Your Job May Be Next!

The New American ^ | 3/10/03 | William F. Jasper

[findingtruth]

Maybe this article expalins why my nephew, who graduated from Marquette three years ago with a EE degree, still hasn't a decent job.

The New American contains a follow-up article, "Why the Race to the Bottom," by the same author says, "The two related articles...present a relatively small sampling of the mountains of evidence pointing towards America's precipitous slide from world power to Third World has-been. Our once un-matched manufacturing production capablities have been strip-mined and exported to Asia and Latin America, along with millions of blue collar jobs that provided a livelihood for middle-class families. At the same time, millions of foreign workers, legal and illegal, have been imported to the U.S., thanks to the policies of successive Democrat and Republican administrations."

[freeper12]

bump for later read

[Torie]

decent job

That lets the cat out of the bag. The guy isn't bitching that he doesn't have a job; he just thinks he isn't paid enough. He doesn't like global competition, and wants the market closed to prop up his wage. With his attitude he should have become a lawyer. Not too many of those damn furriners in that field, and one gets paid to mouth off.

[sauropod]

I agree. Abolish H1-B.

[DoughtyOne]

First it was the jobs. Then it was the engineering departments. Folks don't seem to understand what this means for the United States long term. Here's a hint. We won't manufacture it, design it or eventually be able to afford it.

We went to the moon with these skills. We'll be going nowhere from here on out.

I balked but manufacturing wasn't needed they said. Computer jobs and stocks were all we needed.

Heh heh heh. Things sure are lookin' good.

[DoctorMichael]

Bump. Good article. We're losing our country.

I'm not gonna let myself get into a rant except to say:

LISTEN UP WASHINGTON!!!!!!!!!!!!

..........or one day the peasants-with-the-pitchforks will be showing up at YOUR gated community someday.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Willie Green]

The guy isn't bitching that he doesn't have a job; he just thinks he isn't paid enough. He doesn't like global competition,

So you're an advocate of Third World wages and benefits for American citizens?

[Huck]

Right. Unemployment hovers somewhere under 6%. That means 94 of every 100 Americans is employed. The end is near. Run for your lives!

[gcruse]

Say, Willie, this article is from the John Birch Society. Oh, wait, that doesn't bother you at all. Never mind.

[Billy_bob_bob]

Note that the article talks about a new "L1" program that is even worse than H1-B.

[sinkspur]

We won't manufacture it, design it or eventually be able to afford it.

If we can't afford it, nobody else will be able to, either.

Let's just curl up and die.

[Torie]

I am an advocate for people being paid for the value they add, without artifical economic barriers, which tend to deflect folks into areas where they add less value. In point of fact, where US workers add the most value are intangible goods, which you probably don't think are goods at all, such as ideas, art, design, finance, marketing, inventions, and management systems. The US is wealthy because of the inherent value added by its workers, not because they are protected from slave labor products from China, Mexico and other brutish places, as you would deem them.

[Billy_bob_bob]

Do you really believe the government unemployment numbers? Do you know that they don't count people who don't receive unemployment benefits? I'm on record as having stated that the government unemployment numbers have more in common with the orbit of Mars than they do with the actual percentage of people who want work but cannot find it.

[Lessismore]

..........or one day the peasants-with-the-pitchforks will be showing up at YOUR gated community someday.

How are the peasants-with-the-pitchforks going to afford the air fare? The rich have long since stopped living in the urban centers. Lots have stopped living in the United States.

[Alberta's Child]

The government unemployment figures are meaningless for the reason you gave, but what is quite meaningful is how the figure changes from month to month. An unemployment rate of 5.8% doesn't mean anything, but when compared to the previous month's rate of 5.6% it does tell us something.

There is only one economic indicator that I pay any attention to, and lately it has been giving a good signal -- I don't go near the shopping mall in the town across the river from me on weekends because it is too freakin' crowded.

[valkyrieanne]

Right. Unemployment hovers somewhere under 6%. That means 94 of every 100 Americans is employed.

It means nothing of the sort. US unemployment statistics only count those who are drawing unemployment compensation & who register w/ the state unemployment offices while they do so. The stats do *not* count those whose unemployment has run out (but are still looking for work); nor do they count those who have given up looking for work. In addition, the stats do not count those who have been graduated from high school or college & cannot find a job or profession.

Further, the stats don't count people who've been out of the work force for some time (like returning housewives) who cannot find work.

Neither do unemployment statistics show anything about the serious *underemployment* that's occurring. It is a serious problem when an engineer takes a job at Home Depot at 1/3 of his former salary because his job has been outsourced to Beijing or Bangalore.

This is all going to snap back and slap the Republicans in the face in 2004.

[Lessismore]

The US is wealthy because

The US seems wealthy because we're putting it all on our credit cards.

[drachenfels]

I've got a BA in history from a major university in the Midwest. I've spent the last 8 years as a network admin. I am an army reservist with 19 years active and reserve time. I was mobilized a year ago january.. My employer ceased operations last may. I started job hunting from the post that I was stationed at last october. I returned home during the holidays. I've had about a dozen interviews; no offers. Things are remarkably dry; I'm willing to travel, and carry a current security classification.

At this point, I'm trying to get back on orders for my final year in the reserve... because I hope like hell that business improves, so that I can find a job then.

I've looked into forming my own LLC corporation, and do consulting on the side... yet the costs of even this are (to include reporting requirements to the state and IRS) are prohibitive.

I remain of good cheer... but am getting damn concerned.

cheers

[mrb1960]

Stop making light of this, it's not that it's 94 out of 100 are working, is that where the manufacturing bases are concerned, the jobs are ALL LEAVING!

Look at this way, in towns that don't have a manufacturing-base economy, they're near 100% employed, but where there was or is a manufacturing-based economy, the employment rate is most likely near 70-80%. That's 20-30% out of work because our government saw fit to ship our JOBS OVERSEAS!!!! Those same towns are quickly becoming ghost towns!

Choke on that!