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Things are not disgustingly bad in Canada, for a change. However, I used to work for a US company. Too bad for me. So I got an altogether too early retirement.

I have to agree with Bill M. Government funded education is a way out for the west. It has been successfully done here in Canada and in Australia for a long time. It was successful in the UK too, and I think they are targeting it for cuts inappropriately. It’s a loosing move to cut back on it if you ask me. They are taking money from the wrong places to pay for other ill-conceived schemes.

Instead of paying for pensions the rest of the world can only dream about, or sending troops to the middle-east, funding education will allow people to generate income for the country and fund their own retirement.

Two years ago the BBC was running stories about how the UK government wanted increase the number of British university students, now they are putting that out of reach for most of them. Foreign students (even EU) pay more and get less funding. Basically they are handing over their schools to the rich, not the smart.

In 2010 the British government spent the following (in Billions of BP):

Pensions - 117.2
Health Care – 119.5
Welfare (pogey) – 109.1
Defence – 43.8
Post Secondary education – 12.9

Note please, that they spent nearly 9 times as much on feeding and housing those that are not skilled enough to find work, as they did on education. That makes a ton of sense!!!

 

And hell if you want war just go a couple hundred miles south. Now thats a freaking real war zone!

And for the record I agree with you that war or mass executions are the only solution for the economy.

That's a bit grim.

But I agree, the population is expanding too fast. Like China, we (or the world) needs a one child per family law, because otherwise we will be out of food, water, jobs and space to live before too long.

 

Pensions - 117.2
Health Care – 119.5
Welfare (pogey) – 109.1
Defence – 43.8
Post Secondary education – 12.9

Note please, that they spent nearly 9 times as much on feeding and housing those that are not skilled enough to find work, as they did on education. That makes a ton of sense!!!

We have a welfare state in this country, and it brings good and bad things. It's good for people who are unable to work for medical reasons, but I think if you can't get a job in, say, IT then you should go and get one at McDonalds instead of using the welfare state, which AFAIK, pays less than a minimum wage. Sure it may be degrading but it can't work for everyone.

 

There are only so many opportunities to sling burgers. There are just not enough low wage, unskilled job available to cure this problem. We have a similar problem, but there is only so much of it you can blame on laziness. I know a lot of people that have been put out of work because their jobs moved offshore. They cannot find work for which they are qualified. Some are slinging burgers, some found they had artistic talents. These two groups are eking out a living. They rest are forced to collect welfare. They don’t want to, but they cannot afford to relocate to a university town or pay for the education, even though it is subsidized.

The western world needs to spend more on education, not less. Either that, or bring our jobs back.

 

There are only so many opportunities to sling burgers. There are just not enough low wage, unskilled job available to cure this problem. We have a similar problem, but there is only so much of it you can blame on laziness. I know a lot of people that have been put out of work because their jobs moved offshore. They cannot find work for which they are qualified. Some are slinging burgers, some found they had artistic talents. These two groups are eking out a living. They rest are forced to collect welfare. They don’t want to, but they cannot afford to relocate to a university town or pay for the education, even though it is subsidized.

The western world needs to spend more on education, not less. Either that, or bring our jobs back.

Well from what I've seen McDonalds are on a recruitment drive, they are advertising "McJobs" everywhere. But anyway, it's just my biased opinion with no data to back it up.

 

Its difficult,how would you create jobs,any type of job.The government
would fund you for a million jobs,can you thing of one type of job you
would create. If you can't think of one type of job,look at the dooms
day that going to hit soon. Sling burgers no way,burger king just laid off 700
workers,slinging burgers won't work any more.The economy is living off of tarp
money to fund programs to give the public money to live off of, the firemen,
police government workers are being paid with borrowed money by the government.
It won't last,there no such thing as free money.

 

Any takers?

http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/12/14/mossad-wants-you/?test=latestnews

I don't think they want anyone who is struggling with their FYP, but you never know.

John

 

It's a tough problem for sure. One thing education will do is allow more people the opportunity to start their own businesses. What might work here, is to take the better jobs away from big business.

Here is an example. The last place I worked at I was, about 10 years ago, the VP of one of their consulting arms. We hired the top people in that space (enterprise monitoring and infrastructure management). We paid them in excess of $100K per year as a base salary and gave them an IC of $50K per year, depending on their billable hours and based on 80% billable time. So the top performers, those guys that were billable for 1,800 hours a year or more, were making $150K/yr or more. Not too shabby. Here’s the kicker. On that same consultant, we billed $540K ($300/hr)! Plus expenses!!! A great chunk of that profit went into the pockets of senior management (Yes, I got some, but nothing like the EVPs).

Imagine now a small, lightweight company where you have 2 consultants making $150K/yr and a managing consultant making $240/yr. Same cost to the client, they get 3 times the work done and 3 times as many people get hired.

How do we arrange this? Through education. Make sure people are armed with the knowledge and training they need to make a place for themselves. In the above example, basic business training could be included with or taken in addition to the technical training.

The wealth of the west is concentrated at the top. The only thing that will change that is a higher level of education for everyone.

 

A government cannot create jobs or income, but it can impede or destroy them.

If you sit back and think about how to discourage small businesses from hiring, and how to keep big businesses from expanding and hiring domestic labor, the answer is pretty much defined by what the US govt is doing. Essentially punish those who make money by taking it away in the form of taxes.

It is in the same vein as the "Death Tax", lots of people with big estates seem to be dying suddenly. I know one local business owner that simply "retired", leaving a dozen people without jobs, rather than put up with the additional restrictions and taxes. When running a business is no longer self satisfying, there is no reason for people to try.

 

The wealth of the west is concentrated at the top.

True. The ratio of CEO/entry level worker salaries are embarrassing. I just sold a stock position (symbol: DVR) today mainly because the EVP to CEO compensations were way out of line with performance of the company.

The only thing that will change that is a higher level of education for everyone.

On that I disagree. The SEC and brokerage agreements that investors must sign protect the abusers. Education won't help. We already KNOW corporate boards are an incestuous pack of narcissistic scoundrels. What we need is to be able to use our tort system to its fullest to reign them in. Ever try suing a broker for lying to you? You have less than a 10% chance of winning in the mandatory arbitration. (FYI, the arbitrators are paid by the brokerage companies. If they find against the brokerages, they don't get called to arbitrate. Duh. The current head of the SEC used to head FINRA.)

John

 

It is in the same vein as the "Death Tax", lots of people with big estates seem to be dying suddenly. I know one local business owner that simply "retired", leaving a dozen people without jobs, rather than put up with the additional restrictions and taxes. When running a business is no longer self satisfying, there is no reason for people to try.

As morbid as it may be, I decided my grandchildren needed me more than money. It is crazy, maybe big headed. But, it was a great Summer.

John

 

... because the EVP to CEO compensations were way out of line with performance of the company.

We can agree on this John. The situation is rampant and I cannot think of a company where the situation is sustainably equitable.

We already KNOW corporate boards are an incestuous pack of narcissistic scoundrels. What we need is to be able to use our tort system to its fullest to reign them in…

I can concur that education alone won’t do it, but while I agree with you about what we need to do about corporate America, I will not allow myself the delusion that it can be accomplished. Not here, and not now. What can be done is for government to grease the way for smaller business. Key to that is education and creating an environment (economic and tax structure) that allows small business to flourish, and, of course, the public education to make it happen. Enormously successful small business will take care of the corporate giants. Yes, I know this is pipe dream. It does however possess a unique sense of possibility and affordability, if not probability, about it.

 

I am all for small businesses. Those were the basis of my extended family. But, we need to make Boards accountable and control through the stock holders (not government) executive compensation. Today, our government is protecting those executives. Salaries of $50,000,000 or more (plus deferred compensation) are outrageious for companies that are losing money.

John

 

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But if your honest and just need a little help you won't get any.

That's because they don't want just a little control over you. They want it all or nothing.

 

I agree that education can help shape a better future. I know that raising the tuition fees might deter or prevent many from going to university. However, I do not totally disagree with the government to raise tuition fees.

Here is the thing in the UK, most of the people going to universities are actually people with a good household income. So, a £3000 increase in fees is high in terms of percentage rise, but not that significant in money terms. The question is, what are the courses most of them study at the university and how they spend their time there? The answer is simple: arts, literature, classics, nursing, etc. Why? Simple answer: "easy uni life - enough time to go out and chill out". Subjects like engineering, physics, or other tough sciences, students don't want to hear about them. If you go to a hospital, you'll most likely find many british nurses, but, the doctor or dentist will be a foreigner. Part of the government's plan is to now force people back into science. They will help people going for hard sciences, as these are better investments. It will also push those from poorer families to automatically choose science and engineering subjects.

The government has also spent too much on giving benefits to lazy people who's been unemployed. They intentionally do not seek work because of the simple fact that they would be earning more money from benefits than actually going to work. And this is a current fact. Much have also been wasted in war. The defence sector has predicted massive job cuts by 2015. War has actually contributed to recession. Do the calculations, numbers don't lie. The labour party has said it, and of course, using those hard facts to promote their party for the next election.

I think people, common people, need to be wiser and question more. It's sad to see that we tend to react only when our money is being taken away. As long as we can go to bed and sleep in peace, we don't care about the rest of the world. That's how selfish people generally are and now we are paying the consequences.

 

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Not exactly. The gov is getting screwed. <snip>

The system just needs to be fixed from the ground up.

So, the government is in control, knows or should know such abuses are happening, and does nothing about it. In fact, though various agencies like ACORN, it promotes and facilitates abuses. That is not the government being screwed.

Have you ever wondered why the government doesn't want to fix those abuses? Why will the government track you down for a minor error on your income taxes, but not these folk? It is simply government control through spending and taxing. If it didn't spend, it couldn't tax.

Very few politicians in Washington really want to reduce taxes. They want to keep taxes as high as possible and use manipulation of taxes and spending for control mechanisms, including vote buying. As just one example, read about representative Murtha of Pennsylvania. How many temporary taxes, say a tax for a specific building project, are ever allowed to expire completely? When the project is completed, that temporary tax is no longer "a new tax," so it is extended and usually diverted to other projects of the politicians' liking.

John