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.

Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wyätt Gwyön who wrote (17750)	2/24/2004 9:34:25 AM
From: bentway	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 306849

Currently the bankruptcy bill vetoed by Clinton has passed the House, will likely pass the Senate and certainly be signed by the President. This sets up lenders as "Snidely Whiplashes", ready to seize assets likes homes and cars formerly off limits in bankruptcies. The auctions arising from these actions will likely depress all prices for assets. Lots of pain to come..

To: Wyätt Gwyön who wrote (17750)	2/24/2004 11:07:14 AM
From: fatty	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

>the bigger problem is that US engineers, while bright in engineering, are dumb in the area of finance and thus have high debt burdens like the rest of the profligate US consumerocracy. so when they get laid off from IBM and have to work at Home Depot or wherever, they may find that their cash flow cannot cover their debt-service nut. I think the real estate,taxes and health care are to blame for this. My salary has increased 300% over the past 10 years. Yet my disposable income after real estate, taxes, health care, child care, insurance is only about 50% more than 10 years ago. Thanks to cheap chinese imports, I still can afford to consume without piling up my credit card bills.

To: Wyätt Gwyön who wrote (17750)	2/24/2004 8:25:58 PM
From: Amy J	Respond to of 306849

Darfot, RE: "Amy, the ultimate problem is that there is no legal difference between sending blue collar jobs and white collar jobs overseas--since the US has been happily screwing blue collar workers for many years, there is no excuse other than prejudice " I complete agree with you. Unfortunately, the Dept of Labor disagrees with you. Dept of Labor discriminates against Software Engineers, even though the law specifically states a worker who loses his or her job to overseas trade, should get govt paid retraining. DoL thinks only blue collar workers should get this fair treatment, not software engineers. This is discriminatory against white collar workers. The law makes it perfectly legal to discriminate against young people (refer to previous post for details) and white collar workers. RE: " the problem is, there is no "upsale" to higher level jobs for the laid-off workers" There are upscale jobs, IF Bush would have instead allowed stem research to BOOM in Silicon Valley. New innovation drives new jobs and it is completely incorrect to ignore the innovative system we have in the USA. It takes time for others to catch up to new innovation here. But if we continue to stand still and falsely claim new innovation won't make new jobs, then we will end up getting what we deserve: no new high paying jobs. As long as we continue to move forward on new innovation, we'll be okay. RE: "there are no knowledge jobs which US workers can do which cannot be done at least as well by" I'm very aware of who in the world does what better where and what should go where. It's incorrect to assume the USA doesn't do anything better. RE: "only geographically isolated knowledge jobs will be protected" There are certain cultural differences that make the USA better at many things than other systems: innovation. You continue to invalidate this. RE: "encounter deflationary pressures as greater numbers of skilled workers compete for them" I tend to believe the entry middle class jobs are at more risk to deflation. But I also believe in two other things: a) we need to do more deeper innovation to get more new jobs that other countries haven't had a chance to copy yet, b) we need to get everyone in the USA into the investor class - and this can be achieved by giving all workers their 4% Soc Sec to invest. RE: " the bigger problem is that US engineers, while bright in engineering, are dumb in the area of finance and thus have high debt burdens like the rest" I would disagree with this statement. I think you make some rather unfair and inaccurate gross generalizations about our engineers here in the USA. Engineers are good at math, numbers and finance. In fact, if you look at Intel, they had two stores - one for the sales and marketers and one for the engineers. According to the person who runs the store, the engineering store closed because engineers are so much more frugal than some of the higher spending sales/marketing folks who appear spend more than engineers due to image pressures in society. I also believe they carry more debt. Btw, more sales/marketing people lost their jobs than engineers due to revenue dropping something like 30%, so you can't say engineers were harder hit. Engineers are simply good at numbers and less apt to get pressured into spending money for image. The one bad thing about the eng building is the moral appears to be unusually low - gloomy place - but unfortuantely this is true for every Silicon Valley company I've visited. Regards, Amy J