurasia and then to MENA and then to sub-Sahara Africa. At least with a competing wage it will occur slower than it's occurring now. But make no mistake it will occur.
Right now your employment population ratio is only .4% points away from what it was in 1953.
If that doesn't open your eyes up then I don't know what will.
Quote:
Employment-population ratio (Current Population Survey)
The proportion of the civilian noninstitutional population aged 16 years and over that is employed.
I want to add that I am not against Americans reducing their consumption of resources. I do not drive and I am a vegetarian. I consume far less resources than the average American; however, we need to tackle our problems without trying to destroy the American wealth and by turning everyone into paupers.
Empires don't last forever.
adapt and adjust like Britain did after WWII or you will end up like Rome..going down in flames.
So it's more prosperous to give people welfare that will ever ever see their job come back? Or is it more logical to accept reality, put those people back to work and have them learn to do more with less?
Welfare isn't stimulus despite what the morons in Washington say. Welfare transfers money from the productive to the unproductive who then send that money straight to China. That wouldn't be so bad but next it will be sent straight to C. Eurasia and then to MENA and then to sub-Sahara Africa. At least with a competing wage it will occur slower than it's occurring now. But make no mistake it will occur.
Right now your employment population ratio is only .4% points away from what it was in 1953.
If that doesn't open your eyes up then I don't know what will. BLS Glossary
What you're doing now isn't working. It's not going to work tomorrow and it will not work anytime in the foreseeable future.
This was the point I was getting at with this thread. What we have now is not working. How do we change it?
I like the idea of subsidies for lower incomes by way of food. Granted, it doesn't taste great, but it's food.
I want to add that I am not against Americans reducing their consumption of resources. I do not drive and I am a vegetarian. I consume far less resources than the average American; however, we need to tackle our problems without trying to destroy the American wealth and by turning everyone into paupers.
When I was unemployed, I was mandated to attend a seminar of sorts.
We were told that now the average commute to work is 45-60 minutes and not to expect the same incomes that we had when we were working.
One cannot hardly commute that far without driving if you have no access to public transportation.
They were right about incomes too. I currently make 40% of what I did. But I'm working.
Many do not have the option of moving either.
I'm all for using less resources as well. I'm also completely for using our own resources when we do use them. Too many are out of work. Opening some coal plants would be a great idea. Also some steel manufacturing.
Preserving the environment is great but it is a futile effort when this country is the only one doing so. We cannot be so arrogant as to think that this country alone can save the planet.
Jobs have to be there. I have three friends who have been forced into early retirement because they just can't find work (aged 60-62). They want to work but can't find it. I'm really concerned for myself right now. My teaching position is being eliminated and one of those three is a fellow engineer whose skill set is recent and relevent and he cannot find anything. I'm sitting here thinking that if he can't find a job with 6 month old relevent experience, there's not much hope for me with 6 year old outdated experience. Unlike him, I cannot retire. I have enough in my IRA that I'll be ok for retirement if I can hold out until I'm eligible for SS but I'm SOL if I have to start hitting that money at 54 to pay my bills.
The hard truth is there, simply, are not enough jobs. Before you can attack the people who don't want to work, how about addressing those who do want to work but cannot find work. People like me who have masters degrees in engineering and 20 years experience or my friend with a masters degree and 40 years experience.
So let's brainstorm. What can be done to get more in the workforce and off government/taxpayer assistance? What are some ideas to make tax users into tax payers so there is more to keep us above water?
UP the min. wage.
Restrict immigration
Curb uneccessary welfare
Cut the regulations for self empolyed, start up businesses
Cut corporate welfare and loopholes
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