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Fired Before Hired: How Corporations Rigged The Job Market And Killed The American Dream
Submitted by Daniel Drew via Dark Bid - Truth in Dark Markets blog,
The latest corporate scam is to blame workers for the high unemployment rate. They say there is a skills gap. Even President Obama is in on the joke. In his most recent State of the Union address, Obama called for Congress to make community college free. Because nothing will get you a job more than an associate's degree from your local college.
The real skills gap is the other way around: too many skills for the low-wage menial jobs that pervade the labor market. The person who makes your coffee or your Big Mac might be able to design the next major bridge or write for The New York Times. Instead of high school kids cooking up your lunch, true professionals are behind the counter, and the future of the country is behind it too. The longer they stay there, the odds increase that America will take a permanent backseat in global power. In one short century, we have gone from superpower to super size me, a plutocracy, a nation that wasted its most valuable resource: the energy and innovation of its own people.
As you send your resume for the latest job ad, do you ever feel like the labor market is rigged against you? The job boards have turned into such black holes that we need Stephen Hawking to come work out the equations for us. You send your resume in, and it disappears.
In 2012, Eric Auld, an unemployed 26-year-old with a master's degree in English, decided to find out what was on the other side of the black hole. He created a fake job ad as an experiment:
Administrative Assistant needed for busy Midtown office. Hours are Monday through Friday, nine to five. Job duties include: filing, copying, answering phones, sending e-mails, greeting clients, scheduling appointments. Previous experience in an office setting preferred, but will train the right candidate. This is a full-time position with health benefits. Please e-mail résumé if interested. Compensation: $12-$13 per hour.
If you have ever applied for a job like that, I offer my condolences. You have better odds at the casino. Auld received 653 responses in 24 hours. 10% of the applicants had more than 10 years of experience, and 3% of them had master's degrees. Presumably, one of them would get the job. But what does that mean? It means that all the other experienced applicants and master's degree holders would remain unemployed. That is about 64 experienced workers and about 19 workers with master's degrees. The only way to get a job like this is if you are sleeping with the human resources manager. And this is for a job that pays $12 in Manhattan. If this doesn't qualify the United States as a third world country, what will?
Peter Cappelli, author of Why Good People Can't Get Jobs, received an email from an employee who said their company accepted 25,000 applications for a single engineering job, and the human resources team said no one was qualified. Cappelli said, "Not being able or willing to pay the market price for talent does not constitute a shortage."
A New York Times reporter wanted to find out if the skills gap was real. He visited the engineering technology program at Queensborough Community College in New York City. There are no excuses here. This isn't medieval literature or art history. This is engineering. It is also a community college, which will soon become free if Obama has his way. In this particular tech program, the goal is to create manufacturing employees who can keep up in the era of automation. This is a textbook case for Obama, who said 80% of manufacturers have jobs they can't fill. The National Association of Manufacturers estimates that there are 600,000 jobs waiting for anyone who has the right skills.
Well - what they really meant was the right skills and the desperation to work for McJob wages.
The New York Times reporter quickly discovered how much of a sham the skills gap really is. Eric Isbister, the CEO of GenMet, a metal-fabricating manufacturer near Milwaukee, said he would hire any skilled workers who showed up. He received over a thousand applications, but only 25 had the alleged proper skills. Eventually, he fired 15 of them. Apparently, they were not happy at work. Perhaps it's because he started them out at $10 per hour. If you had an associate's degree, you could get $15. If you were lucky enough to still have a job after a few years, you might get $18 per hour - depending on performance. The local McDonald's manager makes $14.
Mark Price, a labor economist at the Keystone Research Center, called their bluff, "If there’s a skill shortage, there has to be rises in wages. It's basic economics." But according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of skilled jobs has declined along with wages. There is no demand for skilled jobs. The true demand is for McJobs.
Think those manufacturing employees were unlucky to be doing high-skilled work at McJob rates? Think again. According to the Economic Policy Institute, for every two American college graduates with degrees in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics, only one of them is hired into a job in their field. In an analysis across every industry, they offer some important conclusions for us:
"Millions cannot find work no matter what they do because the jobs simply are not there.
Workers with a college degree or more still have unemployment rates that are more than one-and-a-half times as high as they were before the recession began.
In every occupational category demand for workers is lower than it was five years ago.
There are between 1.4 and 10.5 times as many unemployed workers as job openings in every industry.
In no industry does the number of job openings even come close to the number of people looking for work.
In no occupation is there any hint of wages being bid up in a way that would indicate tight labor markets or labor shortages.
There are simply no structural changes capable of explaining the pattern of sustained high unemployment over the last five years. What we have, instead, is an aggregate demand problem."
Paul Krugman called the skills gap a "zombie idea" that should have been killed by evidence but refuses to die. He said if there is really a skills gap, then "show us the money. Stop making excuses for an economy that punishes workers." Peter Cappelli said employers want to fill their positions without any training. The only way to get a job is if you already have that exact job somewhere else, and at that point, you probably wouldn't want it anyway. In the 1990s tech boom, only about 10% of people in IT jobs in Silicon Valley actually had tech degrees. According to Taleo, about two thirds of all jobs are filled by new applicants, rather than through internal promotions. A generation ago, 90% of jobs were filled with internal transfers and promotions. The employers demand loyalty, but they don't provide any reason to be loyal to them.
The next time you see a McJob worker getting your donut, don't be surprised if they graduated with honors. And if community college becomes free, then even more uber-educated Americans can make Big Macs. 30% of college graduates are consistently underemployed. They can calculate the volume of your supersized drink, but they can't make more than minimum wage while doing it because there is a "skills gap." I think I know where the real gap is: According to Credit Suisse, if wealth were evenly distributed across every adult in America, each adult would have $301,140.
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What happened to the American Dream? It came true!
-The Comedian
"In one short century, we have gone from superpower to super size me, a plutocracy, a nation that wasted its most valuable resource: the energy and innovation of its own people."
All by design. Less competition
In one short sentence:
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function" -- Albert Bartlett
That being: "We are Worse than Japan now" They have a 10 year head start.
this ^
"In one short century, we have gone from superpower to super size me, a plutocracy, a nation that wasted its most valuable resource: the energy and innovation of its own people."
And this... What has occurred, as unlikely as it may seem, was planned for over 100 years ago. Our shitty obedience training schools are not the result of mis-guidance, but venal guidance -- it was a deliberate action to deal with mass production and preserving the position and capital of the ruling elite. Read former NY City and State Teacher of the Year, John Taylor Gatto for the extensive details:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UadPqGscfI
Gatto lays it out pretty well.
"We want one class of persons to have a liberal education, and we want another class of persons, a very much larger class, of necessity, in every society, to forego the privileges of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks." - Woodrow Wilson
He was very "progressive" ;-)
That's one of the money quotes.
Beware of nmewn the 911 truth denier. Still believe buildings can fall into their own footprints at freefall speed? You might need some education.
When does Two Minutes Hate begin? Can we do the climate deniers next? Huh, can we can we?
Try and stay on topic, Zippy. Don't forget, it was "your team" who oversaw the bombing of the Murrah building (then murdered an African American cop during the coverup - how progressive).
Two Minutes Hate? from my perspective, from the moment when ZH's clock strikes 8:30 on
School Suck Podcast has some good episodes with excerpts from JTG's book.
Tragedyandhope.com has done some great work continuing what JTG started (including a long interview with JTG), and renewing interest in Caroll Quigley (hence the name).
http://www.tragedyandhope.com
>> (including a long interview with JTG)
The Ultimate History Lesson -- got it on DVD.
If you're not already familiar, check out author Douglas Valentine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J80UC34SH8c
Doug has done for understanding the Drug War and CIA what Gatto has done for dissecting the school system.
Rich Grove and his girlfriend, Lisa Arbercheski are doing very important work at T&H.
Rich discovered and exposed a backdoor in some financial software program. He quickly became persona non grata after this and narrowly escaped his death in the collapse of one of the Twin Towers on 9/11/2001 as he was running late for a meeting.
T&H is worthy of your support.
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Here it is: There is no proof without logic, no logic without cause and effect, no cause and effect without the law of identity (things are what they are), and no knowledge of existence without our 5-senses and our conscious ability to perceive that which exists. Existence (or Reality) is every substance, action, relationship, and attribute which is, was, or ever will be; the world is made up of words (universals) which describes that which exists (particulars).
If an individual has attained a Ph.D. level certificate from schooling, and chose to challenge the validity of the heretofore-referenced argument, then that individual would then need to consume, digest, and compare their schooling to the streams of consciousness enabled by our productions.
Therefore, if a logical, reasonable, individual did the necessary observation, due diligence, and comparisons necessary to intellectually change said argument, then it would be impossible to challenge the argument, for the simple fact that all Ph.D. level certificates by definition are awarded to those who participate in a compartmentalized (or partial) focus of schooling; being that what we offer here at T&H is a comprehensive education, which recognizes and provides for the short-comings and blind spots of the Ph.D. system, which are inherent to its design, form, and function. We find risky to judge before understanding any new subject, and we likewise find it more logical to observe first, then ask questions to understand, which then removes the risks inherent to the decision-making process of “judgment”; as the facts become obvious, so do our choices. That being read, if you are a Ph.D. and present an argument which has clear terms, true premises, and thus is valid; your argument will be entertained if it is relevant and substantial, as we are most interested in learning and improving our awareness and communication skills. Also, if you are a Ph.D. and have consumed our productions, you have, by definition, just experienced 240+ hours of curriculum which were not offered to you within your Ph.D. education, and by default, are beyond Ph.D. level.
We chose the name “Tragedy and Hope” for several reasons, one of which being the importance of a history book of the same name “Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time” by Professor Carroll Quigley; Quigley’s book was censored and suppressed, due to the fact that he published a book which factually and actually demonstrated that reason, rationality, and the ability to plan effectively, make informed decisions, and thus liberty- had been systematically and purposely removed from the public mind… by Who? Quigley discloses this as well, in the last several hundred pages of his book. After teaching at Harvard, Princeton, and Georgetown (as well as mentoring Rhodes Scholar William J. Clinton), Quigley is remembered for his tomes on how the world works, and who runs it; and this line of history proves out in reality, even though it is the direct opposite of what we’re taught in schools, and believe through corporate media.
Witnessing this fact, we decided to research and discover what had been removed from the public mind, andreplace the essential tools of living; so that individuals could once again enjoy the liberty, serenity, and satisfaction that comes from thinking and acting with consistent methods of reason and rationality, making informed decisions and planning effectively for surviving and thriving through life’s path.
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You have an anti-intellectual side based on your comments to me.
How do you answer to these charges as an Anarchist? I like what I hear from European Anarchists, but you made a mistake. You challenged me based on my using terminology. This is Anti-Intellectualism.
You don't like Economic terms, get a room with yourself.
"teeth, you and your economic terms"
- sorry you don't know science or defining terms.
Yes it's by design, in order to lower American salaries to other countries salaries. Also it's to weaken the US and make it into a full plutocracy.
We live in a kakistocracy
Everyone on their feet for a standing ovation for the incompetent, corrupt, divisive arrogant narcissitic illegal indonesian kenyan alien muslim sociopathic pathological liar in chief fudgepacke for looking out for all the tax paying US citizen serfs and peasants while it enjoys its celebrity grand imperial golf lifestyle.....
You spell it out pretty good with a whole lot of truth unfortunately 50% of Americans don't won't to hear it.
"Everyone on their feet for a standing ovation for the incompetent, corrupt, divisive arrogant narcissitic illegal indonesian kenyan..."
Now THERE is a skills gap. We keep goinmg from dumb to dumber when it comes to presidents.
Am betting 3/4 of those down votes are working for .gov, probably i'm 25% wrong and it's a FULL HOUSE. One of them most likely cleans Barry's Balls ( with his tongue ).
If a cat has its kittens in an oven it dont make them buscuits.
I dont care if Obwama was born in the US or not, he is still a fucking Kenyan Muslim commie fuck.
But he is our President and we must be respectful.
Thats so true, The American Dream is here. Our problem is that we thought it was for everybody and it wasn't. It was just for the rich and the rich used the old tried and true concept of divide and conqure to put black against white and poor agains "rich" in order to make sure that they didn't see what was being done for the elite and super wealthy.
Look.. this economy is Fucking GREAT!!!! everybody go buy a new SUV Pronto!
The realization of the Balfour Agreement changed, rerouted, bastardized, & altered the path of the 'American Dream' forever.
Meanwhile, my high skool dropout plumber tools around town in a Posrsche .
Is that like a GHETTO [Louis Vuitton Bag] knockoff version of a PORSCHE?
A little sweat & knowing the end of a shitter pipe has to be lower than the beginning is pretty damned important ;-)
That is true supply and demand - the plumber charges $100/hr and gets it - because when some kid flushes a toy and clogs up the sewer - who wants to be elbow deep and spattered in shit? Secondly who has a $5000 router to clear the line?
Going long routers.
Your plumber has a job that can't be outsourced, requires skills that cannot simply be acquired from a book, and frequently involves "icky" tasks. Further, your plumber probably has a license, which is a barrier to entry for illegals.
To put it another way, your plumber is an enemy of the regime.
Forward (over the cliff)!
Yes they are.one day maybe unstoping the drains at Wally the next day putting in a deionized water system on a windtunnel.. But a wize old plumber told me its the 2 dalla ticket that keeps the track open.not those big jobs
Just to play devil's advocate:
I hired a guy to do some plumbing for me 4 years back. Had to write the check out to his kid. I'm guessing he, himself was illegal. Great work, decent price. Would have done it myself had I all the skills and tools. Personally I don't give a shit if he has The State's silly piece of paper or not. All that shit should be private and graded by the respective rating agency but that's another story...
Point is that licences, fees, unions, syndicates etc are all just bullshit barrriers that use the power of the state and its enforcement mechanism (violence) to obstruct free exhange of value between to individuals. Perhaps his efforts underbid and are delationary by definition but that's free market folks. And you better thank god we still have a shred of that here in the USSA or you might not be able to feed yourself if there wasn't this kind of price discovery in agriculture.Or there would just be shortages-see Venezuela, USSR, China (Mao's time) and every other syndicated, regulated shit mess.
Yes, MY plumber is kinda an enemy of the regime. He erects his middle finger to the corrupt power of the state.
Good for him!
He probably has tax liens under his old business name. Those quarterlies sometimes tend to disappear into materials for the next job...and the next.
Some folks just aren't that impressed by the powers of the State and work around them.
Or your plumber is fighting credit card banks. You would be surprised how much it costs to file chapter7BK in this country.
plutocracy>violence>fascism or ?????(not talking about hope and change).
you have fascism already
Those sheep which even think about it - and they are relatively few - think we have 'capitalism'. Ain't so, of course. The big insider corporations have cronyism and fascism.
Corporations and banks + NSA,CIA,FBI and other narcotics services are government of USA
Unpossible! Obama says we are in a recovery!
"The shadow of crisis has past!"
+1
The next shadow you see will be the Vogon Constructor Fleet.
"The shadow of crisis has passed."
must be followed with
"..overhead and is circling back for a crash landing"
and Yellen said the recovery and economy is solid!!! my balls on her chin would be solid. gross my balls deserve better but in this economy you have to do it for your country even granny needs some chin nuts
Skills gap?!!?
Bullshit.
You know what they want to pay a skilled CNC operator who can run a 3 axis machine and do any of the programming required? Little more than minimum wage. LESS than an average union factory worker used to make.
You've got plenty of workers with SKILLS - they've gotten rid of the JOBS because they don't want to pay what those jobs are worth (at least in the US).
It's been an ongoing fraud. All those workers retrained as programmers and systems analysts saw THOSE jobs shipped whole sale to India.
Corporate America - GLOBAL Corporations - are in an endless pursuit of the cheapest possible labor costs irrespective of the ramifications. They ship factories overseas to cheap labor providers or bring in cheap labor (legally via H1B's for high skill jobs or illegally for low skill ones) to suppress wages. 'Free Trade' has been all about bposting profits by dropping wages. Perot and others warned about what would happen. The Western Democracies destroyed their jobs base - and democracy.
BOTH political parties in the US push free trade. The TPP will be the death knell.
Listen to James Goldsmith on Charlie Rose in 1994 on GATT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PQrz8F0dBI
Think of it this way. Koch Bros own most of America's jobs. They just bought MOLX a little while back. Electrical Connector manufacturer who had 37,000 empolyees and paid 7.2 Billion in Cash for Molex. If I worked for them I would have shit myself on the news. Does Koch Industries need the money. Not !!!
Why, Because they have so much Cash and money they will spend about 900 BILLION Dollars to high jack US Elections in 2016.
Oligarchy is what they are. They care not about Elephants or Donkeys. They care about themseles. They are the Rulers of America now.
That's 900 MILLIOn dollars. Still a huge amount and your primary point is valid.
It would take 18 x Bill Gates to come up with 900 Billion bucks and they'd have to cash out every asset they have.
That is a great interview.
Might as well finish the job by having digital courtrooms and outsource our lawyers to India for $10 per hour rather than the current $300+.
Perhaps we could even give special visas to Chinese doctors to work here to get medical costs down by 80% or so.
Somehow I think that the AMA and the ABA would raise whatever it takes to buy the politicians and keep their 1%ers safe from the kind of neoliberal competition that the rest of us slugs have to contend with.
Call it a hunch...
sounds like it's time to leave this country as my grandparents left Italy under mucalleni mispelled but... an Obama bush clinton made America oh yes let the good times roll
Jez-zus. Talk about "Gaslighting". Wow.
-
"You know what they want to pay a skilled CNC operator who can run a 3 axis machine and do any of the programming required? Little more than Minimum Wage. "
Importing skilled workers for jobs? That is so Y2K. In Canada, McDonalds franchisees use the Temporarary Foreign Worker Programs to bring in cheap labor and then charge the workers exhorbitant rents as places to live.
The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) outsourced some of its internal IT work to a third-party who used the TFWP program to bring in workers from India. 45 Canadian IT workers lost their jobs, and had to train their replacements, prior. The imigration minister, Jason Kenney, heroically state "The rules are very clear. You cannot displace Canadians to hire people from abroad."RBC said the work is being outsourced for cost savings and efficiency. It had nothing to do with skills.
As has been pointed out many times, any skills gap exists because the cost point companies are willing to pay is so low.
Utter BS.
Governments & Military's Outsource as well. Not just War Labor for hair cuts, food service, massages, logistics, and mercenaries.
Governments outsource core and non core functions to winning contractor, turning over facilities, equipment, materials... for maybe no cost or a lease fee. Lots of US Property has it's own water source, power source, infrastructures. Cheap government employees jobs are handed over to contractors for multiples of higher costs, high labor costs in give-a-way to winning Lobbyist/Contractor.
Nice huh?
I can only guess the degree of gouging in Computer services by Government Contractors... when the government can hire STEM workers in the USA or from the USA to build new computer systems or maintain old computer systems. I'm thinking 10X cost overages by government contracts.
The oligarchs have been waging war against the American people for a very long time. They want us to be poor, dependent, and compliant serfs. If the war is lost in the end, it was lost in American classrooms and living rooms. Their weapons were the 'education' system and t.v. propaganda/mental conditioning.
Anyone doubt this ? Ask a 50 people on the street what number is the upcoming SuperBowl. Ask those same people what the Bill of Rights is and the number of its component parts.
We are so screwed.
+ 1000 for a great rant about the corporate welfare pigs at the trough.
And never, ever forget that it was the CLINTONS and the DEMOCRATS who pushed through NAFTA, GATT and the other monstrosities that were passed in the wake of those treasonous treaties. I would vote for Charles Manson before I'd vote for Hitlerly for President. As far as I'm concerned she is NAFTA and GATT incarnate.
We hired a phd engineer a while back. All the managers fell all over themselves becasue of his area of expertise. Couldn't let him get away. Dude didn't know what direction to turn a nut to tighten it. He ended up quiting and moving to another job. The world didn't end, much to the surprise to the hiring managers.
Moral: Lots of book smart liabilities out there.
Yeah.... talk to anyone working with some of the H1B's brought in to work cheap....... a huge number are incompetent with their work having to be redone. But they're paid so little the companies don't seem to care.
I have an engineeering degree from a top school and have worked with some brilliant people. Rarely have there been problems with the tech types I've worked with. But the MANAGEMENT was incompetent beyond belief. One EVP for Operations at a Wall Street firm fired all the people he thought were smarter than he was (a LOT of people) but then found he didn't have the talent needed to develop a new broker system. Tried to train low level operations people (most of whom failed the aptitude exam) to do the work but that didn't work. After spending years on smoke and mirrors he was found out and was about to be demoted (first step to getting fired - if you're high enough up no screw up is severe enough it seems). He bailed out and ended up CEO of Met Life where he destroyed an amployee friendly culture (while making execs rich). He got picked to run AIG - not because he was competent but because he was good at making things LOOK good (even if totally fucked up). The same fool treated the ONE person who knew how to program high speed printers used to print proxies and financial statements like crap - so he left..... no problem.... yeah. The same guy stiffed $20,000 a year clerks out of $2000 bonuses (this was in the 80's) so he could keep his $20,000,000.
...bureaucrats rule the world....
That guy is a walking WMD. Handy thing to have, some might say.
Names please. Not that I doubt you cause this shit is everywhere but more so I can reference it with detail should the opportunity arise.
The shit always rises to the top before the toilet overflows. Just look at the Oval Office. For pretty much all my 46 years.
Health, Leisure, and Education have the lowest unemployment rates.
Obamacare, Asset Bubbles, and Debt leading the supposed recovery, as measured by GDP?
LOL!
Yes. The fraud is in plain sight. Of course we have a Glut of STEM Workers, where would these people go after decapitalization of US Based manufacturing, Software Production...after Out Sourcing Information Management and many others. And we have huge numbers of Post Graduates in the USA. Why else would wages be so flat. Why else would college graduates have to compete with people with no degree for a service job. Why else would job competition be so fierce. Why would people with PhDs have hard times finding jobs.
There is next to zero protection for US Workers from foreign labor. In the USA we leverage the Unskilled Labor around the Globe including for our Wars Overseas. It is largely the same as the British Trade System-Empire. Why not use Indian or Chinese Engineers under this kind of Capitalism?
It is the US CON-Gress and FED who must look at the Economy for the benefit of National Security, Tax Revenue, and the common good of Main Street and the future of the Middle Class. Does the USA have a Strong Future without a Strong Middle Class? No, and I think this is clear.
Can the USA be a Super Power without strong Economics, Strong Businesses, Strong Technology, and Strong Education? No, this is also clear. But what they don't tell you is being a Military Republic and a Super Power has certain features including picking the losers economically. You see they don't need that much Industry and that many working is High Technology. In fact most needs are met by unskilled labor even if they happen to have college degrees.
SO let's look at the Natural Features of a Military Republic Super Power. First of all Fascism naturally will be suggested as it is our most successful example of the Roman Empire or other empires. that is why we have the Fasces on our Mercury Dime. Fascism is the joining of National Government to large Corporations who are chosen to represent the country's Success.
- Fascism
- Foreign Policy involving Interventions, Support of Trade
- Global Trade, Regional Resources
- Protection of Sea Trade Routes
- Free Trade Agreements
- Military Hubs, Ports, Territories around the world
- Domestic & Foreign Policy change toward Spying
- Police State, DHS type Agency
- Domestic Spying, Mail, Internet, Email, Public Camera
- No Resolution for Fraud in War Department Contracts
- Support of Giant Corporations, Bail-Outs, Loan Guarantees
- NAFTA, CAFTA-DR, Decline of Small Businesses
- Unfair Competition by Large Corporations & Banks
- Media & War begin to Militarize the People, Casualties are down played
- Education in K-12 is sabotaged, 18 YO Kids uninformed about past wars, military history
- Wealth Extracted from Households, Household Debt Increases
Winners & Losers are picked in Labor Force,
- No Trade Barriers, Low Labor Compensation, Off Shoring
- New kind of Protectionism with Free Trade, Bailouts, Regulations & Legislation provide unfair advantage to Large Corporations
- Era of Small Businesses comes to an end eventually
- Fixed Markets are the Norm, Stock Markets, Commodities, even Interest Rates
- Laws & Taxes become complex, Wealth Shapes the Law
- There is an End to the State of Justice where the Wealthy are concerned
- Financial Instruments seem to have no Limits, Engineering is applied as if it adds value
I just lay this out to say that in an Empire or with a Super Power it is natural to have today's state in the USA: 1) Free Trade 2) Huge MIC Security Apparatus 3) DHS type Police State for the Father Land 4) Domestic Spying 5) Captive US CON-Gress 6) Huge Money Flow to Election Campaigns and US CON-Gress 7) Global Free Trade 8) Open Borders, Illegal Workers, Slave Labor Overseas, Off Shoring 9) No State of Justice for Wall Street Crimes & DC Bribes, even Foreign Bribes 10) Central Bank that is Crony Capitalists 11) Fascism
The Joke is that CB really isn't responsible for Jobs & Wages in the USA. Change must come from the US Congress or some Constitutional Solution unless we allow National Referendums... allow true Debate to Spread and fire up the Citizens and Children.
No, the joke is the US CONgress. Article 5 convention? I think not. Change comes as always, from the barrel of a gun.
There is also hope in a threat from Military Coup, like start prosecuting Banking Executives for 2008 Financial Crisis or else. Or start dissolving these big institutions instead of a Bailout or Bail-In... and do it now. Start restoring the State of Justice necessary for the Vision of the USA, the Dream of America or the Military will take action.
I don't know what kinds of Coups there are:
- Hard Coup with Executions of All US Congressional Leaders involved in Legislation that was Treason
- Soft Coup, Silent Coup where bankers take over the US Government and people are not aware or informed
- Coup Lite, where you seize key Legislators, Key Lobbyist, Key Bankers, and Key Corporate Corruptors... involved in Racketeering and/Or Treason to the USA... once seized, bank accounts & property would be seized,... Exile for some Bankers & Congressmen, Execution for all Lobbyist & Key Congress & Key Bank Executives... Wealthy probably get off scot free
Edit:
uh oh. down vote no doubt since someone doesn't want a return to the State of Justice.
- Hey I get it. Military Types, the Lifers, will not ever consider a Military Coup. Our US Culture seems to preclude a Military Coup, the military doctrine is against this too. Big Deal. Normal Situation Condition: NO COUP. Today MILCON Situation: SNAFU, Wall Street Silent Coup on DC, DC uses Madison Avenue Propaganda Companies to Deceive the US Military, US Voter, Keep Information from US Elections, and Screw the Young Soldier/Sailor/Airman as Usual.
No big Deal. US Institutions Screw our Kids, our Future, our Pensioners, our Retirees, and the US Constitution. Bye Bye US Vision of Freedom & Liberty.
Do you like Mercenaries? Please welcome them to the Neighborhood. In Africa Mercenaries are feared, in New Orleans they are feared, but don't worry. You have nothing to fear in the USA. LOL S/
Wow, what could the Military Complex have against this post?
I support Special Forces, we shoudl test our Special Forces against foreign nations including destruction, spying, and even at times assassination. My problem is that we take down simple third world country Governments for union activities, leaning toward socialism, and for just chosing programs like what the USA has Adopted. WTF. Why do we protect, fund, and support dictators like the Saudi Kingdom?? But Destroy Democratic Elections in South America.
Along with mysticism and all other sorts of false belief-systems.
I'm a small manufacturer, only of only 3 left in my industry (domestically that is). We have a devil of a time finding people who can make stuff. We offer very competitive wages compared to our area. And still we can't find the people.
How Small? Be honest
8M total revenue, split across three divisions. 31 total people, office warehouse and shop combined.
How competitive? Be honest.
And what do you even mean, "who can make stuff"?
15% higher than the county average for the private sector.
Give us an example of a job you can't fill, it's skill requirements and how much it pays?
I'd really like someone who knows how to operate a manual lathe and mill without any training, and would be willing to start them at $19/hr. In my area, you can live great on that wage.
Its been a long time since anyone was able to 'live great' on 38k a year anywhere in this country. Maybe if you were a kid fresh out of high school who lived with 3 roomates and took the bus to work with overtime. But them's poverty wages for anything old enough to have experience because they will have a family by that time. I'm not busting your balls, its not easy keeping a company afloat today either, but come on where's this poor lathe operator's future? Manger and 42k?
My understanding is that $19 per hour is the Ceiling for Master metal workers in my town/city/area. There are no raises for young people or those that don't already have the top wages and top positions. Probably top jobs will go to Nepotism or trusted friends... which makes sense. But this points out the lack of opportunity and why wages are low. The labor force is much bigger than the demand for labor.
I hate to see this country when CAFTA-DR & future Trade Agreements put foreign companies on the ground in the USA and they bring in their own Foreign workers from back home in China, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama or where ever.
---------------------------------
--- Oppose all new Trade Deals -
---------------------------------
Here's the rub and I'm with you to a degree.
My father could operate a manual lathe. Let's say he came in for this job when he was 35. He had been married nine years, has a couple kids (5 yrs & 2 yrs) and it's 1971. He would have laughed at someone offering $19/hr. IN 1971. Nevermind inflation to 2014 dollars. I suspect he'd have wanted around $30 back then. Someone help me out here but thay's like $65/hr in today's play money?
Where's one gonna get the training? No one in any fields have apprenticeships anymore. Schools are a waste of time and money and never keep pace with a dynamic ecomony, and I know this is gonna hurt but $19/hr doesn't cut it ANYWHERE. ANYWHERE. To address the pay gap/skills gap presented in the piece above I was making $30/hr as a cater waiter in 1995...in Austin, TX. It's a little of both.
Then there is that pesky thing called progress or technological inovation which by definition tends to kill some jobs whilst creating other opportunities. I'll again go with personal experience. I "self-apprenticed" (taught myself) as a photographer. I am a master printer of black & white-pls scholl darkroom stuff. I didn't plan on super computers and glorified Xerox machines replacing me and my years of hard work attaining the skill level I have. So now I have to rethink it all and find another market for my skllls OR CREATE SAID MARKET MYSELF. That is in bold because in the whole debate over all this there is an underlying sentiment that "jobs" are some pre-requisite in a society to be provided to all the "workers" so as they have some sort of...what, exactly? Employment is nothing more than a commodity or resource that is an exchange of value for value. To your point of not being able to fill the lathe position I argue that it is simply not that important to you or you would either work harder to fill it (i.e TRAIN SOMEONE like the kid down the street who hates school except for shop/art class) or offer more money (value here dude) and cast a wider net to find that skilled, experienced person who can walk right in a run the place. That is, however, up to you to decide. Perhaps that expenditure is to much risk and might not reap the higher profit. Perhaps you do actually live in an remote area and have a smaller pool of potential employees? But then you chose to ser up there now did you not? I currently live in the exact opposite of that scenario. I live in NYC and my primary income source is eother bartending or running/creating wine and beverage programs at high end restaurants and bars. People like me are dime a dozen here. Unlike the hypothetical snall labor pool stated above, I have to either work for less or offer greater value in an environment that tends to suffer seriously low profit margins. IN other words the pay sucks all things considered. But again I taught myself a skill set, keep advancing it, and I am able to charge more and more for my time.
Until the restaurant bubble breaks, ha.
If you get a down vote it wasn't from me.
I fully understand your situation a only able to afford to pay that but... I can work 4 nights a week bartending and clear way more.
Wedigo, seriously, $19 / hr on the books / before taxes equals living in grinding poverty. Might be okay for a kid living in a studio apt. on skid row, and driving a 18 year old junk car ( insurance optional ) . Definitely cannot afford a cat or dog.
I have a friend who retired from GE in the early 90's. He was offered a buyout, and he had to take it because his whole manufacturing division was getting eliminated - it had slowly been phased out, so he knew it was coming. When he left, GE offered the tools to the employees at dirt cheap prices. He was a machinist, and he bought his giant sized lathe and drill presses etc. for almost nothing. The machines are all made in USA, and were made in the 1920's. Since he retired he has been doing side work out of his garage using those ancient machines. Over the years I had him make a bunch of parts I needed to keep some of my equipment running. It was cool to watch him machine a brand new part out of a chunk of steel. Super talented guy. Definitely worth more than $19 / hr.
Maverick
Are you a fab shop.
No, we play in an industry that most people doesn't know even exists. Three such industries in fact. All legal, just weird. We do a little bit of everything related to manufacturing: metal fab, metal working, plastics, casting, assembly, electronics, etc etc. It's actually very hard to explain exactly what I do for a living. Some days I'm not even sure myself.
Are you hiring welders?
wendigo;
Obviously you would think to train a buddy's kid, or apprentice in an informal way, on the job training for base level employee.
What gives?
I might be over the hill, but even I would like to learn shop stuff since I spend most of my time at a desk.
Plus lots of talent, but not local to your shop. Maybe some kind of contract to give a $1000 dollars to help someone move to your city? Only a single guy or gal would be able to take that, but still would work for $18 dollar an hour the 2nd year, and $12 dollars the first year.
But what do I know, I don't have a shop or a business.
Hello? That is what a printing press is for. Duh! The Thirst Mutilator!
I'm overqualified, underpaid and overworked. Living the Dream baby! Perhaps I should get 'under' the boss' desk to even things out.
Wages suck? I got a great idea, let's legalize another 20 million illegal aliens and drive those shitty wages down further! Brilliant!
all these trillios of debt spent to bail out rich assholes, or pay for the free shit army, or endless wars etc.etc.etc. whenever i see movies or series set in europe i see the fast efficient train systems that connect to smaller systems etc etc. here i see nothing but endless taillights in front of me. i live near charlotte nc and there is really no other way to get around except by car. they have a bus system but it is so untimely and metro bound that it is of little or no use.
why couldn't we have spent that money on subways and highspeed trains and infrastructure, i read recently where more than 50 percent of all bridges in this country have exceeded their safety age. sorry do not remember the source. if we were to have done this instead of giving it away or killing brown people all of that money would be paid out into wages for tens of thousands of americans in turn they would have good paying jobs and would animate this moribund fake economy that has been charaded before us for the last 5 years, i don't see how it will ever get better, i believe eventually an event or more likely a series of events will cause a catastrophic collapse but i'm damn tired of waiting for it. i don't want it to last on and on until i'm to old to be able to cope with it to the best of my ability mentally and phisically.
we have these sources in the article about diplomas, degrees, advanced degrees etc. etc. but what i do not see is the experience levels. you can educate all day and night, but the application of that education is another metric entirely. we have an entire generation of this now and no light at the end of that tunnel, unfortunately. endless schooling just for the sake of having a degree means nothing. i imagine you could get a room full of monkeys to watch enough lectures to get advanced degrees but would they be able to apply them to anything of use?
as anyone reading this can tell i don't think i have any answers anymore, just infinite questions.
Funny, we are in exactly the same place. I have had to replace all my rifle mounted optics to more powerful equipment. A couple of more years and the scopes will be longer than the rifles...sigh.
Don't worry over the questions, just enjoy the show for what it is-entertainment.
"why couldn't we have spent that money on subways and highspeed trains "
Evidence of cronyism back in 1948. Still around today.
"Only 51 cars were made before the company folded on March 3, 1949, due to negative publicity initiated by the news media, a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation and a heavily publicized stock fraud trial (in which allegations were proven baseless in court with a full acquittal). Speculation exists that the Big Three automakers and Michigan senator Homer S. Ferguson also had a role in the Tucker Corporation's demise."
And GM removing all the street cars in Detroit.
Never heard this mentioned before and maybe there's already one in action. But, how about a Teddy Roosevelt Party?
When Nazis started war with Europe or the Jews started war with the Nazis depending on who you talk to... the USA had Corruption in the War Department.
Part of US Actions in the 1930s preparing for war was to attempt a clean up of procedures in the War Department related to Contractors.
Obviously it didn't work, never worked, and remains hidden as much as the CIAs activities do.
I agree. We don't have any Ethos in our Institutions any more. I'm pretty sure the Universities are in bed with the Big Pharma, Big Ag, MIC, and others as well.
We seem to let everything fly as far as corporations are concerned. Goldman Sachs could take all of it's money, buy a country like Paraguay, just like the Nazis did.
I realize that if free (slave) trade ended our prices would go up on many things. Clearly there are trade offs. But who picks the trade off to go to war in Iraq or to Afghanistan for 12 years. Who decides about money creation limits for State banks and Wall Street banks. Who says derivatives should have no annual ceiling and no ceiling based on total market share or company total capital. Who decides Big Transnationals can grow without limits and can dominate whole countries, whole markets, the Labor Rate....
We spend more than a $1 Trillion on MIC Contractors over 10 years... what is the trade off?
We have Social Programs & Social Security... but somehow people are expected to use welfare and not feel disenfranchised, forgotten... what is it 159 Million US Citizens on Welfare now?? What did we trade to get here?
Motovation makes people smart! Get off your asses and expl;ore.
Enjoy friendship, and share ideas, with the people you care about.
Drop the phones PDA's and such, and "catch -UP" Not the read stuff.
Jeese, I should trademark that comment. lol Spend some
Human Time/
When is the last time one of you "Urchins" watched the Sun rise?
every morning sonny boy for the last 40 years, right after the alarm goes off to go to work.
Plus 1, I have to take your advice too. But have made some changes this year.
- Go walking
- Go talk to community people
- Go talk to community or regional businesses
Let's get away from the drama people and away from the computer.
Screw corporations, screw government jobs even though they are heavily funded. What? Do I want to ...work for the school system? This all smacks of Fascism.
People need time to relax, think, be okay, be free, think of their futures without coercion, threats, thuggery, and intimidation. Make your kids feel at rest, at home, and comfortable talking to you. Show Respect for your family and friend... Let's build a community of people with a sense of dignity and honor.
THIS ^
Do you remember depression of 1929-1933? I'm not remember too
I have a few pairs of " Bronze Shoes" with matching #'s to remind me.
I'm seeing this more and more now, the ONLY jobs available are those frantic that applicants have even a minimum level of skills, because the job isn't paying for anything more.
And if you look more closely, nobody in the entire organization has more than a minimum level of skills, if they had even an average level of skills they would HIRE more skillfully than this.
Of course there is a reason for this, which is that only at the very lowest salary levels can a domestic company even begin to compete with offshored work, where the salaries are half or a tenth. 10,000,000 jobs exported to China and WHAT DID YOU THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN?
Please, please note that this CANNOT be fixed by jiggering the monetary aggregates - oh sure, unless you devalue the dollar by about 75%. Sure, let's see if we can sneak up on that with nobody noticing, and even then it involves the cost of living rocketing up madly, far far faster than wages. That's how we got stuck here.
This country has become the Peter Principle writ large.
I think the only hope for the US is to devalue the dollar. This will decrease the standard of living but it is inevitable anyway. It looks like that is the outcome chosen by printing more dollars and exporting inflation such that the countries that peg will be forced to depeg. everntually the standard of living will equalize across the globe except for the 1% who will continue to live like kings. I think the only hope for the us labor market is for dollar to lose its reserve status.
I dont see that as a bad thing (from a view from space) even though my personal standard of living might decline. True i might not be able to heat such a big house and might move to a smaller house, start biking to work instead of spending an hour in the car stuck on a freeway. Beyond teh adjustment phase of a month of two, I doubt it would affect me much.
The National Association of Manufacturers estimates that there are 600,000 jobs waiting for anyone who has the right skills.
Well - what they really meant was the right skills and the desperation to work for McJob wages.
Yet banking, wall-street and finance have hiring policies of taking Ivy League kids of the rich and giving them 300K a year jobs with potential for 300K bonus strutures. Kids, who have never traded a baseball card before, are given desks and put to work on FX, commodities options, straight up stock trading, sales, etc. etc. A few years ago a guy wrote a book about his experiences as a College Grad going into a big trading firm. Knew nothing, but made it big. This begs the question, "if know nothings, all well connected by family to the firms, can make it big at once, then what really IS going on there?"
+1 Circa 1998 - chinese gf had a cousin, just graduated, who went to work with Arthur Andersen. Saw him at a family get together for the holidays, xmas time. He said he did actual work about one, maybe two, hours a day. the rest was just surfing the web. With folders and paperwork spread across the desk so he could look busy, if needed. He was trying to decide on the color of his Mercedes. He actually seemed baffled and somewhat embarrassed at the position he'd landed in. 6 months after graduation.
AA is pretty much gone now, after the Enron thing. But it's a picture of the financial world that I thought worth sharing.
Yet the drumbeat goes on: MORE H1B VISAS! STEM graduates are getting SCREWED by their own LOVING government.
I've heard this from business owners:we can't find anyone! When I ask them what they're looking for its 5-10 years experience, master's degree, gotta be under 35 (age discrimination is rampant)
LOL, you clearly haven't been to a McDonald's lately. Hate to ruin the surprise, but the workers there are not going to be building any bridges any time soon.
I'll give you a hint: 100% of job growth since 2007 has gone to immigrants
i think it has been about 40%... only......
You will have 7000$ average salary for a year soon.
Tyler respectfully. The BASE currency defines the trade.
As an example. eur/usd. The base currency is eur.
When you post currency trades, you invert and confuse. The BASE currency ALWAYS comes FIRST Tyler.
USD/JPY is based on the "base currency" . eur/usd @ 113.? is based on the base currency.
Just a friendly reminder. The base currency ALWAYS comes First Tyler.
The base currency ALWAYS comes First in USA
STFU kowalli you know nothing.. so just STFU. Internationally, the base currency is quoted first. Just keep repeating that and STFU until you have some knwledge.
There are a number of forces at work. We don't really need to over analyze it. Basicly, modern companies have used technology to decimate the ranks of the middle income earners (skilled labor and lower to middle management) - those poeple who had schooling, practical ability to accomplish valuable work and job experience. There is now only space in the formula for unskilled, barely trainable drone workers and for managment: The economic imperative to reduce all costs to an absolute minimum while maximizing after tax profits.
Since about 1970 American "growth" has been driven by ever increasing levels of debt which are never paid down. Once you get to a part of the curve where debt accretion begins to slow and then reverse, organizations must begin to remove costs at an increased pace. Prior in the cycle, organizations used debt to expand operations without to much change in their structure. Now they are restructuring, installing systems that chimps can use, outsourcing non-core operations, etc.
Older workers who remain in the work force are being given more and more work to do as managment removes positions lower on the ladder. Older workers can not opt out, so they leverage their skill sets to stay employeed until they can retire (usually much later than expected). When these positions are vacated, the positions are reworked to be entry level jobs for pennies. The demographics of employment in the US bear this out. However once these older workers leave the work force, those few drones brought on board (usually through temp agencies) find a broken ladder they can't climb any more. No real wages of which to speak. They are dead ended immediately.
Companies are eating their seed corn. They are consuming what would have become their future in order to meet immediate needs. This guarantees an eventual failure and starvation, possibly literally. They have consumed their fat and now are consuming the muscle of their corpse. I am not sure even managment understands this. They think they are doing a great job because the current numbers meet expectations.
A comp to this would be reviewing what happens to a town when industries begin to leave, when production is replaced with consumer services, when people start to move away to find their futures, when there are few children left, schools close, and eventually there is a rotten core, no future, an aged populations subsisting on welfare, etc. Most of the town gets bulldozed. Town leaders and managers try to figure out how to attract tourist dollars, instead of actual productive industries. Everything crashes after that.
There's no profit in hiring Americans when you can bring in HB-1 indentured slaves take 75% of their wage for providing "the opportunity to work in America" then "partner" with a good ole boy CEO and split the stolen wages....and have a business friendly (immigrant unfriendly) Congress that refuses to grant citizenship so the slaves remain indentured.
In my first professional job as a manufacturing engineer in a sewing plant in Louisiana, an old timer said to me "You know when things changed for the worse? When they changed "Personnel" to "Human Resources".
At the time, I didn't understand what he meant (1993).
Now I do. What do corporations do to resources? The exploit them for maximum profit. Coal seam, virgin forest, etc. They strip mine. They clear cut with no regard to anything but maximizing quarterly profits.
A human resource is not something any of us should ever wish to be.
<-- already been strip-mined and clear cut.
Not much left to give to corporate masters.
No more tax donkey status for me.
Tyler needs a "then" clause here. It's not becoming of him to just complain without saying what he wants. Is he saying less people should go to college? I guess he's saying the U.S. isn't as free market as it used to be and now the labor market is weak. I have my own explanation and wrote about it here: http://seekingalpha.com/article/82732-emerging-market-investing-really-a... . After WWII half the world withdrew from making competitive products for the world market (China (commie), Russia (commie), India (heavy socialist), Eastern Europe (commie). Now almost all of them are back and the golden years for the U.S. middle class worker are gone. We actually get a lot of really cheap, convenient products because of it but we have to compete a little more.
Ain't free trade a bitch?
Who would down vote this? Government worker, outsourcing consultant, or factory owner?
I've known all three and yes, they do seem to think that free trade globalism is a panacea of prosperity.
Why? Because they profit from it while fucking over most people who aren't government workers, outsourcing consultants or factory owners.
Fuck the downvoters to this comment.
for every two American college graduates with degrees in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics, only one of them is hired into a job in their field…
There’s your recovery. It is just one big lie. The thought that bankers could print money, put it in their pocket and cause an economic recovery is a fraud of such major proportions that the perpetrators need to be tried and convicted of crimes against man.
What Americans are experiencing in this rigged, Big-Bank-owned game is not recovery; it’s whiplash from “free trade globalism.”
“Globalism,” says Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, “destroys the sovereignty of every country except the world reserve currency country that controls the system.”
And, now, the Western financial predators are gnawing off the arms and legs of the free enterprise, supply and demand system that created Americans’ prosperity at home.
This is not recovery; it’s crime.
“Normally an economic recovery produces rising consumer spending, rising profits and more investment,” says Roberts. “But what we experience is flat and declining consumer spending as jobs are offshored and retail stores close. Profits result from labor cost savings from employee layoffs.
“In other words, in America today there are no free financial markets. The markets are rigged by the Federal Reserve’s QE, by gold price manipulation, by the Treasury’s Plunge Protection Team and Exchange Stabilization Fund and by the big private bankers.”
This means, in my opinion, that the Fed has imposed a banker-controlled economy on the American people with the tacit approval of the U.S. Congress, closing the door on the private ownership of the means of production, i.e., capitalism, by stealing for itself and its friends America’s means of production.
Senator Bernie Sanders pointed out more than three years ago how “the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world. This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you're-on-your-own individualism for everyone else."
And it’s not over yet.
And to make sure recovery all comes true: “The government even manipulates economic statistics in order to paint a rosy economic picture that sustains economic confidence,” understating inflation, not counting discouraged workers as unemployed, touting an improving housing market while half of 25-year-old Americans and 30% of 30-year-olds are back with their parents and “since 2006, the home ownership rate of 30-year-old Americans has collapsed.”
What was the US Date of Nadir?
I usually think 1979 since that was the high in Manufacturing. You could also say 1980 when George H. W. Bush was selected as Vice President following lengthy Investigations in the 1960s-1970s over CIA Activities.
Way before the Gulf War False Flag in 1990, or the passing of NAFTA in 1994...
- 1791, First Amendment Ratified
- 1886, Corporate Personhood suggested
- 1900s when US started Depending on Outsourced Produce
- 1960, when US started Outsourcing Auto Factories
- 1968, when Costs of Vietnam War became Obvious Problem
- 1969, Private Foundations Defined for IRS Tax Purposes
- 1971, Nixon Shock, US Refuses to convert USD to Gold for Foreign Holders of USD
- 1971, War on Drugs
- 1971, Lewis Power Memo on Foundations
- 1972, BCCI Bank created
- 1972, Watergate Scandal, with ties to CIA
- 1973, Family Jewels Reports commissioned about CIA
- 1974, CIA Slapped with Investigations of Practices, they decide to Outsource & Subcontract (Church Committee, Nedzi Committee, Pike Committee
- 1975, Rockefeller Commission to investigate CIA Activities within the USA
- 1978, Soviet-Afghanistan War Starts
- 1979, the Top of US Manufacturing
- 1979, when US Median Wages got Stuck or leveled out
- 1980, Presidential Campaign, Debt, Economy, Inflation, Iran
- 1981, the Top of US Money (MZM) Velocity
- 1982, Ronald Reagan Maxes out DoD Budget
- 1982, CIA Begins using BCCI Bank
- 1984, Sentencing Reform Act (SRA), Longer Sentences
- 1986, DoD Contractors Soar with profits & plans
- 1990, Start of US Gulf War with Iraq, US & UK will Bomb Iraq for the next 13 years till US-Iraq War II
- 1994, NAFTA Treaty,
- 1995, Sub-prime mortgages started
- 1995, Community Reinvestment Act, the Clinton Admin urged flexibility,
- 1995, HUD advocated greater involvement of state and local organizations
- 1996, Start of a Period of Accounting Fraud in USA which continues today
- 1997, M2 Money Velocity Top
- 1998, Brooksly Born Rejected on her concerns on OTC Derivatives
- 1998, Derivatives expanded and were not regulated
- 1998, Clinton's Kosovo War
- 1998, Citicorp & Travelers Insurance Merger
- 1999, Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLBA), End of Glass Steagal Act
- 2001, US-Afghan War
- 2002, McCain–Feingold Act (G.W. Bush, Campaign Finance, soft money unlimited)
- 2003, US-Iraq War
- 2005, CAFTA-DR Related Progression
- 2005, US Mortgage Top of Bubble
- 2008, US-Global Financial Crisis
- 2010, PPACA, ACA, Obama Care Passed
- 2012, Existing Home Sales finally return to USA
- 2013, IRS Budget exceeds $100 Billion since it now pays out cash to households as Credits
- 2013, Corporate Income Taxes Receipts still fail to return to 2006, 2007, or 2008 pre-crash Level of over $300 Billion
many of the decent paying jobs have been given to foriegners that come here to the US on the H1-b visa program. The large NYC banks have entire floors of H1-b visa recipents that are software engineers writing code. the samre applies to other STEM/enginerring disilpens & nursing . The elites of both parties falsley claim that we cannot fill the jobs with US personnel to help out their pals.
most important attributes today:
1. are you LGBTQ?
2. are you a minority?
3. are you a woman?
4. are you from India?
5. are you not a white male?
qualifications are so last generation
programmers (developers now a days) from india are cheaper and work long hours, but........ their code often sucks and they lack understanding of basic business concepts.
I am living that exact nightmare right now. They don't understand robustness, quality, or program flow. You tell them they implemented something poorly and they refuse to change it. The high cost of a cheap price.
Most Indians cannot think for themselves because of a stupid education system that encourages rote learning. The focus is on 'what to learn' and not 'how to learn'. You have idiots there with no confidence in solving real life problems. They will give give them degrees and diplomas, but in the process kill their intelligence. What use is an unintelligent nut with a masters degrees?
A generally true statement. What they have done oer the last 15 years however is bring their caste system to the US. Look at any Inv Bank IT depts..... majority Indian. They only will hire Indians and those Indians know the deal... accept your caste.
Pretty amazing... just another neo Bolshevik by product. can't wait for the day this disequilibrium is addressed.
Some folks believe we're in a recovery.
N A F T A
The US Corporations, banks, 1% and politicians don't give a rat's azz about the US citizen, clearly, we have been $crewed. And, a college degree isn't going save us.
The issue is the disconnect between the VALUE ADDED of an employee and their wage. If I need a job done that only adds $8/hr, I cannot afford to hire ANYONE in North America because the minimum wages are TOO HIGH. If a worker cannot provide more value add than they cost, I cannot hire them. The problem with just paying people more is that prices for the products and services that businesses provide must ALSO GO UP. Any American who thinks higher minimum wages will help should come to Canada or go to Europe. Higher minimum wages drive up prices, particularly for low cost items. The ubiquitous 99 cent stores in America stock far more products at that price than the $1 stores in Canada. Many of these stores sell things for $2-3. A Big Mac costs more in Canada primarily due to higher wages. A can of iced tea that sells in America for 99 cents is often over $2 in Canada because of WAGES.
If I can hire an engineer in Asia for $10/hr, why would I pay one in Canada $60/hr? My customers keep asking for everything to be cheaper, not more expensive.
That is very short sighted. If you keep hiring engineers from Asia for $10/hr, eventually no one will be able to afford to buy your products and then you have no business. What the 1% fail to realize is that without a vibrant middle class with good incomes, there are fewer and fewer consumers able to buy their products and services. Eventually the whole economy grinds to a halt, and you have a society of very unhappy and angry people. Then revolution is just around the corner.
If he hires someone who only adds +$8 value and pays that person $16 and sells the service or widget for +$12 added value, he loses money.
You DO understand that if he hires enough people like that, that the firm runs a loss...right? He cannot pay himself, or the bills - it's not a charity.
Actually, you don't or you would have never posted what you wrote.
It is a chicken and egg thing. Customer wants cheap and good, but is only going to buy one of those so you have to make either cheap or good products. If you decide to make cheap product, you have to be able to make it cheap so you outsource and push the price down, everybody loses. If you can sell good products, you can hire skilled people or train someone, everybody wins.
Now, go see how much people there are in walmart and after that go see high-end store. People have decided that they want to lose, there is nothing you can do about it.
Systematically Doomed
Any author who quotes Krugman (other than to mock him) automatically loses all credibility.
Someone with a decent high school education can do 80% percent of the jobs. The gotcha is decent and employers willing to take a chance on a few weeks training. Employers use degrees as a screening device to stay out of court. I still remember the trash can programmers that looked at good programmers code in college. The biggest problem many people have is their own attitudes. That being the case finding good people is hard work, many managers can't find good people because they are scared to ask good questions in interviews. I would rather ask questions that most people will get wrong and then work through the chafe than ask questions almost anyone can answer.
At my last 'real job' interview, I first met with the front line people. They liked me and my skillset.
Then I met with the IT director.
He told me "we don't care what you know how to do, we care about your personality". I knew I wasn't getting the job right then, regardless of the fact that my experience was tailor made for that job, and the other guys I'd have worked with like me and we had a good rapport.
Interestingly, 3 months later, I saw that job was advertised again. I guess the IT Director's AA/feminist/feel good hiring policy didn't work out so well.
They never called me back.
I guess I was too white, and too male. The IT Director did not value honest answers. I'm glad they didn't offer me the job now.
In my area bank teller positions now require a degree. Why? They didn't in 1975 (my own mother was one), and they didn't in 1925. There is no task at a bank front desk that requires a degree.
Alright gentlemen, here's what we do: We get all the rootless, feckless young folk into our new and improved Community College Complex, teach them how to work as a group; you know, singing, dancing, marching, designing new outfits, the filmic arts, proper saluting, stuff like that. All the top grads get cushy jobs and don't do shit. Fail and, well...we will need space for future generations so there will be opportunities at the Holding and Transport Facilities; often more profitable than our "Learning and Remembering Once and for All" Facilities.
Thanks for your time.
Nigel Worthaton, Princeton-on-Yale
"The longer they stay there, the odds increase that America will take a permanent backseat in global power."
That's half the problem... Rather than being a country where our business is business, we hunger for 'power'.
Power usually comes from a strong economy. Now that we sent our economy on a world tour the power is naturally waning. The countries that are now enjoying the fruits of American labor for free will slowly ascend to power.
While Asia is busy 'making' money what businesses we have left are busy 'saving money. Because we're so busy saving our infrastructure built for a producing economy is being neglected nor are there any reasons to build more.
Sending our young to school for trades / professions no longer in demand is a waste of time and money and results in despondent, dependent and angry individuals. The few jobs that still exist refuse to pay a fair wage, again trying to 'save money' will only fail because the people they do hire won't give a flip.
Tying it all together, Loss of income due to production being moved out of country, lower wages due to cheap labor imported H1B Visa and illegals, will reduce revenue to government and reduce consumer buying regardless of how cheap or easy it is to obtain credit.
This cycle means the end of the nation as we know it unless attitudes change. Cheapening the currency, Mowing each others yards, easy credit, and playing financial roulette in the stock market simply won't cut it. We need to produce something other than bombers and missiles that other people will be willing to trade for. We desperately need sound money and a government that has the economy and its citizens welfare as its priority rather than conquering the world.
Once the genie leaves the bottle with nothing to replace it... You're screwed!
And the "master" who owns it better not make his fortune as a civil servant like Major Anthony Nelson who's career is dependent on the taxpayer that makes really innovative stuff in the commercial sector that everyone in the World wants that pays for his "space capsule"!
Great read!
We need MOAR illegals because they will do jobs that "Americans" won't do ... until they become "Americans" and then they won't do those jobs either... and we will need MOAR ilegals.
Don't you get it? Send me your Ebola, send me your Measles ... and make sure that you register to vote.
Old engineering joke:
What's the difference between a pizza and an engineer?
A pizza can feed a family of four.
What is the difference between an Engineer and an owner of a Factory?
- The Engineer says you don't know shit, you are an asshole, what the fuck do you know anyway!!
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I used to work as an IS manager in the 90s. I took a publishing company, widely recognized, from 90 to 212 macs, spec’d, purchased, installed, migrated, blah-blah-blah.
I made 18 bucks an hour. They didn’t ‘renew’ my contract after I found out the building the company resided in, had power problems, and that was why they were frying $2800 CRT monitors back then.
“We have NO power problem the head of IT told me.”
The department turned over 150% in 2 years. He was promoted to VP of IT.
That I could source the equipment for significantly less than our ‘preferred’ supplier was an issue, too.
Now, I make $36/hour and bennies as a trade sclub. When I work.
I used to work at a large utility until I got the sack this fall. I’m no dummy.
I was let go due to lack of work. We used to stand around because there was no work to do.
But they kept the guy that ran down the hill and twisted up his knee. Nobody runs in this large electrical corporation.
They kept the guy who would wear green-tagged, low-cut running shoes to work on a job site.
They kept the guy that is the senior foreman who can’t read basic specs—It was 8” timber not 4”—from a health and safety book to build some safety equipment.
I spec’d all the material we needed, ordered and we started to build, and then was told we didn’t need to build it. $5K off material down the rathole. Apparently, I had then ordered too much, that we didn’t use.
And they kept the guy, who was made my sub-boss, who after I had done the math to do the layout on an easy project, a little concrete form, using a little trigonometry, he told me he “ I doan like that mathematics, you know? The plus and the takeaway?”
He sounded like Cheech of… Well, you know…
And they kept the engineer who didn’t know who to spec out trough for cable and the bend radius.
And they kept the engineer who didn’t know what a sonotube was, but was charged with building in concrete.
All I’ve ever heard is the skills shortage. Bullshit.
I’ve never seen a company train anyone. They poach everyone.
Fuck these companies.
Fork’s in me boys. I’m done.
I just don’t know what the fuck to do.
I sit home and read the hedge and hopefully, I’ll be able to make some money from my mom’s that I’m going to get, because otherwise, I’m fucked.
And so are a lot of other men like me.
These other turds? I just don’t know how they do it.
•?•
V-V
hey sweetdoug,
i see you post on business insider quite a bit
sounds like you dont know how to kiss ass, which unfortunately is how you stay employed, especially at big corporations.
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I've got that look in my eye, that even when I bend down to give it a smooch, they know I'm not a team player, they know I was only pretending to drink the kool-aid.
At least not for their team.
I find reading what the muppets are reading quite informative.
Althought Busy Insiderher ain't what it used to be.
•?•
V-V
Good for you, Doug.
The money is not worth the loss of soul. I expect you saw the Corporate Personality and the constant dissemblement and forced cheer, and just could not do it.
Life is better this way.
I am my own man, I earn far less, but I keep far more and have much more freedom and spare time and sleep like a newborn.
Fly under their radar, don't give TPTB any reason to smack you down, and cruise along.
Around 2005 or 2006, before I left the states, I was signed up with a temp agency in Western NC. They got me some work as a mechanical engineer/ repair technician in a place that was doing light industrial and manufacturing. Full time, $9/hr. The boss called me in to the office and said he liked me (punctual, responsible, smart, etc), but if I want to stick around I need to bring my own tools. I said huh? You're paying me $9/hr and you want me to bring several thousand dollars worth of tools here, at my expense and my risk? And of course it's not practical to bring them in and out every day, so I'd have to leave them here, again at my risk. And I've got no keys to the place, so if I need my tools at night or over a weekend, then it's my problem. And of course, there's no guarantee that the whole place won't get packed up and sent overseas, and I show up Monday morning and find the doors locked, my tools are packed and gone, and a bunch of people standing around scratching their asses.
I said no, for $9/hr I'm not taking that risk.
I relayed the story to the other repair techs (who were making about $12/hr, after they'd been there for 5-10 years, and they did have several thousand dollars worth of their own tools on-site) and they said I was crazy, and making the wrong decision. I should "go along and get along, the company looks out for its people."
I stayed there for a few months after that (I was slightly surprised), and then the temp agency moved me to a better paying job with a more preferable schedule and much cooler work-mates.
A few months after that, the first place packed up all of the equipment into shipping containers and moved it all to Mexico. I never did find out if the other techs recovered their personal tools.
2005 or 2006, before I left the states, I got hired to do DSL tech-support call-centre work for one of the Baby-Bells, via a contracted call-centre. On the application I noted that I'd been published in 2600 among other hacker-ish qualifications.
The job paid $7.50/hr.
Of the 15-20 of us that hired on that week, at least 3-4 had graduate degrees, and at least one of them held a PhD.
I sat through two weeks of full-time paid classroom training, which was a really good course in coping with difficult people (solving technical problems was a low priority, because the call-centre and the employees are graded/scored on "please" and "thank you": solving the technical problem is NOT a factor! Now you know why call-centres are filled with people who are polite but completely fucking useless). By the time the training was over, it was rumoured that I'd be fast-tracked into advanced support, and make an extra $1/hr.
After the training, I was fired on my 2nd day at work. Apparently, someone in the lunch-room overheard me talking about "telnet"... So I was escorted away from my desk mid-call, into the manager's office. He said they had no reason to suspect that I'd done anything wrong, but they were letting me go because they were afraid I might hack them. No shit.
At first I was pissed off, but then I took a breath and realized that I was being fired by a guy who was barely making $10/hr! Scrubbing tiolets has better advancement opportunities! The best thing that possibly could've happened was that they fired me, after paying me for the training.
Afer reading these stories, I feel lucky to still be employed at the age of 56. Just started a full time position 7 months ago. Since getting laid off in 2008 from my position at SUN Microsystems, this is currently my 5th job. The other 4, laid off twice, quit twice for better offer.
I feel people's pain, I've been through it myself. I'm lucky I still have skills that people are willing to hire me for as a STEM worker in my field.
Not to worry. If ISIS succeeds, soon America will become a caliphate:
http://www.msn.com/en-in/news/us/isis-threatens-to-behead-barack-obama-and-transform-america-into-a-muslim-province/ar-AA8GIIR?ocid=mailsignoutmd
...and all employment problems will be solved.
FINALLY a blogger that recognized that the "skill gap" is a propaganda lie of the regime, to make the intelligent people believe it was theit own fault to find no work.
With the upcoming revolution in transportation with autonomously driving cars and the millions of additionally unemployed drivers expect the same lie to be used even lmore often.
But the truth is quite simple:
Technology and private innovation allows to produce more and more by less and less people. This increase in productivity would a fantastic thing, because the time people need to work to produce the really needed things would shrink.
BUT there is one problem: if money is being created as compound interest bearing debt - created by private banks, btw.
In such a system there is never enough money to pay back the debt, because of the (exponentially growing compound) interest. This creates the huge force in the economy to GROW. Einstein said that compound interest was the strongest force in the universe.
Grow: although people are already dying from obesity. Grow: although people are already becoming sick of a materialistic life. Grow: although the children are already turning into monsters and the parents into zombies and the societies are losing all human warmth because all are only running to create the money to pay back the ever growing debt.
But I don't have illusions: the 1% who are profiting from compound interest debt money will NEVER give this system up freely or peacefully. It has given them world dominance, they control almost all governements, nations and the resources of these nations and with every day, because of the exponential compound effect, they are controlling more and more wealth and resources.
"There are simply no structural changes capable of explaining the pattern of sustained high unemployment over the last five years. What we have, instead, is an aggregate demand problem."
Makes me want to scream.. For fucks sake, it is so fucking obvious a fucking monkey could get it, except that except that asshole poking cocksucking Kenyan faggot monkey in the Whitehouse.
6 million active SME's are all you have in the US and the numbers have been falling at ever faster rates ever since the clown faggot monkey got stuck in power.
It is a near on 2% per annum decline rate on new business start ups on an expanding population.
"No Structural Changes capable of explaining"
How about tax the fuckers to death
pile the fucking obummer care scam on them
regulate the fuckers so much they don't have time to fart fucking complying with the fascist diktats.
Fine the fuckers for anything you can dream up from the ministry of fucking stupid regulations.
Tell them what time they have to take a shit and what fucking color asswipe they use
Give then an updated list of the 10,000 things they can and cant do.
Every fucking month
Give then a new list of the 1,000 new fucking half-witted and pointless regulations you just invented to feed the fucking corrupt donkeys including your fat fucking brain dead 8 kid sister that still feeds 5 of them stuck to her tits in the govt office.
Every fucking week.
If you dare to turn a profit tell your crony corrupt local CEO of GigaIntergalatic Widget International Inc so you can make a dozen new regs to put the fucker out of business.
Seize his assets after fitting him up with a local judge because a black tranny you hired got 4 cents an hour less than she should have got last month even though she embezzled $30,000
Sell his fucking assets to CEO of GigaIntergalatic and get a seat on the board.
Have patent lawyers crawl over anything he does or makes or any process document or contract, invoice, receipt or printed material whatsoever so you can sue him to fucking hell and back for daring to make a product an patented oblong shape, put patented Yours Truly at the bottom of his letters or use the patented shade of orange on his fucking logo
Then fucking institutionalizr his kids for neglect because he didn't spend the mandated hours with his family,
Then when he hes just another bum on the street double fuck him with the black faggots in the cell you just threw him after arresting him for vagrancy on trumped up charges after beating him senseless, so that your fucking enforcers can get some night stick practice in.
Then tell the world there is a skills gap
That about sums it up in a very colorful way!
Well put and nicely done!