We’ve been told in Fornicalia that everything is changing, and that our forte now is as a “service economy.”
With one major exception: service economies don’t grow the national economy, and they don’t stabilize a nation, and they don’t place or keep a nation strong.
A strong nation actually builds and produces things that other economies — and nations — need, such as aircraft, steel, cars, clothing, ships, trucks, fabrication, food, appliances, electronics, etc.
Many of these things we simply do not manufacture or create any more in the United States. But that’s deserving of a blogpost for another time, is it not?
The AP writes:
Whenever companies start hiring freely again, job-seekers with specialized skills and education will have plenty of good opportunities. Others will face a choice: Take a job with low pay — or none at all.
Job creation will likely remain weak for months or even years. But once employers do step up hiring, some economists expect job openings to fall mainly into two categories of roughly equal numbers:
• Professional fields with higher pay. Think lawyers, research scientists and software engineers.
• Lower-skill and lower-paying jobs, like home health care aides and store clerks.
And those in between? Their outlook is bleaker. Economists foresee fewer moderately paid factory supervisors, postal workers and office administrators.
To this point, as having been the “recipients” of Wonder Solutions such as TARP, various stimulus packages and ObakaKare — to the tune of, now, vast billions and billions of dollars that we do not possess [with the national debt at $13 trillion — and growing] — the US is still in the grip of a struggling economy, larger unemployment figures and the largest tax hike in history coming January 1st of 2011.
As if that will help the economy . . . so let’s just kill spending altogether, shall we?
Fornicalia is already in the fiscal tank.
Remember what Mr Obama said during his campaign for president:
The Bush tax cuts – people didn’t need them, and they weren’t even asking for them, and that’s why they need to be less, so that we can pay for universal health care and other initiatives.”
2007 Democratic Primary Debate at Howard University Jun 28, 2007.
“Government does not have a revenue problem; government has a spending problem.“ -Marsha Blackburn
Click here for at least 60 links to Obama’s views on the economy and the budget.
But there’s a portion of the working sector that AP has missed, jobs that will always need to exist:
– Doctors, nurses, skilled nursing staff, welders, fabricators, mechanics, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians — in other words, skilled people who know how to keep what we have operating.
Never forget, though, that politics are involved:
At stake nationally is the balance of power in Washington, the tone for the remainder of Obama’s first term and his likely 2012 re-election bid. All 435 House seats as well as 37 Senate seats are on the ballot. The country also will elect 37 governors in races that will determine who oversees the once-a-decade redrawing of political districts.
And let us not forget Demorat Labor’s Card Check:
Nothing like pressure, eh workers?
Welcome to your New Paradigm, Labor.
Mr Obama and his Socialists have already sold your asses down the river. He’s making you a Wimpy Promise:
I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”
He wants your vote up front.
After that, you can all go to Hell.
Welcome to Labor Day.
BZ
Oh yeah, there IS gonna be some payback, the problem is when it will come… And my question is, who will be left to actually DO the skilled labor we need???
NFO: good question. Which brings me to a post I’m committed to in the future: GOVERNMENTAL CONSCRIPTION.
BZ
boy, great minds..wait till you see my Labor Day post..”we’ve got to BUILD THINGS” 🙂
Have a good day, BZ…God bless.
Marsha Blackburn has a spending problem.
Marsha Blackburn Voted FOR:
Omnibus Appropriations, Special Education, Global AIDS Initiative, Job Training, Unemployment Benefits, Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations, Agriculture Appropriations, FY2004 Foreign Operations Appropriations, U.S.-Singapore Trade, U.S.-Chile Trade, Supplemental Spending for Iraq & Afghanistan, Flood Insurance Reauthorization , Prescription Drug Benefit, Child Nutrition Programs, Surface Transportation, Job Training and Worker Services, Agriculture Appropriations, Foreign Aid, Debt Limit Increase, Fiscal 2005 Omnibus Appropriations, Vocational/Technical Training, Supplemental Appropriations, UN “Reforms.” Patriot Act Reauthorization, CAFTA, Katrina Hurricane-relief Appropriations, Head Start Funding, Line-item Rescission, Oman Trade Agreement, Military Tribunals, Electronic Surveillance, Head Start Funding, COPS Funding, Funding the REAL ID Act (National ID), Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, Thought Crimes “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, Peru Free Trade Agreement, Economic Stimulus, Farm Bill (Veto Override), Warrantless Searches, Employee Verification Program, Body Imaging Screening, Patriot Act extention.
Marsha Blackburn Voted AGAINST:
Ban on UN Contributions, eliminate Millennium Challenge Account, WTO Withdrawal, UN Dues Decrease, Defunding the NAIS, Iran Military Operations defunding Iraq Troop Withdrawal, congress authorization of Iran Military Operations, Withdrawing U.S. Soldiers from Afghanistan.
Marsha Blackburn is my Congressman.
See her unconstitutional votes at :
http://mickeywhite.blogspot.com/2009/09/tn-congressman-marsha-blackburn-votes.html
Mickey
America has always built and produced. I’ll await your blogpost on that issue.
I believe Obama’s agenda includes bringing all medical into the government fold, including doctors and nurses. It will take a little longer for the other categories mentioned.
Good post, BZ.
Mickey-
We’re all frustrated with politicians right now and if the stuff you have itemized is true, Ms. Blackburn at least deserves extra scrutiny and should be asked some probing questions. But answer me this-
Is there a better (more fiscally conservative) candidate in the race?
Name names and give us facts.
Jerry Pournelle has been writing about this since… well he was the first blogger, so call it over a decade, now. America needs to understand that we cannot have a policy of:
‘No Child Left Behind – Every Child Must Go To College’
This does not work. There are tradecrafts that are absolutely unsuitable to higher education that are now requiring higher education to get a ‘position’ higher-up in the food chain. Merit and actually knowing how to do the work, showing you can do it, that you can teach others how to do it, that you can run a work site (construction, forestry, garage, etc.) is NOT enough.
It ISN’T? WTH not?
There is a huge problem with the education system creating a mystique that you, somehow, need higher education to actually run a business. You don’t. Basic skills in production, how to manage finances, how to balance the cost of a labor force plus overhead plus raw materials with final product price with enough profit to keep the business running can be learned on-the-fly. Steve Jobs didn’t get an MBA, nor did Bill Gates, nor Andrew Carnegie… getting a BA does not mean you are qualified to run a metal working shop or run a lumber yard.
We spend way too much on education and get a flatline of reading rates from 1958: more money is not making us more educated or able.
Vocational and technical schools get short shrift in funding, although they offer viable paths to actual careers that pay well. The higher ed bubble needs to burst and hard: we can afford to lose ‘premier’ colleges that cost way too much and move back to local support for schools that actually teach kids how to do things with their hands. These are life skills beyond the career path… you can work on them and get results that you can see.
Wimpy the moocher ain’t the half of it. The flip side are people who would do very well with hard work jobs making things who are miserable in office environments and yet have never been exposed to anything BUT office environments. That is very short-shrift to our children, not getting them the opportunity to learn the basics of tradecrafts at a young age.
And we shall pay for that.
All of us.
Dearly.
Economics, especially global economics, is a harsh taskmaster. In 1980
21% of US jobs were in the mfg sector; now only 13%.
Yet, mfg as a percent of GDP has remained constant:
13% in 1980, 13% today.
Productivity has obviously risen significantly, due
mostly to modernization and technology. The downside is of course,
a working population that cannot keep up and cannot
purchase the goods at the rate they can be made.
Essentially, a snake eating its own tail. IMO, it will take more than
polticians to fix that.
Mickey White: good info, but I liked the pull quote nevertheless because even a dead clock is correct twice a day.
Z: I’ll go check it out!!
Maggie: yes, it’s in our DNA. Until it is pounded OUT of our DNA and trivialized, squashed, crushed by government, wherein Big Gov PAYS people better NOT to work or produce.
AJ: Pournelle is correct. The trades are MASSIVELY necessary. College is no guarantor of actual learning or success in Life.
Anyone think of THIS? Your Big American Government is now IN the business of making student loans so, of course, Big Gov PUSHES people into college because it will PROFIT from the LOANS it just took control of, FROM the private sector.
Conflict of interest, anyone?
BZ
BZ, I expect school loans and under-water home loans to be forgiven for an October surprise.
BBI: good point; there has to be a sufficient market for what we make. I can’t help but think, though, that in some ways our “craftsmanship” — that Q word, Quality — has suffered over the years and our products are NOT known as the penultimate in their various fields.
Maggie: wow. But I could find that feasible; he’s looking for something EASY to do. But what about folks whose loans AREN’T through FM or FMae?
BZ
I don’t know about mortgages not through Fannie and Freddie, but look what he demanded of lenders we did not bail out.
They were forced to take money they didn’t need, forced to institute re-fi’s they didn’t like, etc. I don’t know, but they desperately need something big.
“But what about folks whose loans AREN’T through FM or FMae?”
Hey BZ, you forget SO quickly!
Bondholders at GM and Chrysler found out pretty quickly that law means nothing to this administration. With one fell swoop they changed bankruptcy law…
POOF!
The almighty, all-powerful “O” can take care of this problem, just watch!