Tag: Economics

Quote of the Day – Larry Correia Edition

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From a post on his Book of Face:

In my life I’ve milked cows, moved hay, done construction, worked in a cheese factory, answered phones in a call center, given auto insurance quotes, sold books, wrestled drunks, been an accountant, been an auditor, taught pistol and rifle shooting, opened my own business, lost my own business, got into contracting, been a finance manager, and then a senior finance manager, and now I’m a bestselling novelist… So over my life I’ve gone from very poor, to poor, to middle class, back to poor, to middle class, then to upper middle class, and now I’m rich. I don’t feel rich, but democrats feel that it is okay to take half of my income, so I must be rich. For all I know, I might be poor again tomorrow, but I at least I know how to cook beans and roll tortillas.

So forgive me if I don’t buy into your theory that we’re all trapped in some sort of friggin’ caste system here.

—

If you are stuck in a minimum wage job for ten years, the problem is you. If you are trying to support a family for any extended period of time on a minimum wage job, the problem is you. If you don’t think the problem is you, the problem is you. If you don’t have the skills to get promoted or hired somewhere else, the problem is you. If there aren’t any jobs in you area, friggin’ move, but I’m betting the problem is still you.

In More Good Economic News…

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Daimler Trucks to lay off 1,200 at three Charlotte-area plants

Daimler Trucks North America will temporarily lay off 1,200 employees in three Charlotte-area truck and truck parts plants.

The numbers finally appeared this morning on the N.C. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Website. The numbers mean that 1,200 of the 1,300 layoffs will come from the three Charlotte-area DTNA manufacturing facilities.

Portland, Ore.-based Daimler employs some 6,400 workers at four manufacturing and administrative facilities in the Charlotte region.

—

Robert Van Geons, executive director of RowanWorks, says he’s confident that the cutbacks are temporary.

Here’s the kicker:

Just a year ago, Daimler boosted its Charlotte-region work force by roughly 1,100, adding a second shift at its Rowan County manufacturing facility. But the company later said its projected volume and demand had not materialized, causing slower-than-expected growth in employment and forcing temporary closures on occasional days.

So they’re laying off 100 more people than they just recently hired.

Yup, all that Hope-‘n-Change never materialized.

I wonder if Daimler got any government-secured loans?

Mutually Exclusive

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I saw a car today with an “I ♥ OBAMACARE” bumpersticker on it.  It took me a minute, however, to read the one below that:


(Click for full size)
My immediate reaction:

Like HELL you are!

So I dragged out the camera and snapped that shot just to show you.

When I got home and looked at the full-sized image, I noted that the lower bumpersticker is from ACLU.org.  Well, that explains it.  The ACLU is a supporter of the “living Constitution” idea, so for the woman in this Civic, obviously whatever she thinks is Constitutional is – by definition – Constitutional!

And people who think like that outvote those of us who don’t.

And people who think like that are likely to think like this:

http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf

Remind you of anyone?  Want to know where that video originated?  The California Federation of Teachers union.  But teachers don’t indoctrinate our youth, right? 

Quote of the Day – Higher Education Edition

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(M)ost school systems are run by people who think that a four year degree in literature is a wonderful thing, and I do, too, but the country is kept running by people who know temperatures and pressures and torques and amps and volts and combustion characteristics and other things that don’t fit in the average sit-com. Yes, there are some colleges offering these things, but there are also a lot of people who picked up the skills on the job. — Mostly Cajun, Ch-ch-ch-changes!

I graduated from college with a degree in what I call “nuclear basket-weaving” – a Bachelor of Arts in General Studies, my three areas of concentration (in descending order): math, physics and engineering.

This gave me a good technical background but no actual practical knowledge other than how to do drafting, back when it was still done with paper and pencil.  That did not make me all that employable.  I started off as a helper in an electric shop at $5/hr, back when the minimum wage was $3.35.  And remember, I had a four-year degree (after 5½ years of school)!  The bottom quintile of pre-tax income in 1986 was $14,300 or less.  I made less.  I did not tell them (nor did I feel) that $5/hr was beneath my dignity.  I said “Thank you, sir, you won’t regret this!”

That $5/hr job allowed me the opportunity to learn, and the stuff I know today I learned on the job. It’s made me very employable. I’ve been unemployed once over the last twenty-six years, and that was over Christmas of 2009. Currently, I get a call or an email from a headhunter about once or twice a month. That’s because I do know stuff about temperatures and pressures and torques and amps and volts and bits and bytes and words. Kids coming out of college these days? Not so much.  And the majority of the ones who do?  Foreign students who are likely to take that knowledge home with them.

My income now puts me on the ragged edge between the fourth and fifth quintiles.  Add in my wife’s income, and we’re solidly in the (bottom of) the top 20% of income earners in the U.S. as households go.

All because I studied stuff that makes me valuable to the people who produce wealth.

As I’ve pointed out previously, Mike Rowe has a lot to say about this topic that’s worth listening to.

What? Their Heads Don’t Explode?

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Yes, let’s politicize children again.  (And they keep telling me that kids aren’t being propagandized these days.)

Here’s a little video that on the YouTube page says:

Re-electing President Obama is a momentous decision that will require every single voter.

What would the children of the future say if we let them down this November?

At the time of this writing the video has 135 ‘likes’ and 1425 ‘dislikes’.  Here it is:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwlW4lx6TTo?rel=0]
UPDATE: Oops! Looks like it was SO unpopular, they made it “private,” but I saved a copy. Here you go:

http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf
And here are the lyrics:

Imagine an America
Where strip mines are fun and free
Where gays can be fixed
And sick people just die
And oil fills the sea

We don’t have to pay for freeways!
Our schools are good enough
Give us endless wars
On foreign shores
And lots of Chinese stuff

We’re the children of the future
American through and through
But something happened to our country
And we’re kinda blaming you

We haven’t killed all the polar bears
But it’s not for lack of trying
Big Bird is sacked
The Earth is cracked
And the atmosphere is frying

Congress went home early
They did their best we know
You can’t cut spending
With elections pending
Unless it’s welfare dough

We’re the children of the future
American through and through
But something happened to our country
And we’re kinda blaming you

Find a park that is still open
And take a breath of poison air
They foreclosed your place
To build a weapon in space
But you can write off your au pair

It’s a little awkward to tell you
But you left us holding the bag
When we look around
The place is all dumbed down
And the long term’s kind of a drag

We’re the children of the future
American through and through
But something happened to our country
And yeah, we’re blaming you

You did your best
You failed the test

Mom and Dad
We’re blaming you!

I’m still reminded of this video, though. 

http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf
UPDATE – 10/29/12: What the upper video represents is a chorus of kids like this, from 2007:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY7875_rv1s?rel=0]
Except he doesn’t think that adults “did (our) best.”

UPDATE:  11/4/12 – a comment left in the AR15.com thread on this topic wins One Internet:

We are the children of the future.
You are the hippies of the past.
You voted for Obama.
And he fucked us up the a**.

Quote of the Day – Economic Disincentive Edition

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From Silicon Greybeard:

Tyler Durden at Zerohedge pointed out In Entitlement America “a one-parent family of three making $14,500 a year (minimum wage) has more disposable income than a family making $60,000 a year.
(Chart)
Note that more than doubling pretax income from $14,500 to $30,000 results in a loss of 28% of their net income. It would take an exceptionally rare person to go through a drastic drop in quality of life for the possibility of getting really high income and better standard of life some day way in the future.

He has a chart and everything. Go read. Then read this.

I started off my “professional” (post-college) career in February of 1986 with a $5/hr. job at age 24. That’s $10,400/yr. I moved into my first (and only) apartment on Jan. 1 1987. It cost $225/mo. A year after starting employment, my pay was $15,600/yr. By the time I was 30, I was making $30k/yr. I bought the house I’m currently living in when I turned 29. I’m 50 now, and I’m doing pretty good, but nowhere near $250k. I’ve never taken food stamps, never received an Earned Income Tax Credit, Medicaid, a rent subsidy, or Utility Bill Assistance. I did my own taxes for years – 1040EZ for Federal before I bought the house. I guess all that stuff was available, but I was young, single, healthy and working.

If I’d been a young high-school dropout with a live-in girlfriend and a kid or four, perhaps I’d have been all over that “free money.”

And I’d still be making $15k/yr, afraid to make more because of the loss of those “benefits.”

And my kids would probably be in the same boat, and complaining that “The MAN” was keepin’ ’em down.