I've embedded two videos Before we get to them I have a few words.
Not everyone is born to be a rocket scientist. There are plenty of people who want to work but are accused of being too lazy, dumb or unskilled to earn a decent living. Still others complain there aren't enough being educated in the work needed for today's skilled manufacturing jobs. A few thoughts occur to me. (1) You mean to tell me every job we've shipped to third world countries had better skilled people.. absolutely not. (2) At one time companies took it upon themselves to take both time and money to help train people. Now they want them to be fully educated and ready to go w/o helping in some of the indebtedness we expect young workers to assume on their own. (3) If it were true we are a nation of unskilled workers then why the hell do we have 1,000's of educational institutions (both private and public) picking the pockets of our young and not giving both them and industry the skills this nation claims to lack?
There's no reason why anyone can't be trained to perform the repetitive tasks of a assembly line or running a production machine. If underage kids and the uneducated in third world countries can do these jobs anybody can. Difference is nobody's gonna be exploited to work for $2 or $3 an hour.
Instead American workers are left to load and unload these cheap foreign goods at the ever increasing number of warehouses (through temp agencies) in this country. Others to service other service workers who earn little more then themselves. This is not only insulting but is rotting our country from the inside out at the same time it's demoralizing anyone who truly wants to work for a decent compensation.
Yes there's as still a good buck to made in the medical field and other top level positions, but face it... 2/3rds or more have been left behind. People who are willing to work hard. People who will not ever become scholars or have the means to invest 10,000's of dollar$ on a hope and a prayer that whatever their educational choice was will pay off.
Somehow we can find the money to pay 100's of million$ to sports figures, money changers and those in the entertainment industry yet deny the vast majority of Americans who want to work a means whereby they can earn a decent wage. Without providing jobs for the vast majority who wish to make a living by actually making things people want and need we're not only demoralizing people but taking away their very incentives to even try and hope for a decent paying job.
Industrial leaders can blow hot air all day long but as far as I'm concerned unless we provide these most basic jobs for the majority who walk among us this country is doomed. No country can succeed when it leaves 2/3rds of it's main labor resources out in the cold to struggle on their own. They say "idle hands are a devil's tool". Perhaps that explains the violence and ambivalence towards others we are witnessing.
That said, please watch these videos and comment your thoughts.
Thanks for posting the videos, and also for sharing your thoughts above. I think the mindset of buying local and buying American is starting to become more popular because most people are willing to pay a little more for a quality item. Also, I think that people are starting to care more about buying from companies that exploit workers overseas and harm the US economy.
ReplyDeleteYour overview makes me think though.. Did the US government screw us over with trade deals? Or did American consumers cause our own demise by not caring about where our goods come from, only looking for the cheapest items? Or some combination of both.
I agree. I tend to think all of us bear some responsibility. Although government through it's trade deals encouraged such behavior.
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