Where are the good jobs?

[Flopper]

Protectionism is not the answer.

Trade benefits both parties.

"Protectionism is not the answer.
Trade benefits both parties."

Well that’s the theory. Each nation should be allowed to do what it can do best. For example, if Mexico produces the best tomatoes at the best price and the US produces the best grapefruits at the best price then each country should be allowed to sell their product without tariffs or quotas. Mexico gets the best grapefruits at the best price and the US gets the best tomatoes at the best price. But suppose the Mexican government decides to give a little boost to their grapefruit growers in the form of product research, a few restrictions to make sure those imported grapefruits are up to par, and maybe a few subsides. Then free trade is not so free anymore.

As long as American companies doing business in China are not competing with Chinese industry things go pretty smoothly, but if there is any competition with local industry, American companies find they face a wall of regulations. Often the only course of action is bribes to government official at all levels which of course puts the business under the thumb of the government. China has been caught a number of times manipulating the currency market in order to keep the Yen low relative to the US dollar. This helps keep Chinese good cheap in the US and American good expensive in China. Then there is the massive amount of government subsidies to exporters etc, etc.

When Boeing bids against Airbus, they find they are bidding against Airbus/the government of France. France and the EU pumps money into Airbus as needed just to make sure they have a leg up on the competition.

What does the US do about all this? Nothing really. We don’t want to start trade wars, we don’t want to be considered a protections nation, and we certainly don’t want to hurt WalMart or Target.

BBC NEWS | Business | Europe considers Airbus soft loan
Dave Johnson: Chinese Currency Manipulation Is Just One Part of the Problem

 

[rdean]

The good jobs are in the minds of wise entrepenuers waiting for the day when the Governmenet won't try to rob them of everything they work for before they can even get up off the ground.

Great! Pay me fairly and I'd become a wise entrepenuer creating good jobs for lots of people.

The notion that the wealthy don't have sufficient financial resources for investment is a load of B.S.

Never in the history of the human race has there been people as wealthy as the current economic elite in the U.S. They have plenty of investment capital.

We'll continue to support a government that taxes the hell out of the wealthy and takes from them the wealth that they have robbed from the American workers which WE HAVE WORKED FOR!

The wealthy are the only ones who start businesses?

The problem isn't the wealthy having too much money. The problem is the government doing everything it can to prevent poor and middle class people from ever becoming wealthy. When you tax income, you aren't hurting the wealthy you are hurting the people who are actually being productive.

Actually no. We are paying less taxes today than we have for the last 40 or 50 years.

There are several things that cause the current problems. During the 50s and 60s, CEOs made only 30 times the average salary of workers in their company. These days, CEOs make hundreds of times the salary of the average worker. Enough that they become the "super rich" and are able to purchase political parties.

This is why you can have a 2.5 trillion dollar tax cut where more than 50% went to only a very rich few and the rest of the nation received a hundred bucks (or whatever) each.

Deregulation, bought and paid for. Replacing mining and oil drilling regulations with "voluntary compliance". Could you imagine instead of "speed limits" if it was all "voluntary compliance"?

Over time, the nations wealth ends up in the hands of a very few. When only a few have money, the economy stops.

Now these uber rich people want to continue to make money. How is that possible with an economy that has stalled? Fire workers, or move overseas in search of "cheaper" labor.

Now there is another kind of "rich". These are people that invent. Or they create a "need". Examples: computers, Microsoft, there is a man who made tens of millions off "funny teeth", new style of wrench, Oprah.

People who start business that does something or makes something. Not like health care companies who merely skim money off of insurance policies.

Things won't change until we elect people who are dedicated to improving the situation. Right now, everyone has an ideological agenda.

Straight people who want to put someone in office to stop gay rights, people they don't know and will never know. Where is the benefit? An ideologue will say, "They've saved the family". Ask how...and they only answer with..blah blah blah.

People who want to push "Gawd".

People who accuse others of the most ridiculous things. He wants to take over your life. It's laughable.

Elect people for these ridiculous reasons and all you get is ridiculous.

 

[rdean]

Highest paying jobs in the U.S. - AskMen.com

The top 24 according to the U.S. Department of Labor:

Surgeon: $181,850

Anesthesiologist: $174,610

OB/GYN: $174,610

Oral and maxillofacial surgeon: $169,600

Internist: $156,790

Prosthodontist: $156,710

Orthodontist: $153,240

Psychiatrist: $151,380

Chief Executive Officer: $140,880

Engineering Manager: $140,210

Pediatrician: $140,000

Family or general practitioner: $137,980

Physician/surgeon, all other: $137,100

Airline Pilot: $134,090

Dentist: $132,660

Podiatrist: $111,130

Lawyer: $110,590

Dentist, any other specialist: $106,040

Air Traffic Controller: $100,430

Computer and Information Systems Manager: $100,110

Marketing Manager: $100,020

Natural Sciences Manager: $97,560

Sales Manager: $96,950

Astronomer: $96,780

Great! PH.ds, MBAs, Law degrees or starve.

Not one of the above produceds a physical item of value. All are services. What about things like food, housing, automobiles, clothing, T.V. sets. sewer systems, bridges, roads and everything else that a scoeity needs to survive?

It guess the people that produce things of real physical value are just shit.

I never met an "engineering manager" that wasn't an engineer first. Same with most of the others. And what do engineers do? How about, " food, housing, automobiles, clothing, T.V. sets. sewer systems, bridges, roads and everything else that a society needs to survive?"

And you will find the most productive in the next tier. From 70 to 85k.

Schools hard. But all competition is hard.

 

[Flopper]

I had lunch with a very smart, wealthy friend who is one of those global citizen types.

He went to a seminar in Europe recently in which the global jobs environment was covered. The presenter's thesis was that in the Developing World, 20% unemployment is the norm. As we become more globalized, this high level of unemployment will become the norm around the world.

Why that is the case is an interesting topic for debate. I'd argue that the growth of Big Government is letting the air out of the tires of the developed world's economies so that new jobs to replace the ones moved over seas are not being created.

Of course new jobs will be created with any expansion of the economy. But will those jobs make it possible for the average Joe to provide a decent life style for his family, to afford medical care, to send his kids to a dentist, save for retirement, etc. I think not. Even if the economy takes off, the basic reason for jobs leaving will be with us. Whole industries have been exported. What use to be complete manufacturing plants are now just final assembly plants. High tech manufacturing plants are now just R&D facilities that employ just a few people. Then there is the hot tech growing companies like Google, with 22 billion in revenue that employs only 22,000 most of which are either overseas jobs, temp or contract workers or Western Digital with 7.5 billion in revenue and on 8,000 employees world-wide.

 

[Flopper]

What does equal and balanced mean?

Should the government define those terms, or should the parties involved in the transaction define those terms?

When one government defines terms, and the other does not - that leads to a trade imbalance.

For "equal and balanced" trade, we'd have to eliminate the minimum wage, pay workers 50 cents a day for 12 hour days, and remove all environmental protections.

Yeah, I guess that's the reality of the situation, for better or for worse. Global transport has become cheaper and easier over the long term, and American consumers have, for the most part, shown that prices mean more than the "made in ___" label.

I think it's important to point out that, while base-level manufacturing is moving to less-developed economies, developed economies still have value-added production. An example is the iPod. The thing is put together in China, but it reaches our shores as nothing but a useless piece of plastic; the value is added by the software developers in Silicon valley. These later stages of production usually require a high-skill labor force that isn't available in less-developed economies.

In the long run, I think a more-educated higher-skill workforce would be better for our economy than tax manipulation, subsidies, and preferential trade agreements. But maybe I've read too much Milton Friedman.

At the Foxconn's Longhua facility in China 200,000 people build Ipods . It is my understanding the basic software is now loaded at the plant.

AppleInsider | iPod City: inside Apple's iPod factories

 

[oreo]

There is much discussion about unemployment and job creation, however we fail to ask the most important question. What kinds of jobs are being created? For the most part they are temporary jobs, and contract work. But this is nothing new. For decades, American employers in increasing numbers have been filling permanent positions with low paid less skilled temps and contract workers. Aren't employers concerned that they are not building a loyal highly skilled work force? No! Today’s employers don’t need as many highly skilled workers because they don’t produce products that require it. Just how much skill does it take to flip a burger, pack a shipping carton, operate a cash register, or empty bedpans? So where are the good jobs? They have gone overseas along with many American industries. Over the last 50 years we watched the greatest industrial nation on earth transition into a service based economy. Forty percent of the economy produces no real goods. This has to change if we expect the 21st century to bring real economic growth and prosperity to the country.

Neither party offers any viable solution. What is needed is a trade policy that benefits American businesses and workers. We need to stop treating China, Japan, Korea, and EU countries as partners. They are not partners. They are competitors, whose goal is to kick our economic ass, and they are doing a good job of it. Free trade and NAFTA have been an economic disaster for the US. While we have opened up our boarders to foreign trade, they have created laws and regulation to protect local industries from completion. While we have refrained from putting government money into private industry, they have poured government funds into product research and development. Some say we can't compete because our wages are too high. This isn't true. In Japan wages are 10 times that of China, yet the Japanese export 90 billion plus each year to China. All American businesses needs is a level playing field to successfully compete abroad. The question is who has the guts to do what is needed.

http://www.squidoo.com/eamonn-fingleton#module44585322
The U.S. Trade Deficit
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Japan's Trade Buddies: Top 15 Japanese Export & Import Partners

Everyone knows that the "good" jobs exist in the Federal Government where you can earn over 150K per year to watch porn on your computer all day long---

No kidding--currently the average federal government makes 72K per year while the worker in the private sector makes 42K.

Is there something wrong with this picture? YEAH YOU BET---we can't afford it.

 

[Flopper]

There is much discussion about unemployment and job creation, however we fail to ask the most important question. What kinds of jobs are being created? For the most part they are temporary jobs, and contract work. But this is nothing new. For decades, American employers in increasing numbers have been filling permanent positions with low paid less skilled temps and contract workers. Aren't employers concerned that they are not building a loyal highly skilled work force? No! Today’s employers don’t need as many highly skilled workers because they don’t produce products that require it. Just how much skill does it take to flip a burger, pack a shipping carton, operate a cash register, or empty bedpans? So where are the good jobs? They have gone overseas along with many American industries. Over the last 50 years we watched the greatest industrial nation on earth transition into a service based economy. Forty percent of the economy produces no real goods. This has to change if we expect the 21st century to bring real economic growth and prosperity to the country.

Neither party offers any viable solution. What is needed is a trade policy that benefits American businesses and workers. We need to stop treating China, Japan, Korea, and EU countries as partners. They are not partners. They are competitors, whose goal is to kick our economic ass, and they are doing a good job of it. Free trade and NAFTA have been an economic disaster for the US. While we have opened up our boarders to foreign trade, they have created laws and regulation to protect local industries from completion. While we have refrained from putting government money into private industry, they have poured government funds into product research and development. Some say we can't compete because our wages are too high. This isn't true. In Japan wages are 10 times that of China, yet the Japanese export 90 billion plus each year to China. All American businesses needs is a level playing field to successfully compete abroad. The question is who has the guts to do what is needed.

http://www.squidoo.com/eamonn-fingleton#module44585322
The U.S. Trade Deficit
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Japan's Trade Buddies: Top 15 Japanese Export & Import Partners

Everyone knows that the "good" jobs exist in the Federal Government where you can earn over 150K per year to watch porn on your computer all day long---

No kidding--currently the average federal government makes 72K per year while the worker in the private sector makes 42K.

Is there something wrong with this picture? YEAH YOU BET---we can't afford it.

We always come back to the same thing. Reduce the size of government and we will have investments in American business and we will all benefit. We will have new products, maybe an Ipatch to go with the Ipod that will create hundreds of thousands of jobs in China and a handful high paid jobs in the US.

We seem to labor under the illusion that if we cut government spending, tax cuts will follow which will turn into investments in American business that will bring prosperity to the nation. New investments, even in American companies are more likely to be go abroad where returns are greater.

What is needed is better trade policies and investments in American Industry. We can get better trade policies just by biting the bullet and doing it. Through tax incentives we can encourage development of American industries that can compete in both domestic and world markets.

 

[American Horse]

Highest paying jobs in the U.S. - AskMen.com

The top 24 according to the U.S. Department of Labor:

Surgeon: $181,850

Anesthesiologist: $174,610

OB/GYN: $174,610

Oral and maxillofacial surgeon: $169,600

Internist: $156,790

Prosthodontist: $156,710

Orthodontist: $153,240

Psychiatrist: $151,380

Chief Executive Officer: $140,880

Engineering Manager: $140,210

Pediatrician: $140,000

Family or general practitioner: $137,980

Physician/surgeon, all other: $137,100

Airline Pilot: $134,090

Dentist: $132,660

Podiatrist: $111,130

Lawyer: $110,590

Dentist, any other specialist: $106,040

Air Traffic Controller: $100,430

Computer and Information Systems Manager: $100,110

Marketing Manager: $100,020

Natural Sciences Manager: $97,560

Sales Manager: $96,950

Astronomer: $96,780

Great! PH.ds, MBAs, Law degrees or starve.

Not one of the above produceds a physical item of value. All are services. What about things like food, housing, automobiles, clothing, T.V. sets. sewer systems, bridges, roads and everything else that a scoeity needs to survive?

It guess the people that produce things of real physical value are just shit.

I speak from the perspective of someone who has been a self employed independent contractor for 38 years. I have creatively produced things that others wanted badly enough to pay me a competitive price for my efforts and provided me (and my family) a decent living, with the convenience of being able to set my own schedule. My educational level is high-school and some additional training plus self education.

Along the way I have been impressed by the large numbers of people I met who found niches in the same process, finding some kind of creative productive work, more or less naming their price because of their innate talents and ambition. Large parts of their talent was that they could identify opportunities and grab them while others held back, limited by their own lack of ambition; or sadly from fear. A great many of those who lacked the talent or the motivation became employees of those more talented individuals and were in a situation to, if they became sufficiently motivated and desired to, eventually start their own businesses.

The hard part in all that is being competitive; if I'd had an exaggerated opinion of the value of my own work, then I would've had a competition problem and not found enough work to stay in my field. My spouse, with about the same level of education as I, because she found customers for her efforts willing to pay for her services, was able to earn a level of income in some years about equal to the "Internist" listed above.

So to me these complaints mostly seem to come from those who are not willing to put themselves out there, or change some necessary things, lacking ambition or motivation. Some of those poor suckers have bought into the philosophy that "The system is unfair," so they start out from a position of discouragement. Then they tend to hang with others who are "losers" or view everything from a viewpoint of envy and resentment – and OMG, write and complain about it on the internet.

The above list of "24" reads like a list of "the best of the best" of people I have worked for over the years.

 

[CMike]

It's all supply & demand.

 

[rightwinger]

It's all supply & demand.

Amway is always hiring.....right Mike?

 

[CMike]

I wouldn't know. Those sewer workers gotta always be in demand, right sewer worker left winger?

 

[rightwinger]

For those interested in making salaries like those in the OP, I suggest you send a PM to CMike.

You too can be an Amway distributor. Own your own business, amaze your family and friends....learn about the wonderful world of Amway.

It worked for Mike...it can work for you

 

[Sheldon]

I wouldn't know. Those sewer workers gotta always be in demand, right sewer worker left winger?

In that case, we should give a tax break to Ex-Lax and Metamucil.

 

[boedicca]

Only when it's equal and balanced.

What does equal and balanced mean?

Should the government define those terms, or should the parties involved in the transaction define those terms?

When one government defines terms, and the other does not - that leads to a trade imbalance.

For "equal and balanced" trade, we'd have to eliminate the minimum wage, pay workers 50 cents a day for 12 hour days, and remove all environmental protections.

That is incorrect. There are other costs to providing products and services besides labor: sources of raw materials, transportation costs, location of customers...

The problem we have in the U.S. is the innovation that makes U.S. labor worth higher wages is stagnating (just talk to investors in Silicon Valley - hardly anything is getting funded right now due to the high cost of doing business and the uncertainty of the regulatory and tax environment).

 

[txlonghorn]

Highest paying jobs in the U.S. - AskMen.com

The top 24 according to the U.S. Department of Labor:

Surgeon: $181,850

Anesthesiologist: $174,610

OB/GYN: $174,610

Oral and maxillofacial surgeon: $169,600

Internist: $156,790

Prosthodontist: $156,710

Orthodontist: $153,240

Psychiatrist: $151,380

Chief Executive Officer: $140,880

Engineering Manager: $140,210

Pediatrician: $140,000

Family or general practitioner: $137,980

Physician/surgeon, all other: $137,100

Airline Pilot: $134,090

Dentist: $132,660

Podiatrist: $111,130

Lawyer: $110,590

Dentist, any other specialist: $106,040

Air Traffic Controller: $100,430

Computer and Information Systems Manager: $100,110

Marketing Manager: $100,020

Natural Sciences Manager: $97,560

Sales Manager: $96,950

Astronomer: $96,780

Wow...some of these incomes look bogus as hell! 181K for a surgeon? What kind of surgeon?

And what about those guys at the SEC making over 200K to look at porn all day?????

 

[rdean]

Psychiatrist: $151,380?

That's just crazy.

 

[skookerasbil]

Highest paying jobs in the U.S. - AskMen.com

The top 24 according to the U.S. Department of Labor:

Surgeon: $181,850

Anesthesiologist: $174,610

OB/GYN: $174,610

Oral and maxillofacial surgeon: $169,600

Internist: $156,790

Prosthodontist: $156,710

Orthodontist: $153,240

Psychiatrist: $151,380

Chief Executive Officer: $140,880

Engineering Manager: $140,210

Pediatrician: $140,000

Family or general practitioner: $137,980

Physician/surgeon, all other: $137,100

Airline Pilot: $134,090

Dentist: $132,660

Podiatrist: $111,130

Lawyer: $110,590

Dentist, any other specialist: $106,040

Air Traffic Controller: $100,430

Computer and Information Systems Manager: $100,110

Marketing Manager: $100,020

Natural Sciences Manager: $97,560

Sales Manager: $96,950

Astronomer: $96,780

Wow...some of these incomes look bogus as hell! 181K for a surgeon? What kind of surgeon?

And what about those guys at the SEC making over 200K to look at porn all day?????

lol..........thats like a 1988 salary summary!!!!

 

[Avatar4321]

Psychiatrist: $151,380?

That's just crazy.

They are in high demand.

 

[CMike]

For those interested in making salaries like those in the OP, I suggest you send a PM to CMike.

You too can be an Amway distributor. Own your own business, amaze your family and friends....learn about the wonderful world of Amway.

It worked for Mike...it can work for you

Wow, you are one jealous fucker.

 

[American Horse]

Psychiatrist: $151,380?

That's just crazy.

A psychiatrist might have no staff at all and work for a hospital or other institution which would provide all his or her attendant operating expenses. Insurance would be less than for a surgeon or other medical doctor. As a metric, at $100 per hour he/she would need only to bill for 1510 hours annually to earn that $151K.