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To: Tradelite who wrote (17684)	2/23/2004 11:03:52 AM
From: Tradelite	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Some personal observations after returning from another trip "down South", during which I spent time in a few towns which seem to epitomize the decline of U.S. manufacturing and are populated by many of the "disenfranchised" in our society....poverty, lack of education are visible everywhere you look in the Carolinas and Georgia. Empty industrial buildings are sprouting weeds in the parking lots. For-sale signs are up everywhere on large industrial sites. (The BMW plant in South Carolina appears to be in good shape, however, and in Richmond, VA, the smokestacks were spewing plenty of smoke at about 10 p.m. last night, so things look busy there.) Yesterday morning, I was sitting in a hotel in a major state university town, reading the local paper. Seems the state legislators are up in arms over the newly discovered fact that callers to the government food stamp "consumer help line" recently found themselves talking to customer-service reps in India. Say what???!! Taxpayer dollars are actually funding jobs for Indians??!! This has got to be stopped!! (so say some people). The food stamp program administrators defend this outsourcing by saying they contract out the customer service function to another company and can't control that the company gives jobs to people overseas. They say they also don't think they should spend taxpayer dollars on higher-priced services, if lower-priced ones are available. This is a good point, it seems, but the opposition says it might be more worthwhile in the long run to keep the jobs here even if higher wages must be paid. At least the higher-paid U.S. employees would be contributing to income tax rolls on U.S. soil. Good point, it seems. In fact, it seems both sides have their points, so a major battle is getting underway to see which side wins. I'll bet we see this battle played out heavily in many economic sectors over the next several years. Meanwhile, does anyone have the answer as to why North Carolina and Georgia have fantastic state university systems, yet also have so much poverty and underemployment/unemployment? I don't know, but I suspect it's because those states have always--until now--had plenty of factories to employ those who don't bother or don't want to go to college. Times have definitely changed. People and policies need to change with them. One of the most interesting announcements I've seen recently is that the University of Virginia has committed millions of dollars to a new effort to keep needy students from getting into debt with student loans, and instead will award scholarships to applicants based on merit and income. I don't know where the millions of dollars will come from, but assume it will include my tax dollars, unfortunately. However, I've long believed that the rising cost of a college education and student loan indebtedness are two of our biggest national problems.

To: Tradelite who wrote (17684)	2/23/2004 11:12:56 AM
From: Elroy Jetson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 306849

Greenspan is not necessarily focusing on re-training the already-educated. But he should be. home.pacbell.net

To: Tradelite who wrote (17684)	2/24/2004 3:23:25 AM
From: Amy J	Respond to of 306849

Tradelite, RE: "Greenspan is not necessarily focusing on retraining the already-educated, such as engineers." Well, then it's about time he does. The govt needs to stop giving hightech the shaft. For every hightech job that is loss, here's some other folks that get impacted: - dentist no longer has the same revenue - opthomologist's revenue drops - housekeepers are fired (There was one housekeeper that had 20 clients and lost all but one during the downturn. She said her life was much better than the people she had previously worked for that became unemployed. She had free health care, while the unemployed engineers she worked for did not. The stories are nasty - engineer loses job, losses weight, gets sick, gets a disease, possibly died. ) - retail workers get fired due to less local business RE: "I would expect engineers to be able to take care of themselves one way or another" The system is flawed. Engineers cannot fix a flawed system. The govt needs to fix their broken grade school educational system and start funding universities. Are you aware Silicon Valley has lost 30% of its hightech jobs? It's a gross assumption if you think the average engineer can find a job in a local economy that has lost 30% of its jobs. Even the Great Depression only lost 26% of the jobs at its absolute worse, and that produced soup lines and enormous govt aid. Meanwhile, the govt is thumbing their noses at engineers who have been hit harder than the Great Depression, and the govt is not giving the retraining funds to unemployed engineers who lost their jobs due to offshoring even though the law specifically states the govt is suppose to so. I hope that IBM guy wins the lawsuit against the Dept of Labor. Regards, Amy J