Maybe this is our problem?

[gerritm]

John Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock

(MADE IN JAPAN )

for 6am.

While his coffeepot

(MADE IN CHINA )

was perking,

he shaved with his electric razor

(MADE IN HONG KONG .)


He put on a dress shirt

(MADE IN SRI LANKA ),

designer jeans

(MADE IN SINGAPORE)

and tennis shoes

(MADE IN KOREA)

After cooking his breakfast

in his new electric skillet

(MADE IN INDIA)


he sat down with his

calculator

(MADE IN MEXICO)

to see how much he could spend today.
After setting his watch

(MADE IN TAIWAN)

to the radio

(MADE IN INDIA)

he got in his car

(MADE IN GERMANY)

filled it with GAS

(from SAUDI ARABIA)

and continued his search for a good paying

AMERICAN JOB.

At the end of yet another discouraging

and fruitless day checking his

Computer

(Made In Malaysia),

John decided to relax for a while.

He put on his sandals

(MADE IN BRAZIL)

poured himself a glass of

wine

(MADE IN FRANCE )

and turned on his

TV

(MADE IN INDONESIA),

and then wondered why he can't
find a good paying job in

AMERICA

AND
NOW HE'S HOPING
HE CAN GET HELP FROM


A PRESIDENT
MADE IN KENYA:biggrinjester::ack2:

[Davidmnc]

Nice............disturbing, but nice.

[Dude! Sweet!]

Ya know, joking aside, this does kind of highlight the fact that if we aren't paying people to make stuff here (whatever "making the stuff" means) then we're not going to have people here who have any money to buy the stuff when it's finished being made.

[old377guy]

too true

[rschap1]

Sad but true. 10 years ago the made in USA sentiment was trying to gather support. Today I see it as too late, too far gone really (not that I won't or don't try!). Go try and buy anything, anything, and see if you can even find a store or distributor that has an actual US product. It ain't easy!! Even machine tools and equipment, regardless of cost it is almost impossible to even find stuff!

[MattBMiller]

Definitely our problem.

[Sea-Dated]

Sad but true. Except for the wine, we try to stick to California wines....:cheers2:

[Dude! Sweet!]

And Kentucky Bourbon whiskey... :D

[Chris]

I don't know about you guys, but I don't want my two kids to "make things" when they get older.

America, contrary to popular opinion, was not built upon manufacturing. America was built on innovation and doing things so much better and so much more efficiently than the rest of the world that we blew them all away. It just so happened that our first real crack at doing that happened to be at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. We've done it since then in medicine, engineering and tech. We've invented just about everything that's been invented on the planet in the last 50 years. What we don't invent, we perfect. You're worried about the chinese? They're just now putting men in space. I'm 50 and we were doing that before I was born. And I'm smart enough to know that we have no chance of competing with them in any business that depends on common, uneducated labor. They have too much of it and their cost and standard of living is too low for that to ever happen again. And we can't un-invent the ultra-economical cargo ships that have brought our continents so much closer together.

Right now, every parent in America should be hovering over their child, demanding the be home immediately after school and making certain they understand their schoolwork and if not, spend their spare time resolving the problem. And then getting them into college. And we need to stop telling our children it's OK to get a bachelors in French or musical performance. They need to get degrees that lead to jobs- jobs that will be relevant 40 years from now. And those jobs all require math and science. And not all kids need 4-year college. There are tech schools in every city that will provide these kids with well-paying careers in needed areas. And paying double of what your typical business , education or journalism major will see upon graduation. We need to prepare our children for what's next, not what's gone. And we don't need anymore athletes, entertainers or race car drivers.

[Dude! Sweet!]

I qualified 'make stuff' in my post to take into account what you're describing Chris. Make stuff means different things to different people... Maybe a third of our population is physically capable of doing the tasks requiring the intelligence you're suggesting (likes call them "alphas"), but there are other tiers of capacity in our country... people who just can't ever step up to that level. Not that they can't be good bolting fenders on things, or shoveling things, or what have you, but these "beta" and "sub beta" people need to live, contribute and most importantly consume as well. And the only way they're going to do that is if we retain the industries that supply them with the wherewithall to consume...

And don't forget we're outsourcing "big brain" jobs now too...

[gerritm]

I don't know about you guys, but I don't want my two kids to "make things" when they get older.

America, contrary to popular opinion, was not built upon manufacturing. America was built on innovation and doing things so much better and so much more efficiently than the rest of the world that we blew them all away. It just so happened that our first real crack at doing that happened to be at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. We've done it since then in medicine, engineering and tech. We've invented just about everything that's been invented on the planet in the last 50 years. What we don't invent, we perfect. You're worried about the chinese? They're just now putting men in space. I'm 50 and we were doing that before I was born. And I'm smart enough to know that we have no chance of competing with them in any business that depends on common, uneducated labor. They have too much of it and their cost and standard of living is too low for that to ever happen again. And we can't un-invent the ultra-economical cargo ships that have brought our continents so much closer together.

Right now, every parent in America should be hovering over their child, demanding the be home immediately after school and making certain they understand their schoolwork and if not, spend their spare time resolving the problem. And then getting them into college. And we need to stop telling our children it's OK to get a bachelors in French or musical performance. They need to get degrees that lead to jobs- jobs that will be relevant 40 years from now. And those jobs all require math and science. And not all kids need 4-year college. There are tech schools in every city that will provide these kids with well-paying careers in needed areas. And paying double of what your typical business , education or journalism major will see upon graduation. We need to prepare our children for what's next, not what's gone. And we don't need anymore athletes, entertainers or race car drivers.

Well said Chris. I would like to add one thing to your post. We also need to stop telling our children that the only way to succeed is thru college. We need mechanics, plumbers, carpenters, tradesman of all kinds and that there is nothing shameful in being a skilled tradesman. We are losing our skills to the Mexicans. Every job site is full of them. They are taking over our trades. There are very few American kids coming into the trades. Most of the old timers are getting ready to retire and there is no one to pass their skills to. In a generation or two the skilled trades will be lost.

[Chris]

I qualified 'make stuff' in my post to take into account what you're describing Chris. Make stuff means different things to different people...

True, but from a broad perspective, our national paradigm is high-paying jobs like auto and steel industry employment. These jobs are forever gone. The history on that type of employment is very telling. At the time (post WW II) global demand for steel and automobiles was so high and since we were the only people that could supply that demand, profits were astronomical. It was insignificant for the company owners to satisfy every labor demand. Work stoppages cost them way more than the wage and benefit increases. But who didn't see an end coming? Therein lies the key- find the next thing that we do better than the rest of the world. Just because we had a full generation of one-job lifetime employment doesn't mean the next generation is entitled to it. The prior generation had the Depression and the one prior to that had lifetime employment- living off the land. Now we have a new challenge.


We also need to stop telling our children that the only way to succeed is thru college. We need mechanics, plumbers, carpenters, tradesman of all kinds and that there is nothing shameful in being a skilled tradesman. We are losing our skills to the Mexicans. Every job site is full of them. They are taking over our trades. There are very few American kids coming into the trades. Most of the old timers are getting ready to retire and there is no one to pass their skills to. In a generation or two the skilled trades will be lost.

This is so unequivocably true. College is not for everybody. In fact, I think it's bad for alot of people. Another interesting piece of history- do you know when it became a requirement to have a college education in order to get a good job? The civil rights movement. Employers could no longer not hire you because you were black. And shortly thereafter, court challenges caused many types of testing to be deemed discriminitory. So employers started requring college degrees. Problem solved- we had few higher-educated minorities. Today though,a business degree from an average school with a 2.8 will get you an entry level job at a cell phone kiosk at the mall. And that fashion design degree gets you an assitant manager's job at the boutique across the food court. 70% of law grads will never practice- but they'll be incredibly knowledgeable insurance salesmen. And they're all going to have crippling college loan debt that will prevent them from doing the one and only smart thing they might have avilable to them- buy a home. So who's going to help put their kids through college? The student loan system collapses and these people never slide out from under their debt. This very well could be the next "crash" the government spends a trillion or so to bail us out of.

We have a local community college. They have an association with a local utility- they've put together a AAS program for linemen. The utility pays for the school and the starting salary is $44K. It goes up to in today's dollars into the mid $60K range, plus a ton of OT and great benefits. They can't get kids to sign up. I dunno.

[gerritm]

[




We have a local community college. They have an association with a local utility- they've put together a AAS program for linemen. The utility pays for the school and the starting salary is $44K. It goes up to in today's dollars into the mid $60K range, plus a ton of OT and great benefits. They can't get kids to sign up. I dunno.[/QUOTE]

They can't get them to sign up because of the stigma of being a blue collar worker. It has been instilled in them that you are a loser. They think it is better to be the college educated kiosk operater @ $8.00/hour than a highly paid skilled linesman or blue collar worker. I have a nephew who after spending 4 years in the Army and visiting Iraq, came back and bounced around several poor unskilled jobs and got a chance to get into the linemen program and is loving it. He is also making good money. Our attitude as parents have to change. We need to be proud of whatever our kids decide to do whether college is in the plan or not. I have 2 very successful and happy kids that both tried college and decided it wasn't for them and got educated in their chosen fields and do well. They don't make a ton of money, but how could you not have a great life being a scuba boat captain, dive master, and instructor in Hawaii and a top Harley mechanic in Texas and build your own race bike.