Jobs for the sake of jobs don't provide the average American more than a means to subsist. Everyone talks about creating jobs, but forget that the jobs needed and wanted by most Americans are the type that allow people to improve their lives. Would you're proposal provide these types of jobs?
Jobs for the sake of jobs don't provide the average American more than a means to subsist. Everyone talks about creating jobs, but forget that the jobs needed and wanted by most Americans are the type that allow people to improve their lives. Would you're proposal provide these types of jobs?
So that means it leans left of you, but not necessarily left of center or otherwise the aggregate reality. Got it.
Left of most of the US. According to most Europeans all of the US is right wing including the Dems. That may explain why Obama leans so far left, trying to look good for his European idols.
Absolutely, a roofer is a good job with the potential of starting your own business, not much investment needed. I know such a guy who did quite well. Low paying jobs are stepping stones to something better for those who can, or something to make a living for those who cannot do something better. I always wanted to start at the top, who doesn't, unfortunately I had to work my way up from below minimum wage. Looking back, those go nowhere jobs provided me with the experience and the desire to get something better.
Fixing the unemployment cannot possibly stop with repatriating illegals. At some point we have to reexamine the so called free trade that shipped our better paying manufacturing jobs overseas. I don't believe that a Chinese, a potential enemy should have the same access to the US market an American has.
I see your point. I just don't see someone who has been working for years who has gone up the ladder settling for these jobs unless it was as a last resort in order to put food on the table. Or as you point out as a startup business for someone. Filling these lower jobs might reduce the unemployment rate but I don't see it providing anything more than a means of surviving. I don't understand how politicians can keep saying that jobs need to be created when those who offer jobs can't if the economy is stagnant. If a business is barely staying afloat how can it offer a job? Every job I've worked at has been a small to medium sized business that by virtue of being in the service sector can't relocate outside the US. What policies has the government put in place that help smaller businesses or hurt them? Seems to me that government simply keeps making it harder to stay in business with the constant stream of regulations, rules and mandates that only hurt business. Am I wrong?
I don't see a problem with free trade provided it's also fair. It's not equal if any government subsidizes it. Businesses should compete equally. So I agree that since the Chinese help their businesses we shouldn't trade with them. Problem is that we want stuff really cheap which the Chinese and others can provide. So our dollars go overseas which helps those country's governments grow stronger even if the businesses don't. I don't know what the Chinese business tax level is but I'm sure they take a pretty decent cut to grow like they're growing. I do realize though that the dollars that go overseas are worthless to them unless they can use them. So they either buy some of our products or they lend it back to us. Seems lending is easier. Ironic that our (and the western world's) materialistic society provides the money for them to grow stronger.
I'm at a loss to know the answers or solutions. I try to break it down to the lowest denominator and see how things interact at the individual level and then extrapolate that behavior upward to represent one nation interacting with another nation. Aren't nation's just collections of lots of people? Maybe I'm to simplistic in looking at it like this. Oops. I got off topic. Sorry.
I know a pretty young lady who used to clean bathrooms. Never complained, always with a smile. She was promoted to supply services, more money, better work. A minimum wage job is a lot more honorable than somebody sitting on his ass and collecting the money others earned.
You are right, the government's job is to create a good business environment and stay out of the way. Right now the government is only responsive to lobbies.
I see a lot of problems with "free trade", it doesn't work. Look around you, you'll see the results. The name sounds great and there are some good aspects about it, OTOH when it is obvious that the end result is bad, when the jobs leave and the country goes down the drain, change is needed. We cannot compete with child labor, extremely low wages, lack of environmental regulations etc. Foreigners don't have a right to our markets. Products are cheaper but in the long run too expensive if the price is the destruction of our economy. We tried it, it didn't work.
A nation is a lot more than that. It is a group of people united by history, culture, language, way of life, even religion, with common interests and the commitment to stand by each other.
I'll agree with you on working. I've lost jobs and always went to work to find work. Never have accepted help from government or family as I always try to have a little put aside for emergencies. It's gotten down to eating peanut butter sandwiches (couldn't afford the jelly) at times but I managed to survive. Free trade I'm still not decided on entirely as being right or wrong in the long run. I do know that just about everything I own today is made everywhere else but in the US. That's sad. I'd like to buy stuff made here but know that if it was made here it would cost more. Why? I don't know. The cost of food made here is going higher. I need food. Agreed that a nation is made up of many things. I guess I was trying to view it in light of how two people interact. If you and I meet to say trade on a gun deal we'd mutually agree to a place to meet, the time and the terms of the exchange. It would be civil and cordial. You'd get something and I'd get something. The exchange would be mutual beneficially to both of us. Why can't nations do the same? Again, too simplistic?
I've been reading this forum for eight months now since joining. I just only posted yesterday for the first time. The situation in the nation concerns me. I have a decent job for the moment but realize that tomorrow it might be gone. It's scary to be honest. This thread was about Ron Paul. I hadn't planned on voting. The last time I voted was for Reagan on his second run. So when I began to look at the candidates I gravitated towards Bachmann because she stood up for the Constitution. But I'm not a hawk so her position had me give Paul a look. He too stood up for the Constitution. More so than Bachmann. I like that. I've always viewed the Constitution as the rule book that the federal government was suppose to play by. And since that last time I voted for Reagan I've watched the federal government work tirelessly to get around the rules. To make excuses to justify their actions. And each time they succeeded in getting around a rule I felt cheated. Why do these people in government with money and power get to cheat when I have to live by the rules? It's not only unfair it's not right. In sports both teams have to be playing by the same set of rules. Why doesn't the government, which is supposed to be representing our will, playing by the rules?
Everyone keeps saying Paul isn't presidential material. But why? If he constantly refers back to the Constitution when he discusses an issue, how is that unpresidential? Isn't the job of the president to defend the Constitution? I would if I could be president. I'd want to do what is right. Not what is convenient or goes along to get along. All the candidates aren't perfect. I've learned long ago that when everyone is against someone it doesn't hurt to investigate and research that person's positions. If the media and many on this forum that I'd been reading quietly for eight months hadn't kept saying negative things about him I'd probably never looked at his positions. I like what I have discovered. I'm almost convinced to spend my vote on him when the time comes. It means I'll have to register as a republican to do it but I can swallow that pill. I want the best for the nation. I want to be able to live in a nation where I'm free. I want to respect the government. I don't want to distrust it. But with each passing year they've caused me to distrust them because they're not playing by the rule book that is the Constitution. If they won't play by the rules, where does that leave me? Or my family and friends? I feel as though I'm losing my freedom. And that scares me more than not having a job or having a house or anything else.
Go to Utube and download the complete debate. Hear what his solutions are and decide.
I wasn't thrilled.
I've done that. I had no concerns with his responses and works with my philosophy. Anyways, thanks for the conversation. Get's me to thinking about stuff. It's a while until the primaries so I can do some more research in the meanwhile until I make my decision.
I watched it, I cannot think of anything he said that sounded like a plan. I can keep repeating that we need to go back to the Constitution and we should, unfortunately it is not a plan, just an opinion. A plan has a few details on how it will be done.
Saw this story the other night and thought it goes right along with the current conversation. Why would these people work when they get paid more to sit on their ass? This is why I am against ANY extension of unemployment benefits.
http://www.news9.com/story/15423782/employers-cant-compete-with-unemployment-checks
OKLAHOMA -- While the president focuses on creating jobs, many Oklahoma business owners say they're having a hard time finding help.
They say people simply won't work for minimum wage. Two landscaping business owners said they come across many unemployed people who will not work for $7.25 an hour even in these tough economic times.
"This might not be the most glamorous job in the world, but it puts money in your pocket and food on the table for your family," said Colby Barrington of Farmers Touch Landscaping. He pays $8 an hour plus a productivity bonus, but can't stay fully staffed.
Barrington is not alone.
"That happens a lot , a lot of people on unemployment just want to make some money under the table," Brandon Jackson of Nature Boys Landscaping said.
Jackson has owned his lawn service for 12 years but believes lazy workers are a sign of the times.
"I guess if you are not the primary owner it's hard to dedicate yourself to come out in 106 and 109 temperatures," he said.
Prospective employees tell him it is easier and more lucrative to stay at home and collect a check than to weed eat or mow.
And the math is in their favor.
The maximum weekly unemployment allowance in Oklahoma is $392 a week. That's $20,384 annually.
Minimum wage workers earn $290 a week, or $15,080.00 per year.
A worker will make $5,304 more sitting on his couch.
"It is easier to depend on Big Brother to support your family and put food on the table than to pull up your bootstraps and go to work and earn a living," Barrington said.
http://www.news9.com/story/15423782/employers-cant-compete-with-unemployment-checks
OKLAHOMA -- While the president focuses on creating jobs, many Oklahoma business owners say they're having a hard time finding help.
They say people simply won't work for minimum wage. Two landscaping business owners said they come across many unemployed people who will not work for $7.25 an hour even in these tough economic times.
"This might not be the most glamorous job in the world, but it puts money in your pocket and food on the table for your family," said Colby Barrington of Farmers Touch Landscaping. He pays $8 an hour plus a productivity bonus, but can't stay fully staffed.
Barrington is not alone.
"That happens a lot , a lot of people on unemployment just want to make some money under the table," Brandon Jackson of Nature Boys Landscaping said.
Jackson has owned his lawn service for 12 years but believes lazy workers are a sign of the times.
"I guess if you are not the primary owner it's hard to dedicate yourself to come out in 106 and 109 temperatures," he said.
Prospective employees tell him it is easier and more lucrative to stay at home and collect a check than to weed eat or mow.
And the math is in their favor.
The maximum weekly unemployment allowance in Oklahoma is $392 a week. That's $20,384 annually.
Minimum wage workers earn $290 a week, or $15,080.00 per year.
A worker will make $5,304 more sitting on his couch.
"It is easier to depend on Big Brother to support your family and put food on the table than to pull up your bootstraps and go to work and earn a living," Barrington said.
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