Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (19203)	12/9/2003 2:13:08 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793670

NY Daily News The manager of Al Gore's 2000 losing presidential campaign, Donna Brazile, remains a loyal Democrat. But that didn't stop her from harpooning her party's presidential candidates at the Winter Gridiron Dinner at the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia: "John Kerry really wanted to be here. Unfortunately, he fired his schedule ... both of his drivers quit ... and his wife thinks this place is a slum. She does, however, encourage you to enjoy the ketchup." Brazile added: "Howard Dean would like to be here but this is the night he attends anger-management class ... John Edwards wanted to be here, but the ambulance he was chasing took a wrong turn." nydailynews.com

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (19203)	12/9/2003 4:24:37 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793670

Good, good, good. You don't work on the setup, you don't get invited to the party. December 9, 2003 U.S. Bars Iraq Contracts for Nations That Opposed War By DOUGLAS JEHL - New York Times WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 — The Pentagon has barred French, German and Russian companies from competing for $18.6 billion in contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq, saying the step "is necessary for the protection of the essential security interests of the United States." The directive, which was issued by the deputy defense secretary, Paul D. Wolfowitz, represents perhaps the most substantive retaliation to date by the Bush administration against American allies who opposed its decision to go to war in Iraq. The administration had warned before the war that countries that did not join an American-led coalition would not have a voice in decisions about the rebuilding of Iraq. But the administration had not previously made clear that French, German and Russian companies would be excluded from competing for the lucrative reconstruction contracts, which include the rebuilding of Iraq's infrastructure and equipping its army. Under the guidelines, which were issued on Friday but became public knowledge today, only companies from the United States, Iraq and 61 other countries designated as "coalition partners" will be allowed to bid on the contracts, which are financed by American taxpayers. Among the eligible countries are Britain, the closest American ally in Iraq, as well Poland and Italy, which have contributed troops to the American-led security effort. But the list also includes other nations whose support has been less evident, including Turkey, which allowed American aircraft to fly over its territory but barred American forces at the last minute from using its soil as a staging point to invade Iraq from the north in March. The directive by Mr. Wolfowitz does not spell out a precise argument for why allowing French, German and Russian companies to join in the competition for the contracts would hurt American security interests. But it suggests that the main motivation is to use the contracts as a reward for countries that participate in the American-led coalition and contribute troops to the American-led security effort. "Every effort must be made to expand international cooperation in Iraq," the directive says, noting that the number of troops provided by non-American countries has increased from 14,000 to 23,700 in recent months, while the number of American troops has declined by about 12,000. "Limiting competition for prime contracts will encourage the expansion of international cooperation in Iraq and in future efforts." A Republican congressman who recently returned from Iraq said in a telephone interview today that it was a mistake to exclude particular countries from the rebuilding effort. "It strikes me that we should do whatever we can to draw in the French, the Germans, the Russians and others into the process," said the congressman, Christopher Shays of Connecticut. "I would expect that most of the contracts would go to countries who have done the heavy lifting, but I wouldn't want to see any arbitrary effort to shut anyone out." In a report that he issued today along with another congressman, Frank R. Wolf, Republican of Virginia, Mr. Shays said, "The administration should redouble efforts to internationalize the rebuilding of Iraq." Bush administration officials, including Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, warned last spring that France and other countries would have to face the "consequences" of their efforts in the United Nations and other forums to block the American invasion of Iraq. But until now, the American response has been mostly symbolic, including a notable absence of White House invitations to those countries' leaders to join President Bush for cozy one-on-one sessions at his Texas ranch. A spokeswoman for the German Embassy in Washington, Martina Nibbeling-Wiessnig, would say only that "German companies and entrepreneurs are already engaged in Iraq as subcontractors." The French and Russian embassies in Washington did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment. nytimes.com

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (19203)	12/9/2003 4:47:50 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793670

Backatcha, Ann. :>) Dear Unemployed Techie By Arnold Kling Published 12/09/2003 Tech Central Station. "Where I live in the Bay Area 300,000 tech jobs have disappeared in the last 3 years. During a period of unemployment last winter I took a computer science class and it was full of middle-aged long-term unemployed, lots of really bright people... I am actually getting out of the field (after 17 years) because frankly it sucks: wages have dropped, benefits also, security is non-existent and people are worked to the point of frantic exhaustion. You can't compete with people making 15% of what you make over there in Bangalore. And of course this society just dumps these people on the scrap heap, and the new jobs coming down the pike are pure crap...The truth is, if I could immigrate I would. I f**king hate my own country." I would say that the person who wrote this comment on one of my weblogs is a tad bitter. This essay is directed at the many people who share her sentiments. I know a woman in our area who tutors high school children to help them improve their SAT scores. She needs no license. She works in her home -- the children drive or are driven by their parents, sometimes from over 30 minutes away. For each 45-minute session, she charges $100. My message to all the unemployed techies out there is this. In a world where an SAT tutor can get $100 for 45 minutes of work, what is your excuse? The lifetime job using a fixed set of skills is disappearing. It may be reasonable to expect to change jobs every few years and to change fields at least once a decade. This means that almost everyone needs to learn to think like an entrepreneur. In particular, spotting trends is important. An obscure book on entrepreneurship called Under the Radar says, "I like to use the analogy of hitting a baseball where there is a wind blowing at thirty miles an hour. If the wind is blowing toward right field and you try to hit to left, you have to connect perfectly just to have a chance at a single. On the other hand, if you go with the wind and hit toward right, just getting your bat on the ball may be sufficient to drive one over the outfielder's head." If a thirty mile-per-hour wind is taking software jobs offshore to India or Russia, then maybe you should not try to fight against the wind. Maybe you should look around for a wind you can ride instead. Two Key Trends The SAT tutor benefits from two of the strongest winds out there. These are the trend toward accelerated learning and the trend toward personal services. Accelerated learning is important because the only constant in our economy is change. The only way to cope with rapid change is to learn. Learning has to be an ongoing process. It has to take place outside the traditional classroom. It has to be efficient and up to date. The other key trend is toward personal services. The SAT tutor works one on one. This is not an accident. Mass production, distribution, and marketing are not going away -- but they will be a declining share of employment. When you think "mass," think automation. Ultimately, goods and services that are delivered in mass-market form will be produced and distributed by machines. The Future of Work Apart from SAT tutoring, what types of work can we expect to be generated by the trends of accelerated learning and personal services? Here are a few possibilities to consider: Business Communications. Business continues to require communication in order to work. There are language barriers that exist across cultures, across industries, across disciplines (e.g., marketing vs. engineering, or finance vs. computer systems), and across corporate boundaries (between product designers and customers or between operations managers and suppliers). In business communications, new technologies create opportunities and new types of relationships create challenges. People who are good at translating across the various language barriers in business are going to have plenty of work. Experimental Design and Analysis. How many credit card offers do you receive in a month? How many different airline fares have you found on your most-traveled route? How many different cell phone plans have you looked at? Many of the options that you encounter are experiments. As consumers, we are guinea pigs in an endless corporate process of trial and error. From direct mail solicitations to web site redesigns, smart corporations are using formal statistical methods to measure and evaluate the results of different approaches. If you know how to design experiments scientifically and to interpret the results statistically, you have a secure future. Home Health Care. Our population is aging. People are living longer and trying to cope with debilitating illnesses. Middle-aged women talk about being in the "sandwich" generation, having to care for both children and aging parents. Supplying daycare services for the elderly is a business that is certain to continue to grow in the coming decades. Personal Chef. Everybody likes to eat. The tendency since at least the Second World War has been for the middle class to enjoy more and better food while doing less cooking. It seems to me that the logical extension of this trend is toward more personal catering and more personal chefs. In ten years, if 5 percent of the population has a personal chef, that probably would mean a tenfold increase over today. Sex Therapist. Another basic human desire. Everyone expects better sex, and they are willing to pay for assistance. Personal sex therapy has the potential to be a mass-market service, and, yes, the boundary between this and that of the world's oldest profession may turn out to be fuzzy. Alternative Medical Care. I am not talking about New Age folk medicine, but instead about new types of experts to administer advanced treatments. As we get into genetic-based treatments and pharmaceuticals that focus on brain chemistry, new specialists could supercede the traditional MD. Instead of learning hands-on diagnosis, these new practitioners would work on the basis of analyzing DNA and knowing how drugs work. Alternative Education Delivery. The share of education that takes place outside a traditional classroom is going to increase. Personal tutors, coaches, and teachers are going to be one alternative. Many others might emerge. Even if a college student today does not take a single course in an education department, there is a high probability that that student will wind up involved in education in some way in his or her career. Indeed, it would not surprise me if it turned out to be the students who do take education courses who miss out on the trend toward accelerated learning. Plenty of Jobs It is far too soon to worry about a shortage of jobs due to outsourcing, automation, or other factors. There will be plenty of jobs, as long as people are willing to adapt in order to do them. Stay focused on the trends toward accelerated learning and more personal services. One good job might be "personal employment coach." The focus of that job would be to convince unemployed techies to get off their butts and exercise some entrepreneurial drive. Copyright © 2003 Tech Central Station - www.techcentralstation.com

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (19203)	12/9/2003 5:32:47 PM
From: Rollcast...	Respond to of 793670

I personally know Americans who lost their jobs 3yrs ago & even though striving diligently to find another one, they have not found one as good as the one lost. That is called a business cycle. It's an overall erosion of America's standard of living. Until you come up with a more reliable sampling we will have to rely on census/fed data which clearly indicates the opposite -whether that is a result of a) medical and technological advances or b) a more efficient economic system can be debated - basic standards of living/lifespan/health cannot. I've had it with the "unfettered capitalism" dogma--it's as ineffective for the average human being(most important ones on this planet) as totalitarian communism. Any American who has ever written a check to the IRS, apply for a business license, or even own or attempt to buy a business will find it impossible to even relate to a concept like "unfettered". Unfettered capitalism has never existed in the US.

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (19203)	12/9/2003 7:54:51 PM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793670

I've had it with the "unfettered capitalism" dogma--it's as ineffective for the average human being(most important ones on this planet) as totalitarian communism. I have never read such total bullshit. Go spend 30 consecutive days in each of three of four or more of your communist countries and come back and tell us if you still believe that.

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (19203)	12/10/2003 2:14:10 AM
From: KLP	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793670

For eons, people have always had to change jobs, careers, etc...Change is the operative word. The other operative word is ATTITUDE! The words you wrote below could apply to folks who lived in the 20th century, the 19th century, etc. Think about the typewriter manufacturer, and suppliers like ribbon, whiteout, carbon papers, etc. Or much earlier ...horse and buggy makers, lantern makers, barrel manufacturers, horseshoe makers, outfitters for gold rush prospectors, and oh, so many different periods of history, and so many different jobs. People change and adapt with the times. Or they don't. The government shouldn't subsidize everyone, and most surely not just because they were making a much higher, and inflated salary before the bubble burst. And it did by March of 2000!! Ask any headhunter worth their salt!!! We ALWAYS know 6-12 months ahead of when there will be a major downturn! The wealthier have become even more so, while workers quality of life is deteriorating. I'm not talking about over-paid workers or those with outrageous benefits in past but simply bank employees or factory workers. It's unrealistic to expect every single American to achieve college degree.