🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <JASON.92Jul27161514@ab20.larc.nasa.gov> jason@ab20.larc.nasa.gov (Jason Austin) writes:
>
>	Why is it so hard for people to believe that the US is in
>pretty good shape?  People that work hard and develop their skills
>have jobs, keep their jobs, and can find new jobs when they need to.
>Everyone I know that is having a hard time don't want to make the
>effort to find a better job or work at educating themselves.  I've
>seen how some people look for jobs, and it seems they expect to be
>given employment simply by showing up to fill out an application.  In
>almost all cases, it is not a matter of no opportunity or oppression
>by the rich, but an attitude that a good lifestyle is earned simply by
>existing rather than working.

I agree, we are in pretty good shape compared to the rest of the
world.  I'd just prefer we stay that way, for all of us.  The problem
is, the global economy is now demanding highly skilled workers, people
who are able to think abstractly.  It costs a great deal of money to
educate someone at this level: small class sizes, a great deal of
patience, scientific equipment that works, etc.  Poor neighborhoods,
places with a small tax base, cannot support schools of this level.
So, the children grow up to work on low skill jobs.  These workers
have little time or opportunity to educate themselves to become, say,
computer programmers or auto designers.  Their salaries are too low
for them to afford the wages, or even to take time off to go to
school.  They tend to get stuck on that rung.  Same thing applies to
their children.  Their wages will continue to decline, because low
skill labor can be found almost anyplace in the world, and someone
from Singapore is willing to underbid them.  The days of high paying
manufacturing jobs are over.

It's not a matter of the rich oppressing the poor.  It's a matter of
global economics.  The well-off can continue to be educated to fill
the high-skills niche in the economy.  They can educate their children
in the same way.

The thing is, I don't believe we can abandon 4/5 of our population,
the ones that can't afford this expensive education.  We cannot
continue to build high walls, hire a small armies of security, and
hope the poor stay in the ghettos.  L.A. should be a warning.