Hypocrisy

[Cross-7]

Too easy to draw a welfare check opposed to work
Until that's fixed we won't see an improvement

 

[NECowboy]

Too easy to draw a welfare check opposed to work
Until that's fixed we won't see an improvement

So what explains the high unemployment rate in manufacturing states like South Carolina and Michigan during the last Great Recession? You'd see Michigan plates all over the south from people who moved to escape the Michigan economy. People that wanted to work but had to move to find a job. I agree that there are a lot of people who don't want to work - too many but we also have a fundamental economic problem that we are replacing good manufacturing jobs with low paid service jobs tied to our unsteady consumer spending. States like Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska have been a lot more immune - we are lucky - but go to much of the Southeast and the coasts and you can't always say the same thing.

 

[Kingfisher]

So what about the lazy American store owner that wants 4 times what a feeder battery is worth? Doesn't matter cuz he's out stock any way...

 

[Workinonit Farm]

If you're going to be paying 3x as much for something, you expect at least double the quality.. Wrangler jeans used to have a special weave that prevented them from fraying.. now it's a standard weave using the same garbage, short strand, low quality cotton all the other jeans are made of.

We had some custom printed (silk screened) T-shirts made up (at a local screen printer/T-shirt business) for my husband's/our business. When going over the design, shirt styles, types etc., we were presented with a few options. Gildan, Fruit of The Loom, one other and then a small USA based company called Bayside. We opted for Bayside's shirts. They cost just about 2X what the Gildan's and others cost. BUT, 3 years later, they were well worth it! Only 1 shirt is starting to fray at the sleeves. The printing hasn't faded. The shirt quality is amazing. Worn daily, sometimes 2 shirts a day (change from wet/sweaty to a dry) for at least 9 months out of the year. He/we do landscaping/hardscaping. Laying/installing patios, walkways, walls, plantings etc. These shirts get abused.

Its about time for us to order some more, as the primary colors of the shirts are starting to fade, and lots of the stains have begun to set. I hope that USA company, Bayside, is still in business, and still makes such good quality shirts. 100% cotton, pre-shrunk.

 

[Nesikep]

Good to hear.. I'll keep my eyes open for them

 

[City Guy]

Centuries ago "Foreign Trade" meant swapping something your nation had exclusively (bananas, silk, coffee etc) for another nations exclusive products. That was fair. Nowadays it more often than not means trading your manufactured product for their manufactured product and nations with high standards of living get beat to a pulp on wages, environmental issues, health and safety regulations, human rights, taxes etc. The solution is to insist that foreign producers meet our standards or pay an appropriate penalty. We must do this NOW while we are still the strongest economic power. Can't accomplish much from the runner-up position.

 

[greybeard]

Centuries ago "Foreign Trade" meant swapping something your nation had exclusively (bananas, silk, coffee etc) for another nations exclusive products. That was fair. Nowadays it more often than not means trading your manufactured product for their manufactured product and nations with high standards of living get beat to a pulp on wages, environmental issues, health and safety regulations, human rights, taxes etc. The solution is to insist that foreign producers meet our standards or pay an appropriate penalty. We must do this NOW while we are still the strongest economic power. Can't accomplish much from the runner-up position.

Good luck with any of that. It's been tried before on different continents, and it never succeeds.

 

[City Guy]

greybeard, Examples, please.

 

[TexasBred]

So what about the lazy American store owner that wants 4 times what a feeder battery is worth? Doesn't matter cuz he's out stock any way...

:clap: :clap: :nod: :nod:

 

[TexasBred]

Look around your homestead top to bottom. Compare the amount of foreign made items to the amount of American made items. We are the problem.

 

[shaz]

Probably the same thing the former makers of buggy whips and typewriters did. Adapt and move on.

Yeah, but if you only need 5 workers to run a plant and you have 250 people that can do the job, what are you going to do? Not everyone is mentally capable of moving on to a different job. At my place of work, there are a lot of low level workers who this is their 'reach' job that they struggled to get through school to achieve. You lose that and what are they going to do? We are automating ourselves out of jobs at an alarming rate, I'm afraid, and at some point we're going to pay the piper.

No such thing as being only able to do one job in life. Sure they can learn another trade. Probably didn't take them but one day to learn the one they do at your work place.

You really have to understand that manufacturing workers will never be welders, HVAC, computer programmers ect..
Skilled trades require personal commitment and you don't get that with the people in plants today. I work in electronic manufacturing and I can tell you these aren't career minded folks. Without this plant they would be in real trouble.

They STILL gripe about having to work overtime though!

 

[True Grit Farms]

Probably the same thing the former makers of buggy whips and typewriters did. Adapt and move on.

Yeah, but if you only need 5 workers to run a plant and you have 250 people that can do the job, what are you going to do? Not everyone is mentally capable of moving on to a different job. At my place of work, there are a lot of low level workers who this is their 'reach' job that they struggled to get through school to achieve. You lose that and what are they going to do? We are automating ourselves out of jobs at an alarming rate, I'm afraid, and at some point we're going to pay the piper.

No such thing as being only able to do one job in life. Sure they can learn another trade. Probably didn't take them but one day to learn the one they do at your work place.

You really have to understand that manufacturing workers will never be welders, HVAC, computer programmers ect..
Skilled trades require personal commitment and you don't get that with the people in plants today. I work in electronic manufacturing and I can tell you these aren't career minded folks. Without this plant they would be in real trouble.

They STILL gripe about having to work overtime though!

Everyone isn't going to be a brain surgeon or rocket scientist. As long as someone has a job their doing something to help this country out. Hopefully they'll make taking a drug test a job, before you can collect a check.

 

[callmefence]

N:

Everyone isn't going to be a brain surgeon or rocket scientist. As long as someone has a job their doing something to help this country out. Hopefully they'll make taking a drug test a job, before you can collect a check.

I am fence and I agree with this post

 

[callmefence]

So what about the lazy American store owner that wants 4 times what a feeder battery is worth? Doesn't matter cuz he's out stock any way...

:clap: :clap: :nod: :nod:

What makes him lazy? Just wondering.
Also a feeder battery is worth what someone will pay for it. And if he's out of stock well......maybe he's selling em to cheap

 

[greybeard]

greybeard, Examples, please.

In the early days of ARAMCO, US producers attempted to get SA to use US workers instead of their own low paid unskilled workers--it didn't fly.
Same with Venezuela before Chavez nationalized all the US developed oil fields and refineries there. The US tried to get Venzuela to raise the pay and safety standards there and Venezuela just laughed at us, even after being threatened with boycotts.

The Mexican, maquiladoras of the 80s were death traps, long hours, poor pay and quality no matter what kind of changes the US tried to force on them. Congress held hearings, threatened companies with fines, but in the end, it proved impossible to improve any of them much.

Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Indian companies have been ostracized forever about the poor quality and poor working conditions in their textile factories--nothing changed because as in the above examples, we just don't have enough political and economic leverage to force a change--there's plenty of other markets nowadays for their goods besides us.
Whether one likes or even admits we are part of a global economy or not, we're in it, and cannot survive just passing the same $$$ around ourselves--we have to be able to sell our products abroad, and we can't do that if we they can't sell theirs here.

 

[TexasBred]

Probably the same thing the former makers of buggy whips and typewriters did. Adapt and move on.

Yeah, but if you only need 5 workers to run a plant and you have 250 people that can do the job, what are you going to do? Not everyone is mentally capable of moving on to a different job. At my place of work, there are a lot of low level workers who this is their 'reach' job that they struggled to get through school to achieve. You lose that and what are they going to do? We are automating ourselves out of jobs at an alarming rate, I'm afraid, and at some point we're going to pay the piper.

No such thing as being only able to do one job in life. Sure they can learn another trade. Probably didn't take them but one day to learn the one they do at your work place.

You really have to understand that manufacturing workers will never be welders, HVAC, computer programmers ect..
Skilled trades require personal commitment and you don't get that with the people in plants today. I work in electronic manufacturing and I can tell you these aren't career minded folks. Without this plant they would be in real trouble.

They STILL gripe about having to work overtime though!

No you're job will never be in danger from them but they can find better jobs. Just might have to work a little longer, think a little harder and put out a little more effort for that extra money they'll be making.

 

[City Guy]

I feel we do have the clout to make changes, but we are afraid to use it or don't know how to use it. If the penalties are levied against the US importers they in turn will exert pressure on the exporters to pressure their governments for change. It will really work if the penalties are levied against US companies bringing their foreign made goods back into the US.

 

[shaz]

No such thing as being only able to do one job in life. Sure they can learn another trade. Probably didn't take them but one day to learn the one they do at your work place.

You really have to understand that manufacturing workers will never be welders, HVAC, computer programmers ect..
Skilled trades require personal commitment and you don't get that with the people in plants today. I work in electronic manufacturing and I can tell you these aren't career minded folks. Without this plant they would be in real trouble.

They STILL gripe about having to work overtime though!

Everyone isn't going to be a brain surgeon or rocket scientist. As long as someone has a job their doing something to help this country out. Hopefully they'll make taking a drug test a job, before you can collect a check.

Funny you should mention it but we just dropped the high school diploma requirement but we require a drug test. HR lady told me out of 15 applicants we probably wouldn't get 3! Wow...

 

[True Grit Farms]

You really have to understand that manufacturing workers will never be welders, HVAC, computer programmers ect..
Skilled trades require personal commitment and you don't get that with the people in plants today. I work in electronic manufacturing and I can tell you these aren't career minded folks. Without this plant they would be in real trouble.

They STILL gripe about having to work overtime though!

Everyone isn't going to be a brain surgeon or rocket scientist. As long as someone has a job their doing something to help this country out. Hopefully they'll make taking a drug test a job, before you can collect a check.

Funny you should mention it but we just dropped the high school diploma requirement but we require a drug test. HR lady told me out of 15 applicants we probably wouldn't get 3! Wow...

It's really sad to see the people of this country flush themselves down the drain. And the rest of us support and make it possible for them to do it.

 

[RanchMan90]

Everyone isn't going to be a brain surgeon or rocket scientist. As long as someone has a job their doing something to help this country out. Hopefully they'll make taking a drug test a job, before you can collect a check.

Funny you should mention it but we just dropped the high school diploma requirement but we require a drug test. HR lady told me out of 15 applicants we probably wouldn't get 3! Wow...

It's really sad to see the people of this country flush themselves down the drain. And the rest of us support and make it possible for them to do it.

The oil field is hiring again. I just got a call to go to work in north dakota for $38 an hour working 7-12s. Should I take it?