Posted on 02/18/2004 5:12:57 AM PST by 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.
Complain? hardly- starting my own business again.
Aha, but not in a COMMUNIST country. And that's what the demoncRATS are pushing for. A Marxist state where 'they' control everything.
Yea...I was working with John Robinson.Im famous. ;)
Again, there is no economic law concerning the equilibrium between profits and wages. Obviously, no company will produce a product that no-one can buy. This mythical america where rich companies are producing products that no-one can buy is just another fantasy from those who, for some mysterious reason, HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO GRASP THE BASICS OF ECONOMICS.
In some areas there are record rates of foreclosures --- there is not a lot of legal protection for private property when people have no jobs. You can even lose your private property when job loss prevents you from paying property taxes --- the government will just take it away from you.
OK, then following the logic of the protectionists, go ahead and explain to us how Mexico's error was unfettered capitalism and insufficient protectionism.
There is an equilibrium wage in the labor market, where the supply and demand curves intersect.
American IT workers may have been the best...But they are not willing to live on $10,000-20,000 a year. And even if they were willing to do so, how can they,in virtually any part of the USA? Even in the rural midwest, those wages would not cover the normal living expenses-rent, food, car, utilities, emergency money...Not to mention the loans to pay back for college, where s/he learned the skills that are now too high for a labor market that includes the worst of the Third World.
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.
Regardless of our "skill" level, the employer will prefer to outsource to people who want $10,000-20,000 a year-regardless of any fall off in quality that may result. Our skills and experience and knowledge are irrelevant-the CEOs will go for the cheapest worker.
Do you want companies to stop outsourcing IT jobs to India?
We have not yet begun tosee what a disasterous mistake outsourcing is. That she-dog who threatened to put confidential patient information online unless she was given a $10,000 bribe? I'll bet she's the tip of the iceberg. I wonder how many Americans are going to lose their credit-their savings-their identities, when the Third World helps itself to their financial data-and we've seen a ton of articles at FR re: financial data being outsourced-including IRS info.
Ditto for manufacturing.
This guy ends his screed with a WW IV reference...Does he ever stop to wonder just how we are going to be able to fight wars when our armaments, ammo, uniforms, etc, are being made by countries that hate us,including one that has threatened more than once to bomb LA?
...because you've made some pitiful jobs choices.
Like the "pitiful" decision to become a nurse-when native nurses are fired and Filipinas hired in their place at $7.00 an hour. Ditto doctors. Or the pitiful decision to become an accountant-when corporations are outsourcing their financial work. Or the pitiful decision to major in IT or CS-ditto. May I remind the author of this screed that those are the sort of jobs we were SUPPOSED to get when the factories went overseas? Good grief, there is NO degree we can get, no skills we can perfect, that cannot be done elsewhere for 1/10th the cost, NOT because we're "greedy" , but because the cost of living in this country-even the cheap sections-is high.The US government helps itself to 40% of the average taxpayer's earnings! Never mind housing, food, car payments, utilities....
People like this won't be happy till no one in this country can survive unless they're a hooker, drug dealer, nude dancer, or massage parlor girl-and what's to stop illegal aliens from doing THOSE jobs for less? OK, there's still cop, firefighter, prison guard, hotel and restaurant staff, cashier...But it should be remembered that some of those jobs are quota/AA jobs, and if you're the wrong color/gender for that area, you're SOL, and the remainder are more and more "reserved" for illegal aliens. We're "too proud and lazy" to do the jobs we were doing right up to the day they fired us and hired illegals (I could tell some real horror stories of what was done tol ocal-black and white workers at the poultry processing plants.) And smug SOBs like the author of this screed need to remember...even in your job seems safe and unoutsourceable (eg,lawyer), how does that help you if-because of the loss first of manufacturing jobs, then of customer service jobs, then of white collar/professional jobs-no one can afford to buy your services?
That's the way to do it. Market forces, market forces, market forces.
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