Posted on 10/24/2010 4:41:44 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
Airing right now...said the real unemployment is at 17.5%...showing tons of people with masters, bachelors, phd's, you name it...unemployed for 2 years...can't even get jobs at Target.
I hope and pray you’re right (she won’t win)!!! But, I just think there are many more idiots out there with the attention span and IQ level equal to (or lower than) the common house fly that would vote for her. Too many people in this country vote for a living.
I suppose Tuesday will tell us what we need to know.
Unbelievable. That would be about $23,500/year in 1989, when I graduated college. That was not as much as the starting salary for engineers with top companies, but it was more than most with bachelor's degrees in business or liberal arts.
I will grant Boston is a much higher cost of living area, but that is why 20-somethings used to share apartments with roommates.
But get this. Scott Nicholson wants to work for a large company, like his father, and in financial services, like his grandfather and brother. So did Scott major in Accounting, where he could get his CPA as a fallback if needed? No. Did Scott major in Economics? No. Did Scott major in Finance? No. Did Scott even major in General Business? No. Did Scott co-op while in college? No.
Scott majored in Political Science with a minor in History.
Yes, working as an insurance adjuster is grunt work in financial services. But it is an entry position. And without specific education which has greater value to an employer, that is still a good offer.
Had he taken it, he would have something on his resume he does not have. Experience. With a couple of years of experience under his belt, he probably could have traded that $40K job for a $60K job in a couple of years. He could have worked as a claims adjuster, lived lean, and started an evening MBA program with a public university.
Instead he thinks the fact he "worked hard" in high school and college should grant him a ticket into a management program at a major financial services firm (which probably go to MBA grads at top-tier B-schools), or even directly being hired into an experienced reinsurer role because "he heard about if from his brother and thinks its a good job."
Scott is a naive idiot. And now the world knows. I would never hire him.
When Obamacare is gone, something has to take its place. Health care costs are spiraling out of control, and something needs to be done to stop that. A big chunk of the reason I believe is fraud. The latest ring of fraudsters scamming Medicare was huge - and proves that the fraud problem is more pernicious and widespread than anyone wants to believe.
The repatriation issue should be coupled with a choice for management: they can retain the earnings, with taxation, or they can issue dividends at greatly reduced taxation. I’d like to see dividends issued, as it would offset the idiocy at the Fed for fixed income investors.
In general, I’d like to see dividends taxed at a low, fixed rate for all income brackets. Cash dividends are a very useful thing in investing.
bump
This 60 Minutes piece did touch on the trend of people in
dire straits cashing in their 401Ks... just another lifeline, however small or large to keep them afloat till things ‘turn around’. If the Obama Administration is THAT tone-deaf to think they could in any way ‘confiscate’ anyone’s 401K, ESPECIALLY after they lose their majority,
it will give rise to the most massive demonstrations imaginable.
If I had my way, we would go back to "hospitalization" insurance, for catastrophic medical problems, and return routine to paying medical expenses out of pocket. This is the basis of High Deductible plans with HSAs.
The repatriation issue should be tied to dividends. If a company has $10M in overseas profit, and they can build an engineering center in Bangalore or pay it out in dividends, they will try to grow the company by building the engineering center in Bangalore. But if they have the choice of building an engineering center in Bangalore or RTP, they may pick RTP.
Please read the following articles:
Kneale: Cisco’s Stimulus Plan Won’t Cost You One Dollar
James S. Tisch: Andy Stern Sees the Light on Overseas Profits
I agree we need to get companies back to paying dividends. But I would rather that be done by reducing overall corporate income taxes. I fear if the government tries to engineer corporate behavior, it will fail.
Well, for starters, we can go back to what we had pre-obamacare. As for costs, remember that insurance now covers a lot more than it used to. We have some states that mandate additional coverage and additional coverage costs additional money. We also have an out-of-control tort system that not only has drastically increased the cost of malpractice insurance, but has also caused doctors to practice "defensive" medicine. Meaning, they're doing additional, often unnecessary testing and treatments solely to avoid being sued. These activities and costs are passed on to the customer as any business expense would.
"Gas, grass, or a%% - no free rides here" - that's what the sign on my friend's van said back in the 1970's. And while many here would not agree with the means of payment, one could certainly agree with the premise that nobody gets a free ride. A variant of that sign needs to stand proudly at the emergency entrance of every hospital. We all pay when an illegal immigrant gets free medical care, either through taxes or through additional rates and fees charged to the paying customers. We all pay when a deadbeat, unemployable, crackhead democrat shows up at the hospital for a free detox program. We all pay for the delivery of those "anchor babies" that some seem to want to protect. We need to stop the practice of placing the burden of one person's expenses upon another. Get rid of the non-paying customers and the cost of providing care would drop significantly.
I'm not saying that doctors who feel so inclined shouldn't be allowed to give a freebie to others. After all, charity is to be encouraged. What I'm saying is that the concept that others must be compelled to pay for someone's health care is nothing short of slavery.
An analogy: If you go to the store to buy a gallon of milk, it's $3 regardless of whether you have $100, $10, or $0 in your pocket. If you don't have the $3, you don't get the milk. The idea that the person with $100 should be forced, through taxation or otherwise, to buy milk for the person with $0 is preposterous. The person with $0 should improve their own situation until they have sufficient skills to earn what they need to buy the milk. If they choose not to do that, they don't get the milk.
Looks like both your charts represent U-3; CNN is citing U-6.
You know, the idea about exposing the news for what it is is a really good idea. It’s teachable, too, and could be a really ‘sexy,’ jazzed-up endeavor, too—with a ‘this is them...This is the truth’ ring to it.
I like this idea, Frantzie. You’d be fighting at Lepanto all over again.
Bring back the Poll Tax:
“Based on your level of humanity and shortsightedness, I can understand why someone might feel that way.”
Stop it. That’s uncalled for. You put these words in print against a fellow FReeper. I don’t care who someone is, people who join here to post don’t join to have to defend their sheer existence. You and I both know everyone here is a target for the DOJ Blogsquad, gathering every last post and word for their data warehouses & future actions. That you would attack someone, even someone you vehemently disagree with, right down to his/her being, is uncalled for. Being snide is one thing. Being vicious is another. So, STOP IT.
I took an assembly language class on the Motorola 68000 chip once. It was pretty funny the first day of class. I was the last one there because I had a class clear across campus. They were going around the room, “What’s your name, major and have you ever programmed in assembly language before?” When the got to me, I told them I had programmed in COMPASS on Control Data mainframe operating systems for 22 years and wrote diagnostics in microcode assembly language (MICA) on CyberPlus parallel processors and the Joint Stars radar processor for 5 years. This girl sitting in front of me turns around and says, What the **** are you doing in here?” I replied, “For some reason my advisor thought I needed to learn the Motorola chip, but I would be happy if it was Intel.” A big discussion ensued about Motorola vs Intel. Finally this kid (they were all kids compared to me) in the back of the room says, “They still use Motorola chips for printers.” I turned around and said, “Prosecution rests.” The whole class busted out laughing. Those kids treated me like I was some sort of national treasure in that class.
No worries. I usually land on my feet. This is the first time in 39+ years working I’ve had to file for unemployment.
They may not have blamed Bush, but they also didn’t blame Obama. That’s a clue. They also mentioned that benefits were about to run out. I think that was the point, to urge the gov’t to continue unemployment benefits.
It's your problem, not mine. There may come a day when you're as low as you've ever been and have lost hope, and I certainly hope you don't encounter some idiot behaving as youv'e behaved on this thread when you do.
Have a good day.
You’ll encounter it someday. I’ve told candidates that, and I’ve been told that myself when interviewing. You have a problem with the truth, take it up with your pastor.
If The Republicans take the House, the media will be able to lay the blame for the next two years on them, thereby protecting Obama for 2012.
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