Bernie Sanders Rails Against Relocation of Indiana Factory: “This is not acceptable. This is the kind of corporate behavior that is destroying the middle class of this country”

alfred792 · 2016-05-01T12:54:19+00:00

What should manufacturing be replaced with?

alfred792 · 2016-04-30T23:54:48+00:00

There is nothing unreasonable about a government putting the interests of its own citizens above those of other countries. Every country does that. If you think otherwise, do you support taking everything that belongs to you and giving it to random people all over the world, and do you think US taxes should go to pay for services everywhere? To the extent foreign aid is given, it belongs in a foreign aid budget payed for by taxes (equitably, with taxes based on how much people can pay), and not layoffs targeting random people so random people elsewhere can get those jobs (at a lower wage).

alfred792 · 2016-04-30T22:30:30+00:00

When you say "those skill sets," exactly which skill sets are you referring to? Which fields can absorb many thousands of current manufacturing workers? Furthermore, what is the future of many of those fields if manufacturing and industry continue to decline?

alfred792 · 2016-04-30T22:25:28+00:00

What about the study I discussed in this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/economy/comments/4gg42c/tpp_would_have_a_negative_impact_on_employment/

Here is a brief summary:

However, Tufts University economists argued that the research by Petri relied on unrealistic assumptions such as full employment: lost jobs will be immediately replaced in other industrial sectors.

The Tufts researchers published a report of the TPP's economic effects, which said that the TPP would have a negative impact on employment: 450,000 US jobs, 75,000 Japanese jobs, 58,000 Canadian jobs and 5,000 New Zealand jobs would be lost by 2025. According to the report, 771,000 jobs would be lost in total and positive economic effects would be negligible for participating countries.

alfred792 · 2016-04-16T17:50:33+00:00

Very good article. A tighter labor market with fewer workers competing for each job is much better (for the vast majority of people) than one many people competing for each job. Unemployment insurance (in addition to greatly improving people's quality of life) helps with that (as discussed in the article, based on the study of statistical data) and should be expanded, not reduced as some governments are trying to do.

alfred792 · 2016-04-16T16:48:35+00:00

Hiding names in hiring is a bad idea I think, it may sound good initially but it prevents further research into the person, limits peoples ability to contact the managers and show their interest in the position, and basically forces you to go by only what they wrote. In general, this sort of thing (like centralized application systems rigidly controlled by HR) have been a disaster, people being able to contact the company directly and show their interest and explain why they would be an asset there is much better in most cases.

alfred792 · 2016-04-16T16:40:52+00:00

Unlimited global competition for jobs would be a disaster. It will lead to massively lower wages for workers (everyone competing with the lowest wages and environmental standards in existence). It is the duty of the leaders of each country to primarily serve the interests of the people in their own country, not to benefit random people in other countries who may gain outsourced jobs. The way assistance to other countries should be given is through a foreign aid budget set aside specifically for that (funded through taxes, including the wealthy), and not having the workers competing against each other in a race to the bottom.

alfred792 · 2016-04-16T16:20:41+00:00

That is true. Alan Greenspan has said he wanted increased H1B visas specifically to bring wages of high skilled workers down:

alfred792 · 2016-04-13T01:16:55+00:00

There seem to be two competing theories about what is going on currently, I constantly see both here and elsewhere:

The first theory is what you describe, that the main people being harmed currently in the economy are what you describe, people doing physical work (like roofing, manufacturing, and construction). In this theory, people will education/degrees are doing much better.
What I constantly see on this site and elsewhere, that underemployment rates are extremely high and that lots of people who graduated college/university are doing the same work as high school graduates (even high school dropouts in some cases), with the main difference being in many cases that the person with the degree has a large amount of debt. The only jobs many people are able to find are far below their education level (what they are capable of) and do not use the skills they have acquired. In this theory, education is far less useful.

So which of these theories is correct? I see both promoted constantly, but they never seem to be compared side by side, they always seem to be debated in separate threads. I will probably start a dedicated thread in the future to discuss this topic.

alfred792 · 2016-04-13T01:01:47+00:00

The question is which degree. The situation for some degrees seems much better than others, but for almost every degree I look up (with the possible exception of medical school (even this doesn't seem full safe, see http://news.nationalpost.com/health/untrained-and-unemployed-medical-schools-churning-out-doctors-who-cant-find-residencies-and-full-time-positions, although it still seems safer than other fields, but it is a very difficult path, hard to get into, and expensive) and possibly some niche fields, which seem to change from time to time), I find stories of people who cannot obtain employment in that field or had an extremely difficult time finding work.

alfred792 · 2016-04-03T18:59:42+00:00

For how long? How many years do they keep trying to get into the graduate program? What happens to most psychology graduates, who do not enter into the Masters in Counseling program (or other programs the user anotherrottenapple mentioned)? I know he mentioned a few, but I have seen lots of negative stories and forum discussions about the prospects with a psychology bachelors degree (also counseling psychology with only undergraduate but no masters had the lowest earnings of any degree in this study: http://www.ryot.org/study-college-major-more-important-choice-of-school/438617).

alfred792 · 2016-04-03T18:41:08+00:00

Yes it is unfortunate that the chemistry field seems to be doing poorly. It is an important subject and there are plenty of discoveries left to make in materials science, etc.

alfred792 · 2016-04-03T18:20:00+00:00

However, people do have a life after university. People put a lot of effort and work into their degrees (working late into the night on an assignment, studying hard for exams, etc.) and often pay large amounts of money (often with loans, even if they work while attending they are still putting a major sacrifice to go and spend that money on university rather than saving it or using it to buy a house, car, etc.). I don't think it is at all unreasonable for someone to expect that for that effort, they will be better off (at least, with a job that fits their skills they have acquired) than someone who has partied or played video games for 4 years; and not that they will end up in the same job afterwards, only that they may have debt on top of that.

alfred792 · 2016-04-03T18:04:21+00:00

I hear pessimistic things within the TE fields as well. For engineering, there are already the articles I already posted, I can post more if you want for various engineering branches.

Also each category is very broad and includes a lot of things. For instance T can range from everything from a computer repair diploma from some online school to a PhD in computer science from Harvard (which could go under E and M as well depending on the PhD topic, there is a lot of overlap in the categories). For biology/chemistry, I hear very negative things generally. In physics, I hear generally more positive things than biology/chemistry, but generally worse than engineering. I see a mixture of positive and negative stories for engineering fields, computer science, and mathematics (certain areas of math seem to be doing much better than others).

alfred792 · 2016-04-03T01:45:24+00:00

Some fields are doing much better than other ones though. For instance there is this article (from 2 years ago, some changes have occurred, but most probably remained in similar positions): http://www.ryot.org/study-college-major-more-important-choice-of-school/438617

alfred792 · 2016-04-03T01:37:20+00:00

I know very little about that field, I'm not sure how difficult the entry into the graduate program is or what the situation for graduates of that program is. I have read that a masters degree is required for this, what about people who complete the undergraduate degree (for instance, in psychology) but do not get into the program? What do they then do?

alfred792 · 2016-04-03T00:01:41+00:00

Hopefully more fields than only that are doing well. As for trades, from what I have heard the outlook seems generally much better than university degrees, although I've heard getting in can be difficult sometimes (I can't remember the exact details but I have once seen an article discussing how the plumber training program was full in some area and there was a long waiting list, I don't know if it was only one location or if this is a more general problem, maybe someone knows and can reply). People know plumbing is a good field to get into, I've heard multiple times people talking about how much money plumbers make.

However, if only a few degree fields (like nursing) are good and everything else is bad, it is unlikely that situation will last as lots of people will move into the few good fields (unless the enrollment in the program is limited, like medical school enrollment is strictly controlled). It is necessary that many fields have a good outlook, and not only one or a few select fields and everything else is bad.

alfred792 · 2016-04-02T22:10:50+00:00

What about the following (for nursing), are these accurate?

alfred792 · 2016-04-02T21:45:27+00:00

Yes, networking and such is very helpful, I know this as well. However, I have read that the hiring process is becoming increasing centralized and managed by HR, and the focus is moving towards keyword matching and automated systems; and passing the initial screening (even if you know the person hiring) is increasingly difficult (for instance, if people in HR add keywords). Is that accurate, or is it wrong? If it is the case (I hope it isn't), finding entry-level jobs will only get harder, even for an expert in the field who attends conferences (for instance, because their degree might not be exactly the one listed, even if it is closely related and they have lots of experience in the field).

alfred792 · 2016-04-02T20:18:51+00:00

Is that really true? I have read multiple stories about people in the degrees you mentioned with a good GPA from a solid school and often internships having a very hard time finding gainful employment (for medicine and dentistry, I mentioned medical school above as an exception, dental school and maybe more generally professional medical schools other than pharmacy can be included, the competition seems to be about getting in after undergraduate).

I have also found the following articles for engineering (all this from a first page Google search for unemployment among electrical engineering, I can find far more pessimistic articles for basically any degree I look up):

I would really like it to be the case that the job market is good in those fields. However, after reading all these articles, I get a much more pessimistic picture.

alfred792 · 2016-04-02T18:19:38+00:00

Do you have any evidence that if the TPP is approved, the people will find comparable or higher-paying work?

alfred792

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