WHERE DID ALL THE JOBS GO?

Chronicles [Extra] ^ | February 24, 2004 | Paul Craig Roberts

[KevinDavis]

What do you want? Government regulation? Some offcial telling a company how to run a business? Why don't blame some companies for moving, they don't want to hire a bunch of whiners.

[KevinDavis]

Sorry to be cruel, but a high paying job is not a right nor guaranteed. It is not in the Constitution.

[oldtimer]

Great reply. The business climate in the Phillipines or India does not lend itself to the EEOC or slimey trial lawyers.

[GOP_1900AD]

The problem needs to be attacked from a geopolitical perspective. During a saner age, we used to trade in large volume only with countries which met certain criteria. Overall, tariffs are inelegant and disruptive. Much simpler than that would be to tune up the export control process (especially vis a vis intellectual property). The tune up would be best accomplished by *REDUCING* the current paperwork burden, and *VASTLY INCREASING* penalties for illegal activities. Another element is needed. Going back to the export control listings of dangerous countries, there should be fairly draconian controls regarding hiring from such countries, and job roles which can be conducted from them. For example, it is utter national suicide to let H1Bs from the PRC close the books at banks and even at many large corporations. It is also national suicide to have EEs in Russia or the PRC designing chips for supercomputers. And sales of actual military technology to such countries is beyond the pale. None of what I wrote here is really telling a company how to run its business in the US but it certainly sets strict limits regarding what may or may not be done overseas, or with H1Bs here, in terms of impacts on national security. By the way, in terms of domestic regs, I have a laundry list of regs in need of creative destruction. Furthermore, few seem to realize that one of the greatest causes of low productivity and excessive taxes (as a result of government largesse) is the fact that government workers (including ones working for government schools) are unionized. Remember what Reagan did with the Air Traffic Controllers? That was a good start!

[neutrino]

Sorry to be cruel, but a high paying job is not a right nor guaranteed. It is not in the Constitution

Um-hmm. Very true. Then again, I don't believe there is any constitutional requirement that we pay our bills - we could, quite constitutionally, simply default.

Which is what will happen if the tax base gets devastated, as it is doing.

I'll let you have the honor of telling our creditors, domestic and foreign, to quite whining.

[neutrino]

I suspect you're right. Also, if I'm not mistaken, I believe that Adam Smith projected that the invisible hand would lead to very small profit margins over time - one can see this in microcosm with ebay merchants.

What's saved us so far is innovation. But with China and India training new scientists and engineers - and our own people languishing - I wonder who'll do the innovation of the future?

Perhaps Japan, where our electronic toys originate. Or China, that has built a maglev train...while we plan to create a plan to build one.

[winker]

Spinless business owners would not hang tough for change in our Congress; so now we all hang separately twisting in the wind!

[Jorge]

Wrongo, Jorge.

Actually I'm righto.

Gains in Wages Expected to Give Economy a Lift
New York Times ^ | October 27, 2003 | DAVID LEONHARDT and EDMUND L. ANDREWS

"Wage increases for employees at almost all income levels are giving important and unexpected support to the nation's economy. If the gains continue, they offer hope that the rapid economic expansion of recent months could prove more durable than other spurts of growth over the last two years."

"Hourly wages have already surprised most economists by growing more quickly than inflation since 2001 in spite of the worst decline in employment in 20 years."

"According to an analysis of Labor Department data by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington research group, hourly wages have increased more sharply than at any time since early 2002 — more than 2 percent, after being adjusted for inflation — for a median of about $14 an hour."

Workers' Wages, Benefits Tick Up 0.7 Pct.
Customwire ^ | 1/29/04 | Jeannine Aversa

WASHINGTON (AP) -- "Workers' wages and benefits grew by 0.7 percent in the final quarter of 2003"

"For the 12 months ending in December, workers' wages and benefits grew by 3.8 percent, compared with a 3.4 percent increase in 2002. Wages and salaries in 2003 rose 2.9 percent - the same-size increase as the year before. Benefits rose by 6.3 percent in 2003, up from a 5 percent rise in 2002."

[bvw]

The obvious is buried by the panglossian inertia!

We are living on the isle of lost boys, and around us there are so many braying donkeys!

[bvw]

When the bozos who happily drill out the bottom of the boat for the sake of a quick shower start saying they are "sorry to have been cruel", why that brings a little ironic smile to the rest of us, for their own foolish inanity seems to makes their own demise, well, *crueler*, and it's a sort of a cruel joke to be enjoyed when few others can be.

And it gives less pause to step on their shoulders and push them down under to save ourselves, for that cruel and ignorant heart they showed.

[null and void]

You can find this exact same quote from the 80s being used against Reagan.

Source please.

[XBob]

locally - 2 petro-chem plants are closing, throwing hundreds out of work, docks are being expanded for more petro-chem imports, and 3-4 resturants are opening.

How much can out of workers eat?

[XBob]

32 - "If the number of jobs is so low, why is unemployment below the thirty year average?"

Because xlinton rigged the method of calculating the numbers, and changed it 3 times, and bush hasn't changed it back.

there is no way to compare old/new figures.

[XBob]

44-bttt "where will our future technology come from? Certainly, it won't be given to us by China!

So we are disposing of our seed corn."

[XBob]

47 - "My nightmare scenerio is for Bush to get this quasi semi legal worker visa (aka "lower wages more!") passed and continues to push for "free trade" while high paying jobs get shipped out of the country. In 10-20 years we'll have millions of baby boomers that didn't save enough money pleading for government assistance and no one will be around making enough money to pay the social security taxes to support them. "

whether Bush does it or not, this is what is actually happening, right now, unless we close our borders, and stop exporting our jobs.

[MissAmericanPie]

Not to worry, it's all good. It's Free Trade.

[Diplomat]

All pyramids have a bottom.

[Edit35]

"Uh... that's not exactly what the household survey means. The household survey just means that when you ask people if they are working, more say "yes." The establishment survey doesn't capture all the places they might be working.

And according to an explaination on the Bureau of Labor site, the payroll survey only surveys the biggest companies in the US, often failing to detect for UP TO TWO YEARS all the new payroll jobs in companies with 50-employees.

Besides, in my logical world, I trust a survey which asks real people in real households about employment issues.

And by the way, I don't for a second believe this baloney Democrats always put forth that people "gave up" looking for a job, and that's the reason the unemployment rate went down.

I mean, if you are a responsible family person and really need a job, then you will continue to look for work until hell freezes over.

[optimistically_conservative]

Source please.

Well it's not easy to find an article from the 80s online to link to, but ...

The Declining Middle , 1983

Ronald Kutscher, an assistant commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, says that workers in the fastest-growing industries are earning, on average, $5,000 a year LESS than workers in industries that are declining or that are growing most slowly.

[RaceBannon]

I'm so ashamed...

But, I am turning a new leaf. Instead of whining, I am going to praise God that I am fed, clothed, and taken care of during this time of trial!

He will see me through this, whether I get a job or not!

But we still need to act right concerning the subject!