Living paycheck to paycheck gets harder *Barf Alert*

AP via Yahoo ^ | 10/19/2007 | ANNE D'INNOCENZIO

[mamelukesabre]

Nope. No desire to. There’s closer places just as nice. Why do you ask?

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Bush should stop his ethanol scam. That would help food prices.

[YCTHouston]

Your line about government jobs and tips made me think of Hawaii’s economy.

[mamelukesabre]

Define “unskilled” labor. Just because it doesn’t require a college degree doesn’t make it unskilled. There has been some bashing on this thread of assembly line workers, but I can tell you that some of these workers are VERY skilled and very good. The people that put together aircraft, motorhomes, and prefab houses are not idiots. I’ve worked in the precast industry before(where they prefab concrete parts of a parking garage). They are very skilled people. The carpenters that build the forms and the quality control people that check them and sign off on them are amazingly efficient. Not to mention the autocad guys that draw up the prints that the carpenters follow. None of these guys have college degrees. But they are very skilled workers.

[durasell]

The term “unskilled” or “semi-skilled” aren’t necessarily pejoratives. They mean any job that can be learned reasonably well within a few months or a year, such as putting up drywall, roofing or spot welding.

High value skill sets are those that require several years to learn, such as designing a new package for a product, managing a stock fund, practicing international law. These are jobs that deal primarily in the abstract, the creative or the highly complex.

[mamelukesabre]

So you think lawyers, bankers, and commercial artists are more important to our country than mechanics, machinists, carpenters, and welders? Do you think it’s ok to export the latter 4 so long as the former 3 remain in america?

If so you are a fool. This is exactly what happened to the british and they are doomed. Granted there are some things that are best left to other countries, like soldering circuit boards or stitching up upolstery. But we must be able to do things for ourselves or we will lose our ability to maintain our freedoms.

Abstract, creative, and highly complex...sure. Sounds like what I would say if I couldn’t justify my paycheck.

[durasell]

It doesn’t matter what I think. Those are the jobs the economy rewards. And there are not many of those jobs at the high level.