Posted on 02/07/2011 10:33:25 AM PST by Nachum
Productivity gains mean many low-skilled workers are shut out
The U.S. manufacturing sector is roaring back after the worst recession in generations. So why aren’t factory jobs coming back as quickly?
One big reason: Business executives like Drew Greenblatt, owner of Baltimore-based Marlin Steel Wire Products, have figured out how to make more widgets with the same number of workers. To do so, he's had to upgrade the skills — and wages — of his employees. But his profits are bigger than ever.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
“Buried in orders, but can’t deliver, losing their shirts or praying the customers don’t figure out there getting crap. Welcome to the new American industrial age brought to you by hoards of Quickie-MBA Wannabe CEOs”
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hehe.... MBA = Mediocre But Arrogant
The point is, you don't get it Dave...
Usefull skills are great in a good or normal economy...When your economy is going down in flames it don't work too well...
Ya see in collapsing economy, few are building homes, that means few are buying washers, dryers, furniture, new cars...Fewer contractors, wages are stagnant so few are buying anything they don't need....Few are creating new businesses, credit cards are not being used, the need for accountants and loan people are way down, real estate agents are starving...BTW, all the labor intensive jobs are given to illegals..Like HVAC, truck drivers, warehousing, what is left of construction etc, etc.
This is not a difficult concept to understand Dave.
Now, they're might be demand if your repo men or bankruptcy attorneys...
For those that want to be doctor...Good luck affording 100k for school and this health care system...
“You can wave a magic wand and make the illegals disappear, but the cold fact remains: our society is in a post-scarcity phase, and we don’t know what to do with the workers we don’t need.”
Our economy, our education system and the nature of society at large orients us to work for somebody else. Think about it. What does a college education prepare you to do? Be an entrepreneur? Decidedly not. On top of this, it is impossible to live in a house and not work to get money to pay taxes. You can raise chickens and be self-sufficient if you live far enough away from a plated subdivision which prohibits this activity. But you must have cash money to pay your bills. There is no bargaining with the power company. (I recently read where some northern state wanted to take a man’s 35 acres away from him because he used no services and had no electricity.)
Now, get into how our government is preventing business by demanding more and more taxes and fees, many of which are up front before you’ve made a cent.
We need to re-think our society.
A study I read on the homeless in Sarasota, Florida revealed that many of them had retirement income, bank accounts and cash. But they lived without homes. I can understand why. The overhead cost of a home may be too much for some, even though they have money.
That's a Capitalist Utopia. Like its cousin the Socialist Utopia, it can't happen.
1. Not everyone has the funds, education, talent, ability or desire to be an entrepreneur. Such persons are in fact in the minority.
2. There's no market large enough to support universal entrepreneurship. The market prefers some goods and services to others. Most startups wither and die off for want of a market. The majority of entrepreneurs will always fail.
Often wrong, but never in doubt
Neither is it difficult to understand that, when the situation changes, the definition of “useful” also changes.
Have they looked elsewhere besides their home state or town??
So want a Populist Utopia??
No. Project much?
I don't disagree, but that probably essentially could be the Company's owners/partners, which wouldn't be too many people.
Depends on the nature of the business. A company building nuclear reactors or airplanes would need a larger core. That was what I was thinking of.
But not the job.
mostly that’s a “bingo” on that.
Dovetails into what you stated about automation doing to manufacturing what the tractor/combine, etc., did to agriculture. Gambling, entertainment, XBox, movies, the internet, and tons of other time killers have sprung up because they provide a lot of jobs.
The next thing is, though, that with automation, money goes into fewer hands and a significant imbalance in wealth occurs. Back in the old mining days, it was the company store. You worked for the company, rented your house from the company, and bought your groceries at the company store. The salary was deliberately designed to keep you from being able to make ends meet, so you couldn't ever pay them off and leave.
Problem is now that there's enough auto manufacturing capacity, for example, to make every driver in this country a new car every three years. Problem is, most people can't afford a new car every three years. We now have a surplus of manufacturing capability, a shortage of jobs, and an imbalance of money.
That's code for, out of the millions laid off, those left behind, will work less hours, work 3 times harder, for less money, and less benefits etc...
For those left behind, the employers want full time workers at part time wages.
This is no secret.
The employees all showed up with their own cups...
It's *really* ugly out there.
“The young people today, are basically screwed, and won’t even be able to afford or sustain basic things, like a roof over their head.”
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We already have far too many who have reached their thirties without ever once being able to support themselves unaided.
What a contrast to the sixties! When I was 23 in 1967 people thought I was strange because I didn’t have a wife AND CHILDREN already. Most young people of 23 now are totally incapable of surviving unaided, forget marriage and children.
I said long ago that it is close to becoming illegal to live like a poor person in this country. If I were to shut off my electricity and county water I would probably get a visit from some officious type who would try to tell me that I can’t live that way. We could still live in our paid for house and set up a well and a hand pump and even still use the flush toilets (we have a septic system) but we would have to use the fireplace in winter and just be hot in the summer. Somehow I think there would be someone trying to prevent us from living like Grandpa used to.
Once upon a time, increased productivity resulted in both increased profits for owner/investor and increased standard of living for worker. We now live under Ferengi Rules of Acquisition.
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