Debt Debate in Congress

[TheArtist]

A lot of American companies have been quietly doing just that for the last couple of years - creating jobs.

And since the fact is that college educated people have only about 4% unemployment, that means there are lot of blue collar people without jobs.  Which are exactly the ones we have been exporting to China for 20 years.  So how do you get those back??

Do we even want them back?  Or should we also recognize that the blue collar jobs of today are different than they used to be.  The good ones that are going to pay well, also require more education.  

Germany is one of the top exporters in the world,  I think I read something recently saying they were the top exporter even over the US and China.  Regardless of their exact ranking, they are much smaller than the US and have a large manufacturing base.  They do high quality manufacturing.  But I would guess that even much of their "blue collar" jobs require a lot of people with a high level of education.  

China, India and other places are going to start competing for even the highly educated/high tech jobs. The US is a piddly 5% of the worlds population.   We could have most of our people be college educated, high tech, high quality, etc.  workers, if we chose to do so.  

So even if your answer was yes, lets get back more blue collar and manufacturing jobs in the US.  I don't think we could compete, or would want to compete for the ones that would be low tech/low education "blue collar" jobs that a cro-magnon could do, because imo those would have to be low paying jobs and places like China will out compete us there.  The kind of blue collar jobs we would want would be ones that require a more highly educated people. There are exceptions, but over all...

But then we are back to the thing I have been reading about lately which is that there are millions of highly skilled jobs out there that remain unfilled.  We might find ourselves quite frustrated in trying to create new, good ,blue collar jobs that require more highly educated people, when we cant even fill the jobs we already have that need those kinds of people.

[Breadburner]

Conan,
Exactly.  And those are the ones we exported to China.



And Breadburner has his normal abnormal non-contribution - right off the clearance racks at his favorite porn shop.  Well, I guess if all you think about is pornography, as in eat, drink, and breath...that is the only means of expression you have left.  Poor baby....

Wow!  I cringe to think what he puts in his bread, with a mind full of the stuff his if full of!

[Gaspar]

Germany is one of the top exporters in the world,  I think I read something recently saying they were the top exporter even over the US and China.  Regardless of their exact ranking, they are much smaller than the US and have a large manufacturing base.  They do high quality manufacturing.  But I would guess that even much of their "blue collar" jobs require a lot of people with a high level of education.  

Much of the manufacturing follows "the German model."  That's why it's so successful.  The manufacturing jobs in Germany are also very high paying.

Diamler Benz tried to export the German model to the US after it's purchase of Chrysler, but it was a failure.

The Germans let manufacturing employees compete for raises, bonuses and advancement.  In the auto industry, each manufacturing segment operates as a team (ex. drive train, chassis, body).  Each team is further broken down to the individual level.  Teams compete against each other for quality and efficiency and they are rewarded financially.

Originally they were going to re-tool the Chrysler minivan plant, but the Unions went nuts.  Diamler tried to negotiate, but got nowhere.  The idea of a performance based manufacturing system went against everything unions stand for, so Chrysler continued to suffer and eventually Diamler tucked tail.

[Gaspar]

The Super Fabulous people may not support President Obama if he cuts anything.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Do we even want them back?  Or should we also recognize that the blue collar jobs of today are different than they used to be.  The good ones that are going to pay well, also require more education.  

Germany is one of the top exporters in the world,  I think I read something recently saying they were the top exporter even over the US and China.  Regardless of their exact ranking, they are much smaller than the US and have a large manufacturing base.  They do high quality manufacturing.  But I would guess that even much of their "blue collar" jobs require a lot of people with a high level of education.  

I don't want the same ones.  I want better ones.  With the 'more education' model.

Which gets us back to the education discussion.  We still have 25% or more drop out from high school.  That is a huge problem.  Haven't been able to solve that for over 100 years.

[Gaspar]

I don't want the same ones.  I want better ones.  With the 'more education' model.

Which gets us back to the education discussion.  We still have 25% or more drop out from high school.  That is a huge problem.  Haven't been able to solve that for over 100 years.

Depends on what the Chinese let us do.  I suppose we could always sell them oil, wheat, corn, and rice. . . you know, pay off our debt.

[Conan71]

Depends on what the Chinese let us do.  I suppose we could always sell them oil, wheat, corn, and rice. . . you know, pay off our debt.

Why on earth would we sell them anything to pay off our debt when we can just borrow more money from them to pay back the money we already borrowed from them?

[Gaspar]

I have a solution to the debt problem.  The president could ask the Republicans for a temporary extension to the debt ceiling, in exchange he would form a group of the best and the brightest to come up with a 2012 budget amendment plan that would put us back on track!!!!!!

He could call this group something like the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.  Once they present their solution, he would promise not to veto a bill from congress based on the reconciliations.  It wouldn't even take any time to develop BECAUSE HE ALREADY FREEKIN DID IT!!!!!

http://www.fiscalcommission.gov/sites/fiscalcommission.gov/files/documents/TheMomentofTruth12_1_2010.pdf

This is the most irresponsible president we have ever had!! 

[nathanm]

Why on earth would we sell them anything to pay off our debt when we can just borrow more money from them to pay back the money we already borrowed from them?

That's actually a very good question, given that the debt is denominated in US Dollars, which we can devalue at will.

And Gaspar, stop playing the fool. The Fiscal Commission specifically recommended tax increases in addition to budget cuts. Your party is choosing to ignore the Commission's recommendation and go all in against any tax increases whatsoever. And you call Obama irresponsible. You need to recalibrate your stupid detector.

[Hoss]

You're proving heir's point...

I wonder when the frat brother is going to jump in and save you.

[guido911]

Obama & Carter sound a lot alike.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/history-repeating-listen-to-the-obama-remix-of-jimmy-carters-malaise-speech/

I feel a malaise coming on.

[we vs us]

Obama & Carter sound a lot alike.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/history-repeating-listen-to-the-obama-remix-of-jimmy-carters-malaise-speech/

I feel a malaise coming on.

It's already here. That's why Obama was elected.

[guido911]

It's already here. That's why Obama was elected.

We have a malaise so we elect Carter?

[Teatownclown]

We have a malaise so we elect Carter?

No, we didn't ever elect Ford....

Guido, are you an economic anarchist? An anarcho-capitalist? http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/dward/newrightanarchocap.html

Some other TNFer's are but TTC will not allow them to whine about "name calling."

Should I short the market or just buy TBT?

[guido911]

No, we didn't ever elect Ford....

Guido, are you an economic anarchist? An anarcho-capitalist? http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/dward/newrightanarchocap.html

Some other TNFer's are but TTC will not allow them to whine about "name calling."

Should I short the market or just buy TBT?

Holy crap put the damned pipe down.