Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Bank On Disaster

 So Obama is set to deliver yet another speech - so what.
At this point he seems to be saying the same things as the teachers on the old Charlie Brown cartoons, "Wha, WHA, wha wha...".
Does the government really need to be in the business of creating jobs?
Isn't the Postal Service already going broke with their obsolete make-work business model?
Didn't the huge the investment in a a solar electricity company also fail to pan out?
THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT IN BUSINESS TO CREATE JOBS.
In fact, having far too many government jobs is part of the problem.
 There are jobs out there - just not the ones people want to do.
Many people imagined that a degree (not to be confused with an education) was the means to finding a better job and a better quality of life.
But what this created was a generation who imagined themselves as bosses rather than just degreed workers - and most of these workers still have the skill-set expected for one working at a fast food restaurant.
Most people don't want to work.

With the recent disasters, FEMA is hiring full-time inspectors who make $25+ an hour.
The requirements are minimal but one must be on the road for most of any given year.
Contractors doing the same work make about $70 per house inspected.
If one is well organized, one can earn $700 per day working seven days a week for three months (or more) at a time.
This is a quick $60k for three months worth of work.
But even so, FEMA is begging inspectors to go to disaster sites.

It's not that there are no high paying jobs - it's only that people think they should be paid large amounts for doing what it is they want to do where and when they want to do it.

 Some argue that owning ones own business the way to escape poverty.
Maybe... but Mumbai, and slums like it, have the highest levels of entrepreneurship than any other area - and they're still slums.
Maybe (in America) it is best to keep ones day job while simultaneously working at developing and growing ones own business to help ensure a constant positive cash flow.
Some say that "They" are holding us back.
Really? In what way?
Who are these who belong to this mysterious group often referred to as "They" or "Them"?
I know one cannot be speaking of those of European descent...
If being white was all that was needed to do well in this country, Cajuns living on the swamps of the Gulf, Hillbillies in Appalachia and those trailer park towns which sprinkle the country would not exist.
Since these areas can be almost all-white - these should be the most affluent areas in the country.
Many cite Malcolm X as their biggest influence when it comes to uplifting the race of Blacks in America.
Really?
Let's see what Brother Malcolm has to say;
http://www.malcolm-x.org/quotes.htm
I may be wrong, but I thought "By any means necessary..." included getting an education, doing the hard work and making sacrifices.
I don't see where Malcolm spoke of waiting on a monthly check from the government and wasting it on things which would not improve ones ability to make ones own choices in life.
In fact, I think Malcolm spoke more of responsibility of wealth more than the luxury of it.
Malcolm spoke of us doing for ourselves and ,unlike Obama and his make-work jobs program, creating ones own best life.

6 comments:

DF said...

Damn you're getting tired of BrObama? He can do the New New Deal and put a lot of people to work working on the railroad. We have bridges to build, roads to expand, high speed rail, internet connectivity, and put clinics all over the country.

Creating wealth is always the best remedy so everyone has to turn into a businessman. The goal is to replace your jobs income and then grow. There's more money in running a laundromat than what jobs are coming down the pipe for the uneducated.

You're right about one thing and that's no one really wants to work. We got a lot of loser feeling sorry for theirselves from losing their house. As a result they have become disenchanted with just surviving so anyone who is still optimistic and willing to work will win. It'll just take about 10 years.

You're just going through Savior withdrawal. Barack is just Barack and all these comparisons to great people are unfounded and premature. He'll get a monument in DC probably 60 years from now he is just taking the non-martyr route.

uglyblackjohn said...

"Savior Withdrawal"/ Yep, I think so.
I still work with the elderly and kids but forget about lazy assed adults.

Many of these infrastructure jobs still require some skill and knowledge. Most people whining about the lack of jobs don't have these skills or knowledge. Most people who complain are not even qualified to complain.

DPizz said...

You sound like most of these heartless, ignorant, tea bag Republicans.

The proposed government spending is simple economics: GDP = Consumer spending + Business Investment + Government spending + net imports/exports. Consumers have no money, have cut back significantly or had their income impaired drastically. Businesses are not investing. They are literally sitting on tons of cash - can't say I blame them, demand is not there. The US is a net importer. That leaves Government in the equation as the only other element to try to re-start the economy. You can try to encourage business to invest, but until there is justifiable demand they will not. Government is the spender of last resort.

I agree that the Government is inefficient, largely incompetent and bureaucratic, still they can play a role, since there is no one else left.

I know many people, including myself, who are well qualified and hardworking that are unemployed or underemployed. Many that I know are doing menial or low level jobs while hoping for more gainful employment in their chosen field. The notion that most people do not want to work is stupid (who are you now, Jim Demint?). If you have ever been unemployed for any lengthy period of time, then you know of the emotional lows and despair, worthlessness, frustration and helplessness one feels. You also would know how devastating it is to one's self esteem and how not having anything productive to do (besides job hunting)is crushing on one's soul. Most people that have previously been employed want to work and many would be thrilled with doing anything productive while earning some cash. They may not want to do anything forever, but they would do it at least in the interim. This idea that someone who previously might have been a white collar, highly paid professional or a skilled manufacturing job holder can simply go get a job at Wallmart or McDonalds if they really wanted is misinformed. For whatever reasons, these companies are not particularly interested in people with this type of profile either. I know this first hand!

I'm sure there are some that feel entitled to large sums of money without any real skills, but there are lots of people who just want to be able to make enough money to survive. I know a lot of these people. Your sweeping generalizations about people only wanting jobs on their unreasonable terms or not wanting to work is highly insulting and belies the reality of the very terrible conditions that currently prevail in the job market. I'm afraid you are detached from the reality of the situation for many Americans, if this is truly the way you feel. Most of us are doing whatever we can to survive, including those jobs you think we don't want, when we can get them. A little surprised to see these uncaring, I believe, mostly wrong comments from you.

Lastly, there is a "They" out there. I have seen them. Mostly White, privileged, in positions of power and decision making. No, it's not an excuse for failure, but it can be a factor that may come into play depending upon what you are trying to do.

John Kurman said...

"Government is not in business to create jobs"?

Really? See, the irony there, just for starters, is that you are transmitting this message over a medium that was basically given away for free by the Defense Department and created, if I'm not mistaken, quite an economic expansion from the late 80s on.

How about the Louisiana Purchase? Care to guess how many jobs that created? Erie Canal? The telegraph? The Railroad Acts. The Homestead Acts? The Department of Agriculture? Bureau of Reclamation? Hoover Dam? Las Vegas? Los Angeles? Federal technology grants for things like, oh, I don't know, the transistor, integrated circuits, the PC, lasers, the TV...? I could go on all fucking week listing shit.

Business may be all the brightly colored fish that swim around, but the aquarium would not be there without the Feds.

theoreoexperience said...

I feel bad for being disappointed in the postal service. But I do feel like they should have been planning for this for oh, a decade and a half now.

It was pretty clear back in the day that email would replace much regular mail; and later that online payments would cut the need for mailed payments. I know that's not the entire reason that they're in financial straits, but it's a part of it. And I feel, like with any business, they should have been looking ahead and preparing.

And it worries me that something run by the government didn't have the foresight to get itself together in a timely way.

uglyblackjohn said...

Nope, the governement does best when it creates an environment for jobs to be created not when it creates the jobs.

I know banks are sitting on cash - hence the "Worgl" post below.
Money is best used when it's in circulation.