A thought about jobs

An Economic Thought

I was listening to the news and heard someone mention” where are the jobs located” and it triggered a thought that I’d like to get out there for anyone who thinks like me to think about and respond to.

There are basically five job areas that we in the US are dependent on.

1. Transportation, including the auto, truck, train, air, shipping, freight and anything else to do with the transportation industry and whatever may be needed to support that industry,

2. Health, including pharmaceutical, physical and mental and all that is needed to support the health industry.

3. Textile, including clothing, bedding, furniture and all textile items plus the items needed to support the textile industry.

4. Building, including homes, offices and other buildings and all that is needed to support the building industry.

5. Food and all the associated requirements for growing and producing food.


Considering these, if I missed any you may add them but I believe I have almost everything here, why is it that almost everything to support these job areas are produced outside the US.


Transportation as an example is mostly controlled by the operators here in the US but a large percentage of the equipment from cars and trucks to airplanes are manufactured somewhere else. The tools and equipment to do the manufacturing is mostly from somewhere else too.


Health is still provided mostly here in the US but the tools and supplies are to a large extent manufactured somewhere else too. Check the label on all the monitoring equipment in a hospital room or lab.


The Textile industry is almost all gone over seas somewhere and almost all the equipment that is required for that industry has gone too. Check the labels on your clothing and bed coverings.


Building is still done here in the US but about half of it is done by people from somewhere else and in many instances illegal immigrants. The building tools, almost all, are manufactured somewhere else and now even the material, lumber, particle board and sheetrock is from somewhere else. Next time you visit a builder supply store look at the label on everything and see where it is made.


Food for the most part is still grown here in the US but we get a good part of our produce and some meats from other places. Many of the products we buy in the supper market is now from places other than the US and just about all the tools and manufacturing machinery comes from over seas.


All this should not be coming as a surprise but what should be a surprise is how we happen to let ourselves get into this situation.


Many think that is the government pump a few billion dollars into the economy small businesses will grow. Others think if the government starts a program to build up the infrastructure that will create jobs. While others think that illegal immigrants are the cause of the problem and all we have to do is send them home. Well I am of another opinion.


Small businesses start business to make money and produce a product or service when others can afford to buy their service or product. These small businesses are greatly dependent on large businesses employees who buy these services. Without large businesses you will have no small business.


Government programs alone will not work for the long run unless something is done to make large businesses make and produce here in the US so US citizens will have jobs to buy products and services.


The estimated 10 to 12 million illegal immigrants are going home because there are no demands for their labor and when jobs come back so will they and they too will be a benefit to the economy. (The government (Our elected officials) have to do something to make sure illegal immigrants pay taxes and are controlled through the monitoring of those who hire them as well as enforce the laws regarding illegal immigration.)


A country cannot survive by letting other countries manufacturing most of the goods and services used by its citizens.


We have reached a point where if someone asks our representatives or media talking heads about curing this problem there is no response.


They are not willing to talk about placing some kind of restriction on the manufacturing of products and materials outside the US nor are they willing to talk about the real reason why jobs have been shipped over seas.



Well I can and here is my take on all this.


When a sweater is made here in the US let’s say the cost to make it is $3.00 and has a suggested sale price of $9.00 which covers all cost plus a percentage for profit.


That same sweater is made some place outside the US with a cost of $0.50 and sold in the US for the same price.


Now multiply that by a few thousand times the difference of $2.50 and that gives the reason why it is more profitable to take a manufacturing plant off shore and that do not include any tax advantage which could add to profits.


Now let us suppose that the US decided to balance the profit playing field to keep jobs here in the US. That same sweater could be charged some kind of duty or tax to bring that manufacturing cost back to US manufacturing cost thereby making it less profitable to manufacture outside the US.


So why has our elected representatives not done something about this? The reason is they cry protectionism and say that businesses should have the right to make and bring their products into the US without any tax or surcharge on their goods because if there were than it would amount to unfair trade.


Hogwash and I believe the real reason is due to profiting greed, which are those who provide the most to keep our representatives in office also gain the most by being able to move manufacturing plants outside the US and bring them back to reap the most profits.


Well at some point this will not work and I believe that time is coming fast in the form of no jobs and no money to buy those goods thereby affecting all other countries.


If our representatives do not do something soon to correct this problem we will continue to borrow and prop up our economy and benefit profit gougers who take manufacturing outside the US for cheep labor and cost of manufacturing.


What do you think?

Question Regarding Education

Education Question:

Well I am back here enjoying the down time, reading my mail responding to some activities in my email, browsing the web, finally taking a look at my BLOG and deciding to share a thought with anyone who may be interested.

Blogs are interesting and those I read are sometimes entertaining while others are interesting in all kinds of ways. I find learning is the ones I find myself going back to the most. I guess I have never been one to find much excitement in jokes and what others find funny. Those have always been at the expense of someone and that I never liked.



Anyway I hope you find what I write here of some value or interest that will keep you coming back ever so often to see what I’ve written.



In this setting I’d like to ask a question and I hope some of you will respond in some way be it in agreement with my comments or in disagreement and I hope you have an opinion too. You see I think this subject is one that affects all of us and we have the obligation to be involved. So here goes.



Do you think that the current education system especially the public education need to be overhauled to some system other than what is there today?



Now here is what I think, but first let me give you some background on how I come to ask this question.



I have spent most of my working career in some kind of technical involvement. I begin my work career in communication and medical electronics where I spent about ten years. About fifteen years of that time I worked closely with research professionals in higher education with PHD or Masters Degrees in most of the cases. Later I interfaced with mostly professional individuals in different fields such as education, engineering, and other fields or technical persons in technical areas such as communication, medicine and business.



During almost all my working life while holding a position in the above areas I spent lots of time in community work and trying to operate some type of business outside of my so called 8 to 5 job, such as entertainment procurer, fruit and vegetable store front, moving business, radio talk show host and DJ, internet access, manager of singing group, museum originator, and concert, art organizer and real estate broker. I have also volunteered as city historical district board member, youth computer instructor, elder support and community board member of a public radio station.



While all this make up a part of my life experiences I have pushed my children and grandchildren and any others I came into contact with to strive for the best education they could get by reading everything they could get their hands on and study math as if it was a daily prayer. I always told them it was a means to a better life and in that way they could be a benefit to their community and society as a whole.



Now with this background I come to my thoughts on our current education system. In interfacing with my own children and grandchildren I have found that the schools I came in contact with were not very friendly towards parents, especially when parents came to the school to check on their children, in fact many times the parents including myself were treated with disrespect.



That treatment caused many parents to not want to go back to the schools and especially back to face the individuals that caused them to feel uninvited.



That is just a small observation off the main subject but I wanted you to get a feel as to why I am asking the question.



Along with this attitude I come to the conclusion, based on my own experiences and observations in the schools and in the news that the school system as a whole is not doing the best job it could do.



In fact, I am not by myself in this conclusion see http://www.herblondon.org/1432/the-failure-of-new-york-city-schools an article by Herbert London who comes to the conclusion that schools need to be overhauled.



The Commission on the Skills of American Workforce has come to the same conclusion in at least two of their reports. See: http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/12/14/commission_seeks_school_system_overhaul/



New York City has been trying to improve it’s school system for years. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has announced plans for centralizing the New York City school system to adopt a unified curriculum for improvement.



Even Obama wants to overhaul the school system and has made strives in that direction. “A handful of states stand to win significant federal funding to revamp schools and impose strict testing standards under an Obama administration effort to alter educational practices across the country”. See: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125799419446144683.html



I could list others but you get the idea. So I come to my question. What do you think?



Just yesterday with family and friends over we got into this discussion and some were in agreement and others were not so there seem to be some disagreement that overhaul is not the answer yet the school system to me is a failure.



It is a failure because too many children are not graduating and of those that are too many do not have a quality high school education.



For Black students the dropout has reached epidemic proportions and many of the graduates who go on to college enter far behind white students. In HBCU colleges many students are not able to read at high school level and their math understanding is at the ninth grade level.

While the US is ranked, according to The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development places the United States 18th among the 36 nations examined, we continue to slip and our students continue to fail. see: http://askville.amazon.com/United-States-rank-education-industrialized-nations/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=21721726



Well I think you see my point. You may also see Obama’s point too here: http://obama.3cdn.net/a8dfc36246b3dcc3cb_iem6bxpgh.pdf



I am in agreement that we can do a better job but to do that we have to match education with laws and enforcement to ensure that students stay in school and that the school take charge of education in all aspects of a child’s life and provide the resources to make that a priority.



If we can build nations and spend billions supporting other nations that have a better education than we have why can’t we spend the money and make the changes necessary to enhance our most valuable asset, our children?



So I ask you, do we need to overhaul our education system and I encourage you to get involved in this discussion at all levels everywhere and answer the question with whatever passion you possess.



Until Next Time;



Gbarn

Fifty Years Passed

Well Hello Blog readers.

I have not been to these pages in awhile and since I've been here things have changed a bit but life goes on.

In my thoughtful reminiscing I suddenly realized that 50 years ago I was scheduled to graduate from high school. How times have passed. It seem in many ways that it was just a few days ago.

Well let's see, back then Kennedy was just getting to be president and there was no such thing as a computer and AIDS did not exist. Young guys could kiss any girl who would let them and not worry about getting any disease and we were not at war with anyone. So all in all things were pretty good at least in many respects.

On the other hand we were involved with equal rights and not everyone could vote or hold office or go into any public place they wanted to. Many left heading toward some place that provided a job, a place to stay and freedom from being harassed by the police and others.

So you see 50 years ago was not so bad in some respects and yet in others it was terrible.

Life do have a way of changing even when we don't want it to and there were many who thought they would not be able to live in a world different than what they had grown used to.

So here I am 50 years later and still some of those same things are going on and there doesn’t seem to be any problems and on the other hand there seem to be too many problems. Young men are still trying to kiss all the young girls who will let them and we are still trying to vote, get a job and go anywhere we want to without any problems.

Well let's see again; I've gotten much older. I've lost many friends to death. I've learned a little about life and yes I have retired from that eight to five and am now writing on this new fangled thing called a computer, a thing called a Blog. How about that?

Considering life is still good and the grass is still green and the horses are still grazing, the ducks are walking about and my wife still excites me so yes life is still good.

We now have a Black President too. What a shocker that was for those who can't stand change. A Black man becoming president was a joy for so many of us that we didn't pay too much attention to those whom hearts almost stopped beating when he won.

Those hearts that almost stopped are now being heard loud and clear and letting all know they don't like the idea of us, the US having a Black man as President.

What I can't quite understand is what difference does it make as long as the person in the white chair is doing what is best for all in the US. In doing what is best will never always be satisfied for all but as long as it is satisfied for the majority isn't that what a democracy is suppose to be about? So why not support, criticize, and speak out and vote him back in or out based on his performance after four years. Isn't that what we are supposed to do?

Another thing I think about as these fifty years are looked at, what happened to education of our children and making sure that the majority got a good education and a good job as the result? Why are we not paying more attention to this situation?

It appears to me that just about all our problems could be tackled and just about eliminated if we educated our population. I bet you did not know that about 50% of our population likes a decent education.

Not only that, but the dropout rate is in epidemic proportion. So being that our biggest resource is the education of our children why is it that we are not paying more attention to it?

Life still is good but to those without a decent education it is not all that good. Like of education is cause for, not a good home, not a good car, not decent food, not have the ability to understand what is going on around you and guess what, we all suffer.

So what am I to do now that I've given some thought about fifty years ago? I am going to go and get a cool drink of fruit juice and think about writing some more in that book I started some time ago and make some effort to finish it so I can start on another one.

Until next time, and feel free to send me your comments too,

and check out my old 58 Ford from back then.

Gbarn

New year!! New Thoughts!!

Today the forth weekend in May, Memorial Day Weekend is beautiful here in the North Carolina country side just outside Zebulon, NC where my thoughts are on relaxation and getting chores done.Well the chores can wait and while I relax I'll just ramble on about how beautiful the weather is and the scenery just outside my window overlooking green pastures fenced with horses and barns and old glory flying in the foreground with just enough wind to give it that flap and spread.Those stars and stripes remind me of my twenty something years of military service and those who did not make it to enjoy this day. My thoughts are on them and their families this weekend and I honor their service through these comments of thankfulness and respect.Thinking back I remember the first soldier I remember seeing in uniform was my cousin who had come back from the war, WWII, in his Ike uniform with starched pants and jacket. He was the most daring Black man I had seen and wearing a uniform too. I at that time had not ever seen a Black man in uniform and I don't remember seeing anyone else in one, this being before we had access to television and I was not old enough to have been interested in magazines. Had I seen a picture of a man in uniform before I don't remember it.Well Earnest was dressed in uniform and he had survived the conflict and came home a hero in the eyes of the small Black community. It was many years later that I learned he was a truck driver and may have been in an artillery unit. Whichever it did not matter because he was a hero and a soldier who served in WWII for his country and for us the Black community and we were proud of him if no one else were.
That was a long time ago and today I think back and it may have been that vision and that image that caused me to serve. I know that all doing the time I was in uniform it was for God and country but the idea may have been installed by that childhood vision and picture of a towering Black soldiers in uniform.Well today we have other towering images, just think back to when we had no thoughts that there would one day be a Black President or Secretary of State or Black woman running a top ten Corporation like Xerox. Yes baby we have come a long way and maybe today is just the day to recognize it and be proud of the fact that it has taken not just a few of us to make it happen but all of us.I know among us there are many who do not see the advantage of all of us being in the same pot or sharing from the same spoon but life has a way of getting its way. Yes, we can, accomplish so much when we work together.Working together will get us into a more prosperous life and economy. Working together will give us cause to strive for excellence and keep us from making so many mistakes along the way. Working together will help us enjoy the beauty of the day and a more joyous out door bar-be-q on the grill.Speaking of bar-be-q on the grill, I think this is an opportune time for me to get the grill started and reflect on the taste of hot dogs, burgers and cold drinks this Memorial Day weekend.Yes while I'm getting the grill ready I will be planning on an anniversary of sorts. I will be inviting all those who grew up in our little community to share in an outing this summer and enjoy each other while reminiscing about times past. I expect it will be a ball so if you are from my home town and know where I grew up you’re invited. Give a call at geobarn@gmail.com and participate.

Until next time.

Gbarn