Obama intensifies push for ‘Buffett Rule’

[JMJSHJ]

Oops!!

nation.foxnews.com/warren-buffett/2012/05/07/buffett-rips-buffett-rule

 

[LisaA]

I’m confused about your negativity towards education. The video I referenced did not mention head start, although I would be interested in supporting details for what you said. I do not know much about the head start program. In the video the President talks about employee training to transition people from dead jobs into other fields. In my career I know too many hard-working people, through no fault on their part, whose jobs were displaced by their jobs going to China (a communist country, don’t forget) or India. These jobs were sacrificed in the interest of higher profit for the company and higher pay for the executives. If more jobs were created, they were not in America. Those displaced people are willing to work and jobs are available to people with the right skills, so it benefits everyone to invest in those people and provide education opportunities. It’s that old saying about “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

You have COMPLETELY misrepresented my comments. I am very pro education. My parents were college professors and education was a near god in our home. And FWIW I got a college education on my own dime because I valued education enough to live in squalor for a number of years. So do not conclude that because I think wasting money is a bad thing that I don’t value eduation.

As to Head Start even the GOVERNMENT has admitted it has no long term benefits and costs billions. I am not saying ignore early childhood education but why keep dumping money into a program that DOES NOT WORK. Why must they stay stuck on stupid in Washington? Oh yea…all those people with cushy government jobs.

But as Bill O’Reilly stated so well President Obama needs to quit chasing leprechauns. Assuming everyone should go to college, assuming someone else should pay so that everyone goes to college is totally unrealistic. Not everyone is willing to invest the time and effort, nor quite frankly is everyone capable of graduating from college. Getting a college education from a financial aspect has NEVER been easier. Obama has exploded the number of Pell Grants and loans are sadly too easy to obtain resulting in a huge student loan debt bubble. Finally after all is said and done, college graduates are facing a terrible job market. Isn’t it more important that we increase growth so that whatever program, college, training or apprenticeship is completed, the graduates have some possibility of being employed?

BTW instead of talking about the evil corporations sending jobs overseas, consider that between unions, regulations and taxes, the GOVERNMENT has chased many jobs out of America. You might find John Stossel’s books and TV show enlightening. He compared the time it took to set up a business in America vis a vis Hong Kong (not exactly a Third World tin pot dictatorship). Between the EPA, the city, county and federal regulations, the delays for various permits, the tax filings, he said while he was up and running in Hong Kong in a couple of days, in the US the same business would require MONTHS to establish. Meanwhile you’re burning up cash. Business people are not stupid. They move out of states that are business adverse and re-locate to states that are far more friendly. There’s a reason businesses are leaving California and either moving to their neighboring states like Nevada or all the way to Texas. Wonder why???

Right now there are many jobs in North Dakota for example. These are not high skill jobs in all cases and with the explosion of growth in the energy business (at least the part that Obama hasn’t been able to shut down) there are many opportunities. I’m not denying that it’s tough and I lived through the Carter years which were shall I say a challenge. But to quote another cliche (since you used one) “The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your arm.” Don’t sit and wait for Uncle Sugar to rescue you. He’s going to run out of OPM at some point.

Lisa

 

[Eugenius]

You have COMPLETELY misrepresented my comments.

I should have said “I am confused by your negativity about Head Start, since I asked for comments about the video, in which Head Start was not mentioned and job training was.”

BTW instead of talking about the evil corporations sending jobs overseas, consider that between unions, regulations and taxes, the GOVERNMENT has chased many jobs out of America.

Actually I have a front row seat with offshoring, but that’s all I can say about it. There really are companies outsourcing for the pure reason of increasing their already profitable bottom line and screwing the employees who have gotten them to where they are. Loyalty between employer and employee used to be a lot stronger than it is now. Not to go off on a tangent, but it makes me wonder if the normalization of divorce has had anything to do with that.

 

[Eugenius]

Something worth thinking about in all of this “job exporting” business. We are running huge balance of trade deficits. No question about that. Still, all money has to return at some point to its country of origin, or it becomes worthless. Unfortunately, we are giving our trading partners an “out” by running budget deficits. They can buy our debt instruments that our citizens have to pay out of their earnings. If that was not available to them, our trading partners would be forced to buy American goods and services with their dollars, or otherwise invest their dollars here.

We would create jobs with our own trade dollars by not running government deficits. But nobody wants to talk about that. It is the combination of foreign competition in trade AND the deficits that allow foreign countries and companies to “import” American jobs without creating offsetting employment here.

I sort of understand what you are saying, I have to admit that economics is not my strong subject.

 

[Suudy]

Actually I have a front row seat with offshoring, but that’s all I can say about it. There really are companies outsourcing for the pure reason of increasing their already profitable bottom line and screwing the employees who have gotten them to where they are. Loyalty between employer and employee used to be a lot stronger than it is now. Not to go off on a tangent, but it makes me wonder if the normalization of divorce has had anything to do with that.

It totally depends on the job. I can say that I have never had a job at any company that sent jobs offshore. I’m a software engineer, and in my field, we have a flood of jobs into the company from overseas. Indeed, the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) strongly opposes the number of H1-B visas being given to foreign nationals (source). So in my field, offshoring hasn’t been a problem.

Also, I think that your characterization of employers is unfair. In my experience, company loyalty to an employee is directly related to the employee’s performance. And likewise an employee’s loyalty to a company is directly related to the employer’s benefits and pay. In my field people jump job-to-job frequently for increased pay and better benefits. The employees are no more (or less) loyal to the company than the company to the employee.

I’ll speak of my current employer. They’ve never had layoff. And the only “offshore” employment is 1) field sales and technical people for dealing with international customers, and 2) a small manufacturing plant built specifically to service our largest international customer. 90+% of the employment is stateside. And 95% of manufacturing is stateside. I’ve been with the company going on 10 years now. And in all cases, the company considers each employee an investment. Happy employees equals greater productivity.

Now, I know some people I went to college with and have worked with since that were part of a big layoff. Interestingly, the company wasn’t even a US company, but a subsidiary of a European electronics company. Then the economy took a hit, and medical equipment sales fell, the company shed many US jobs. (Only a few of the top people were offered jobs back in the Netherlands, but they had to relocate at their own cost.) Is this a case of “offshoring”? Taking jobs away from the US to support jobs overseas?