Posted on 07/06/2011 10:07:12 AM PDT by Kaslin
Bill Gross has a Plan to Fix the Fractured U.S. Job Market.
However, before you can fix any problem you have to understand what the problem is. Interestingly, Gross seems to have a handle on some aspects the problem. Here are two key points from the article on which I agree with Gross.
If we are to compete globally while maintaining a higher wage base, we must train for middle in addition to high tech. Philosophy, sociology and liberal arts agendas will no longer suffice. Skill-based education is a must, as is science and math.Gross also cites several facts about the cost of education in the US that also hit the mark.
The private sector is the source of long-term job creation but in the short term, no rational observer can believe that global or even small businesses will invest here when the labor over there is so much cheaper. That is why trillions of dollars of corporate cash rest impotently on balance sheets awaiting global non-U.S. investment opportunities. Our labor force is too expensive and poorly educated for today's marketplace.
Fact: College tuition has increased at a rate 6% higher than the general rate of inflation for the past 25 years, making it four times as expensive relative to other goods and services as it was in 1985. (Click here for a list of the ten most expensive colleges and universities in the U.S.)Subjective explanation: University administrators have a talent for increasing top line revenues via tuition, but lack the spine necessary to upgrade academic productivity. Professorial tenure and outdated curricula focusing on liberal arts instead of a more practical global agenda focusing on math and science are primary culprits.5-Point Summary of the Problem
Fact: The average college graduate now leaves school with $24,000 of debt and total student loans now exceed this nation's credit card debt at $1.0 trillion and counting (7% of our national debt). Subjective explanation: Universities are run for the benefit of the adult establishment, both politically and financially, not students. To radically change the system and to question the sanctity of a college education would be to jeopardize trillions of misdirected investment dollars and financial obligations.
Conclusion to ponder: American citizens and its universities have experienced an ivy-laden ivory tower for the past half century. Students, however, can no longer assume that a four year degree will be the golden ticket to a good job in a global economy that cares little for their social networking skills and more about what their labor is worth on the global marketplace.
We need a program as ambitious as the GI Bill, but one that focuses on retraining existing unemployed workers and redirecting our future students.Pure Keynesian Nonsense
Government must step up to the plate, as it should have in early 2009. An infrastructure bank to fund badly needed reconstruction projects is a commonly accepted idea, despite the limitations of the original shovel-ready stimulus program in 2009. Disparate experts such as GE's Jeff Immelt, Fareed Zakaria, Jeffrey Sachs and Paul Krugman believe an infrastructure bank to be an excellent use of deficit funds: a true investment in our future.
In the end, I hearken back to revered economist Hyman Minsky a modern-day economic godfather who predicted the subprime crisis. Big Government, he wrote, should become the employer of last resort in a crisis, offering a job to anyone who wants one for health care, street cleaning, or slum renovation. FDR had a program for it the CCC, Civilian Conservation Corps, and Barack Obama can do the same. Economist David Rosenberg of Gluskin Sheff sums up my feelings rather well. I'd have a shovel in the hands of the long-term unemployed from 8am to noon, and from 1pm to 5pm I'd have them studying algebra, physics, and geometry.
Those who advocate that job creation rests on corporate tax reform (lower taxes) or a return to deregulation of the private economy always fail to address dominant structural headwinds which cannot be dismissed: 1) Labor is much more attractively priced over there than here, and 2) U.S. employment based on asset price appreciation/finance as opposed to manufacturing can no longer be sustained. The golden days are over, and it's time our school and jobs daze comes to an end to be replaced by programs that do more than mimic failed establishment policies favoring Wall as opposed to Main Street.
Congratulations to Governor Scott Walker for sticking to his guns. The state of Wisconsin is far better off because of it. So are taxpayers. Most importantly, so are the school kids.Ridiculous Cost of Education
Please consider Union curbs rescue a Wisconsin school districtThe Kaukauna School District, in the Fox River Valley of Wisconsin near Appleton, has about 4,200 students and about 400 employees. It has struggled in recent times and this year faced a deficit of $400,000. But after the law went into effect, at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, school officials put in place new policies they estimate will turn that $400,000 deficit into a $1.5 million surplus. And it's all because of the very provisions that union leaders predicted would be disastrous.
In the past, teachers and other staff at Kaukauna were required to pay 10 percent of the cost of their health insurance coverage and none of their pension costs. Now, they'll pay 12.6 percent of the cost of their coverage (still well below rates in much of the private sector) and also contribute 5.8 percent of salary to their pensions. The changes will save the school board an estimated $1.2 million this year, according to board President Todd Arnoldussen.
"The monetary part of it is not the entire issue," says Arnoldussen, a political independent who won a spot on the board in a nonpartisan election. Indeed, some of the most important improvements in Kaukauna's outlook are because of the new limits on collective bargaining.
In the past, Kaukauna's agreement with the teachers union required the school district to purchase health insurance coverage from something called WEA Trust -- a company created by the Wisconsin teachers union. "It was in the collective bargaining agreement that we could only negotiate with them," says Arnoldussen. "Well, you know what happens when you can only negotiate with one vendor." This year, WEA Trust told Kaukauna that it would face a significant increase in premiums.
Now, the collective bargaining agreement is gone, and the school district is free to shop around for coverage. And all of a sudden, WEA Trust has changed its position. "With these changes, the schools could go out for bids, and lo and behold, WEA Trust said, 'We can match the lowest bid,'" says Republican state Rep. Jim Steineke, who represents the area and supports the Walker changes.
1. Government doesn't create jobs. Government jobs come at the expense of private sector jobs.Regarding point number 1 above: Much government "work" is makeshift, and not needed at all.
2. Bill Gross' comment "I'd have them studying algebra, physics, and geometry" is wrong. Not everyone needs to learn algebra, physics, and geometry. If money is to be spent in education, it should be where it is needed in trade tech schools. Americans are brainwashed into thinking that getting a four year degree is a path to financial success when a highly skilled tradesman makes more money and is more in demand today than a student with a fluff degree working in an office. We are creating a nation of unskilled workers in debt and ill prepared for the necessary jobs in a diverse economy.
3. Bill Gross won't speak poorly of educators or unions so long as endowments and pension funds make up a large portion of PIMCO investors
Thanks again for the article!
Brian
Perhaps one last tax-repatriation holiday to bring the money back and permanently slash the corporate tax rate to make us competitive. The biggest structural problem is long-term unemployment and the uncertainty this administration has caused makes it hard for businesses commit to hiring. One proposal that makes sense is to allow the repatriation with strings attached that the money will be used for hiring and capital expenditures. John Chambers of Cisco brought up the tax holiday a year ago in an Op-Ed but Washington isn’t listening. A Republican should bring forth this plan as a way to deal with unemployment while Obama continues to “lead from behind”.
That's a good question! If we can just get rid of all the needless regulations and nutty environmental claptrap, factories can make a big comeback.
I hope so, at least.
If you can't appreciate the pure beauty of the violin after hearing this, something's wrong with your ears.Or you can get raw with these strings. Either way, the violin is sweet yet lethal.
Do it!
I wish a buck was still silver, and it was back when the country was strong, Back before Elvis,
and before the Vietnam war came along,
Before the Beatles and yesterday,
when a man could still work, and still would.
Is the best of the free life behind us now,
and Are The Good Times Really Over For Good?
Are we rollin’ downhill like a snowball headed for hell?
With no kind of chance for the flag or the liberty bell?
I wish Coke was still cola, and a joint was a bad place to be.
It was back before Nixon lied to us all on TV.
Before Microwave ovens,
when a girl could still cook, and still would.
Is the best of the free life behind us now,
and Are The Good Times Really Over For Good?
Stop rollin’ downhill like a snowball headed for hell.
Stand up for the flag, and let’s all ring the liberty bell.
Let’s make a Ford and a Chevy that’ll still last ten years like they should.
The best of the free life is still yet to come,
And the good times ain’t really over for good.
Thank you, Merle, thank you very much.
Last weekend, Charles Krauthammer mused that people in their mid-40s and older will probably never work again full time and fairly paid. Of course, such a situation would likely lead to societal collapse.
They used to pick up trades before the Mexican invasion. Now they are stuck...Many go to crime and prision. But Mexicans and the ideology of internationalism is much more important.
Leftists control the Universities through multicultural, political and economic studies. They are downright harmful to a America but priceless to the Marxists. Without tribalism and race baiting studies, what would liberals do? Education, at all levels needs to stop wasting children’s time with sex, hate and resentment studies. It’s driving the nation crazy.
Perry is going after them in proposed Texas University reform. Austin will flip out. It will be fun to watch. We have not seen conservative reform go after these kooks in a long time.
I especially like the part about the “We Test” franchise. **Excellent** idea!!
Carry-Okie, I think you should write a vanity, so that these ideas could get wider viewing.
Education bookmark ...
I am opposed to the violence you promulgate with your kill'em all let God sort them out attitude.
You are pretty much incapable of well reasoned discussion, and it shows in all those people that no longer support your radical ideas.
I am opposed to the violence you promulgate with your kill'em all let God sort them out attitude.I am opposed to the violence you promulgate with your kill'em all let God sort them out attitude.
Is that really what you think I am proposing? You do know that this country had over 90% literacy when public schools were instituted? What is it now?
You are pretty much incapable of well reasoned discussion, and it shows in all those people that no longer support your radical ideas.
Well, I admit that my ideas are radical, but they would work, especially when compared to continuing to feed the current disaster. We've already tried that multiple times for over fifty years! What's your problem with "radical" at that point?
I was replying to Wintertime, I must have hit the wrong psot button I apologize.
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