Open Thread

I’m in the process of changing careers and re-training myself using older skills from a previous work-life and building on those. But let me tell you, financially, this is not an easy process. I’m still relying on BH and my savings to carry me while I build up income in this new/old work arena. (I’ve essentially given up on finding work in my old financial services/marketing so-called-career.) And it’s dicey, I’m playing a game of beat-the-clock hoping that my income rises sufficiently over a period of time that matches how long my savings will last to make up the diff. I don’t know that many people/chronically/under-employed can afford to do what I am doing. I count myself very lucky to have this opportunity.

So the concept of re-training, while a good one, may not be an ‘easy’ option for many people.

Thanks, Benson. With that said, how are people supposed to live a middle class life? Isn’t it possible that an efficient and productive economy leaves people behind? And if it is, what do you do about it? Can’t keep covering it up with bubbles.

JB;

It seems to be a common mis-understanding today that manufacturing can once again provide a middle-class livelihood, as it did in the post WWII era. I believe that is extremely mis-guided thinking, for two reasons:

a) the era right after WWII was unique, in that US manufacturers had virtually no competition – the rest of the owrld was recovering from the war. Hence, both management and labor could arbitrarily raise wages with little concern for competitiveness.

b) the money today is NOT in manufacturing. I can confidently guess that only $20 of the price of an IPOD goes to the actual manufacturer (Foxconn). The reamindr gos to the creative side. Moreover, much manufacturing today is done with minimal labor input, especially in the high-tech area. When one visits a factory that makes optical fiber or semiconductors, the thing that strikes you is how few workers there are, even though these plants are vast.

isn’t globalization just a fancy text book word for US Corps screwing US citizens for cheaper labor and more profit?

“Are a lot of those jobs ones you can do without a college degree?”

Certainly. Not the engineering jobs but all of the assembly, installation & service jobs, which far outnumber the engineering/finance jobs