Foreign countries - especially the 3rd world countries tend to
concentrate on science and technical education much more than we do in
the west. They understand that is the way to improving their lot in life.
We tend to be lazy and pat people on the back because they got a liberal
arts degree. Usually much easier to get a degree in sociology or
physcology than in math or engineering or chemistry etc. We don't push
our young people hard enough in grade school and they come out for the
most part not interested in pushing themselves in university. So we get
more and more people with minimal skills who expect a good job without
having to work for it. There are a few gifted souls who find the maths
and sciences easy but not enough of them.
We are no longer able to do what the folks in places like China do. They
manage to produce reasonable copies of things we once made. Often made
by grandmothers sitting on dirt floors. Maybe almost an exaggeration now
but at one time certainly true and maybe still somewhat true for some of
the rougher goods that we see.
I think the USA was once like that but things got to be too good and the
factory workers got unionized and demanded more and more money to do
less and less. The auto industry was a good example. Some of the line
workers that had been on the job for many years commanded silly hourly
wages for what they produced. I think most of us need to accept and
remember that we need to earn the money we are paid and that if we cease
to do so the employer is going to have a problem one way or another.
We have educated too many people in the last few decades in ways that
have not helped us much. Too many business grads and not enough
engineers etc. The business people are just trying to find ways to make
money and most often do not look at what they are doing to the company
or the country. The biggest item on the spreadsheet is usually wages.
How do we cut wages? We outsource to cheaper labour markets like Mexico
and now China. We can build a lawn mower for a whole lot less than when
it was made in Milwaukee (sp?) but soon, we have to wonder who we are
going to sell it to. If the average guy cannot afford a house then he
won't need a lawn mower no matter how cheap he can buy it at Walmart.
We have been sold a bill of goods for a long while. The rise of things
like television permitted the business grads to advertise to the masses
and convince us to buy things whether we needed them or not. Advertising
made us want things that our grandparents and even parents never had and
did not know they needed. We all wanted to live the dream. We wanted
white collar jobs that paid well and we wanted cheap consumer goods.
Well we got what we wanted but it came at the expense of many other
things. The wife and mother has to work outside the home in order to pay
for all of this new stuff. The teachers have to train the children in a
whole lot of things they used to learn at home so they don't have as
much time to concentrate on the 3 R's etc.
None of this is new and I am rambling a bit but as I said before, we
have done it to ourselves and we don't know how to get out of it. People
our age are the ones who can see the problem. I doubt if most of the
younger folks have any idea how things used to be and what they are
missing now. Trades people used to be respected and they for the most
part tried to provide good service and do a good job. Now many of them
work for big companies that contract out through Home Depot. All that
matters is profit. That is driven by the business education folks who
can hire the liberal arts grad cheap etc. . . . . .
I could go on all day but I won't.
My mother did not have a microwave oven, or a dishwasher, or a dryer or
.... when I was growing up.
My father earned his way as a sort of jack of all trades. He had a
sawmill and he did construction work. I, as a hobbiest, have 100X the
tools that he ever had. I have tools I have never used and probably
don't even know I have. He had pretty basic stuff but he used it well
and he did fine. He pounded in nails with a hammer. He never owned an
air nailer of any sort, and we are not talking all that long ago. He
died in 1983 at age 63.
Randy
On 04/04/2014 9:33 AM, Curt Raymond wrote:
Again the answers to your questions are easy.
A. We (the royal we here) want to pay as little as possible for everything so
we can have more junk. This forces stuff to be made as cheaply as possible
which requires slave wages.
B. 50 years ago there was no need for education since Johnny could just get a
good paying job in the mill. Because of that there wasn't real emphasis on
education in the way there probably should have been. Today we still haven't
made up for the inertia that held us back in that period...
Of course the answers are simple but implementation is difficult.
-Curt
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