What Is Really Holding American Workers' Back?

Townhall.com ^ | May 14, 2016 | Helen Raleigh

[spintreebob]

1) Many people are not money motivated. For example, many evangelicals do the work that they feel God has called them to do. The prosperity gospel movement has risen specifically to address this culture that believes the Bible says love of money is the root of evil. Look here on FR where money loving evangelicals like Rev Creflo Dollar are ridiculed and called unchristian because the preach, and lead by example, the aspiration to prosperity.

2) Many people, even when they TRY to be money motivated, don’t know how to do it. They lack the skills and basic cultural knowledge. There are many people who attend Trump U and Rich-Dad-Poor-Dad seminars and just don’t grasp the concept.

3) Many of us working in jobs that require a college degree do not have a degree. There is no difference performance or profitability to the company between those with and without a degree. The requirement of a college degree is used like any other alleged requirement as a way for the employer to reject someone they don’t like without stating the real reason for the rejection. (Some employers don’t like an applicant’s attitude, body odor, ugly face, race, religion, etc.) Many employers make hiring decisions based on reasons that have zero to do with the profitability of the company.

[Balding_Eagle]

I am throwing in the towel for supporting this country or its dumb ass citizens,

Interesting timing for certain.

A man we've been waiting for for an entire generation suddenly shows up promising to work like hell to restore many of the things we've been heartsick about, and now, on the cusp of it actually happening, you decided to bail out.

You've had more than 30 years to bail, why now, less than a year from starting a new path and you're gone, why now?

[central_va]

Westerners get first class treatment in the third world. Well known fact.

[Alberta's Child]

This is a good article, but it overlooks one important factor that underlies the entire employment situation in an advanced economy like ours:

1. In any financial transaction, buyers will seek the lowest price possible for the type and quality of a product or service they are buying. At the same time, sellers will look for the highest price possible.

2. An employment arrangement involves a "buyer" (the employer) and a "seller" (a worker).

3. One of the simple realities of an economy is that a worker will usually demand far more for his/her services than he/she would ever pay another worker for the same services.

Point #3 underlies almost every policy decision that is made by a government, and every business decision that is made by a private employer, in an advanced country like ours where labor costs are extremely high. As a result, things like automation and foreign trade give us the ability to offset the higher cost of paying American workers by reducing our reliance on them.

[Kaslin]

So, it was in the wrong place.

Why don't you sue the author of the op-ed or the editor.

*rme*

[jcon40]

A lengthy but enjoyable comment.... was like sitting at the dinner table listening to my father who I think now resides in Heaven. He had an intimate knowledge of the banking industry and many opinions on the Fed.

Interesting articles when you Google .. Presidents who opposed the Federal Reserve or before that, The Central Bank or before that the Bank of the US.

Trump seems to hint at challengng the Fed but it usually doesn’t end well for those who do.
Lately I’ve wished I could ask my dad what he would see as an alternative to the Fed.

So if you will I’ll ask you and also if you’ve followed Trump and Roger Stones comments on the subject and if anyone can really affect change in ths area ?

Also if the Fed used to be more effective protecting the US and Western Europe, with the rise of other economies what lies ahead?

[mulligan]

Government is the root of all evil.

[justlurking]

While I agree there are a lot of problems with the school system, there's a big factor affecting the success of the students that is rarely discussed -- because there's really no good solution. The biggest factor in the success of an individual student in school is... [drumroll....]

His/Her Parents.

It's not whether there is both a mother and father in the home, although that is a contributing factor. It comes down to: Do the parents consider education to be important?

If the parents do not consider education to be a priority for their child, the child will not take school seriously either. The child will fail or just barely get by, and repeat the same cycle with their children.

The importance of education is a cultural attitude. It's mostly linked to socioeconomic status, and that's why you will find that students at certain schools perform better (as a group), than others in the same district. School districts knowingly draw lines to pack higher socioeconomic groups into the same schools, because the parents demand it.

Are you skeptical? The data makes it pretty clear, if you aren't politically correct in your analysis.

In the US, race is a reasonable approximation of socioeconomic class. It's not completely accurate, because there are exceptions. Being a member of a particular race doesn't predestine you to a particular outcome, but as a group, students of the same race have similar rates of success in school.

There have been many studies of test scores of students across various states in the US. Some states are ranked high, while other states rank low. But, if you can get the detailed data and you look closely at it, you'll notice an interesting phenomena: there are very similar results across the 4 major racial groups in every state. Most of the variance between states can be "equalized" by simply accounting for the racial composition of students in the schools.

The ranking won't be much surprise:

1. Asian
2. White/Caucasian
3. Black or Hispanic

Again, I'll reiterate: this doesn't mean that any of these racial groups are smarter than the other. In this context, race is simply a proxy for socioeconomic class. And the lower socioeconomic classes have a dismissive attitude about the importance of education.

Unfortunately, it's self-perpetuating. If a student doesn't take education seriously, he/she won't succeed in school. After growing up and having children, he/she will pass that same attitude on to the next generation.

[jcon40]

To stretch my questions further do you think the Feds power has been diluted with the rise of other world eonomies and are their current policies an outcome of this?

[justlurking]

we have to import a large percentage of our engineers and technical wizards.

We don't HAVE to import them.

We have plenty of engineers and technical wizards. But, they are being undercut by H1B visa holders and off-shoring.

[Sir Napsalot]

Simplistic view -

Too many excuses for “You are not responsible for the choices you’ve made.”

[InterceptPoint]

We have plenty of engineers and technical wizards. But, they are being undercut by H1B visa holders and off-shoring.

I don't think so.

Here is the latest data that I could find about unemployment in new college graduates.

Which college majors translate best to the job market?

Here's a snapshot of the table at this link. You will see that unemployment in the technical fields is pretty reasonable. These graduates are getting jobs. If there were more of them they would get jobs as well.

The lesson here is that to get a job you need a skill that the marketplace is looking for. Right now health, science, engineering, computer science and high tech in general dominate the employment statistics. And this is not new.

[justlurking]

Here is the latest data that I could find about unemployment in new college graduates.

I'm not referring to college graduates. I'm referring to experienced professionals with proven skills. Some of them were required to train their own replacements.

Human resources post jobs requiring 5 years experience in a technology that is only 3 years old. Then, they push interviewees right out of school, because they are cheaper.

Right now health, science, engineering, computer science and high tech in general dominate the employment statistics.

I think you should look at the chart you posted, again.

A 4.5% unemployment rate (the bottom 3 entries on your screen) is nothing to boast about. It's the median among all of the college majors that are listed.

[upsdriver]

End welfare.

[Organic Panic]

It is easiest to buy votes with other people’s money than make simple political changes that would improve the economy.

[RipSawyer]

I notice I no longer hear very much or read much about “all the great freedoms” we enjoy in America. Ten years ago if I posted something to the effect that this is NOT a free country there were plenty on FR who were eager to set me straight. Not so now. Of course my attitude is that we have never been truly free but we were a lot less oppressed a few decades ago. I think there are only a precious few who could handle true freedom.

[RipSawyer]

With current trends in grammar you may soon have to stop reading anything. It’s a hell of a comeuppance when college graduates don’t know that an apostrophe in a plural is wrong.

[RipSawyer]

“Today our politicians and academia are obsessed with four year liberal arts education in subjects providing no skills for earning a living.”

They may be obsessed but what seems most conspicuously lacking is true liberal arts education. Recent college graduates could not pass my tenth grade final in English, History, Literature, Civics, Geography etc.

[Soul of the South]

“They may be obsessed but what seems most conspicuously lacking is true liberal arts education.”

I agree. I chose a classical 4 year degree studying the great philosophers, the classics of literature, and the history of western civilization. Plus classical free market economics (Adam Smith, Milton Friedman). I learned to think critically and to form opinions based on my own research.

I doubt it is possible for a student to receive the quality of education I received at my alma mater today. Based on what I read, most of what passes for learning there is the regurgitation of politically correct propaganda.

[dinodino]

It wasn’t in the wrong place—there shouldn’t be an apostrophe anywhere in that title! I wish illiterates wouldn’t write articles for publication...