a lack of jobs

[James Diggs]

still I needed to work seven days to earn a living wage.

It helps to remember that our creation narrative, traditionally understood as coming from Moses, made the most contextual sense to a people escaping slavery in Egypt. Pharaoh claimed to be god and the gods made people to do the work gods were not fit to do. Our creation narrative told the Jews that while people certainly should work, it wasn't because work was beneath God, but because they were made in his image, and God himself worked. Not only that, God rested and so unlike the life of the slave, people created in God's image should rest too. When we rob people of being able to rest we tell them they are not worthy of it and rob them of the humanity God created them in according to his image.

[James Diggs]

If a job needs to be done, the person doing it should be paid enough to provide basic shelter, nutrition, education, and health care.

This concept has always baffled me.

Shelter: Rent or own? Apartment or detached home? Private bedrooms for each kid? Air conditioning? Who gets to decide what is 'basic' shelter?
Nutrition: Meat how often? How much fast food? How many restaurant visits? How much snack food? How much dessert? How much convenience food?
Education: K-12 is completely 'free'. College too? Community colleges, State, Private, Ivy League? Trade school? What grades should be required?
Health Care: How much 'out of pocket'? How much deductible? What kind of elective surgeries? What if they smoke? Drink? Obese? Drugs?

And how does this concept square with the fact that some workers will be teenagers living with parents? Or single unmarried adults? Or married with 2 kids? Or what if they have 10 kids? Does this magic number get adjusted according to these (and many other) conditions?

The entire concept of anybody other than the employee determining what comprises a 'living wage' or an 'acceptable wage' is nuts.

Perhaps the employer can play a role in determining this by asking him or herself if they are paying a wage that they themselves would believe just if they were the ones working in their neighbors shoes? Often employers pay less (especially over seas) because people are desperate and have no other choices (isn't this exploiting the situation?). I am not giving hard numbers or saying x much of money, but I believe the employer has responsibility to the highest standard of justice in the universe- do we love our neighbors as ourselves which is like the loving God himself with all we have?

[Trevor Dahl]

American oil companies are seeking to up production and add employees to their payrolls, but they're waiting for the federal government to get out of the way. Chevron CEO John Watson had this to say:

“I was very concerned about the tax proposals in the Menendez bill that came forward that day because i never thought I would see the day when an administration and more than half the U.S. senate would propose a tax bill that actually would disadvantage 132-year-old company like Chevron relative to Russian, Chinese, French, Italian and other companies, not just outside the united states, but inside the united states of America. So we did push back on bills that were being critical trying to impose punitive taxes on our business. We can create jobs, we can play a positive role and that’s my message.”

He also had this to say on federal regulations and restrictions:

In fact, we told a group of senators this morning, that there’s a long list of regulations that have been enacted and been in place for a long time and new ones that keep coming that are restricting our ability to create jobs. We’ve provided that list to the senators. but for our industry in particular, you know, deep water drill ship employs about 200 people directly and 1,000 indirectly. It raises revenue for the government, puts people back to work, reduces imported oil. We just want to be put in the game. We can create jobs if we’re given the opportunity.

If our government would get out of the way, then there would be jobs to be had.

[Glenn Messer]

Listened to a brief interview with Henry Nothhaft today. Have to admit I did not know who he was, but he is an interesting interview. He has written a book entitled "Great Again" and I think I'm going to get a copy and read it. He is the CEO of Tessara Technologies and what he had to say makes sense. Briefly, here are some of his observations:
1. The primary reason for the loss of US manufacturing jobs to other world areas is US tax structure -- too restrictive and in some cases poorly structured. He said that on average labor accounts for less than 5% of manufacturing cost. 2. He noted that when manufacturing is outsourced to other counties, product innovation follows the manufacturing and the USA loses much of the benefit of that innovation. 3. Patent Office failure -- on average it requires 3.7 years for approval of new patents. This means that raising capital funding for product development is put on hold while they wait on patent approval. 3.7 years is a long time to wait on new innovation in today's world. A new product can become outdated in 4 yrs. 4. Legal Immigration needs attention. 60% of math and science majors in US universities today are from foreign countries. We should encourage them to stay and make their fortune here instead of sending them back to their own countries. Legal immigration should focus on bringing in the brightest and best.

This man speaks from knowledge honed in experience. Maybe he knows something about the subject.

[Jim Chabot]

I am not saying it is not a factor of consequence, just not the main driving factor.

I can agree with that. Wages are a large part of the decision making I'm sure. Although wages aren't as cheap as a dollar for dollar comparison would indicate. There are added logistic and shipping costs to bring an overseas product to market here. Productivity is also way below US standard in countries where the labor is the cheapest.

Keep in mind the wage differential is so huge that even if a worker was half as productive it is still only be a fraction of a US wage. As for factories keep in mind many companies that "moved to china" don't actually move their factory, but contract with an excising Chinese factory to make their product.

You may find productivity rates as high as 1:2 or even 1:1 in developed asian countries. Once you move into the undeveloped countries the productivity and quality head south of abysmal.

[Gary Creely]

This caught my attention this week:

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPl...49&m=137205503

[Jim Chabot]

This caught my attention this week:

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPl...49&m=137205503

Excellent piece! I am glad to hear that the mentality that has steered us away from apprenticeship and toward institutionalized education is starting to show chinks in it's armor. There are many skill sets that are better learned on the job. Manufacturers will either need to spend the money needed to keep trained help or they will need to standardize skill sets to allow for employee portability. In the end, I think that they will find that institutional education cannot fill the need.