Reuters: US workers struggle to cope in "new economic reality"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticleSearch.aspx?storyID=195831+04-Aug-2005+RTRS&srch=jobless

ST. LOUIS, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Laid off from an auto factory assembly line two weeks before Christmas, Gary Asnell is still jobless and doesn't care to hear about the virtues of retraining as he struggles to keep a roof over his family's head.

"They say it's a great opportunity to go back to school. But I've got to juggle to find a job to pay the bills, make the house payments and feed the children," said Asnell, a 44-year-old father of three.

In the face of rabid global competition and outsourcing of work to cheap-labor countries like China, nearly three million American manufacturing jobs have been lost since 2000.

Those at the sharp end of this process now often face serious pay cuts or retraining to qualify for jobs in industries that have vacancies which may still not pay as much as they were making before.

[wli]

1. Great Depression v2.0

Brilliant.

[DrJackson]

3. So who is going to suggest The New Deal v2.0?

Any aspiring FDR's out there? Anywhere??

[wli]

6. I don't see any

And it sure as heck won't be a neocon.

[meow2u3]

20. Sign me up

The New Deal 2.0: also known as The Neoprogressive Era

[liberal N proud]

2. And the smiling ASS says "MIssion Accomplished"

The division of America in to 2 classes.
The haves and the have nots.

[wurzel]

4. Bush needs a really long vacation.

[wicket]

5. Lost my job 5 months ago, still no work

Someone please tell me where the jobs are.

[don954]

7. my company folded about 1 and a half years ago, I haven’t been

able to find perm employment since then. temp job after temp job is all ive got. and I have 9 years experience in my field... At least since moving down here with family to Ft Lauderdale, I can find temp jobs. I couldn’t even find temp jobs back in Fort Worth, Texas..

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

9. Meanwhile, posted today on Fox News:

U.S. Jobless Claims Down

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,164708,00.html

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans filing initial claims (search) for jobless aid dipped 1,000 last week, due in part to fewer claims from autoworkers and other manufacturers, the government said on Thursday.

First-time claims for state unemployment benefits fell to 312,000 in the week ended July 30, the Labor Department said. Wall Street (search) economists had expected claims to move up to 315,000 from the original reading of 310,000 reported for the prior week.

A Labor Department (search) analyst attributed the decrease in claims to fewer layoffs in the automobile, auto-related and other manufacturing sectors. A four-week moving average of claims, which smooths weekly volatility to provide a better sense of underlying job-market trends, also fell, dropping to 316,750 from 319,000 for the previous week. That took the four-week average to the lowest level since late February.

In another upbeat sign for the labor market, the number of people who remain on the benefit rolls after drawing an initial week of aid fell 18,000 to 2.58 million in the week ended July 23, the latest date for which data are available.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

8. "Service Sector"...

One of the problems I've had all along with this "changing economy" garbage is the reality of "where the jobs are."

I applaud folks who have the talent and desire to work in the health care industry. Seriously. I'm the kind of person that goes to the hospital for a routine test and I am COUNTING-THE-MINUTES until I can get the hell out of there. Same thing for my doctor's office, the dentist...I just have zero tolerance for the sights, the sounds, the smells, the whole "experience." The other PATIENTS...good GOD, I won't even get STARTED on that.

So I respect and admire people who can get up and do that for a living day in and day out, week after week, putting in long hours. I couldn't, and I don't take a great deal of comfort in knowing one option available to me is to go back to college and train to be a nurse or an orderly or whatever.

The same thing goes for the "hospitality" market and hotel jobs. Fast Food jobs. Places where you are a "non-human," where the public spits on you and mocks you while you are required to show them nothing but professionalism. No thanks.

I visited with a client yesterday and delivered a proposal / quote. I'm a self-employed graphic designer, and this was a quote for building three Web Sites.

I use the Graphic Artist Guild's Handbook for Pricing and Ethical Guidelines, and I also network with peers to arrive at a fair price in the current market.

One of the comments made was "You know, there are a lot of unemployed graphic designers out there right now." The woman I met with wanted me to show my sincerity in developing a long-term business relationship by slashing my price.

"The economy is STRONG, and gettin' STRONGER" my ASS.

[stevietheman]

15. It's called "negotiating"

You know, no matter the state of the economy, purchasers of services are always looking for the "best deal", and mentioning a "lot of unemployed graphic designers" should have actually been expected by you with a ready counter-argument that demonstrates what you bring to the table over others. Also, there's nothing much wrong with being price-flexible on the introductory assignment--get 'em low at first, with the understanding that prices return to "normal" on subsequent jobs.

[carnie_sf]

10. The brave new world

of corporatization. I'm more and more glad I work at UPS, union shop, benefits etc.

[whistle]

11. The 1920's were a time of notorious "grabbing" of wealth....

...and resourses by the industrialized nations of that period with the ultimate result of near total concentration of most of the world's wealth in the hands of a thousand or so of the world's wealthiest individuals. The complete the stealing, the mergar savings of the rest of the classes were wiped out in the stock market crashes around the globe as well as numerous bank closings and this was followed by the great depression of 1929 that lasted well into the late 1930's. WW-II helped to mobilize industrial production in America as our country attempted to remain neutral and supplies and allowed industrialists and big financial institutions to supply both sides of the war advesaries well into 1942.

Now, 65 years later we see the very same economic and finacial patterns being repeated. What is it going to take for working people to realize that capitalism as and socio/economic system is a fraud which works only for the most powerful and wealthiest in society. Like the game of Monopoly, a winner can be declared only when all other players are rendered bankrupt. But, unlike Monopoly, mom is not in the kitchen preparring peanut butter and jam sandwiches and milk for all the kids enjoy and to call the game quits.

Shall we surf the KONDRATIEFF WAVES:

KONDRATIEFF WAVES (or, for short, K-waves) may be defined as a pattern of regularity characteristic of structural change in the modern world economy. Some 60 years in length, it consists of an alternation of periods of high sectoral growth with others, start-up periods of slower growth. The study of this pattern helps to trace the evolution of the global economy, and aids in politico-economic prediction.

<link> http://faculty.washington.edu/modelski/IPEKWAVE.html

Also see:

http://www.kwaves.com/kond_overview.htm

[losdiablosgato]

12. Yeah, the reality of being sold out to corporations

BOHICA!!!

[bvar22]

13. I am glad the truth is being published.

America needs to understand how BAD things are.

The problem I have is that these reports always blame Globalization instead of the US Economic Policies.


Globalization is NOT some NEW THING that is a product of the InterNet. Globalization started when the first primitive man/woman gathered up the stone tools he/she had crafted, journeyed to the next cave, and traded them for some food. Globalization has been happening for thousands of Years and has NOTHING to do with the InterNet. The InterNet makes it possible to access information; it does NOT make it any easier or inevitable to trade goods and services. It does not even make it easier to transfer capital. Wire Transfers have been around for longer than 1/2 century.

Globalization is NOT NEW and IS NOT THE CAUSE of our Econiomic Problems!!!
The current Economic Policies ARE the problem, and WE CAN CHANGE Economic Policies.


The economic policies of FDR sparked and sustained the Greatest Economic Expansion the World has ever seen, and DIRECTLY catalyzed an unprecidented explosion of the Middle Class!

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

14. W: Well, why didn't you just get born rich?

[Robert Oak]

16. retraining is just a blow off answer

Remember in the 80's where all of those laid off blue collar workers
went and got computer training and even Masters degrees in computer science? Guess what they offshore outsourced those jobs of tomorrow.

It's absurd to think that people with Masters degrees, PhDs and BS should now go to community college for "retraining".

There is no job that is not vulnerable to both offshore outsourcing and the use of the US immigration policy to "insource" with cheaper foreign labor which also gives the immigration status under the control of the employer. There is no more "retraining for the jobs of tomorrow" possibilities and there is also no support truly to get "retraining".

RETRAINING = LET THEM EAT CAKE

[DinahMoeHum]

17. I think you might want to read this piece from TomPaine-dot-com. . .

Link:
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050720/workers_of_the_real_world.php


:evilfrown:

[meow2u3]

21. Let them eat CAKE?!

Bushco would say, "Let them eat shit!"

[dddem]

18. My husband was out of work for almost 2 years.

That was 2 years ago. He finally found a job that pays him 1/2 of what he was making, but it meant my kids could have health insurance again. While he was out, he was earning too much in unemployment to qualify for health care for the kids, and COBRA was the same each month as my mortgage payment, so we chose a roof over our heads and kept our fingers crossed. After 9 months of collecting unemployment, his benefits ran out (so he dropped off the unemployment rolls - the government will tell you that unemployment went down by 1 when they stopped giving him benefits.)
Two years after he got another job, we're still trying to catch up - we went through the 401k, after the stock market caused us to lose quite a bit of it, and when that ran out (approx 1/2 eventually went to the IRS), we started taking cash advances on the credit cards to pay the bills.
And now to top it off, I'm helping the folks where I work organize a fundraiser for a fellow co-worker who's out of work trying to battle cancer, and he can't keep up with the co-pays, and medication costs.
10 years ago this co-worker, and I were considered middle class Americans.
Please don't misunderstand, I'm not whining, I'm just trying to make the point that slowly and subtly the middle class is dwindling - and I believe that's the part of a plan that most people weren't paying any attention to. What's wrong with this picture?

[Skidmore]

19. The media has a hand in this desctruction of the middle class.

Every time they schmoozed, preened, and kissed up to this administration, they drove the knife in deeper. Their hands are just as bloody.