Forget tax cuts & politicians, HERE's how you create jobs!

[scooterbug44]

There is a lot of negotiating room between what a Chinese prisoner or sweatshop worker earns and what many American companies can afford to pay and still sell their (non-tainted) item for.

Wal-mart is not a scapegoat, they are a driving economic and political* force behind shipping jobs overseas and lowering wages.

Please bear in mind that this "pie in the sky high" standard I want to hold Wal-mart to is currently being done by Costco, Target, and many supermarket chains.

*interesting what they spend on politicians and what causes they support

 

[Matt J]

Skunky just secretly doesn't want to treat Wal-Mart employees.

 

[30ashopper]

Ask a minimally skilled worker in China what a decent wage is. To be clear, I do advocate supporting American business where it is practical, but face the fact that the decent wage in China, India, Guatemala, etc will always be much lower than the American definition. I say let the third world have the low wage jobs. They are gone. My whole take on this Wal Mart is going to kill us all debate is that Wal Mart is an easy target, but the real culprit is a school system that churns out young adults with little actual marketable skill but high expectations.

If I had my way I would give huge incentives to high school grads who went to college and majored in science, engineering, math, foreign languages and anything else that will produce a workforce that will eat China and India's lunch in twenty years. Other than some languages I would let people who wanted to major in the liberal arts pay for their own ride.

The higher wages they'll earn aren't incentive enough? Let's just be sure we communicate the benefits of chosing the right field, and make sure we have good public schools that expose kids to science. The rest is up to them.

 

[30A Skunkape]

Skunky just secretly doesn't want to treat Wal-Mart employees.

I think I have 4 from Wal Mart, 2 from Publix and the Target employees neeever get sick because they are perfect.:funn:

 

[Bob]

You assume no domestic jobs depend on global business. You also assume that underwriting high domestic manufacturing salaries that don't require much skill or that can be done by a machine is sustainable. I think manufacturing jobs, except those building products that will be out of reach of most consumers, are gone. Trying to get them back is a waste of time. The best long term strategy is to put more money into educating Americans in skills they can use to better compete in the new global economy.

Do you really think Medicaid's rolls would shrink if Wal Mart magically went away?

average iq is 100, competing in the digital world?....the answer is reinvesting in US manufacturing for those who can rightfully fill the jobs, and to pay those folks a living wage. Government can tweak the numbers for the companies out there now

 

[Bob]

The higher wages they'll earn aren't incentive enough? Let's just be sure we communicate the benefits of chosing the right field, and make sure we have good public schools that expose kids to science. The rest is up to them.

the inferior u.s. education model is just your tactic. in europe, those students that cannot grasp science/math oriented majors are given non-traditional educations, much to their benefit. our one size fits all approach skews our test numbers downward.

 

[Matt J]

Did you happen to catch the piece on NPR tonight about the Rhode Island schools that have turned into a modern day Lord of the Flies?

They tried to fire the teachers, reversed it, and now they have 100% of the faculty and staff royally pissed. Some teachers don't even show up for class, the girl they interviewed said her education is consisting of talking on her phone.

 

[30A Skunkape]

average iq is 100, competing in the digital world?....the answer is reinvesting in US manufacturing for those who can rightfully fill the jobs, and to pay those folks a living wage. Government can tweak the numbers for the companies out there now

Manufacturing what, exactly? You try to build it and China will do it cheaper. We lose. You build a brain force willing and able to deal with China and India's foray into mass consumption, we win. Don't give me crap that Americans are not capable of using their minds to become the leading world economic force again. We can, it will not come cheap, but it is our best hope.

 

[beachmouse]

Problem with that argument is that the high skill jobs can also often be outsourced to cheaper locations. Was talking with someone the other day and he said that the last time he was in the hospital and needed an x-ray after hours, the hospital had a contract with an agency in Israel for doctors there to read said x-ray because it was cheaper for the hospital to do that than have someone on-call to do the same function.

 

[30A Skunkape]

Problem with that argument is that the high skill jobs can also often be outsourced to cheaper locations. Was talking with someone the other day and he said that the last time he was in the hospital and needed an x-ray after hours, the hospital had a contract with an agency in Israel for doctors there to read said x-ray because it was cheaper for the hospital to do that than have someone on-call to do the same function.

Yes, this does happen, but you have to admit this is an exceptional example. I say don't focus on the end user, the radiologist. I am saying that Americans should be developing the high tech imaging equipment and technology that links Israel (or Australia, the location lots of foreign radiology reads occur) to the US, building, installing and servicing high tech radiology and computing equipment.

As an aside, foreign reads of routine films may be a good thing for our expensive health care system