We Need More Skilled Workers
by John RatzenbergerWhen America gave up its position as the producer-in-chief and became the consumer-in-chief, “essential skilled workers” became dirty words in our lexicon.
The cultural shift is fast producing an “industrial tsunami” that threatens our economy and way of life. Ironically enough, we’re facing a crisis shortage of skilled workers at a time of dramatically high unemployment.
We must re-connect this disconnect or face the consequences. America works when Americans are working.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 25 percent of the working population will reach retirement age by 2012, resulting in a potential shortage of nearly 10 million skilled workers. This heightens the price our nation is paying for dismantling so many in-school vocational training programs during the past few decades.
The current shortage already sharply reduces the growth of U.S. gross domestic product, contributing to our overall economic problem. America’s infrastructure is falling apart before our eyes. Municipal water and sewer systems are failing, and more bridges are unsafe to cross. Yet the nationwide shortfall of more than 500,000 welders is causing already-funded repair projects to be canceled or delayed.
Essential skilled workers are heroes. Without them, America grinds to a halt. But there are national security implications to this skilled worker gap, too. The ongoing demand for U.S.-manufactured military parts and hardware — from boots to mother boards — require domestic manufacturing operations. Even now, critical manufacturing has been moved off-shore as a stop-gap measure.
We simply can’t “outsource” our national defense!
Along with Emmy Award-winning producer Craig Haffner and the Foundation for Fair Civil Justice, I am currently in pre-production with a new documentary, “Industrial Tsunami,” whose purpose is to wake up Americans to the shortage of skilled workers that threatens the existence of companies and entire industries.
We must develop short- and long-range solutions to this crisis, starting with expanding vocational training opportunities and restoring dignity and pride in America’s skilled workers.
We will explore the negative media images of skilled workers, as well as current initiatives at the national and local levels to address this crisis.
Equally important, we will promote the concept that essential skilled work is noble, is useful and creates the independent mindset and self-confidence in the individual that has resonated throughout our nation’s history — and can rebuild America with a solid foundation once again.
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339 Comments
John Ratzenburger, how cool to see you here.
Maybe you posted before and I missed it but hey I can't watch this place all day long. We just got back from http://www.ribamerica.com/main/index.php?page=ind...
Happy Labor day mah peeps!
CLIFF!! John Ratzenberger I remember when he had the show "Made in America" on the Travel Channel that is when I had cable TV. I use to love that show. I had no idea he was a conservative too!
FINALLY an author here who isn't some pinhead academic with a career limited to nefariously funded "think tanks" telling us all "Free Trade" is gonna save us.
Check out Mike Rowe's TedTV talk – he also goes in to the war that has been waged against working people. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRVdiHu1VCc
John !!
Glad to see you out there, John, good article. We need a government that will treat businesses like they're wanted in this country instead of driving them away to invest in foreign lands.
And, Bill Gates pounds the desk in congress every year asking why we kick out the foreign college graduates and let in the fruit pickers by the millions. Yes, we need the educated and skilled workers. If everyone wants to come to America so badly, we should be picky. It's what every other country does.
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Focus your sights on human debris like Gates who lies about shortages of labor in the US. He feigns concern over education in American but his real goal is to GUT wages of educated Americans by shipping in foreigners under the H1B program. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=486618228...
Par for the course for the corporate fascists who need to be rounded up by Americans – this NEVER would have been tolerated a few generations ago! This is WAR against YOU – why won't anyone stand up and fight? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU
"Those Voices Don't Speak for the Rest of Us"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wusgcG4rfo&fe...
If the Soviet Union let another political party come into existence, they would still be a one-party state, because everybody would join the other party.
Ronald Reagan
OK, Though the EPA and a bunch of Aging Hippies. We have done everything in our Governments power to ship our jobs over sea's and become a economy driven by consumerism. It has been some time since I have read this but here we go. There are almost 100 different types of smart people. 2/3s of these people are in 6% of those types of smart. The 6% type of smart is who our public schools are built for. The other 1/3rd of students are washed out because they do not learn the same way as the 6%.
Our schools are built around the women's movement of the late 60s and early to mid 70s. If you are a chick, our schools work well for you. If you are a hands on type of kid, then not so much.
Now our Employers want a BA Degree to work at the local Donut King.
BA Degree in the want ads for a job anyone with an internet connection could figure out how to perform. Is it no wonder our Country is screwed up and in a Depression?
Really want to fix our economy?
We have a bunch of people in our Government that went to the best Ivy League Colleges in the World and guess what. All the Great Law Schools did was teach them how to thieve, Loot and pillage way beyond anything Madoff or Al Capone could have ever dreamed of. Harvard Twist And Contort the Constitution 101. Give me a Truck Driver and a tile layer. Give me a fella who just lost his 4th Generation Family Farm because our Government would not give him any water to save a snail darter. Give me some little people over these College educated thieves ANY DAY and I will give you a Constitutional Government if they can still find the Document after it has been in the dumpster behind the Federal Reserve Building dating back to when FDR was still extending the Depression for his own self interest. Give me this and I will give you a Capitalist Economy the void of the BS we have now.
This is outstanding! Not only does manufacturing (and shop class) build character, it also leads to the need for many other services. If Germans can have manufacturing jobs, so can we!
But we have a glut of unskilled illegal workers that will do the jobs regular Americans won't do. So… if there are a bunch of jobs Americans won't do, and a bunch of jobs Americans can't do, what will all these Americans do?
You can't talk to a Conservative about solutions. They justify massive outsourcing blaming it on unreasonable demands of American workers.
"…In 2005, the average CEO in the United States earned 262 times the pay of the average worker, the second-highest level of this ratio in the 40 years for which there are data. In 2005, a CEO earned more in one workday (there are 260 in a year) than an average worker earned in 52 weeks. …"
http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfe...
This is sickening. I wish both side could meet somewhere in the middle before the super-rich destroys humanity.
If I want to see human debris, I just have to look at your posts. If you want to see human debris, go look in a mirror.
Great post, and good work.
You say you want to meet in the middle, but you only condemn one side. One has to wonder where your "middle ground" exists. Or if it does.
Just spit ballin here,,,,This could not have anything to do with decades of liberal elite academics who felt that we should all get liberal arts degrees and become social workers and educators,,,would it?
This also has nothing to do with the fact that over the last few decades UNIONS have made life so difficult for manufacturers and increased the cost of their products to be under cut by imports so that the intelligent decision to move jobs off-shore was a contributor to the drop in the trades and skilled labor in general.
NO I AM SURE these were not contributing causes.
Oh, and talk about skilled labor,,,how about the medical field? Lets double the amount of people using it and at the same time take away the pay incentive to go into the field and let's see how many people try to become doctors,,,assuming the public school system can crank out enough people with the basic education required to even consider the field.
Mr. Ratzenberger,
Nice to see your article here.
"Equally important, we will promote the concept that essential skilled work is noble, is useful and creates the independent mindset and self-confidence in the individual that has resonated throughout our nation’s history — and can rebuild America with a solid foundation once again."
I have been singing that tune now for twenty years. Nothing is made here anymore, and nobody knows how to make anything. What made US the greatest Industrial and Manufacturing Power that the world had ever seen, was that we had the natural resources, we had the cheap energy, and we had skilled laborers and craftsmen. That is how we won World War II, and that is how we rebuilt the world afterward. Now, two generations removed, those craftsmen are long gone,
We are a consumer Nation, reliant upon substandard goods from third world sweatshops.
Good job, Cliffy…Will look for your book..
Skilled "employees" make money for the boss and are thus instrumental to the success of the business …Not really overhead…. hard to replace…
On the other hand, an unskilled "worker" costs the boss money, and is thus fungable overthead, easily replaced.
A real skill is like a college degree, just having it makes you a player, and keeps you in the game..
Tell us how you really feel!!!! Good job!!
So, pointing out the abuse of the H1B program to undercut the wages of American workers makes someone "human debris"? Then count me as belonging to the "human debris" camp.
Go on welfare of course,,,,,,or run for public office,,,pretty much the same thing.
hey pal it ain't the supper rich that's destroying the country ; it's dishonest business, labor, government, media outlets and uber-liberal religious ogranizations, commie / progs are also hard at work.Don't forget the jihadists.
No, engaging in personal attacks against non-govt officials who aren't here to defend themselves makes one human debris. If he wants to argue the merits, fine. But by slipping in the attacks he reveals himself to be just a troll.
Why is it that foreign car manufacturers can build and sell cars here in America, with American labor? While I agree that CEO compensation has gotten to the 'ludicrous' level. The fact that there is no cap on success is a keystone to our entreprenuerial system.
Well, at least being on welfare is an honest living.
A college degree is a far cry from a skill.
Evidently he did not like your post. I don't look at him as human debris but rather a sorry sack of squirrel squirt.
"We are a consumer Nation, reliant upon substandard goods from third world sweatshops."
I agree with you completely. The thing that scares me is that, as bad as the Great Depression was, we had the manufacturing sector there. What do we have now? Where is the recovery going to come from? Our entire economic system is built on borrowing money from other nations to use to buy goods from other nations. Once this bubble burst, it cannot be reinflated.
I know people like to cite "free trade" as the answer, but I don't see how it will work. American workers cannot compete with Chinese and Indian workers making pennies on the dollar. Free trade levels the world-wide playing field, and, frankly, I don't want to be on the same level as third-world countries.
The only viable solution I can see is prohibitory tariffs on foreign made goods, practically forcing Americans to buy American. I know a lot of people in the uber-capitalist camp are opposed to such ideas, but I don't see what else can be done. I am open to any alternative suggestions. And, yes, I know lowering taxes on corporations will help, but you can lower taxes to 0% and it still won't make up for the huge differential in labor costs between America and the third-world.
one of the problems is the workers, as in workers unions. companies need to be profitable to stay in business, and unions do thier best to get job security, at the expense of job viability. unions make it difficult to either fire, retrain, or change workers jobs. today, with technology moving so fast, unions are the stick in the mud forcing some business either move to non union areas, or out of the country. look at newspapers, union rules state how many people need to run the presses, but electronics made machines that need less people, but the unions force those workers to keep a job, even if not needed, where does this money to pay unused wores come from? look at a failing business, or industry, and a union will be nearby. soon it will include governments as well.
What, are you referring to his criticism of Bill Gates? He is completely right about that. Gates has used the H1B program to undercut the wages of American tech workers, arguing that there is a shortage of skilled labor in that area while American tech workers are laid off. If we were to go by your standards than no one should be allowed to talk bad about Nancy Pelosi unless she is here arguing on this board.
If I missed the point, I apologize.
The things I cite are history. Some one generation removed, some two, and quickly fading into the ehther. We CANNOT recreate that time, try as we might.
The EPA, OSHA, the Dept. of Labor, Health and Human Services, the National Labor Review Board, and a host of other Government alphabet agency's preclude US from doing so. Just wait until Cap ans Trade kicks in.
Turn out the lights, the party's over.
I fear that you are right.
Well, this consumer driven economy became a bullet train when NAFTA and CAFTA were passed by Clinton & the Republican Majority. We LOST so many jobs and industries with this legislation with out-sourcing and companies moving abroad. The problem with NAFTA & CAFTA is that it was made a "one-way street" …everything left the US with nothing coming in. YET, when other countries send in their goods & services there are basically NO tariffs or Custom Taxes …yet when the US exports, the Tariffs & Custom Taxes are exorbitant. This is a NO BRAINER. And Low & Behold …it was also about reducing our "Green House Gases" …so going MORE GREEN will result in …wait for it ..wait for it …MORE JOB LOSS, LESS INDUSTRY.
WoW….I just LOVE that photo, what a beautiful piece of art that is………… It says America!!!!!
Skilled workmen banging out a product, innovating their way through challenges and issues by the seat of
their britches and pride in their work.
There is no manual for what these men do, only their brains and experience lead them to success.
Non-blue collar workers have no clue of the unadulterated genius of these MEN.
They ARE America's HEROES.
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Even non-union labor in this country makes ten times as much as workers in China and India. I'm not sticking up for organized labor, I'm just saying that blaming labor for this crisis is like a person drowning in a 20 foot pool blaming a person who pours a 10oz cup of water into the pool.
Capitalism is about the maximization of profit. If a corporation can produce a widget for $10 here in America and can produce it for $2 in India, it is going to India. This is one of the unfortunate by products of capitalism. Implement all of the deregulation and tax cuts you want, it is still not going to make it more profitable for a company whose product is labor intensive to stay in America. Our trade policy must be reformed and the notion of "free trade" needs to be thrown out the window.
JR: Interesting but lopsided article regarding the loss of "Skilled workers"…..The environment conducive to retaining skilled workers depends upon stopping "Big industry" from shipping jobs overseas and getting "Big labor unions" out of the private sector. Regulation needs to be in-force to stop the tax incentives for industry to get away with outsourcing and the labor unions are no longer needed since they do not serve the original need and make the cost of manufacturing non competitive.
Why don't you take on a project to create a movie version of AYN RAND's masterpiece; Atlas Shrugged. If that doesn't wake America up, nothing will…..
It isn't the super rich….it is the labor unions and Government. Why would you want to take away all incentive to make money?
Read (Atlas Shrugged) by Ayn Rand. Open your eyes. Last time I checked, Our Constitution created a Democratic Republic…NOT a comunistic/marxist state
I can't speak for other parts of the country, but I can speak of what I've seen working in the Central Florida area for the last 36 years. Trades jobs are being outsourced to illegal aliens, and not because of a shortage of unskilled workers or the fact that it's jobs "Americans won't do or Americans can't do". It's cheaper to hire contractors (either knowingly or unknowingly) who use illegal laborers than pay somebody a decent wage and benefits to do the same work. If you don't believe it build a house here and pay attention to the workforce that shows up. Who's doing the plumbing, the electrical work, the roofing, or any of the other trades associated with construction. Those illegal's are not "unskilled". They may not have college degrees, but they can do trades work just as competently as an American, and they can and will do it cheaper.
You know what I miss the most corn? This is a pet peeve of mine. Local "machined" locks and hardware. Nowadays all you can get is "cast" stuff at big box stores that "looks like" hardware, but it isn't. Threads aren't "tapped" correctly, the metal isn't hardened correctly, blah, blah, blah. There are probably a handful of "craftsmen machinists" left, and they can't compete with the cheap cast crap. But we don't have working hardware as a result.
Perhaps you missed the "non-govt officials" in my last post. Or maybe the "argue the merits". Government officials don't get a pass because they asked to be in the limelight.
Your apology is accepted since you apparently missed my point.
That being said, I do not like the abuse of the H1B visa program either and have suffered for it personally. But I will not attack Bill Gates because he benefits from it. It is our elected leaders job to do the right thing in this case. If they are influenced by big business, well then the gov't is corrupt. Big surprise…
Maybe we can retrain all the academics and computer programmers to hold a drill and screwdriver?
Ayn Rand? Outsourcing is Ayn Rand's wet dream. She believed in the maximization of profit no matter the social costs. If Ayn Rand were a CEO, she would have shipped her factories to India decades ago.
Sounds like Cliff needs some more shock therapy and realize it is his buddies (The anti-American GOP) that promote outsourcing in the name of profit and put America second.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAKEedAuybQ&fe...
well, again you are wrong. in the non union sector, if new technology comes along, the owner can get that faster producing machine, and re-organize his workforce without asking anybody. sometimes automation overall leads to more different workers, but less workers per widget, this lowers cost. but when unions don't allow automation, or force the number of workers period, it makes it difficult to proceed. some small businesses will layoff most of thier workers when highly automated processes are installed. but do you think any business in america would rather have american workers if they could afford them? also throwing out free trade only hurts americans, and american jobs, history has proven that time and time again. also businesses do not pay taxes, as they are passed along to the end customer, so yes, tax cuts work.
The UNIONS are the problem. Manufacturers would not be outsourcing their jobs overseas if it wasn't for the unions that try to rape and coerce the companies because they "can". Lets get rid of the unions and things will change immediately.
Also, I hate to get off topic and apologize but I would like everyone to read this please. It's very powerful and I bet everyone here will agree with this humble citizen:
http://www.thepostemail.com/2009/11/11/the-gather...
Copy and paste, RetardedSailor1. How did the panhandling go today?
First of all, nice work John.
The sad part about our country is we have moved from multi-generational industrial workers who spend their entire career in a plant/mine/field, with the expectations their child will follow in their footsteps. Now, most employees switch jobs every few years. Unions are not going to help, since the core of what the unions originally stood for is long gone, replaced by greedy corruption.
Compounding the problems is the morally bankrupt CEO's, who believe their pay should be 100's of times more than the rank-and-file, with golden parachutes to escape by if they do something wrong (whereas if the wrongdoing was by the rank-and-file we'd just be shown the door). Yet they claim they have problems keeping employees that are overworked and underpaid (or stuck with low-quality workers, who don't have the passion for the job).
Our focus needs to be getting the next generation interested in those kinds of hands-on jobs that we seem to be losing. While the idea of multi-generational career paths seems to be lost, it shouldn’t take but enlightenment and education to show that opportunities abound for those who are willing to work for it.
No, I caught the "non-govt official" part. I just don't see the reason for making the distinction. Bill Gates is a grown man, I can criticize him just like I can criticize Obama, and that doesn't make me or anyone else "human debris."
I also don't understand why you will excuse Gates for abusing the H1B program. If I attempt to bribe someone and they take the bribe, I am just as guilty and corrupt as they are. In this case, Gates is more corrupt because he uses his position as an expert in his field to lie to the government and say that we have a shortage of tech workers when he knows it isn't true.
523 your pet peeve is my pet peeve. Those "machined" locks and hardware were/are fine art.
The cast stuff you mention is crude, rough and doesn't operate smoothly, like the old stuff did.
Don't get me started on that 'mush' metal currently used. A halfway decent pair of bolt cutters can
slice right through all, except the very most expensive locks manufactured nowadays, disgusting.
I bought only USA until I could no longer find it, sadly now I have quit even checking the label, for I
know without looking it will be from CHINA.
.
What difference would it make? Where would they work?
Kind of depends what the degree is in
Once you have a degree you have a better chance of developing a skill…
Example, an MD degree allows you to see patients and make money while developing your surgical skills to one day be a brain surgeon and make real money…..
You can understand that concept, right?
Zero divided by Zero=Zero. You have no concept of how capitalism works, but most Marxists don't. I pray for your soul, if you have one.
No matter how you cut the pizza, Gates is one of those espousing more visas for foreign nationals due not to to shortage of US workers, but due to his desire to cut wages. Just do a google.
If you understood the distinction you would not have used Nancy Pelosi as a counter-example. Furthermore, it wasn't the criticism that was wrong (if it was on the merits), but it was the personal attack (calling Bill Gates human debris). Criticize his actions all you want, argue the merits all you want. But when you stoop to personal attacks as noted above, well, I won't be a part of it. Or at least I try not to. And I will call out anyone who does otherwise.
If you have evidence of Bill Gates being corrupt I suggest you bring it to the attention of the proper authorities.
Wonder how much he got for it on ebay.
"sometimes automation overall leads to more different workers, but less workers per widget,"
Yes, less workers, but where do those "extra" workers go? Besides, what is to stop the company from moving to India anyway and paying those "less workers" even less than they would make here? I see a lot of generalities and bumper sticker slogans in your posts but no solutions.
Capitalism is about the maximization of profit, correct? If you can pay foreign workers less than American workers, what is to stop you from moving your factory oversees? Nothing. If we lived in a world with no regulation or taxes whatsoever, all of the jobs would move to where people would work the cheapest. It would be a race to the bottom. If you want to live like the typical Chinese laborer, then fine. But I don't want to.
Oh, ok. I'm sorry. I thought you were saying his criticisms of Gates use of the H1B program were wrong. Never mind.
I still don't understand why it is ok to personally attack government officials but not CEOs.
I am guessing… zero. Holy Jesus, I just hit 100, but I digress.
There has been a long tradition of ridiculing gov't officials in this country and it is part of what makes this country free. If we become afraid of ridiculing gov't officials, we start on the road that leads to North Korea, Cuba, etc. No one who becomes involved in gov't is unaware of this tradition and so they will have to accept it as part of the job. If they don't like it, they don't have to run. The same is not true of CEO's.
Congratulations! Next stop…??
They do NOT work as competently as a an american construction worker. it costs the developer more money to fix their mistakes or just not give a rats a$$ about quality. Their close is 1/4 in. tolerances on woodwork not 1/32 like a real american carpenter. Don't even start on their drywall skills. They cannot be called skilled. Just call them cheap labor, with no taxes, work comp. insurance etc. The developers and contractors are 100% to blame when they put profit over moral values. American skilled workers (non-union) are more profitable to the developer since he doesn't have to re-do their work. The unscrupulous contractor has the motto "We do it nice because we do it twice" I HAVE been there, done that. wouldn't do it again. Real workers won't work for contractors like that so they have to hire cheap labor or go out of business.
well, now you are showing your stupidity. by the way, i help companies automate. they hire more warehouse workers, more sales people, more office people, and they make more money per job, than before automation. capitalism is all about profit, but also serving your customer. if you can produce better products at a lower cost, everybody wins. the race to the bottom is caused when governments restrict foundrys, you know how to make cast iron. try to build one anywhere in the us,good luck, try to build one in china or mexico, they will ask only one? this is the problem, governments prevent businesses from making what they need here, so they have no alternative. capitalism says serve your customer, and if you can't make something here, you go where you have to.
CL- the root of the problem is that the government will not allow free trade. If a manufacturer of furniture here decides to buy fabric from China so they can cut and sew to upholster furniture, they have to pay 9.8% to 17% duty. If they choose to buy cut and sewn parts, there is no duty. It is a bureaucratic circle jerk. There are only 2 or 3 legitimate sources of USA made fabrics.
Want to blame anyone for the decrease in skilled workers? OK, point your finger at the congress, stateless dept, USAID, American chamber of commerce, and big business, to name a few. We had skilled workers galore, but the exodus of industry and jobs stymied growth in these areas.
Want business and those jobs back? Great. Cut corp taxes to 15%. Get rid of excessive and stifling federal regulation. Allow the companies to hire non union workers. Business will come home.
The GOP hate education stance. Why is it they hate education? Oh I know why because with out low info dumb down voters the GOP have no voting base.
No wonder Cliff was a great loser on TV because he is even a greater loser in real life.
With inept and greedy leadership, I just don't see how manufacturing can be brought back.The first skill we need to learn is how to use a broom and sweep the crooks out of leadership roles.As for outsourcing military manufacturing, the roman empire did it,and it taught their future enemies how to manufacture and use their best weapons…gee, where are they now?
so maximizing profit, so the people who own the company get paid, isn't that why people invest thier retirements in profitable companies, and the non profitable ones go under, or are bailed out by government? profit is the result of selling what people want, and producing it for less than the value of it's sale price. what makes the stock market go up? buying shares of non profitable business, or buying shares of profitable businesses? the value of a business goes up when they produce profits, not from making products at a loss. didn't they teach that basic lesson at school?
Next stop… whatever I deserve. Thank you, MSM (with due respect to Main Stream Media Critic and not the drive by media).
Here is your 'common sense' award for the day!
Sure, America needs mroe Skilled Workers, but, America also (and perhaps more importantly) needs less Democrats.
I know this is going to irritate people because this site is anti-union, but being a union apprentice is where you used to learn the skills. Plumber, welder, electrician, you joined a union apprentice program. You didn't get lot of book learning, you did that on your own time. You did the crummiest most repetitive boring jobs until you could do them in your sleep. When you finally got good at that you were taught something else.
I remember in the '80s when companies started getting really degree happy with skilled labor jobs. I remember a tool and die maker with 40 years of experience who couldn't move up to manager of the machine shop because he didn't have a degree.
I have know enough HR managers over the years to know that experience is not usable criteria when choosing between applicants. The degree wins every time so the apprentice programs shriveled up and died.
The Military is where one learns said skills, and the United States Military is Non-Union (thank God).
Hell, a Union Military would have went on strike instead of hitting the beaches of Normandy.
Not necessarily at all.
One of the nation's larger industrial maintenance contractors and turnaround specialist began training schools in prisons in Louisiana in 2000. They offer them a job when they are released. It is non-union work in chemical plants, refineries and power plants around the nation.
It is not that there are not enough skilled workers, but finding skilled workers who can pass a drug test.
I live in San Antonio where most of the houses are built with illegal labor. I know how the houses are built either through the experience with my house or my friends. Don't count on them being built with skilled labor. Whoever is running the crew normally has a small core of skilled laborers with the rest being unskilled.
You want a house to be built really well? Go out and speak Spanish to the foreman. Not only well you get the skilled workers but they will take the extra time to make sure it is done right.
gee 4, wish I was in the mood for a big ol TEXAS size rant, about what happened to the
fabric mills that were at one time all over the deep South. As cotton producers, we joined
an association that built a couple of denim mills in our region, TX South Plains.
Our association thought that by cutting out a couple of middle-men we could keep our mills
open in spite of the pressure from Pakistan and India, we were wrong. The jobs are gone.
.
They don't hate "education stance" (whatever that means). They hate what the gov't has done to education. People were better educated and better informed before gov't took it over and handed the job to the unions.
Please get your facts straight. I know it's hard, but it makes dialogue so much easier.
I'll never understand why it bothers some people what other people earn. It doesn't bother me that my boss earns 500 times what I earn or that Bill Gates is worth 40 billion dollars or that Angelina Jolie commands 20 million dollars per picture.
In a free market you can promote your talents and services to the highest bidder. These extremely high earners aren't putting a gun to anybodys head and taking their money, people are willingly trading their cash for the goods or services they produce.
And why did GM go bankrupt…………..CEO pay???
And all those gov workers will understand when there is nothing to regulate too.
Unfortunately, ocp, the jobs are gone forever. I went from technical expert to salesman in one swift kick. I always enjoyed the technical aspects more than I can express.
You may be talking about the same people there.
+
I believe you are correct that some developers do not give a rats a$$ about quality. In my line of work (natural gas utility) I've seen a lot of houses built by both illegal workers and American workers, and I've seen competent and incompetent work from both sides, but then again I'm not a builder I'm just speaking from my own observations. I agree the illegals are cheap labor. The contractors and developers take advantage of this cheap labor, but do they pass the cost savings down to the subs or homeowners? If so I haven't seen it. Your points are taken.
Obviously you drink beer. From a Cheers episode:
"Well you see, Norm, it's like this…A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the lowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.
In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm is why you always feel smarter after a few beers."
I would go further and eliminate corporate income taxes (depending of how the corporation is organized). You are also correct about stifling regs. Unions also have way too much power. What happened to freedom of association? I still can't find a clause in the Constitution that says it is lawful for employees to hold a business hostage to their demands. If I tried that kind of bullshit my employer would fire me, and rightly so…
Good grief man, can you say anything that Rush Limbaugh hasn't put in your mind? I didn't say the pursuit of profit was wrong, that is the fuel for our economy. But the end result of profit maximization is outsourcing. I don't know why some people are so insistent on supporting the same people who would sell you and your children for a buck if they thought they could get away with it.
I won't down ding you on this, this is an interesting talk by Mike Rowe, and worth watching.
I am not really sure what your point is in posting this DBZ and would like to discuss but I'm sorry I am too tired after our weekends activities and have to get up early to go to work!
Perhaps another time.
Well the UNIONS in concert with the statist government, but yes in truth by now they are really a single entity.
This is what a crap-for-brain liberal public education program produces – generations of couchlocked, burnouts who are "entitled" to get their house, their food, their health care and their sex toys from somebody else's largess.
I can only hope that when our chickens come home to roost we remember to roast all of those liberal pigs that promised us a new world if we would but let them completely corrupt ours for their exclusive benefit.
We are not against the workers, we are against the power structure – the unions, the state and the media are the enemy. Most union members are basically forced to be so.
why do you automatically think i listen to rush? also, facts are stubborn things. profits go to the risk taker, not the employee. if an employee drives a forklift into a wall, or over a dock, he gets fired, but the business owner has to pay for the damage. this is but one example of risk. morons like you never consider the risk of owning any type of business, you only think of business owners as evil captalists. thier risks produce wealth, capitalism in the u.s. has produced greater wealth then ever on the face of the earth. and in the case of a bill gates, he sells code, he doesnt need foundry's or manufacturing plants. wealth is a byproduct of capitalism, and everybody can join the show. quit complaining and join the club.
Ya John Ratzenberger is switched on and one of us.
"You can't talk to a Conservative about solutions. They justify massive outsourcing blaming it on unreasonable demands of American workers."
Oh I wish I wasn't so tired.
You are full of crap.
I will have to postpone explaining reality to you.
It'l be fun.
I have for pretty much my entire career, been employed by rich people.
It supports my family, bought me a house and excellent medical care.
I'm pretty happy with the arrangement.
All the government has ever done is steal what I have earned and given it to themselves.
That's that way things. work, basically.
I think they are more. I think they have ensconced themselves in the WH and have more power than Hillary Clinton because of the millions and millions they contributed to Obama's election and now in the midterms.
They might as well call themselves the "Socialist Union Party".
Do not like public education you can pay out your own pocket and send your kids to private rightwing theocrat school or do rightwing redneck inbreder home schooling.
How can we be innovative, and productve when we're in this position? with an active Cloward & Piven financial onslaught in progress.
America was surpassed when we started to out-source, and they started to manufacture. Get the Unions out of the way. We have laws now, to replace them. Obviously eliminate the obama socialists who only have contempt for American Free Markets, and enterprise. They are Dictators that suck the motivation out of their people.
Add to that, that obama, i.m.o, is a Narcissist. They aren't exactly altruistic, to say the least. Go to a Flat or Fair tax, cut corp taxes, enforce our Constitution, repeal / de-fund obama's mess, and we're good to go! Oh, and with eternal vigilence! as my friend so rightly advised.
Oh, You want some common sense? Here ya go. Where our Institutute of Higher Learning went wrong was in most casses College is nothing more then to keep the over abundance of Teachers employed by socking 18, 19, 20 and 21 year olds parents with a whopping bill for BS their kids should have learned in the 12 years they already attended school. That one will leave a mark (ouch) My real problem in College was this. I was not being taught how to think, I was being taught what to think. That was my parents job.
If we want to restore Manufacturing we need cheaper powe–combined heat and power CHP.
The DOE, EPA, EERE and ORNL all agree
DOE: "Fortunately, there is an energy solution available right now that can help address
these problems today. CHP uses less energy, produces less emissions, and
accomplishes more work than equivalently sized conventional energy generation
facilities. CHP offers win-win-win solutions by attacking energy, economic, and
environmental problems"
DOE: "CHP Provides a Profitable Path to “Going Green”"
Hospitals, universities, and manufacturers have installed hundreds of CHP systems because they offer a cost-effective way to meet their energy requirements. As more businesses and institutions take steps to “green” their campuses, they find that CHP technology is not only more affordable than other options—it provides a net cost savings.
Then there are the job Americans won't do at the wage the illegal aliens will do it for. The difference is that the IA live in the canyons and ditches and don't have to pay utilities, rent or mortgage, or they share the rent with 20 other IA.
did you ever think a ceo actually produces for society as a whole, unlike parasitic government workers and politicians. a ceo produces wealth, a ceo puts gas in your car, puts cars in showrooms, puts tv sets in stores, supplys you with shampoo. goverments only take, from people and corporations, and return only poor health service, low quality postal service, and low performing schools. if the schools were private, they would be out of business, and replaced by schools that actually teach.
Interesting link, thanks for sharing…
I agree on the union angle, but we also need to look at EPA and Labor regs that kill jobs. It is a big clusterf*ck. And no more fantasy subsidies for 'green' energy or anything else the market won't support…
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