Jobs

[SPEEDO]

Job Layoffs

Joe Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN
JAPAN)for 6 a.m.
While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA) was perking, he shaved with his electric
razor (MADE IN HONG KONG).
He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA), designer jeans (MADE IN
SINGAPORE) and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA).
After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA), he
sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO) to see how much he could spend
today.
After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA) he got
in his car (MADE IN GERMANY) and continued his search for a good paying
AMERICAN JOB.
At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day, Joe decided to
relax for a while.
He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL) poured himself a glass of wine (MADE
IN FRANCE) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA), and then wondered why
he can't find a good paying job in.....AMERICA.....

SPEEDO..

[vass0922]

Then he turned on his Dell computer (Assembled in US, parts from somewhere else) Loaded up WIndows (made in US), went through Norton (made in US) first went to cnn.com (US) and looked up getting a Cable modem (service provided by an american company)


There's blue sky ya just gotta have patience...
I admit I am one of the lucky ones that still have a job.

Yes we are inundated with pieces and parts made by other countries but where americans have excelled in the past few years is not in typical industries but in service and software.

We provide services for people around the world, as much as I dislike MS they do provide a LOT of jobs, and a lot of HIGH paying jobs at that. US has behemoths like Intel, and MS and the up and coming AMD that every PC in the world runs on. Now we have companies getting a good foot hold like Redhat, not the strongest financial company right now but they're going in the right direction.

Our businesses provide consulting on nearly everything from building a PC to building a bridge. I admit it would be wonderful to get those jobs back here in the US my brother is laid off (construction work is always tough in winter up north) and just scraping by. The statement above made it appear as if americans do nothing but buy, and alas that is not true we are just not as industrial as we used to be back in the days. The rust belt just isn't quite as rusty as it used to be.

Myself I do drive an american car, and chances are that German made car could of been assembled in the US...

I'd love to help people in need right now, but I'm trying to scrape by myself...

I wish anybody luck and good faith that they will indeed find a job. Sometimes its better to have a lower paying job than no job at all...

[SPEEDO]

You missed the point!

SPEEDO

[vass0922]

Can I get a hand here? lol

I apologize for missing the point, only been up a little over an hour

[Emc2]

I understand the point of it, but why should Joe stop buying stuff made elsewhere? Doesn't his buying contribute to our economy, therefore increasing the number of jobs available? like vass said, we're based on services in this country. That's how Eisenhower got the US out of the depression...gov't services.

Good Luck to all of the Joe Smith's out there

[SPEEDO]

I look at it this way!

If Americans would buy American made products then no one would be out of work!

We are a spending country and we have been spending pretty good!
Now ask yourself where did this money go?
Well of course it went in American banks waiting to be transferred to Taiwan, Japan or Singapore or some other country!

Basically we put the screws to ourselves!

I wonder how many people are online right now screwing around when they should be producing for the company that's paying them!

I have said all that I am going to say on this subject!..

SPEEDO

[BBA]

speedo...sounds pretty simple, but maybe that's the problem...it's not as simplistic as it seems.

Beside that, look at the companies, they are not motivated by keeping the population employed and out of poverty...they are motivated by making the most money for the least outlay. In effect, we Americans, the working blue collar class, must take responsibility to not allow products to be sold within the US if not of US origin, or we must take responsibility for not doing jobs as competively as other copuntries workers.

On top of that, it boggles my mind why any one would support foreign decisions like those made by Clinton. Clinton and the "This is a ONE WORLD economy" concentrated on sharing the wealth from inside the US to countries outside the US, at the cost of poverty of a majority of our working class and still wanted more taxes on those who worked.


Sometimes I wonder why it seems that in 1950, a single man with an average job could marry, buy a house and raise children without poverty yet a single man of today can barely afford car payments and insurance, much less support a family.

[vass0922]

Amen Brother!
Preach on BBA!

I do ok for myself financially, I'm still young in the experience area and working my way up, but for the life of me there is just NO way I could afford even an apartment in this area

Apts around here range from 600 to well way up lol
The 600 dollar apts you have to sleep with the roommates crawling through the walls and listening to salsa or rap music outside till 4am in the morning No offense to people who like that stuff, but its just not my cup of tea!

Even that I would have a hard time trying to afford.
I've worked hard to get where I am, and I can't really show anything for it cause everything costs so damn much.

Yet isnt' this the problem?
We as americans want everything so cheap, so what do companies do to bring prices down? They ship the work overseas to people who make a quarter a day (sadly) to bust their butt for long hours and barely survive.

Average wages in America are much higher, especially when you consider the currency exchange... so american companies dont want to pay that much. Hence ...

Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Brazil, Sri Lanka....

With the exception of Japan they're all 3rd world countries with low incomes...
which means low costs for big american companies....

Facts are facts

[cedar2]

Originally posted by BBA
Beside that, look at the companies, they are not motivated by keeping the population employed and out of poverty...they are motivated by making the most money for the least outlay. In effect, we Americans, the working blue collar class, must take responsibility to not allow products to be sold within the US if not of US origin, or we must take responsibility for not doing jobs as competively as other copuntries workers.

Amen!

For example, southern lumber producers convinced Department of Commerce to put a duty on Canadian softwood lumber imports.
Without going into the rights and wrongs of that, it didn`t add any more jobs or increase wood supply.
What it did was immediately cause a price increase of twenty percent to American housebuilders for framing lumber.
Nothing extra supplied to the consumer, just a higher price going not to creating jobs, but to shareholders. Any duty collected goes not to the government but to those same shareholders because it is paid to the lumber producers.
Construction is a strong economic driver, and is very sensitive to cost. Small increase in the price of a house knocks a lot of people out of the real estate market, and that puts a lot of carpenters and plumbers and carpet salesmen and truck drivers out of work.
People out of work don`t buy computers or furniture or new cars, or go out for dinner very often, and on it spins through the economy.
All that just from cranking up profits to those lumber producers.


You don`t start moving forward til you stop shooting yourself in the foot.

[vass0922]

Also considering that Lumber is one of canada's largest exports, that puts people out of jobs up there as well. If they can't sell as much down here, sales go down... and of course jobs go down. Also in turn lumber people have to bring their prices down to be able to still sell what they do drag out and that hurts them as well

I have a few logger friends up in Ontario...