Posted on 07/27/2005 6:21:50 AM PDT by A. Pole
The June payroll jobs report did not receive much attention due to the July 4 holiday, but the depressing 21st century job performance of the U.S. economy continues unabated.
Only 144,000 private sector jobs were created, each one of which was in domestic services.
Fifty-six thousand jobs were created in professional and business services, about half of which are in administrative and waste services.
Thirty-eight thousand jobs were created in education and health services, almost all of which are in health care and social assistance.
Nineteen thousand jobs were created in leisure and hospitality, almost all of which are waitresses and bartenders.
Membership associations and organizations created 10,000 jobs, and repair and maintenance created 4,000 jobs.
Financial activities created 16,000 jobs.
This most certainly is not the labor market profile of a First World country, much less a superpower.
Where are the jobs for this year’s crop of engineering and science graduates?
U.S. manufacturing lost another 24,000 jobs in June. A country that doesn’t manufacture doesn’t need many engineers. And the few engineering jobs available go to foreigners.
Readers have sent me employment listings from U.S. software development firms. The listings are discriminatory against American citizens. One ad from a company in New Jersey that is a developer for many companies, including Oracle, specifies that the applicant must have a TN visa.
A TN or Trade NAFTA visa is what is given to Mexicans and Canadians who are willing to work in the United States at below prevailing wages.
Another ad from a software consulting company based in Omaha, Neb., specifies it wants software engineers who are H-1B transferees. What this means is that the firm is advertising for foreigners already in the United States who have H-1B work visas.
The reason the U.S. firms specify that they have employment opportunities only for foreigners who hold work visas is because the foreigners will work for less than the prevailing U.S. salary.
Gentle reader, when you read allegations that there is a shortage of engineers in America, necessitating the importation of foreigners to do the work, you are reading a bald-faced lie. If there were a shortage of American engineers, employers would not word their job listings to read that no American need apply and that they are offering jobs only to foreigners holding work visas.
What kind of country gives preference to foreigners over its own engineering graduates?
What kind of country destroys the job market for its own citizens?
How much longer will parents shell out $100,000 for a college education for a son or daughter who ends up employed as a bartender, waitress or temp?
Because to the American consumer, the bottom line is a cheaper product.
Most of the items you buy on a day-to-day basis are cheap and low-tech. The American manufacturing sector has mostly advanced beyond Nike t-shirts and kid's toys. Instead, American workers are building high-tech, high value-added items such as BMW's, 747's and medical devices.
What kind of manufacturing industry do you want in this county, one that makes plastic knick-knacks or one that makes intercontinental jets?
If we make so much how come it is almost impossible to find anything American made to buy?
You're making a common mistake, I think. You look at the total number of items you buy versus the total value of such items. The average American buys many more Chinese made t-shirts every year than they do Ford trucks made in Kentucky. Yet, the Ford truck is worth many times more than the Chinese-made goods they bought.
The majority of the value of the goods I bought last year were made in the US.
YOU-ES-EI! YOU-ES-EI! NUMBAH WON!
There is only one bullet plant left, and it runs 24/7. And it's not like the need for bullets came as a big surprise. We just can't build bullets any more, to high tech for us dumb Americans, like yall say, Americans are just lazy bums, good enough to die in war but not good enough for a descent job, got to give those to those to the working Chinesse, of Japanese of Indians.
Unfortunately, there's enormous pressure on young people based on the maxim that EVERYONE has to go to college. The only acceptable reason not to go is because you don't have the money.
Ah, Yes she could!
Don't forget so soon just how inimical to defense she and her husband, and Gore and Kerry were. Remember who it was who took Chinese money and transferred crucial technology to them? Who was it who allowed Los Alamos to become a hive of Chinese infestation?
Under a President Hillary, what little GWB is doing to promote military procurement for the future would be terminated. Forget about NMD. Forget about getting deployments of any F-22's, JSF F-35's, or Virginia-class attack subs, or even the LCS Littoral Combat Ship. At least GWB is doing a little (albeit not enough, and is manifestly a conflicted fellow, see below). She would slash the forces steeply, just as her fellow communist, John Kerry would have, and don't ever forget...Bill Clinton tried to further cut in 1998-99, but was stopped by some GOP Congressmen with some spine. They only lose their spine when the White House is supposedly held by one of our own.
BTW: The only time GWB ever, ever, ever threatens a veto is when Congress tries to increase U.S. production of defense assets, or preserve the defense assets we have. He threatened a veto over Duncan Hunter's simple 65% domestic content bill, and he just again threatened a veto over a bill that would delay the BRAC base closing decisions until after the War on Terror was over...
GWB also apparently warned Donald Rumsfeld to follow his orders (he was legimimately footdragging) and dismantle all our 100 MX missiles or be fired. (Meanwhile, the Russians are keeping 95% of their SS-18's operationally deployed until 2017). The expense of GWB's unilateral disarmement of our land and air based strategic weaponry (half of our B-1Bs's were also decommissioned thoughtlessly by him) is running in excess of $4.5 billion annually...squandering preciously scarce DOD monetary resources...to produce LESS security!
In contrast, it would only have cost $1 billion or so just to keep these strategic weapons systems active and viable. What kind of a "Business Man" makes these kind of economic decisions? He is also going to cut out over the next decade about 25 attack submarines...which we couldn't afford to rebuild!
So we have one President (the current one) who is, on Defense, perhaps at best a "C" or a "D" student. Hillary would not even get an "F" but be given an Incomplete and expelled from school for truancy, and egging the Principal's car.
Some choice. Sigh.
I doubt it. Costs of college have gone up due to the easy availability of government-backed financial aid.
Neo,
Not everyone is suitable for college and it's wrong for every single parent to push every single kid into going. We've got too much of that and that's why the drop out rates are so high. As long as your son can make a good living doing whatever he does, let him be.
Well, FWIW, this is one consumer for whom this bromide isn't necessarily true. I'm willing to look at quality and reliability as more important than cheap, preferably made here rather than abroad. Saving a few pennies here and there isn't always the best way to go.
"There is a serious surge of demand for bullets due to the Iraq war. Bullet manufacturers in this country don't sit around with spare manufacturing capacity just in case a war breaks out."
And if war is with China? Would the Chinese gladly sell us bullets to shoot them with?
Supply and demand. If not for the Iraq war, that plant probably covered much of the demand for bullets in this country.
And it's not like the need for bullets came as a big surprise.
What do you propose manufacturers do? Make a large capital investment in a new ammo plant to make bullets for a war that already seems to be ramping down?
We just can't build bullets any more, to high tech for us dumb Americans, like yall say,
More likely, bullets are too low-tech to be worth investing capital into. Plus, the market for ammo is pretty steady, except for occasional fluctuations like the Iraq war. It's not really a growth industry, so it is not surprising that American companies aren't eager to invest money into ammo plants.
Well when I went to University in the US just a few years ago I noticed that especially Indians were much brighter than the American students. I as a Norwegian was an average student in math. Another interesting fact that you wrote was that they barely knew the language. That means that they have to work harder and be smarter to get the same scores, but they did better. I know since I studyed in the US and know how language barriers makes thing harder. Since I am from Europe it is not that big a deal, but for other people from China it must be very hard.
Well, if we get involved in a land war with China, our government is dumber than I think they are.
However, in such a scenario, we'd buy bullets from a third party. India, perhaps. Or the government would pay a whole lot of money to quickly set up ammo manufacturers.
What's your solution to the supposed bullet-deficit in this country?
You dont have to speak english to solve a differential equation.
The fact of the matter is, there are still plenty of jobs available, the problem is that the variety of skills needed is insane.
I work in computers, mostly web programming. When I got out of college in 99, The job I have now paid close to 100k (as reported to me by people I work with who were here then).
Safe to say it doesn't pay that now.
Part of this has to do with the normal tugs and pulls of supply and demand, demand is lower while supply is higher, but part of it has to do with what is expected of the employee.
Granted, I can only speak to my sector of the computer industry, but right now, in order to be employed as a web developer you need to be an expert in XHTML, CSS, Javascript and XML, and you need to be proficient in either Java, .NET, C++, PHP or Perl, on top of that you need database skills.
Sufficed to say, i am studying for both my PMP and my SCJD.
Sometimes parents fail the kids, and sometimes the kids fail themselves.
However, I've also known a lot of kids who have a good deal w/ school and their parents, blow it, struggle in the "real world", and then fight their way back to school or other path to success on their own.
I also hear you about peers and media outlets, but in the end I'm a big believer in personal responsibility. As you say, he made his choice.
Seeing money you hoarded at a personal cost to you and your wife squandered has to be very painful. You did the right thing and sometimes it doesn't work out. I hope that one day your son acquires wisdom and maturity and will understand your hurt.
Man, you ARE a piece of work!
Who supplied our bullets during WW II?
Who the hell PLANNED this "War"?
BTW, your supercilious answer to my question about our being in a bind for putting armor on Iraq bound vehicles demands a second shot at a reply.
Your suggestion that the problem arose out of the "specialized" nature of the work is hilarious.
Our GI's improvised in the field to accomplish this work themselves in a pitifully sad attempt to make up for the failure of the DOD and the sad state of our mfg capacity.
Oh, and did you catch today's latest word out of the Ministry of Propaganda"?
The War on Terror is officially over.
We are now engaged in "a global struggle against violent extremism" rather than "the global war on terror," which had been the catchphrase of choice.
"What's your solution to the supposed bullet-deficit in this country?"
Blasphamy is my solution, (at least in the eyes of a free marketeer).
The #1 job of the government is national defense. If the government can't defend us, it's failing. Relying on outside agents for basic military supplies is not providing for the national defense.
In the case of bullets, and other military essentials, subsidize. If capacity exceeds production requirements, "mothball" the capacity, don't scrap it, or sell it to China, (India, Singapore, etc).
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