What is wrong with America

Interesting read for sure, I blame these large corporations who outsource the middle class jobs overseas and also are the only ones who profit from war. I sure didn't get rich making $175 or so a week to be have oil rained on me in desert storm or secure Somalia . I'm pretty sure some politician/corporation made much more off my blood and sweat. I'm not bitter about that I'm appreciative that I made it through and the life lessons I learned, however until the little guys can band together and overcome the corporate influence in the political arena, good jobs will become even more scarce

I think statistics show that China, India, probably other countries, far and away surpass the USA in college grads, especially in math, science, technical professions. Whether those people continue to show up on our shores, or stay where they are, may determine what our future holds.

The American Dream, the middle class, wasn't only a figment of Norman Rockwell's imagination, but the classic vision 'we' remember of it wasn't very long lived. From the end of the great depression, into WWII times were pretty tough for a large portion of our population. The boom that followed WWII, the rise of trade unions, the economy soaring, only lasted into the 1970s before it started going downhill.

As gugi pointed out, we went from an agrarian to an industrial society, made a transition from industrial to technical. Then in the '90s, another boom that went bust. It is too bad that the corporations began offshoring blue collar jobs, then white collar jobs, but as a buddy of mine is fond of saying, "I never received a paycheck from a poor man." So as much as I love to hate the corporations, I recognize that it takes money to make money, and however smaller the pieces of the pie are being divvied up, it is the corporations that are baking the thing.

It is also worth noting that the vast majority of the lower middle class and the poor in this country are far and away better off in terms of living conditions than we were in the 1950s and prior to that. From big screen TVs to smart phones, cars and the other "necessities" that were unheard of luxuries for older generations. Anyway :aargh:........

Of course those countries surpass is in college grads. They all come here for their education. And then go home to what??? Third world? We need to focus on america an that alone not cocoon but throw up the castle walls and let the rest of the world burn out. ISIS let them take over the middle east. Let Putin and Russia deal with it first. Go ahead. Then go all Hiroshima and Nagasaki on whats left over. Did I hurt your sensibilities? Then go all Roman legion on whatever is left standing. Go into the first area and kill everything and then send out a messenger to whats left.
If the USA stopped training armies besides ours. Stopped giving technology away, allowing it to be pilfered we can survive. And quite well.
If your not part of the solution you are the problem. You are the weakest link goodbye. Harsh?? Reality is harsh. Change is upon us with a quickness are you and we prepared for the next revolution? Its not my idea, it is an observation of all the factors in real time. weigh the facts. How many people can fit in your lifeboat until it reaches maximum density. Resultant effect everyone dies. Now is the time to row away from the scene of the accident. We have enough Ferguson situations across our country to keep us plenty busy for some time to come.
How about America gets its EBT food card loaded when you show up for roadwork? Want extra income? Bridge repair, infastructure ....
No work no eat.

No work no eat has been tried before in Canada with a lasting legacy Relief Camps . This is the result Regina . No way no how do I want to see people treated like that in my country again.

Bob

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Originally Posted by BobH

No work no eat has been tried before in Canada with a lasting legacy Relief Camps . This is the result Regina . No way no how do I want to see people treated like that in my country again.Bob

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My uncles survived the CCC and other "camps" when they were thrown out of low paying jobs during the depression. WWII came along and many now had jobs. So did artists, lumberjacks, construction men, and technicians and mechanics, CCC and other "make work" policies did help to give folks some income and training. Why not do similar now? The ongoing "Chain Gang" of Texas is a deterrent!
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Outsourcing is happening in house too.
Where I work they have effectivly reduced our numbers from 76 employees since I started there 6 years ago to what will be 35 by June of next year. It's a power station there fuel is free (water) they don't lose money ever...Could it be greed? These companies today, are what is destroying us, the corporate model is jacked up. it benefits the company only and no one else. I understand a business has to make money but where do you draw the line?

I realize it's not just companies...I'm just ranting

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Originally Posted by Geezer

My uncles survived the CCC and other "camps" when they were thrown out of low paying jobs during the depression. WWII came along and many now had jobs. So did artists, lumberjacks, construction men, and technicians and mechanics, CCC and other "make work" policies did help to give folks some income and training. Why not do similar now? The ongoing "Chain Gang" of Texas is a deterrent!
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It is a matter of how they are implemented and for what reasons, I suppose. In our case it was to hide the unemployed coerced into going to the camps or be arrested for vagrancy. There to work for less than an employed labourer would get.

You have a similar mentality in the workplace here today with the attitude "that you are lucky to have a job" by employers which means people work longer hours for less pay than before and are reluctant to take holidays they are entitled to. After all you have to be competitive with off shore workers who have a much lower standard of living. That is compounded by the practice here of allowing temporary foreign workers in because there is nobody here qualified to fill the opening. That has been severely abuse in quite a few cases to the detriment of both the foreign temps and Canadian workers. There is also the current upswing in working for nothing just to be able to say that you have some experience on your resume. I think that is really starting to get abused too. Why pay when you can get desperate people to work for nothing. It is not a work camp situation but is beginning to smell a lot like one.

On the face of it work camps sound alright but a great deal depends on the set up. The generation that went through those camps here went to WWII and came back to try and build a different kind of society. A lot of that, I believe, was because of the work camp experience during the depression and the horrors they saw during the war. I think we started loosing that type of society they tried to build around about the mid 70s.

A lot of solutions to current problems have been tried before with varying levels of success.

Bob

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Originally Posted by HardCase

Interesting read for sure, I blame these large corporations who outsource the middle class jobs overseas and also are the only ones who profit from war. I sure didn't get rich making $175 or so a week to be have oil rained on me in desert storm or secure Somalia . I'm pretty sure some politician/corporation made much more off my blood and sweat. I'm not bitter about that I'm appreciative that I made it through and the life lessons I learned, however until the little guys can band together and overcome the corporate influence in the political arena, good jobs will become even more scarce

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While a true statement for most of the Westernized world, if you looked back in history to England, when the Industrial Revolution was starting, the same was being said by the workers who were being replaced by the factory cotton mills, riots, burning of the factory Mills..."plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" - the more things change, the more they stay the same.

If anything can be learned is that there is, "no line".

Most of the first world is now in a post-full-employment era, the issue is that our societies aren't geared to deal with it.

If you look at the productivity gains through automation since the 1970s, there's no chance of seeing the manufacturing jobs come back. Even if all the manufacturing was to come back, it wouldn't employ half the people that had those jobs prior to the 1970s. The US population has grown by 50% since the 1970s.

The same thing is now happening to white collar jobs, which is honestly no big surprise. Management by MBAs is applying the same "successful" pattern to white collar jobs as it did to blue collar jobs. So employee morale and engagement is at an historical low, which impacts the bottom line, which is speeding up the process. White collar jobs are now supposed to recycle in the "service industry".

In the past three years, my team was halved while the workload quadrupled. We're now declared a productivity bottleneck by the management (against all metrics), so we're getting outsourced in the next 18 months.

Very true, But everybody has to do something, within your ability,something. I see senior citizens still working, not because they have too but because they want to. I am retired but not really, when my 77 year old father is climbing on roofs and doing gutters, WE can work together and do something. Even if all you can do is keep your yard, or even the street on your block is picked up, even if its only the paper and trash, do something.
I am surrounded by groups of young men just standing around. No place to go, no skills, no ability to get the skills and living under a females skirt-tail to have sustenance. When the college graduates says to me"Would you like fries with that" because it is the best job they can find, at 24 hours a week job, not a career. Does America really need to import foreign workers because of a lack here at home?
Smart people know when they are being taken advantage of. We are being taken advantage of.
Until America stops voting for Santa and realizes that the emperor has no clothes will anything have a chance at changing.