President Blames Unemployment On Lack Of Tech Skills

IEEE ^

[Florida_Irish]

During a Wednesday morning (July 30th) press conference, President Bush was asked a question about jobs going overseas as a result of technological innovation. His response was:

"I fully understand what you're saying. In other words, as technology races through the economy, a lot of times worker skills don't keep up with technological change."

Many people have taken his response to mean that unemployment in the high-tech sector is the result of American workers who allowed their skills to become obsolete. This is an unacceptable explanation.

[clamper1797]

Here comes Dane again, jumping into the debate like an epileptic chihuahua. School must have just let out.

Shift change at the car wash ....

[dirtboy]

I doubt that you will **ever** show that the physical size of the American middle class has shrunk with any rational look at available demographic data.

Ah, Southack, it's not just that you're in the middle class, it's WHERE you are in the middle class. If the middle class is considered to be, say, between $30,000 and $100,000 per year for a family of four, someone can go from making $90,000 a year to $35,000 a year but not show up on the resolution of the radar screen you're looking at. But I can guarantee that THEY'LL perceive the difference quite clearly.

[Salgak]

Except that those of us WITH the skills are getting asked to accept jobs at pay levels from BEFORE the Dot-com boom.

And good luck surviving in greater LA on 35K/year

[Southack]

"Gee, Southack, you're in such a bush-battle-bot mode that you're attributing something to me that I never said. I said that government was putting pressure on middle-class taxpayers - government is both singular and plural, in the sense that government can refer to ALL levels of government. I never claimed that Bush was responsible, just that any federal tax rebates to the middle class will, in most cases, be promptly consumed by rapacious state and local governments."

Spin, spin, spin, blah, blah, blah...

Since this is a thread on what Bush has said and done, your spin about "all levels of government" rings hollow. Try again.

[Mr. Bird]

Such as? I mean a job that won't be offshored to India or China as quick as possible

I'll just stick with the ones I have direct knowledge of. Each of the following requires no more than a two year degree, sometimes less. Vacancy rates nationwide are higher than 15% for each:

Radiologic Technologists (all modalities), Respiratory Therapists, Medical Laboratory Technologists, Medical Informatics professionals, Nurses. In the Mid-Atlantic, the entry level pay for these positions is around $40K/year. Overtime is available. Job security is outstanding, and if benefits aren't necessary, you can work agency for upwards of $80k/year.

[Mr. Jeeves]

And CEOs of companies that were losing money with $Million+ salaries and multi-million-dollar bonuses WEREN'T gouging ?

That's different. They were just being competitive in the executive talent marketplace. LOL!

[dirtboy]

And which it seems that dirt is jumping with the demos on the straw boogieman.

And it's pretty funny, Dane, that your post to me and mhking, trying to start one of your petty little spats of which you are so fond, came right on the heels of mhking agreeing with one of the points I was making.

[mhking]

No, I bust my butt in learning another skill...

Don't confuse 'em with reality...

[luckydevi]

Do you support welfare?

[clamper1797]

You don't care about anyone but yourself

I always admired your highly accurate judgement of character

[dirtboy]

Since this is a thread on what Bush has said and done, your spin about "all levels of government" rings hollow.

Gee, Southack, you just proved my point. You're so blinded by your attack mode that you can't even deal with the topic being broadened, which happens quite often on FR threads.

[Mr. Jeeves]

The unemployed smart males will be even more dangerous. They are able to organize rebellion. Nothing is more dangerous to a political state than large numbers of pissed off and energized high IQ people.

The recall of Gray Davis is an early symptom of this - that's why the elites are so freaked out by it.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Do you support welfare?

I'm starting to.

[dandelion]

Thankee kindly - info is power. Now I have to see if Opera will blink out yet again. It keep "blinking" off, and I don't know why :P

Back in a minute...

[carton253]

Nah... they're too busy keeping each other company in their misery...

[dirtboy]

It sucks - there's no simple answer.

I agree entirely. But training out-of-work manufacturing workers for tech jobs that are the most likely candidates to be outsourced overseas is definitely NOT one of the possible answers. What this shows is that Bush has given little or no thought to the realities of the modern job market.

[clamper1797]

The recall of Gray Davis is an early symptom of this - that's why the elites are so freaked out by it.

Absolutely ... the comman man is getting fed up and is waking up. If current trends continue ... there's going to be hell to pay

[Southack]

"Southack, what part of "I fully understand what you're saying..." do YOU not understand? Bush is still stuck on last decade's big governmental solution when this decade has different problems. The problem is not a lack of training - we have millions of fully qualified techies out of work. The problem is that jobs are going overseas by the millions - and all you can do is belittle those who believe that destroying our middle class is NOT a good thing."

No, I stand by what I said. There are people who are EAGER to criticize Bush for so little as repeating a question back to a reporter, a question that was about people who had been laid off from textile and manufacturing plants and what Bush was doing to help them, that was rapidly misconstrued as Bush not caring about high-tech workers seeing top-paying jobs disappear, by the way.

Sheesh...

[dirtboy]

Radiologic Technologists (all modalities), Respiratory Therapists, Medical Laboratory Technologists, Medical Informatics professionals, Nurses. In the Mid-Atlantic, the entry level pay for these positions is around $40K/year. Overtime is available. Job security is outstanding, and if benefits aren't necessary, you can work agency for upwards of $80k/year.

Great. So if we're ever invaded in 2012, we can defeat them with our MRI machines.