Mike Rowe on labor
2009-07-28 15:31:40.91991+00 by Dan Lyke 8 comments
2009-07-28 15:31:40.91991+00 by Dan Lyke 8 comments
[ related topics: Politics Political Correctness Work, productivity and environment ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2009-07-28 19:00:30.512246+00 by: meuon
I've always liked him. Now I like him a lot more. Great talk.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-07-29 22:55:01.064981+00 by: JT
Really outstanding speech, I watched it yesterday. I think he does have a really good point about infrastructure and the people who comprise the work force. Everyone that I know lately is either in IT or Financial Services. It seems no one's really turning wrenches or assembling things here any more. The few companies that do produce products in the US even usually make them from parts assembled overseas. Makes you wonder what's going to happen in 20 years when most of the plumbers/HVAC/welders start to retire and no one remembers how to build anything.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-07-29 23:41:55.626942+00 by: Dan Lyke [edit history]
I shouldn't be shocked any more when I run across it, but not only is it rarely worth fixing things any more unless you can do the labor yourself, much of our financial system is set up so that used equipment is harder to buy: I've heard more than one shop owner mention that financing for the new device is cheaper than a used one, presumably distributing assessment ability for loans that are going to be repackaged and resold is too expensive and prone to fraud, which might tie in to my query about how much it costs to protect a transaction.
So I guess that when the plumbers or HVAC guys start to retire we'll continue to buy replacements from places with cheap labor. I too don't know how long a bubble economy based on selling each other lattés on credit is sustainable.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-07-30 00:00:11.662883+00 by: jeff
> I too don't know how long a bubble economy based on selling each other lattés on credit is sustainable.
Once China decides to detach its economy from ours, it won't.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-07-30 14:41:15.203366+00 by: Mark A. Hershberger
> Once China decides to detach its economy from ours, it won't.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/2...tional/china_debt.reut/index.htm
China's economy is not rock solid. They would have an extremely difficult time just "deciding" to have nothing to do with the U.S.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-07-30 15:16:46.620324+00 by: jeff
I haven't put a timeframe on this (the entire world economy is not solid now), but at some point in the future China may have that option, and they may no longer have a need to support the largest debtor nation on the planet (US).
#Comment Re: made: 2009-08-03 15:33:21.042913+00 by: Larry Burton
I've been thinking about the economy and jobs and products and such for a while now. I'm not sure how any economy can continue to be sustainable when it takes fewer and fewer producers to supply the needs of a larger and larger population. At some point the only thing that is left for the majority of the people to do to produce an income is make lattes and sell stock derivatives.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-08-03 16:36:17.552958+00 by: Dan Lyke
Larry, yeah, my grandfather had stacks of old Popular Science magazines when I was growing up, and I remember the old "we'll have robot butlers" and "robots will do all the work" stories. I forget when I started to wonder how those who weren't building the robots were going to justify their continued support...