LET'S TALK ABOUT "YOUR" JOBS

Nealz Nuze ^ | Wednesday, February 18, 2004 | Neal Boortz

[beaureguard]

Jobs .. and the economy. Those seem to be the issues that are driving many, if not most, of those who are supporting the Kerry candidacy.

First of all ... I'm going to repeat this simply because it makes the whiners so unbelievably angry. Listen up. They're not your jobs! The jobs belong to the employers .. not to you! You have job skills and, presumably, a willingness to work. Your task in a free economy is to get out there and find some employer with a job who needs your skills ... and strike a deal.

If you do not have the particular set of job skills that an employer needs, of if you have priced your labor out of the marketplace, guess what? It's not the employer's fault. The fault lies with you. Either develop a new set of job skills that are actually in demand, or adjust your pricing. The employer knows what he's looking for you. If you're not it .. it's your problem, not his.

Now ... you say you're going to vote for a Democrat this year because of jobs? You mean to tell me that you're going to vote against George Bush this year because you don't have a set of job skills that are in demand in our free marketplace? Yeah .. that makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

Tell me. Just what do you want the president to do? You information technology people out there .. just what are you demanding? Do you want companies to stop outsourcing IT jobs to India? OK ... tell me how to do that. These companies aren't shipping parts overseas and completed products back. All they do is ship information overseas by phone lines or the Internet. Then that information is modified and shipped back the same way. What do you want the government .. the president to do? Do you want some federal law that prohibits companies from transmitting information overseas by the Internet, having that information transformed or modified, and then shipped back? And tell me just how do you enforce that law? Does that law then apply to you also if you seek information from a company that is located overseas, thus depriving a domestic company of your business?

Ditto for manufacturing. I've already told you the story about the California company that makes computer mouses. (computer mice?) This company ships the components to China. The mouse is assembled in China and shipped back, then sold for around $40. Why? Because the assembly is cheaper in China than it would be in the US. So, you say you want the president to force this company to have that mouse assembled in the US? Fine .. then the price for the mouse goes up to about $70 a pop and sales drop. As the sales drop the jobs of the people in this country who manufacture the components for that mouse go away. Then the 100 marketing jobs this company supports in California also go away. You see, perhaps you can succeed in forcing this company to assemble these mouses in the US, but there just isn't any way you can force the American consumer to pay 80% more for the "made in America" version.

As Bruce Bartlett says in an article listed in my reading assignments, "No nation has ever gotten rich by forcing its citizens to pay more for domestic goods and services that could have been procured more cheaply abroad."

What we are seeing here is a demonstration of the "government owes me" mentality of far too many Americans. Every time you arrive at a speed bump in your life's journey you start screaming to the government for help. Sure, the speed bump is going to slow you down a bit ... but just keep moving forward and things inevitably pick up speed again. Americans are becoming helpless whiners. The more helpless you are, and the more you whine, the more likely it is you're going to vote for a Democrat. Democrats specialize in stroking the malcontent.

Congratulations, whiners. At a time when America if fighting World War IV, the war against Islamic terrorism ... you're going to vote for a candidate who wants to treat terrorism as a freaking law enforcement problem because you've made some pitiful jobs choices. Pitiful.

[dhs12345]

A recommendation: count and save your pennies now. Once the global economy equalizes, incomes in America will drop considerably.

My plans

1. Become debt free (including my home mortgage). For the time when I may not have a job.

2. Don't trade in the car for a new one. Have it repaired/rebuilt so that it lasts at least 12 years.

3. Cut down on Christmas, holiday, birthday spending.

4. Don't upgrade computers every three years. Make them last at least five years.

Etc.

If we all did this, I bet you these companies that outsource (along with others) will be whining that consumers are not buying their products.

Besides, we Americans are not very good with our finances -- huge debt, living outside our means, etc.

What goes around comes around.

[dhs12345]

Re-train as what?

[MrB]

Like anyone trying to sell a product (and your skills and labor are just another product in the market),

you have to figure out what the buying public (employers) want and need,

and supply it to them.

[dhs12345]

Nice, generic, answer.

That is the challenge -- figuring out where the next boom will be. And if it takes several years of college to retrain, then timing is another variable.

Unfortunately, many of the jobs being outsourced are not of the hamburger flipping variety (that anyone can do with little training). The jobs are high paying, middle class to upper middle class jobs that take several years of training to become proficient. The "replacement jobs" are likely to require many years of training, too.

I will keep my ear to the rail...

[MrB]

That is the challenge -- figuring out where the next boom will be. I got laid off last year. I quickly determined that what I was good/skilled at was not what was in demand in the job market. I figured this out by looking at the skill requirements listed in job postings. I grabbed up the books, took some juco classes, and got my skills up in the areas that were in demand. Don't waste your time thinking about what you can't do, ask "what can I do to be more valuable?"

[bvw]

Those jobs, moreover, represented a substantial committent of time and money to train for them -- such a committent made in the comfort of government and business projections of the longevity of those careers. Many of use borrowed the money that the government made available -- as part of the National Defense Student Loan program, thinking, gee willikers, we were taking the harder educational road of science and technology to best serve not only our own interests but those of our nation.

If not for those then-honest and good faith projections on the part of the government, the colleges and the business press and associations, if not for that money made available based on that good faith need and projections of need -- we would have chosen careers that had a better operating history, that is -- that were proven business models.

[MacDorcha]

it USED to be simply the widows who had no work experience. some get paid more than i do, most qualify for around $300 a month.

two things about the car part. 1) in the city, where most of these people live, cars are more trouble than they are worth. everything is in walking distance. 2)it was in reference to the fact that they have BOTH a car AND cable. if they NEED a car so badly, why do they have cable tv?

car payments down here can easily make up for a cell phone bill that is only used in emergencies. a cable bill could as well. and why would someone so out of a job need a cell phone? to keep up with work? if they're looking for a job, they can try a job search, those are free to the unemployed.

point is, they get way too much if they can afford all of this. either that, or they're starving themselves with stupidity... but seeing fat people beg ruins that image.

[hedgetrimmer]

Robert Zoellick addressing his true constituents in India on Monday.


US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said India could easily grab a large slice of outsourcing work as long as India set at rest growing fears about job losses in developed nations by opening up new business opportunities(AFP/File/Toshifumi Kitamura)

[hedgetrimmer]

Why is everybody over in India warning them about backlash?


Steve Clemons (R), Executive Vice President of the New America Foundation speaks next to Narayana Murthy, Chairman of Infosys Technologies Ltd, at the annual conference of India's software lobby body NASSCOM, in Bombay February 5, 2004. Clemons said the fact that the U.S. economy was growing without a commensurate creation of new jobs was causing great public turmoil and leading to the backlash against outsourcing services jobs to places like India. REUTERS/Punit Paranjpe

[A. Pole]

I got laid off last year.

I grabbed up the books, took some juco classes, and got my skills up in the areas that were in demand.

What type of advanced skills one can pick in a few months of "juco classes"?

[Paul Ross]

Why don't we just agree that every1 has the natural right to do what they damn well please as long as it is not violating the natural rights (NOT privileges or luxuries, which is what libs try to make into rights) of others?

In other words, in your libertine universe, Benedict Arnold deserved to be made a national hero. This is why no real American can agree with you. Treason is Treason.

[A. Pole]

Become debt free

Yes, bankruptcy will do it, (unless you were foolish enough to spend money on education/retraining - bankruptcy does not cover it).

[MrB]

It was more from the books and cramming than any classes - the classes were just formalizations of what I taught myself. Also, being a "student" allowed access to a lot of resources - online books, computer labs, job clubs.

Specifically, I went from C++ (9 years) to .NET and web development.

The point is not to sit back and whine that nobody wants to pay you to do what you've always done.

[Paul Ross]

Why is everybody over in India warning them about backlash?

The Trade Rep realizes that they might actually be able to use the growing political tidal wave in the U.S. against Cato and the Free Traitors to jawbone India into doing what it has only given lip-service to date for: opening up its markets to U.S. goods. It is their last shot at making 'free trade' work before they are either boosted out of office, or trade war in earnest is forced by a protectionist congress. Change is coming.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Don't EVER libel me w/treason. There are few w/more virulent love and reverence for the Constitution (and era that created it)! I may not always understand it, but I think a whole lot better than most do. Not to mention the fact that most lefties HATE it, and hate the US as well as a whole.


Now what did I say?

"every1 has the natural right to do what they damn well please as long as it is not violating the natural rights of others"

Where in that do you get your idea about treason? *sigh* again, common sense is an uncommon virtue; use it. If you think I approve of even compromising the actual security of the country or the Constitution, you are WAY mistaken.

BTW, exactly how does all this tie in w/treason, anyway? Was that what the thread was about? If so I didn't see it.

[A. Pole]

Specifically, I went from C++ (9 years) to .NET and web development.

OK, so it is comparable to the experienced track driver getting some training how to drive a limo.

[hedgetrimmer]

Here is what India is doing to open its markets to the US:




The President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, adjusts his spectacles at a business meeting in New Delhi, January 27, 2004. India and South America's main trading bloc signed an agreement on Sunday to establish a free trade area aimed at reducing dependence on trade with the rich countries. REUTERS/B Mathur

[Walkin Man]

I just heard on the news that corporate ceo now make 500% more than the workers. 10 years ago it was 40%. Imagine that..

One of the often repeated lies about free trade is the cost savings gained by exporting American middle-class jobs to third world countries will be passed on to the consumer and benefit all.

It's real easy to see who benefits from free trade and its not the average American, thats for *amn sure!

[N3WBI3]

Mayor I feel for you, I had to leave Buffalo a little over a year ago for work in the Twin Cities.

[N3WBI3]

Its foolish to believe that you can have a society of Docters, Lawyers, Police, and Teachers (2 out of the 3 are usually paid by the state).

A society needs to produce something!