Those lazy poor people

[Acanthus]

On the upside... has anyone else noticed that customer service at fast food has dramatically improved because there are competent people working there?

It's sad and convenient at the same time. Also a sign of the times.

 

[werepossum]

ahh preschool teacher.

Kappo...flipping burgers is romantic and all but many couldn't afford to survive at even 2-3x what that would pay.

Correction: Many couldn't survive at their present standard of living flipping burgers. Do we really think we can borrow money, run it through the highly inefficient federal government, and somehow preserve standards of living?

lolz....SGML and VBScript. Don't know why it's so hard to say your job title. Sounds more 'helpdesk' to me though.

Anyway...Kappo, many people that clock in and out only still feel they are even better than their boss' boss or higher. Many of them look at college as something 'anyone' could do, but they feel they are the only one's with common sense and 'ideas'.

In the end most people's idea of their own value is far different than what employers feel of them.

QFT.

 

[ShawnD1]

On the upside... has anyone else noticed that customer service at fast food has dramatically improved because there are competent people working there?

It's sad and convenient at the same time. Also a sign of the times.

They haven't improved at all in Canada. Many of the people working at McDonalds (near my house) are actually contract immigrants from the Philippines. They were brought here during boom times and they still live here. McDonalds generally doesn't want to send these people back home because most of them work pretty hard.

Correction: Many couldn't survive at their present standard of living flipping burgers. Do we really think we can borrow money, run it through the highly inefficient federal government, and somehow preserve standards of living?

Depends what you mean. My dad was an electrical engineer for the government for 30 years and his pay was roughly average for the field. A pretty good standard of living came with that job. Lots of people also do construction for government projects (ie roads, schools, hospitals) and they get paid well.

 

[Zebo]

At one time I considered changing my career to become a network admin. Glad I didn't. At the time I was considering it, companies were throwing money at idiots. Now it's become yet another globally arbitradged comodity job. My job could never be outsorced.

IT is still very hot working for Gov't and their thousands of contractors which require clearances. Can't outsource, must be US citizen. Can't have bad credit or any criminal history. Keeps supply down and thus salaries high.

http://www.clearancejobs.com/

 

[Zebo]

What federal welfare programs existed prior to the 1960's?

Homestead act for one. Free 160-320 acres.

Tariffs for another. Immune ourselves from third world slave conditions and it's labor arbitrage. allowed unions to prosper whereby workers got a larger share of their labor vs. capital getting most of it.