Thread: Any work is good work

Finally, I have decided to chime in.

(1) - The main point:
Honest/moral work is good work.
Dishonest/immoral work is NOT good work.

(2) - elderly / USA
In the USA, I do not believe social security was ever intended to be primary income, just supplementary.
SS is a pyramid scheme, setup for many workers and few retired people - the pyramid is inverting.

One of my investments is 6 born kids.
They cost a lot of money for me to support.
Hopefully at least one of them will help me when I get old, if I need such help.

(3) Germany - was mentioned above.
Based on reputation, Germans are hard workers.
I had to throw that out there. I am not German.

(4) USA -
I think there is a generation of kids (USA) who do not know how to work.
They want everything their parents had instantly (microwaves, vacations, new cars, etc).

To make matters worst, there is a lot of artificial self esteem pushed on the kids.
My kid's baseball team did not win their division.
A parent was trying to set the kids up with trophies
(fortunately the coach did not go for that - they lost).

I have seen it - every kid gets a prize - we cannot all be winners every time - but the kids are taught that they are special. I say they are not special, unique YES, but not specially gifted in general.

I read in the paper that construction jobs are going unfilled.
Having been through oil field down cycles, I can see how this happens.
The industry does into a down cycle, and folks find other lines of work.
The industry has an up tick, and the industry has trouble finding workers.

Our unemployment rate is pretty high here (do not believe the official numbers, people who give up looking are not counted as unemployed). The news article I referenced above cited a push to import foreign workers to do construction - while we have able capable people that do not want the jobs.

(5) - If life were too easy:

Then many of us would become spoiled.

I have had it easy enough that I feel a bit spoiled.
My house has air conditioning.
I can pursue leisure activities.

(6) - We are here for a purpose.

Cheers,
Jody

I agree. All honest work is good work, regardless of the particulars.

Far more jobs in this country have been lost to automation than to offshoring.
Where's all the union guys demanding that shops not use computers or robots, and stick to making widgets with manual labor?

Originally Posted by HNSB

Far more jobs in this country have been lost to automation than to offshoring.
Where's all the union guys demanding that shops not use computers or robots, and stick to making widgets with manual labor?

That's what Sheffield did..and look at all the nice German razors from then onward.
~Richard

Originally Posted by HNSB

Far more jobs in this country have been lost to automation than to offshoring.
Where's all the union guys demanding that shops not use computers or robots, and stick to making widgets with manual labor?

You should know that you can demand anything you want but at the end of the day you do not own the plant. Far, far too many people still have the idea that unions are in actuality as strong as they think they are. I have watched automation slowly taking over and all the union I was a member of could do was to negotiate various ways of easing the inevitable job losses but automation kept going. The same holds true for contracting out work traditionally done by employees. It is an insidious and slow process that involves a number of different elements, off shoring, automation and contracting/jobbing out among them. It is a bite at a time thing and before you know you wind up holding the rotting core of a once fine apple. Believe me the unions were there and did soften the blows a bit.

While we are on the subject of unions, if you do a little research you can see that gradually over the years many unions have had to amalgamate with other unions and had to keep doing so just to maintain being a viable entity. As jobs disappear so does your membership. Not a healthy sign for unions at all.

Bob

Originally Posted by HNSB

Far more jobs in this country have been lost to automation than to offshoring.
Where's all the union guys demanding that shops not use computers or robots, and stick to making widgets with manual labor?

You are exactly right however the jobs lost to off shoring are the ones that paid the good wages in manufacturing and industrial job areas way out of proportion to other categories of job losses.

When the factory in your town automates you can retrain to do other things in the factory. When the factory closes and moves to China you're out of luck.