The pulse of America

[WabcoRob]

America has a pulse? I thought it flat lined sometime ago.

There are very few people that know the difference between drawing a pay check and earning one. Most people seem to believe that all one has to do is go to the backyard and pull money off the tree. If we could market laziness and stupidity, the USA would be rolling in the dough.

I have never figured out why people choose to use a guy in his sixties, over someone in their thirties. The guy in his sixties and above probably isn't running any machines himself any longer. Someone in their thirties is still in the trenches, hard work hasn't done him in yet. I'm 44 and each year I age, I get more clients. After jumping off equipment and climbing over excavation sites, I now crawl out cabs. My prime was sometime before 40. Will I ever jump again?

 

[ddigger]

I have never figured out why people choose to use a guy in his sixties, over someone in their thirties. The guy in his sixties and above probably isn't running any machines himself any longer.

A post like yours, only confirms the point. That you dont know, THAT you dont know. What your talking about.

 

[WabcoRob]

I know exactly what I'm talking about. Do you? If you had the capacity to comprehend, never mind too big of words for you. Try reading ****, Jane and Spot; then get back to me.

Edit: A prime example of what is wrong, the name of a person banned. The good old USA, politicially correct even when it is wrong. Said worse when I get a paper cut. By the way I'm a tad bit sarcastic for those that can't tell. For those really slow

S A R C A S T I C

 

[ddigger]

Your not worth my time, and you have just proved, my point. Good day.

 

[WabcoRob]

And you proved mine. Too stupid to debate. Americans thank you for making them shine.

 

[ddigger]

I said good day!

 

[mitch504]

nice fella, ain't he, ddigger. Does he want to be unemployed when he is older?

 

[CM1995]

OK, I think that is enough, let's all get back to an intelligent conversation discussing the topic. The discussion taking place within this thread is very important to most of our members and I will not allow this thread to get sidetracked with a sophmoric exchange.

Edit: A prime example of what is wrong, the name of a person banned. The good old USA, politicially correct even when it is wrong. Said worse when I get a paper cut. By the way I'm a tad bit sarcastic for those that can't tell. For those really slow

S A R C A S T I C

Well the autosensor software cannot differentiate between a word used for a name as well as a vulgar term. It's just the way it is.:cool2

 

[dayexco]

CAT FIGHT!!!....gees, a meeting of the minds, and nobody showed up

 

[OCR]

The pulse of Amarica:

Try reading Richard, Jane, and Spot

There... an old man fixed it for ya'... :tong

Bah ha ha ha ha!



OCR... :lmao

 

[WabcoRob]

At least I learned one thing. The folks at the Senior Citizen Center all stick together.

 

[CM1995]

this thread is closed until further notice!

 

[CM1995]

OK, let's see if we can get this thread back on track.

There are many good points brought up so far but I will get back to the discussion me and digger was having:

Here's where I think you're missing my point. Wall Street, for example, makes tons of money. It moves money around from point A to point B, and siphons off a little every time it does. What does it "produce"?

Digger, I don't think you fully understand the term "moocher". Who said the Wall Street types aren't moochers?:cool2

Back to the Atlas Shrugged definition of a moocher. Ann Rand described the moochers not necessarily as the person who recieves public assistance but rather the politicians and the businessmen in cohorts with them that take through the pasing of laws and regulations from the producers and give to the moochers.

I think one of the biggest threats to the middle class and small businesses are the career politicians on both sides of the aisle and lobbyists in DC, flush with corporate money to influence laws and regulations on behalf of the corporations who hire them. Just look at the tax law and the monsterous health care bill.

IMO, we need to throw the babies out with the bath water this time in DC. What we need as a country is new blood in DC and hold them accountable. The career politicians in DC are not the Statesmen that our Founding Fathers had in mind that would take time away from the farm or business, serve their term and go back home, thus recirculating common sense blood through our gov't.

I think we as Citizens should demand term limits for Congress, same as our President, 2 terms.

On a different note: Did you know that the Federal Reserve (who controls the US money supply) is a private entity?:cool2

 

[Tiny]

Thank You CM1995 for having the good sense to control this post and keep it on track.

Career politicians are not what the founders had in mind .Some of the guys from Missouri have been in office since I was in high school.

One has been in there so long he feels he does not have to answer for they votes he makes .....hes been reelected for years and will leave when hes carried out feet 1st.

Those are the guys that
need to see the unemployment line

 

[JDOFMEMI]

CM1995

Many thanks for not letting this turn into an out of control thread.


Digger242
I still think you are missing my point. I did not say that there would be a 1:1 replacement of the jobs lost in any local area. That has also been the nature of progress from the earliest times. The jobs created that I mentioned are spread far and wide. some may be local, say the mechanic and dealer for the machine, but they will be few where the labor displaced by the machines will be many. The point is that somewhere in the economy there is new jobs created. They will likely be spread worldwide, and some will pay more while some will pay less.
Each business will chose to do things in a way likely to make the most profit. If not, they will stagnate and likely fail. Labor intensive jobs will move to areas where labor is cheaper, while costly to transport jobs will stay close to the end user. Like in the car assembly example earlier. If something is easy (effecient) to move, you can assemble it anywhere.
The displaced labor will have to make choices. This gets to my point. Some will chose to undergo training for a new career in a different field, some will move to an area with more potential work of the type they did before, some will start their own small business and try to make it that way. There are also those who will sit on their porch and cry that "someone" should take care of them.

I agree though that currently, even for someone motivated to find their own way, the options and opportunities are very few. That will change, in time.
You are right about there being less options for the "strong back, weak mind" group, but they are still there. They also find it harder and harder to land a job that will support a middle class lifestyle.

 

[CM1995]

Tiny, Jerry thanks for the appreciation.

Jerry, I share the same view of how technology evolves and how a worker has to evolve with it or be left behind. I had a large post typed up the other day but the laptops battery took a dump.:bash Anyway...

I need to explain the example I made in a previous post about the skid and mini replacing a crew of 10-12 guys. In the '70's, a builder would have 10-12 guys with wheel barrows and shovels do most of the fine grade work, spreading stone in basements, etc. (Although they did have a tractor with a box blade and track loaders for the heavy work).

In my example the skid and mini didn't take these jobs, the recession of the early '80's did that, as this builder went out of business during that time.

The skids didn't catch on until the later part of the '80's and mini's in the '90's. When the residential market started to come back in the mid to late '80's it was a different game with different players. The new builders had to find ways to do things more efficiently in order to compete- thus enter the skid into the business.

If anyone has been in a manually labor intensive business, you know that if you need 10-12 regular employees to show up you need 25-30 on the payroll. The skid replaced this labor hassle with a more efficient, faster way of doing things.

We shouldn't be worried about loosing jobs that technological advances render obsolete. As someone has pointed out earlier, that is why we in the US have a high standard of living. Technology has a way of closing one door but opening another. We all have to adapt in one way or the other, that's what has built our country.

The current "mini-depression" is the reason why so many able minded people are out of work and cannot find a job. This too will pass.

Another example of one door opening and another closing:

Take the first mass produced automobile. Until the first auto was available to the masses, transportation basically consisted of animal or steam power. As the auto gained market share from the horse and buggy industry, I am sure they were worried about the loss of jobs- what were the blacksmiths, horse breaders and buggy makers going to do? Rightly so they should have been worried because obviously they could not fathom the size of the coming auto industry and the opportunities it would create.

My point being is that the displaced blacksmiths, horse breeders and buggy makers became the auto dealers, mechanics, salesman, gas station owners and attendants, etc. One door closed and another opened. Here is the history of one of the oldest Ford dealers and how Mr Long was able to see the future and was generously rewarded for it.

Mr Long, previously to his first Ford dealership, owned a hardware store with probably a dozen or so employees. He did not shut his hardware store down as it is still in business today. Now how many jobs did that Model T bring to Alabama?

Referring to the computer taking away a bookkeepers job, I don't see how that could ever happen. The computer has greatly increased the efficiency in which business operates but along with the efficiency of the computer, new regulations and paperwork requirements have been enacted, which IMO has negated any real efficiency the computer has provided. The office still requires the same amount staff for the same amount of work today as it did prior to computers being widely used in business, since 25-30 years ago we didn't have near the paperwork requirements of today for a small business.

 

[norite]

My thoughts are that technology advances and machines wear out. The owners of a factory after say 30 years find it is cheaper to build a new plant rather than upgrade the existing one. Anyone who has renovated a house for themselves (not to flip) knows this. If you are going to build a new plant anyway why not build it where labour is cheaper. Why wouldn't management do this, it is the best method to increase the profits for the owners/shareholders and this will keep that CEO salary and bonus's going up.

The problem is that it is bad for our workers, our other businesses and our country. When these jobs head overseas we lose wages, supplier and service business and taxes. Then we buy back the products and enrich workers in another country, the supplier and service business owners there and a foreign government, that we may have to defend ourselves from someday.

Can someone explain to me how "free" trade with China is making our countrys better? I could see if we competed on a level playing field but how can we compete with a country like China whose workers are not free and some commit suicide to escape their poor living conditions. A country that keeps it's currency artificially low so no other country can compete with them. How can we afford to live free in a democracy with all it's extra costs and obligations when we compete with a communist dictatorship?

I think the politicians have sold us out to the corporations. We need term limits for all politicians and the banning of corporate campaign donations and advertising, most of which is totally unregulated and lets put duties back on cheap foreign goods.

I saw somewhere that if you analyse the operation of most corporations (not all) comparing it to the symptoms of a mental disorder that they would be classified as psycopathic with no respect for people, laws, ethics only focused on the pursuit of short term profits.

Here is the true bottom line, if we make it more profitable to make products here then corporations will do so.

 

[digger242j]

I'm going to be away from HEF for the next day and a half,

And you notice when the thread went to hell... :cool2

Just got home after a six hour drive. I'll ruminate on the reasonable comments and get back to you later.

 

[ontrac]

CM1995, Can you correct the spelling in the title please?

 

[ontrac]

Thank you.