Replies to post #124595 on Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[market_watcher]

Lots of good stuff in there. I found this interesting:

But who is going to pay for all the retraining? Employers? Fiscally strapped local governments? The federal government? Not likely.

Gee, how about the person who needs the retraining? I took out mucho student loans in my day and that was the choice I was faced with, take out loans or go to a lower quality school or no school. If someone isn't willing to invest in himself, why would an employer want to invest in hiring him? Student loans are some of the cheapest money around, partially b/c they are subsidized but also b/c lenders recognize that increasing one's human capital is usually a positive NPV endeavor.

[Zeev Hed]

Nice observations, though a little late... (see my comments on that subject from January #msg-647331 and from April #msg-952767, much more concise as well <g>). Shedding low paying jobs and replacing these with high paying jobs is good in the long haul, even though the dislocations created may cause pain in the immediate future.

Zeev

[bigmak]

Howdy hightecheast and the rest of the board.

Been lurking a long time, registerd Friday cuz I knew something would come up this weekend that I would just have to comment on and here it is.

I've been in manufacturing for the last 25 years and have been witness to the slow bleed. I find this whole series of articles quite disturbing. One particular catch phrase that has got my dander up is "move up the value chain".

I've watched the present crew trickle out the door for the last 2 years knowing these jobs are not coming back this time. Most of the laid off people think they will come back but I know it ain't so. It feels different this time. Most of them were young and had just gotten out of trade school. Some were older but too stupid to pump gas let alone "move up the value chain".

Most of them are still sucking the gummint tit, some have moved down the value chain. However I know of no one that has moved up the "value chain." There ain't no jobs there either.

This year in this state 3 machinist programs at technical schools are shutting down for good. Last year for the first time in the history of this great nation we produced more lawyers than machinists. And we're going to need those lawyers to sort out the mess we're in.

Which begs the question again, where are the jobs going to come from? In my estimation for every one that can "move up the value chain" 10 will have to move down. Make a living suing each other? Mowing each others lawn or painting each others over priced house? I've got an idea for a new business. Since I've been a metal worker all my life I can make a living installing wrought iron metal bars on rich peoples houses. They're going to need them 10 years from now.

A wise man once said we can't have a strong economy serving each other hamburgers. Now I hear they're making those offshore also.

Regards, with tongue firmly planted in cheek,

bigmak