Tag Archives: employment

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Some damn good reasons why college is a waste of money!

The cost of getting a higher education in the United States has increased by 29% in just the past five years, and, despite the rhetoric from Corporate America and universities, many jobs taken by college graduates do not require a college degree!

First off, approximately two thirds of all college students graduate with student loans. For the first time in U.S. history the total amount of student loan debt now exceeds the total amount of credit card debt!

Secondly, at least one third of college graduates are working jobs that don’t need a college degree: There are more than 100,000 janitors that have college degrees.  317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees.  Approximately 365,000 cashiers have college degrees.  24.5% of all retail salespersons have a college degree.

Next time a college recruiter pesters you, or your kids, ask them to guarantee, in writing, that they’ll get a job relating to their degree, and that it’ll pay enough to justify the student loan debt!

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? So much for christian Rick Perry’s job creation record: Texas lays off nearly 1,000 teachers

September 29, according to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, last month Texas fired 900 people from education related jobs.

It’s part of the U.S.$4 billion in cuts to Texas public schools, that Governor Rick Perry approved this year!

As an example of how bad it’s getting in Texas; near Austin, two newly built schools are empty this year because the Leander school district can’t afford to put teachers in them.

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

Government & Corporate Incompetence: U.S. unemployment now officially a “National Crisis”, economic situation “Unheard Of”

“This unemployment situation we have, the jobs situation, is really a national crisis. We’ve had close to 10% unemployment now for a number of years and, of the people who are unemployed, about 45% have been unemployed for six months or more. This is unheard of!”-Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman

September 29, the man in charge of the central bank of the United States now admits that what is going on with the U.S. economy has never been dealt with before.

Bernanke also admitted that the U.S. is no longer a free trade nation, and that it no longer cares about the people, when he said that the U.S. must learn from fast developing nations, like China, which has adhered to discipline budget policies, embraced free trade, made public investments and supported education.


 

Business/Economics, Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Japanese officials decide to check beer & wine for radiation!

27 September 2011, Japan’s National Tax Agency has just now realized that all alcoholic drinks coming from the Fukushima area are probably contaminated with radiation.  Even so, testing on beer, wine/sake will not take place until next month!

Mandatory testing will be done at all beverage factories within 150 km (93 miles) of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.  Random testing will take place at factories outside the 150 kilometer radius.

Along with the national government, six major cities, including Tokyo, will test water meant for use in making beer and wine.

Rice and barely, used in beer and sake, have already tested positive for cesium contamination.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Before you blame China for job losses realize that China buys more U.S. made products than any other country

“Legislation that would increase tariffs on imports from China is unlikely to create any incentive for China to move expeditiously to modify its exchange policies. Rather, it would likely have the opposite effect and result in retaliation against U.S. exports into China.”-USCBC statement

The latest numbers show that not only does China hold the most U.S. bonds of any other foreign country, but China is also the biggest buyer of U.S. products!

According to the United States China Business Council (USCBC), which represents U.S. companies doing business with China, there was a U.S. $76 billion increase in U.S. products sold to China between 2000 and 2010!  So maybe we need to rethink the growing desire to slap large tariffs on Chinese products?

The USCBC also points out that even if Chinese made products stopped flowing into the U.S. it would not mean a return of U.S. jobs: “Much of what we import from China replaces imports from other countries, not products we make in the U.S. today.”-Erin Ennis, USCBC

So the United States finds itself in a conundrum: U.S. corporations love to ship off U.S. jobs to China.  China holds a lot of U.S. government debt.  China buys the most U.S. made products of any other country.  China is in a real good position to really hurt the United States economically if the U.S. government does anything to reduce Chinese made products coming in, or to reduce U.S. corporations from shipping off more jobs.  Sounds to me like this is proof of the short sightedness of our corporate and government leaders!

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? U.S. airline pilots leave for jobs in China, being able to speak Chinese not required, but it sure helps

“I had been doing the same job for 20 years and have another 15 years to go.  I said to myself, ‘It’s too boring. Let’s do something else for a few years and then come back’.”-Roy Weinberg, Spring Airlines

Weinberg, quit his job with US Airways and moved his family of four to Shanghai, where he now works for Spring Airlines.

He is not alone. Many of his aviator friends are now flying for airlines in Chengdu and Beijing.  By the beginning of 2011, China was home to at least 1,300 foreign flight captains, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

By 2015, China’s aviation industry is expected to need 18,000 more pilots, according to China Business News.  The reason why China is in short supply of airline pilots is that it takes ten years in China to become a qualified pilot.

A relatively young U.S. pilot can make decent money; Spring Airlines offers foreign pilots from $150,000 to $160,000 a year after taxes.

There is a major problem, most air traffic controllers in China don’t speak English: “What happened to me many times is that everybody around me is getting commands in Chinese, and I’m the only English speaking (pilot) in the air.”-Roy Weinberg, Spring Airlines

Business/Economics, U.S.

Class War: Protesters continue to pound the pavement in front of Wall Street, main stream media criticizes, youth unemployment higher in U.S. than in Egypt

September 23, I have to admit that most of the pics coming out of Wall Street show what look like young hippie wannabes (there are pics of old women wearing yellow ponchos that read “Granny Peace Brigade”) but what else are they gonna do?

When a society has such a high unemployment rate for young people this is bound to happen.  The U.S. Census Bureau says unemployment for young adults is 44.7%!!!

Young people led the revolution in Egypt.  What’s the unemployment rate for young people in Egypt?  According to a February 2011 report by the International Monetary Fund, 25% of Egyptian youth are unemployed.  Mmmm, and there’s 44.7% of U.S. young adults unemployed?

Yet the main stream (corporate controlled) U.S. media continues to ignore the Wall Street protesters, most likely hoping they’ll just go away.  Some newspapers are criticizing the protesters.

On September 21, an Indiana University newspaper called the Wall Street protests the “Ultimate fail”, and accused the protests of being instigated by Canada.

Also on September 21, the Associated Press wrote “What, exactly, they are protesting is somewhat unclear.”, then went on to list the ‘demands’.

On September 22, the Post Chronicle even blamed Barack Obama!  “With millions of Americans unemployed, and millions of others losing their home and their savings, the almost constant anti-capitalist rhetoric — about Wall Street and corporate “fat cats” and “billionaires and millionaires not paying their fair share” — by elected leaders such as President Barack Obama, Senator Harry Reid, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and others is starting to take it’s toll.”

So this writer at the Post Chronicle blames politicians, who’re actually very Wall Street friendly, for the Wall Street protests, despite the fact that the very same writer mentions the true reasons for the protests: “…millions of Americans unemployed, and millions of others losing their home and their savings…”

Classic case of not seeing the forest because of the trees.

Yahoo even blocked protester’s emails from getting through: “People trying to email information about the Wall Street protests on Monday using Yahoo mail, found themselves on the receiving end of messages from Yahoo claiming ‘suspicious activity’.”

My son admitted to me that if it wasn’t for the fact that he finally got a job, after more than a year of looking for one, he’d be on his way to join the protesters on Wall Street.  If corporate America doesn’t want people protesting in front of their Mecca, the answer is very simple, give them jobs!!! 

 

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? No Xmas cheer at Toys R Us

September 22, Toys R Us announced they will not hire as many holiday employees as in the past.

“It looks to me like they are preparing for lowered spending and will be very cautious about hiring people until they really know they need them.”-John Challenger, analyst

Last end of year holiday season, Toys R Us hired about 45,000 temporary employees. This year Toys R Us will be hard pressed to hire 40,000.

 

Fukushima

Typhoon Roke comes ashore, heading for direct hit on damaged nuclear plant Fukushima Daiichi, 4 dead!

21 September 2011, Typhoon Roke is moving up the Pacific coastline of Japan, after coming ashore south of Tokyo at Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture.

Sustanted winds are 144 km (89.4 miles) per hour, with gusts up to 155 km (96 miles) per hour recorded at Hachioji City, near Tokyo.

During the past 24 hours, more than 400 millimeters (15.74 inches) of rain has fallen in Tokai region and Yamanashi Prefecture, and more than 200 mm (7.87 inches) of rain fell in northeastern Japan.

At least four people have died, three are missing.  More evacuation orders have been given to at least a half million more people.

The damaged nuclear plant, Fukushima Daiichi, has escaped typhoon damage from previous storms, but Roke looks like it will make a direct hit.

Roke is moving fast and should be approaching the northeastern Honshu prefecture of Fukushima. Already 200 mm of rain has fallen in Fukushima since September 20.  The nuclear plant is already flooding with rain water.

Work to stop the further spread of radiation, like the steel wall around the ocean intakes, and specially treated tarps over the exploded reactor buildings, has been halted.  Tokyo Electric says their workers have tied down everything they could think of that might get blown away.

TEPCo says reactor 1 and 2 have rain water pouring in from the roofs, and Reactor 6 basement is totally flooded.  TEPCo officials insist that none of the radioactive water will leak out.  Yeah right, how many times now have they made such promises?