Then you must LOOOOOOOOVE working at Wal-Mart for minimum wage that can't even pay your gas bill these days.
Are they working at Walmart because they lack the skills to perform higher value labor, or because many of them are retired and working there for additional income and because they are bored in retirement? I know when I walk into Walmart, or Target.. I see a lot of young people, many obviously lacking college education, as well as many retired people. The several retired people I've spoken with stated that they did it both for extra money, as well as because they just don't want to sit around the house.
Of course, there are many people who have been dislocated by changes in the economy, particularly in the internet sector, where webmasters are now a commodity. It's a complex issue.
But I guess you believe in paying people more money for fewer skills?
But this does bring up a point that I feel strongly about. I have a belief that the government's primary obligation to the nation's workforce is to ENSURE that everyone who has the capability to learn additional skills, has the opportunity to do so. Educating and retraining our workers is an investment in our future, as well as the foundation of higher tax revenues and economic growth. But it must be merit based (show the skills and aptitude, and the opportunity for higher education should be made available). One of the reasons we're losing jobs overseas is because other countries seem to understand that a well-educated workforce is the honey that draws investment capital and high-tech industries to employ their people.
And I will definitely admit that this government has been deficient at accomplishing this goal.. (and that applies to BOTH primary political parties).
You toot the U.S. stock market. Last I looked the NASDAQ is some 54% off its highs.
Of course it is.. Because that particular index, laden with high-tech and speculative new companies, went parabolic in the late '90s, only to collapse when expectations were not met by reality.
But it risen almost 100% from its low over the past couple of years and the trend line points to 3,000 being seen in the next year or so.
bigcharts.marketwatch.com
Among families with debt of any kind -- including mortgages, other loans and credit cards -- the median level rose 33.9 percent to $55,300, far greater than the 9.5 percent increase seen between 1998 and 2001.
Yep... to some this quite worrisome. But I bet if we broke down many of those numbers, we'd see the greatest factor in the increase of that debt was likely due to purchasing new homes, or people with adjustable rate mortgages seeing their mortgage liabilities increasing with rising interest rates (as well as declining equity values in their homes).
But one other aspect of increasing debtloads is that people are willing to take on more debt if they feel their wages and disposable income enable them to manage that debt and to pay it off over time. And IF THIS IS THE CASE, then debt is not necessarily a bad thing. Because consumerism is what drives the economy, especially if demand was pent up from previous years of economic uncertainty. Savings, at low interest rates, seem an unattractive alternative to spending.
But, as we all know, people tend to be creatures with a "herd-like" mentality, and often misplaced perceptions that eventually lead to increased financial risks. So there is no guarantee that some unforseen global financial shock might rapidly alter their perception from greed to fear.
But all of this is speculation about macro-economic trends that NONE OF US really can get a handle around.
The REAL QUESTION is whether the government (via your socalist aspirations) is a better manager of economic decisions than the private market..
And I would clearly state that it's not.
Europe is not the panacia of socialist egalitarianism that y'all tout it to be. (unless being equally unemployed is your idea of egalitarianism).
Look at the riots in France.. And look at the 20-30% unemployment we see in countries like Spain and Italy, both bastions of socialist values.
I got a kick during my visits to Spain over the past couple of years while on vacation. I recall spending a long night of festivities with Spanish young people in Seville, a predominantly agricultural area. The young people there all seemed to have really nice shoes and leather jackets, and none of them seemed to lack for money that permitted them to drink to all hours of the morning.. But when I asked them what they were doing for work, they would tell me they were unemployed, living at home with the folks (some of these people were 30 years old), and had been drawing a government unemployment check since they left high school.
They all bemoaned the lack of economic opportunity in their country, but BOY 'O BOY were they ever ABSOLUTE DEFENDERS of their socialist government... And well they should be.. Because they know what side their bread is buttered on..
Me, on the other hand.. I have been working almost constantly since I was 14 years old, paid for most of my college education, and managed to accumulate 14 years of military service (active and reserve)... I've lived, more or less, on my own, since the age of 18..
Am I jealous of some of those Europeans? I probably would have been in my youth.. I certainly was jealous of the students on minority scholarships I used to tutor during college (I worked two jobs while they were getting a free ride during school).
But now.. in retrospect, my father was correct when he told me that he couldn't afford (at that time) to send me to college. He told me that if I wanted college, I would only appreciate it if I paid for it myself. Of course, I was hurt (actually p*ssed) at the time he told me that.. but now, looking back.. he was right..
Of course, that didn't stop him, out of his sense of chivalry, from paying almost all of my younger sister's college tuition when he later had the financial means to do so(one year of private college tuition was equal to ALL of my tuition at a state university). She never had to work and could dedicate all of her time to studying..
And ironically, he's reaped what he's sown.. since she's now a pretentious little cretan who thumbs her nose down upon his blue-collar roots, preferring the "cultured" existence of her spouse's Levantine family.
But that's life, now isn't it Sly.. you can blame everyone else for why you are working at Walmart, or you can get off your @ss and do what other hard-working people have had to do to get ahead.
Hawk |
