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 : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (438135)	12/4/2008 1:42:29 PM
From: i-node	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574033

This is what motivates people to get an education and aspire to do more. Nothing wrong with that. My dad offered to give me one of his stores when I was college-aged -- if that's what I wanted to do. But I had flipped enough burgers as a kid to know that wasn't what I wanted to do. The problem with the Big 3 is that compensation for unskilled jobs has gotten so out of whack, and the work has been made so EASY for the pay they get, that these people aren't motivated to go get a higher education just so they can take a lower-paying job. It makes sense. When you can get $70/hour in wages and benefits working on an assembly line, you might tolerate it rather than, for example, getting a degree in biology or some other field where you'll be lucky to earn 60K. As to just how hard the work is, it isn't like it was 30 years ago. At the Big 3 robots do the heavy lifting. The line workers drive a few screws, tighten a few nuts here and there, etc. Basically, the unions want robots to make the work easier but they fight hard any attempt to REPLACE a worker with a robot. This is one reason the quality suffers -- jobs that are better handled by automated systems still have a human element just to please the unions. This is also why a GM plant takes more employees to operate than a Toyota plant.