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Election 2008
The McCain/Palin thread was getting away from the topic of Palin as the VP Candidate for the GOP so under the suggestion of another user, I have started a new thread for us to discuss anything & everything about this upcoming election.
Fire away! |
McCain, Today's Jobs & Community Colleges
Last night, my boyfriend and I watched McCain's speech together. It was an OK speech - I'm getting annoyed with the 9/11 references and so much of his argument revolving around his time as a POW about 40 years ago, but it was still OK. I don't dislike McCain...I just like Obama more. My boyfriend, on the other hand, has admired McCain for years and traditionally votes straight Republican ticket.
So we were watching the speech, feeling kinda "Meh" about it, until it got to this part: Quote:
I was laid off from my first job out of college in 2001, then again from a nonprofit in 2002. I graduated from a Tier 1 university, had big student loans to prove it, and yet I couldn't get a professional job to pay the bills...it seemed like no one I knew could. At that time, not even the temp agencies had jobs to offer. I remember coming home one night after spending some time at the "work source" office and turning on the State of the Union address to hear George Bush tell America that people like me needed to go to community college to learn the skills necessary for today's jobs. And I remember the tremendous sinking feeling I had of realizing that he truly did not understand what was really going on in this country...and that he didn't even know people like me existed. If George Bush and John McCain would go into unemployment offices around the country, they would learn a lot. I have to think that they haven't done this, because if they had, they would know that unemployment offices today are filled with many white collar, educated professionals in addition to the factory workers that I think they're thinking of. In 2002, when I was called in randomly to sit through a "training" at the unemployment office, the office was filled with professionals with bachelor's degrees, MBAs and, yes, PhDs! The instructors were ashamed to be "instructing" people who just days or weeks before had been at the top of their ladders to look into community college classes. They knew that their offices had nothing to support us. At the same time, my boyfriend, who has an engineering degree from Michigan and an MBA in Finance from a good school, had been unemployed for several months. He was laid off and replaced by engineering contractors from Russia, here on work visas. He was on unemployment for a while, but then it ran out, and President Bush decided not to expand federal unemployment benefits. He took a job in another field, and moved around the country trying to get back into engineering. A few years ago, he finally got his dream job at Boeing...nearly 15 years after he graduated with his aerospace engineering degree. So I would like to ask John McCain, What are these jobs that haven't and won't disappear? Manufactering is already gone, and without major tax penalties to corporations they won't be coming back. And now science and technology jobs are either being offshored or taken by foreign contractors here on visas. We graduate people with tech and engineering degrees, but then don't offer them the jobs...because we can bring in people from India or Russia that will work for less. Even software engineering is being done in India now. What kind of a job is a community college supposed to secure us in the future economy? Because right now the only thing I see our economy supporting is the service sector. Some business services, such as my field of marketing, and lawyers, will stay here, but even my company just recently sent our accounting/billing overseas. Are we supposed to be a country of bartenders, waiters/waitresses, hotel clerks, medical assistants and massage therapists? I think what John McCain and George Bush really meant was that factory workers who lost their jobs because Americans are obsessed with cheap crap should go to community colleges to learn computer programming or something like that. But - DUH - that's not a stable choice anymore either! What ARE the jobs that will stay here?! |
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To be honest, I can't think of a job that is relatively stable anymore. I am a credentialed teacher with a Masters yet I was still laid off last year. I was fortunate enough to have my pink slip rescinded but I know that for many other teachers, they weren't as lucky as me.
Here's another article I found on the GOP slamming community organizers. My aunt is extremely angry over this issue because she is a very conservative woman and a community organizer. The way the GOP has been mocking them has made her decide to not vote for McCain and instead vote for Obama instead. |
that grand slam conservatives kaap saying the GOP hit this week??
...looks like it bounce off of one of these in left field: http://gruia.blogware.com/_photos/Wr...Pole.thumb.jpg |
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Correct me if I'm wrong here, but there isn't anything that we can realistically do to prevent it without violating WTO rules and shitting on a couple of free trade agreements. Barack has proposed to end tax breaks on companies that send jobs overseas- something that John McCain voted NO on. This is one of the few issues where I agree with Obama even though McCain may end up being right. There are a lot of economists whom believe that outsourcing helps our economy and although that may be true to a point, eventually it makes the economy unstable. |
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The majority of the unemployed still have less than a college degree, and skills programs are dedicated toward these individuals. The whole point is that manufacturing jobs are falling at the highest and most consistent rate, and that these jobs will likely never come back (because of the reality of global business, American demand for low costs and the existence of cheaper labor alternatives). This isn't a "let's make the art students go to a paralegal class"-type thing, at least in conception. Quote:
I guess I'm trying to say that it has to be bottom-up change - it's similar to supply-side versus demand-side economic stimulus, in that the pool of white-collar professionals will benefit from a more capable pool of lower-educated workers with job skills moving beyond loading a machine with materials and wearing eye protection. After all, if there's no one to manage, who needs a manager? Quote:
The confluence of these things is that there has to be a benefit to the business - and that comes not from tax subsidies, unenforceable regulation or red tape, or other such regressive taxes. Instead, we have to offer businesses a benefit from another angle - and a workforce that has a better, unique skill set would be one such way. However, I do completely agree with your conclusion, but just view it in a different way - the key is to attack the problem from a variety of more creative angles than "tax breaks!!!" in a hit-and-run fashion. However, I don't think either McCain or Obama have really given me any indication they can do this - in fact, both side's plans seem regressive to me, and seem to pile the burden back onto the consumer in the end. Quote:
America is in the middle of a drastic change, from a manufacturing-based economy to a nebulous one, and through the Bush era we haven't done a good job at all of giving ourselves direction (whether that's Bush's fault is up for discussion, but I'll just use "we" to represent the nation as a whole). You speak of service jobs with disdain, which I think most people agree with, and that's likely a relic of an impression of the old, booming American economy. However, it may very well be that we start viewing a massage therapist as a "white-color" semi-skilled profession, on par with a payroll clerk with an AA in business math/accounting. The manufacturing jobs are NOT coming back - never. Just like we put up with factory farms because most of us don't want to pay $12/lb for pork, we're going to have to adapt to outsourcing. Right now, it's a house of cards - but development has to start somewhere, and starting with the middle class is a recipe for disaster, because you're just bloating the middle of the house. Eventually, you have to strengthen the base. |
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I'd stay away from the baseball metaphors, slugger. |
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thank god for instant replays...HAHAHHA |
PeppyGPhiB,
Do you feel like more protectionists policies are the answer? Or are you just irritated by the idea of overly simplistic answers to the what you see as only being a small part of the problem? KSigRC, More than anyone on GC other than MysticCat, your posts are reliably good. Even when my position doesn't align with you guys, I think everyone can just see the beauty of the pretty well-crafted arguments or the usually careful critique of someone else's maybe slightly flawed one. |
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On that note, what happened to Shinerbock? Anyone know? |
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