Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for September 05, 2011

Don’t they work in China and Mexico? That’s where everything seems to be made now.

Wally works as an accountant, Phil is a cop, Andy is at the Taco Hut, Joan is a freelance writer and you, Val … well, I’m not sure what you do in that cubicle farm, but it must be important …

Peek-a-boo under the picnic table!

I have just been offered a job in New Delhi to teach Indians how to write US “grade” software. Comes with a villa, 3 servants and a chauffeur!

No “groupies” though – sigh.

Probably China and Mexico!

Sad truth. Labor Day is the day we ‘honor’ the most disrespected segment of society: those who actually do the work. The rest of the year is spent facilitating the excess of the top 1% who don’t have to work because they own all the means of production.

…Add India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Honduras, Vietnam, Taiwan…did I leave any out? How come we get nothing from Cuba? O, that’s right a 50+ year-old ban.Then there was that supremely good(?) car(?) from Yugoslavia! Anyone remember the YUGO?AND for some really good news, NO NEW JOBS in August,in the U.S.A. that is!

I’m Glad Ms. Elliot had Val say what she did. There are so many millions of people including in my neighborhood has no jobs.

While I certainly don’t blame the common person for the problems today, I do put some blame on us for not emphasizing education and the importance of work. It appears to me that many young people (not all!) want something for nothing, think it’s cool not to know how to write properly, spell, be creative, etc. It’s easier to take the easy way out and wonder why others are getting the jobs that require hard work and education, like engineering.

Yes, all the jobs seem to be in China and Mexico…who’s fault is that? Who keeps buying the products manufactured in China and Mexico? Most of us sit around and complain but do nothing about it….CHECK LABELS!!!

Ah, I should expand on what I said above… I do do what CarolinaGirls said and spend more to buy American when I can. I would rather do without than buy cheaply made foreign goods and there’s not an American alternative. But I also don’t feel like manufacturing is our way out of this mess. Yes, it is a good help, but the most successful company right now is Apple and they did it through brains and creativity, which is what we do best, not making the cheapest thing possible.

Good point, lightenup I agree that manufacuting is not our way out but there’s always going to be a segment of our population that are just not going to be engineers. We need to bring the manufacuring back in addition to changing the focus of our workforce

..the problem in America is not labour costs..CEO’s make,on average,365 times what the the average employee makes.If you count holidays and weekends ,that is an employees yearly wage made every day by said CEO.Now if said CEO only made 300 times the wage,you could add on 65 jobs to the roster and it would NOT cost the company a dime! If every company CEO and every upper management position did this…well…er…employment would be well up…

You’re full of hot hog waste, vanpelt…it’s the DEMOS who want to raise your taxes. .

Socialism eventually bankrupts everyone.In it’s striving for market efficiency, capitalism eventually eats it’s middle class as their extra pay contributes to the inefficiency.Don’t worry, be happy, it’s a lose-lose situation.

@hsawlrae the Demo want to raise taxes on those making huge amounts. Tea Party wants to vote the government out of existence?

@Agingstoner the educated employment rate is far higher. Check your facts!

Hyperinflated economy (created by republican administration that tried really hard to keep it hyperinflated until Bush left office) crashes = people loose jobs & homes = no money = no new jobs. They dug the hole so deep that it’s going to take awhile for things to get back to normal. And the Republicans still want favors for their rich friends who keep providing the funds for reelection.

I just think it’s a great strip…btw, I worked today (as I’m sure maybe some of you did, too).

The Dems only want to raise taxes on those making over $250,000 per year. The Teapublicans won’t even agree to raise them on those making over a million dollars per year. The Teapublicans say those are the job creators and their taxes should be lowered. They are the lowest now since 1947. Just where are those JOBS? China? India? Mexico? Anywhere but America. No federal taxes on Corperations at all? Lower taxes on the wealthy to 15%? Just some of the Teapulican proposals.

When I was 67, I was laid off for the last time and no local consulting firm chose to hire me although I had great skills in both design and CAD. I thought it would be an advantage to employer that Medicare covered much of my insurance, but it appears many companies out here in the west don’t want a woman on their force. I left a great job back in IL-just tired of ice and snow. Now my skills are fading from disuse and I’m getting used to cutting expenses to live on my SSA- which is larger than many in spite of no cost of living increases, just because my contributions were large.

I’ll be 74 this month and I expected not to have to work by this age.

CEOs used to make about 75x what their average employee makes, now it’s about 900x