Galt's Gulch

What's really holding back job creation

Posted by richrobinson 10 years, 3 months ago to Education
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Our educational system is failing our kids and hurting the economy.
SOURCE URL: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101471723

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  • Posted by evlwhtguy 10 years, 3 months ago
    The key sentence in this article is...”The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found last year that we actually spend more than any other developed country per student. “
    All the US public school system is for is to provide a living for "Educrats" I have thus far paid for 36 years of private education an college for my 3 children as the public system is a disaster. Even in a private school you have to watch what is being taught as the teachers there come from the same university liberal cesspools as the public school teachers come from. Even at a church run school the liberal bias creeps in.
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    • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 3 months ago
      Some more so than others. We're fighting locally with the Bishop to stop implementation of CC. Our Archdiocese is full of lefties that believe that this indoctrination is good for the students.
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      • Posted by evlwhtguy 10 years, 3 months ago
        Unfortunatly American mainline religon is full of religeous lefties that have the christian concept of charity mixed up with the government run social welfare system which we all know is essentially theft.
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  • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 3 months ago
    That's because it has ceased to be an educational system. It is a system for distributing benefits (free lunches and increasingly breakfast and dinner as well), and for progressive indoctrination.
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  • Posted by monalisaturberville1957 10 years, 2 months ago
    The more tax breaks given corps to manufacture overseas the fewer jobs in America. We do not make anything anymore. Cut those ridiculous tax breaks, provide the same or higher tax breaks in America. Bring back manufacturing to our own soil and you create jobs for Americans. They cannot seem to see how simple that would be. They did this decades ago, making promises to other countries whom now would not stand up for us if they had to. Bring business back to America and let those countries find their own way to increase on their own.
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    • Posted by richrobinson 10 years, 2 months ago
      Corporate welfare of any kind should be ended in my opinion. You are right that many of the solutions are easy. Shows how corrupt Washington has become when they claim there are no easy answers.
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      • Posted by monalisaturberville1957 10 years, 2 months ago
        Governmental welfare has weakened the backbone of America. Welfare is another form of control. Done through corporate tax breaks not given in your own country is a game that should not be played. The players are all at fault. The defense should have had the insight to see that once the complacent factors have been set into motion that the end game is one they cannot win. Should we end up in a world war and your business is not on your mother soil, how safe is your business.
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        • Posted by richrobinson 10 years, 2 months ago
          The new world order crowd thought we would be safer if we all depended on each other. Doesn't seem to be working out so well.
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          • Posted by monalisaturberville1957 10 years, 2 months ago
            I had a good giggle over that one. It never will work. The problem is that during all of this the arrogance of individuals out weighed their intelligence. They actually did not think they had competition. The leaders of others countries were smarter than given due credit. Don't you think that they knew if you weakened the economic strength of America she would fall out of her leaders own arrogance?
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  • Posted by $ Stormi 10 years, 3 months ago
    The problem is education. From it grows government. When kids in school are taught they have rights, but are not reminded rights cannot exist without the responsibilities that make them possible, they vote for all the wrong politicians. When they are encouraged to be entitlement babies, they vote for big government. When they find they cannot start with no skills for $100,000 per year, they look for government to support them, more big government.
    Honda has a plant outside our town. There are many older workers retiring this year. They cannot find workers who have the skills, nor the work ethics to fill those jobs. An electrician in the area would grow his business, but for the lack of qualified hires - even after he approached the tech schools about the poor quality of applicants he sees. Even minimum wages jobs go unfilled because of a lack of work ethics in the workers. Many IT depts have unfilled jobs, because the applicants have no communication skills, making it impossible for them to do the job correctly. Only in America do we hire teachers who know no subject but "education" but feel free to teach any subject.
    Common Core will only make it all worse. Don't even mention Bill Gates! His analyses of education was right, but his millions for Common Core development are misguided - unless he happens to favor a dumbed down society ripe for picking by one world socialists.
    Our schools have become like those Mao put in place, get them young, keep them from parental values, and train them to love government.
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  • Posted by khalling 10 years, 3 months ago
    It's a great article about the state of our education system, I just disagree it's what's holding back job creation.
    Job creation comes from increases in the level of a nation's technology. Single most important driving factor. Second, are startups. SBA says that all net new jobs are created by small businesses-most in high technology. Most of those jobs created are high skilled: engineering, programming, business.
    Disruptive industries (brand new, never before existed with the potential to cross over most other industries-think 3D printers, nano tech) explode exponentially and create the most jobs. BUT
    1.you have to be able to raise capital-venture firms invest at 30% of the levels of investment at the beginning of the last decade
    2.regs such as Campaign Finance, Sarbanes-Oxley etc. stop startups in their tracks from going public.
    The idea that a city government can "build it and they will come" is nonsense. This is going to be a tax credit grab for some multi-nationals who'll go into Chicago-hire, take the money grab and pull out a year or two later. Happens all the time-and it's always the big boys doing it.
    The US still has 1/3 of the top 30 engineering universities in the World. INteresting to note that while we have over half in the top 10, Singapore -yes, that teeny tiny little place has 2 in the Top 11.
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    • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 3 months ago
      Well, I'll take a different stance on job creation being a positive function of technology increases. This has positive and negative effects. A lot of technology increases make humans more productive, thus they can produce more per human work unit than before. Unless demand for that product increases at the same rate, the amount of human labor must go down, thus jobs are lost.
      Now, technology adds to the job market by adding new things for us humans to demand. Thus, if I want something and have the means to procure it, there will need to be somebody to produce it, thus jobs will increase.

      In the aggregate, I think that productivity is increasing faster than new "things." I am part of making that happen - it is my job to help companies be more productive, generally without employing new capital, so I have an even worse impact on jobs. I worry about the time when we become so productive that there will be no need for most humans to perform the labor needed to produce what is demanded. That is a scary society to me.
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      • Posted by iroseland 10 years, 3 months ago
        There are lots of different kinds of jobs out there that need to be done. I am a system automation guy ( coding myself out of a job ) Meanwhile my wife is a chocolatier and pastry chef. Folks have tried to automate the kind of work she does,, but that has pretty much failed. Now, in my world it is amazingly difficult to find qualified candidates to do what I do. The result is good pay, and I can expect to hear from a recruiter wanting me to move to another part of the country a couple times a week. Now, you would think that it would be different where my wife works.. That would be wrong, very very wrong. While they do not have much trouble putting stupid people to work in the front of house. Or industrious but poor at math to work doing the assembly line Viennoiseries work. But that leaves a lot of high value add work that must be done. Being able to do that involves a pretty difficult set of skills. My wife needs to be good at chemistry ( welcome to baking ) as a result math along with having a decent understanding of the customers enough artistic talent to decorate cakes and a well developed pallet for testing and new product development. From what I have seen over the years the public education system sucks at making engineers, and bakers. The public education system was mostly designed as as warehouse system for producing assembly line workers. The only system the country has ever had that was worth anything was the old country one room school system that my dad started out in. Out in the country students were not expected to grow up into assembly line workers. They were expected to grow up to be farmers. The first most important tool possessed by a successful farmer is his brain. One room schools were designed to actually encourage the development of exactly the kind of mental skills we now are in desperate need of.
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    • Posted by richrobinson 10 years, 3 months ago
      Great points Kh. Education is a piece of the puzzle. I still think stifling regulations and obamacare are the main reasons. Just announced in our area that some restaurants will be adding a surcharge to cover obamacare costs.
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      • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 3 months ago
        I have mixed thoughts on the O'care surcharge. While I think it is good to identify this as a true cost that business has to pass along to customers, I also see it merely as another means for business to "externalize" costs and hide the true price.

        I travel quite a bit. The car rental places have become just pernicious with this. Recently I started seeing a separate charge for battery replacement. These are costs of doing business that instead of including in the advertised price of the product/service, are now added on at the conclusion of the transaction. I see this as a form of "bait and switch." The add ons, including taxes, now are fully a third of the charge - so on a $200 rental, there are another $100 in additional fees and taxes. That is unethical as far as I'm concerned.

        Sorry for hijacking the discussion, you just hit a nerve.
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        • Posted by richrobinson 10 years, 3 months ago
          You make good points. One place we order pizza from started charging a delivery charge. Just like the o'care charge I wonder if some people will reduce the amount of tips they leave.
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  • Posted by peterchunt 10 years, 2 months ago
    It would be nice if we could get the government out of education. The government is the most inefficient, most ineffectual way to teach our children. It is also a convenient way to brainwash our kids (do you know many conservatives amongst educators?). Promote Charter schools.
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  • Posted by Notperfect 10 years, 2 months ago
    Really I know it's not just that puppet in charge now. He is just another pawn in another game. When you tax our small businesses to the point that it does not matter anymore people give up. But some try harder and those who consider themselves elites get angry because we have what they do not have. The will to succeed. Getting up at 5:00 am every morning, running down the road to get the next load off, opening that door so customers can buy or sell is that will. Something a person that was given to all their lives have no idea of. All they do is take and take more. One day that bank will run dry.
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  • Posted by $ Susanne 10 years, 2 months ago
    People taking on a "What am I to do?" attitude isn't helping matters much either. Mentioned to a retired gent last night about restarting the lumber mills, starting our own industries, etc, and was told "Never gonna happen - it's over".

    All that was missing was for him to ask me the infamous question... yes, you know it...
    "Who is John Galt?".
    Seriously, I was waiting for it. But you want to know where Job Creation went? We lost it when people gave up, threw in the towel, got twisted around from producers to purchasers. And others saying "we'll never get it back"...

    I say BullPucky. If we wanted to get it back, we would HAVE it back. Nothing says "we can't" loud enough to kill the voices of few of us who say, no, who KNOW "We CAN".

    I now know what Galt felt when he said to the moochers-at-large, the ne'er-do-much, the discreditors and nay-sayers "Get the hell out of my way".

    And then... a co-worker (and 5 mile neighbor) stops by, wants to talk about starting a small scale mill to do custom lumber. Out of the blue. So maybe, just maybe, there IS hope!
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 10 years, 2 months ago
    Hello richrobinson,
    One more fly in the ointment for sure. I believe the government sapping the private sector of revenue and vigor as it grows itself is perhaps the most oppressive and dangerous.
    Regards,
    O.A.
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    • Posted by richrobinson 10 years, 2 months ago
      Good point OA. It is growing faster than ever. I seem to remember Nancy Pelosi said that was good for the economy. Hard to combat that level of stupidity.
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      • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 10 years, 2 months ago
        You got that right! I'm laughing and crying at the same time. I couldn't believe when she said "Economists agree that unemployment benefits remain one of the best ways to grow the economy in a very immediate way,"
        Good grief...
        Regards,
        O.A.
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  • Posted by LaMuse 10 years, 2 months ago
    I am not in favor of the government's hijacking of the public school system, but if taxes must be assessed to provide public education, then the money should follow the child, not the school district. If each child had a certain amount of revenue that was allocated to education, and that education could be obtained at a school of choice, then the schools and teachers would be competing for the student's money. Competition breeds excellence.
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    • Posted by $ winterwind 10 years, 2 months ago
      The weakness in this [and many] arguments about schooling - in fact, about anything that government has a finger in is the word "but. In most arguments, it negates what has been said before it. So you belittle your [valid] point about government control of public schools, and stand in favor of "schools of choice". Great. Who defines what a school is?
      And absolutely, competition breeds excellence. But competition between different heads of the same hydra breeds more hydras.

      Get any government involvement in education out. That's right, ANY. No government-trained teachers, no government-indoctrinated administrators, no government buildings, no government books, no government supplies, NO GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT.

      Oh, GHB, what a mess. Right. Birth is usually messy. But you usually have something worthwhile at the end.
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      • Posted by LaMuse 10 years, 2 months ago
        You are so right, the word 'but' does negate the previous sentiment and I agree government has no place in education. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening anytime soon. (Did not say 'but', lol) Heck, we are having a hard time just keeping charter schools open, which still have government control. Although my children are grown, I see homeschooling as the best alternative for now, even though I believe the government has their boot on that issue also.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 3 months ago
    For the most part, our educational system is the biggest problem - mostly in the form of teachers' unions. This is why you should contact me about your or your kids' attendance to Florida Tech, a private, non-tenure-granting university that just made it into the top 200 in the world. Florida Tech (also called Florida Institute of Technology or FIT) is about as close to the Patrick Henry University as you will find. I have found the ideal "shrug job".

    Best wishes,
    Prof. Jim Brenner
    Florida Tech Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
    Nanotechnology Program Chair
    321-749-3437
    jbrenner@fit.edu
    http://my.fit.edu/~jbrenner
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  • Posted by $ blarman 10 years, 3 months ago
    The foundation for any economy is the system of government. If we have seen anything from the annals of history, it is that the freedom of the market is inexorably tied to the freedoms of the individual people that participate in that market, and this a product of the freedoms - and responsibilities - enumerated in their system of governance.

    The trick to any government and its resulting economy is in finding the balance between freedoms and responsibilities. If the economy is staggering along, one only need look for the heavy hand of government to see the cause. Excessive taxation is a huge barrier to business growth and development. So too are regulations and bureaucracy (see this brilliant example by Mike Lee http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/01/...).

    Want to create jobs? Get government out of the way and let the inventiveness of the masses go to work. Attempting to confine inventive thought to the royal class is to limit that nation to the whims of the rulers, and as it is painfully obvious to any objective observer, government tends to be made up of the dimmer bulbs - not the bright ones.

    Solution: limited government, limited bureaucracy, and limited taxes. The trick is in getting that implemented in a democratic republic that wants more and more handouts rather than more and more personal responsibility.
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  • Posted by wiggys 10 years, 3 months ago
    the problem is the GOVERMENT of the usa. all the rules and regulations have caused companies to go off shore for the past 60 years. now the factory's are gone and so are the people who worked there. the cost for retooling would not be a problem but the rules are more than in the past and them of course there is obamacare. even if our educational system were good it would not make a difference, there is no place to get a job. I believe a book was written on the subject of the economy dying and I believe many of you have read it, ATLAS SHRUGGED;. need anyone say more. What Emanuel is attempting will yield "0".
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  • Posted by mminnick 10 years, 2 months ago
    I agree and disagree with this article. I agree that you need talented and well educated individuals to make a company grow and prosper. That takes an education system worthy of the name. It must educate. That is a very long term issue, important but not immediate. The immediate issue is the amount of government regulatin, by government I mean Federal, state, county and local government. The tax code is Byzantine and unworkable. The regulations to be met for any manufacturing are horrendous.
    The government(s) do everything they can to prevent job creation, not help it. They effectively limt business to 50 or less people (employees) by putting tax and ObamaCare rules on business with more employees (I’m mistake. SCOTUS says ObamaCare isa tax.)
    People still start business in spite of the impediments raised by government and against all odds some succeed. It is those that create the jobs and save the economy, not the government, at any level. There is a immediate need for people in starting a business. The education system, or lack of one, impacts the continued growth of the business and the creation of future businesses.
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    • Posted by strugatsky 10 years, 2 months ago
      it's not that I want to be an Ayn Rand idealist, but, seriously, I do not want to expand my business and produce any more than the minimum needed to feed my family. I have no desire to feed the parasites; the less they steal from me, the fewer that I employ, the better I feel. Since our economy and our society are unsustainable and failing, the sooner the collapse happens, the better. At least the older generation still has the skills to rebuild; if the collapse happens 20 years from now, the new generation will not have the skills and that will be the new Dark Age.
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      • Posted by mminnick 10 years, 2 months ago
        A collapse I could handle. A transformation into a socialist or communist society I could not. A collapse would enable those prepared to survive and possibly prosper. A transformation only the privileged oligarchy would proper the rest would strive to make the Oligarchs richer and more comfortable will having nothing for themselves. I world not do that.
        As the Borg state "Resistance is futile." I world resist anyway, as best I could for as long as I could.
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        • Posted by strugatsky 10 years, 2 months ago
          Following our current path, a tyrannical socialist system is inevitable. A collapse and a possible civil war is, in my opinion, the only hope for a chance to restore the Constitution and return to a sane, productive society.
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