Picking nits is all he has. The article explains what we are doing since Bush and it needs to be undone.
Was it not obvious that I was playing off your post, and giving **EC **a hint?
Don’t insult other posters in Great Debates.
[ /Moderating ]
That’s just as wrong. The numbers aren’t even close to being related. The article says a group of rich people have $45.9 trillion in assets and then asserts this will grow by “225 percent” to “$87.1 trillion.” Nothing about that claim makes sense.
2008 saw a global financial meltdown so catastrophic that John McCain was talking about suspending his campaign. You surely cannot expect me to actually believe anyone has forgotten that? It was THE major news event of the year prior to the election. The financial meltdown absolutely is why the unemployment rate is now as high as it was; as recently as 2007 it was under five percent. I honestly cannot believe anyone would think I was referring to the election. We had the most spectacular economic implosion of our lifetimes in 2008 and you don’t recall that? It’s when this recession started. It was THREE YEARS AGO, we’re not talking about ancient history… and it almost perfectly corresponds with the sudden jump in unemployment.
So if productivity causes unemployment, why was the unemployment rate so low as recently as 2007? Did they just start inventing productivity-enhancing technology sometimes in early 2008?
John Mace: I figured. But subtlety wasn’t working; apparently I can’t take anything for granted.
Outsourced jobs
600,000 information sector jobs
104,000 IT jobs
Two thirds of Financial institutions are outsourcing and expect to do more
40 states are outsourcing work such as benefit cards
2 million manufacturing jobs.
The companies do not give a shit about you, but you must love them in return.
That is one hell of a lot of potential demand we sent away. That is a lot of jobs .
Fine. Nursing and health care professionals for our increasingly aging population. We’re going to outsource that? It’s hardly going to be a movable feast. Hell, we’re importing these workers from other countries because we don’t have enough.
I’m sure you’re dedicated to this fiction you’ve created in your mind, but don’t presume I’m being pedantic for its own sake. There are major holes in your thesis, and you seem unwilling or unable to deal with them.
The supposed “shortage” of health care workers is a myth. The reason you see so many ads for them is because of the rapid burn-out in the field, mostly due to over-work. A significant number of people train in the field, start working in it, then leave the field because of a lack of job satisfaction. A typical reason cited is poor “nurse to patient ratios” - skilled professionals forced to spread themselves too thin.
The real reason we import workers from other countries is that they are less likely to complain. Sometimes they have other reasons. A group of “imported” workers at my sister-in-law’s parent’s nursing home filed false tax returns on them, receiving a $47,000 refund from the IRS - which my sister-in-law was forced to pay.
Seriously? You don’t see a connection between overwork and the need for additional personnel? I’m hoping this is a whoosh.
The simplest solution for overwork and burn out is to hire a couple extra people to spread the load.
Maybe he was thinking of the iPhone 3G. That must be what caused the surge in unemployment.
Try dealing with the subject.
Lesbians?
I wonder then why they have called what has happned to date a “jobless recovery”? Oh, that’s right, the Invisible Handwave of the Marketplace just hasn’t happened yet. And I don’t think you’ve said a WORD about the stagnant wages for the middle class that goes back for decades. Whassamatta, cat got your tongues?
The invisible hand can’t work very well if the government take a blowtorch to it every time it reaches out.
I have, and nobody responds.
I’ll ask again.
If productivity is what causes unemployment, why did unemployment not go up until the fiscal crisis of 2008? It’s been plainly asserted here that technology that enhances productivity creates unemployment. Yet technology that enhances productivity has been created and used for many years, but the unemployment rate was remarkably low as recently as 2007. Since it is clearly not the case that they just started creating productivity-enhancing things in 2007, why is there that apparent contradiction?
Now, granted, Evil Captor then changed his tune and seems now to be claiming that technology causes “Stagnant wages,” which, assuming that is true, of course raises the question as to why wages were rising before. Productivity-enhancing technology existed before the 1970s, after all.
Honestly, it’s a damned wonder the unemployment rate isn’t 99.9%, when you consider the productivity-enhancing technologies we’ve created. Goddamn spinning jennys! Stupid typewriters! Putting people out of jobs, I tells you! We’re gonna have structural, permanent unemployment because of those… those… I can barely type the word… STEAMSHIPS!
It is, but you are the one being wooshed.
Which they hospital administration will not do. Instead, they keep employee count as low as possible while increasing the number of patients each caregiver is responsible for. Hospitals are like every other business - they keep head count as low as possible.
High-stress jobs constantly advertise because of churn. New caregivers get in and discover the inherent stress of the job which is exacerbated by under-staffing (which also results in much worse outcomes - but that doesn’t really affect the bottom line). A lot of them quit the profession, or move to different institutions trying to find one not as bad.
A personal anecdote: My mom was in intensive care at St Luke’s, a highly respected hospital in Kansas City. This place was so understaffed that my brother, two sisters and I worked out shifts so someone would always be there. She was unable to handle most narcotics, so she was on a respirator - while conscious. There were (I believe) 24 beds, and only 3 nurses most nights when I was there for my shift. This was intensive care - I can’t imagine how bad the staffing was in the regular wards if an 8:1 nurse to patient ratio is acceptable in intensive care.
The “invisible hand” does not guarantee everyone a job. Nor does it guarantee a timetable for recovery from recession. Nor does it guarantee everyone a path upward in earnings potential.
If someone told you it did, he didn’t know what he was talking about.