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Pulpsmack -> RE: Every generation does better? (5/27/2007 11:00:12 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: popeye1250
A big part of it is that "labor" is being devalued by out of control "immigration."
It's not that "immigrants" are "doing the jobs Americans don't want to do", it's that they're "doing the jobs Americans can't afford to do."
Thirty years ago I was making $5.50 an hour loading/ unloading trucks.
Today people are making $8-$9 for similar labor?
That's MUCH less factoring in inflation!
Adding to Popeye's point
I believe that women entering the workforce have helped ruin the American dream. I am not asserting this from the "barefoot and pregnant" point of view. Removing the gender for just a moment... if there was a huge segment of the population that historically did not work (women who were not forced by necessity to enter the workplace) and they were then injected the workforce, you have an intense spike in labor supply and one in employment demand. It now becomes an employer's market, and he may feel free to lowball the employees and treat them like shit resting assured that 5 others would be willing to fill that vacancy should an employee have enough. Then take into acount the reality of the housewife's worth. Preparing meals, raising children, domestic chores, etc. Now take the wife's earnings (which are devalued by the saturated market... possibly the husband's as well) and subtract daycare, frozen/ready-prepared meals, maid service, etc, and you have a meager sum remaining (not to mention inferior quality of service from strangers). I would contend that if the numbers have not supported this position today, they will soon enough.
Educational inflation is the downfall of America as well. Enforcing the facade of American equality, every race, creed, and color must get their sheepskin now at the university. Now you have more smarter choices to add to the pile, but that comes at the cost of adding an exponential amount of idiots who can't hack it... idiots who have devalued the worth of said degree. Today my college degree is worth my father's high school diploma. The next generation's MBA/Master's will be worth my father's HS diploma. Today, the average 18 year-old graduate is better off working minimum wage at Starbucks. If he works hard one year he makes manager. If he works hard another 2-3 he makes a shot at corporate. Even if he misses the latter, he has 3 years worth of managerial pay in the bank and a solid job he has experience with. The same college grad will be in debt, and half the degrees out there will put the student in a counterperson position under our hypothetical Starbucks manager. The only other option is to get bogged down in more debt and go to grad school (if possible). Americans subscribe to this assinine equality until reality sinks in and shit jobs must be done for shit pay. Then the Mexicans and Indians (and whoever becomes the next future unskilled labor nation) become attractive options.
There is also no personal integrity or civic responsibility anymore. It seems unimportant at first until you see how it impacts on dollars and cents. If you own a business today, you need to make as much money as you can, as fast as you can and then drop out of the game. This unscrupulous recklessness is the way it works now. Of course, try to play the other side of the coin and keep the same employees 25 years. They get a union then you're bankrupt. Try keeping a business afloat in this overly litigious society and one disgruntled employee, customer, special-interest group will pick your bones clean. Send all the lawyers to the bottom of the ocean and the companies will rape the world. Our society is like our economy which has been taken off the gold standard for two generations. It's run on faith... faith that the dollar will be good legal tender despite the fact there is no gold to back it up. Faith that the businesses will adhere to ethical practices, and the people can live responsibly instead of scapgoating big business for everthing that ever happened to them. Unfortunately, it's not working with either system.
The only America can rise again, much less stay afloat is stem the outsourced labor, police the profiteering, and deprive the lawyers and insurance companies of the ammunition that gives businesses incentives to dryfuck, cut and run. That and ENFORCE educational standards, forcing the students to contend with challenging useful corsework or they fail. If every American had a professional degree, then who is going to unclog the toilets, and serve the fajitas?
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