MAO: I can't speak to your experience. But there are several factors here.
Expectations: I see too many kids today (including my step children) that expect to live as well as their parents and they want it all NOW. They do not (or will not) understand that their parents lived for decades with one junker car, no air conditioning, no cable or color TV or internet or cell phone, almost never ate out, almost never made or got long distance calls, and lived in a rented two room apartment or a room in a boarding house. And this was after serving years in the military, living in a barracks. But kids today are convinced that they need all the conveniences that the older generations spent their whole lives building and saving for, they are convinced they are entitled to all this stuff, right now, and the businesses and credit agencies are all too eager to let them have it as they get in debt over their heads. By the way, this includes college: they wabt it, they think they need it, they aren't willing to work for it, but they are willing to go into debt for it. Second, productivity: The value of whatever you produce must exceed the value of whatever you consume. Otherwise you are digging the debt hole deeper, one way or another. With all the laws, regulations, environmental restrictions, unions, cronyism, etc. in the US, it's almost impossible for an American to be as productive as a Chinaman, an Indonesian, an Indian, etc. Our steel mills are gone, little manufacturing remains, mineral exploitation is fraught with environmental barriers, etc. US agriculture is doing OK but it employs very few people and the work is harder than most native=born Americans are willing to do. Bottom line, we as a country are doing exactly the same thing the young kids are doing: we are borrowing without limit to support a lifestyle we haven't earned. On college: college costs are out of sight. Why? Supply and demand. With federal loans the demand is huge and the supply is limited. The colleges know that (with federal $$) the students (and taxpayers) will pay whatever it costs. There is no incentive to control cost. In fact, the opposite is true: a more costly school is viewed as more exclusive and therefore, better. Finally, on jobs: Jobs are created by job creators. These are people that take great personal risk in hopes of an eventual reward. Most of these folks fail, often repeatedly. If that's not enough reason to abandon this effort, we have as a nation created a social, regulatory, and tax environment that punishes the successful job creator. So when you ask: where are the jobs, just remember who killed them. It's the same story as he goose that laid the golden egg. _______________________________________ -----Original Message----- Scott wrote: >> I don't know about starving, but there are a lot of younglings out there >> that need to be told (or retold) that the world does not owe them a >>living. > Then Mountain Man wrote: >I think that is a gross mis-characterization. >I think the other gross mis-characterization is that many have school >loans that are fundamentally discouraging. And there are many who >realize that nothing will ever get them to decent wage or position. I >always thought I could get to decent wage or position but didn't. >Grunt in professional firm is all that math/physics got me. I did >enjoy making younglings and living. So, ya 'spose I told my kids >coledg is all important? - not by my experience. >mao _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
