Why germany is kicking our ass.

[piercehawkeye45]

I had a conversation about this with my roommate the other day. My friend agreed that the expectation to go to college has created a social stigma against manual labor jobs. Most people with a college degree will not "lower" themselves to that type of work even though those jobs can pay much better than most jobs that "require" college degrees. This has caused a shortage in those fields and part of the problem mentioned in articles above.

What my friend added, something I didn't think of, is that the expectation to go to college actually is hurting the economy. More and more people are spending the first five to ten years of their lives paying back college loans with a job that probably doesn't even use their degree instead of spending it on other things that could help the economy.

Funny thing is, both my roommate and I are engineers and there is a very good chance both our younger brothers, both going to a two year college, will get paid more than us. Yet, there is a stigma against their jobs...

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by piercehawkeye45

Most people with a college degree will not "lower" themselves to that type of work even though those jobs can pay much better than most jobs that "require" college degrees.

Doesn't matter, they don't have the skills to do those jobs. There seems to be a pervasive idea you only have to show up and be willing, to earn good money... not so. Yeah, yeah, I know your Cousin Louie's neighbor's friend is making $100k right out of high school. His father or father-in-law own the business, or he's doing something illegal. Decent money is not in labor, it's in skilled trades. Electricians, plumbers, machinists, CNC operators, etc, need a tremendous amount of knowledge to do their job properly. The schools have closed, and the apprentice system has all but dried up, largely a result of the jobs being exported.

[tw]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

There seems to be a pervasive idea you only have to show up and be willing, to earn good money... not so. Yeah, yeah, I know your Cousin Louie's neighbor's friend is making $100k right out of high school. His father or father-in-law own the business, or he's doing something illegal. Decent money is not in labor, it's in skilled trades. Electricians, plumbers, machinists, CNC operators, etc, need a tremendous amount of knowledge to do their job properly.

GM stifled innovation (except that required by government regulation) some 30 years ago. How long did it take for spread sheets to finally report the resulting failure? How long does it take uneducated students today to finally create a second class nation tomorrow? How many decades; because an uneducated population decreases living standards only decades or generations later. By then, it is too late. They did not get the education necessary to be able to learn.

Much of what becomes America's most productive people do not exist for maybe 10 or 20 years after being educated. Education is necessary to become productive 20 years later. America that was once #1 in advanced education is now 12th - and falling. Where will America be in 20 years? (Fox News will then blame evil foreigners.) When not educated, then hate and anger are a usual response. How many Japanese cars got bashed in the late 1970s. The least educated cannot ask damning questions necessary to ‘think outside the box’. Will blindly believe everything said by a lady in a GPS. Will blindly think only what a service manual tells them to think. Remember this classic example?

An Idle Control Air Valve system was only three parts. So a tech kept replacing the same computer - four times.

In My check engine light is on, he blindly did what told to do (as any uneducated person would do). He could not even ask what the service manual was doing - could not ask a damning question. When the procedure replaced the same non-defective part four times, did he bother to think? No. Learning to think requires basic knowledge obtained from education. For example, to understand how electricity works. His entire thought process was, “do only what the manual orders”. (All praise our mighty leader – the service manual!) Welcome to communism. We will tell you how to think. Best you don’t get educated.

Education is about learning what is necessary to think for yourself. Nobody can do that thinking without first learning the basics. In America, a majority of students not getting educated are males. How many expect to be taken in by cougars?

Ask your computer tech what a surge protector does. Most have no idea. Most will only recite lies from retail advertising. Most computer techs are so uneducated as to not even know how electricity works. So uneducated as to also get angry because he need not know how electricity (or a computer) works. "I fixed a computer by replacing parts on speculation until it worked. I am smart!" Nonsense. Any 12 year old can shotgun.

America became a great power when Hitler drove 'thinkers' from Europe. America continued to prosper when so many 'thinkers' came to America to be educated - and then stayed. For example, who created Intel? America's recent contempt of immigrants has even diminished that source of educated thinkers. Made worse when America, at the highest levels of government and industry, stifled science: stem cells, wasted money on the Constellation after failing to make a decision until the last minute, drove out basic research (ie quantum physics), wasted tremendous men and money on mythical threats (Saddam), and even sold some of this nation's once most innovative institutions to foreigners (because research is an expense; not an asset).

Who owns the Bell Labs? The French. How quickly does the Silicon Valley go through one year of H1B visas? To find employees with sufficient education, 60% of new employees now come from India and China. It would be higher. The need for educated employees is that large. But the entire one year's worth of visas are gone in the first week. Finding educated Americans has become that difficult.

He could not understand what the service manual was doing due to insufficient education. Could not even understand how three simple electrical parts worked. To 'think outside the box' means one must first obtain basic knowledge. Too many just know they are smart because they feel - rather than learn how much they did not know. Then get angry when America needs educated immigrants.

Let's see. CFL light bulbs were created in GE in 1973 by Ed Hammer. Why was the design finished by Ellis Yan - a Chinaman? Why do virtually all CFL bulbs come from China? America no longer has the education necessary to make the next generation light bulb even 35 years after it was invented here?

Government had to require the innovation. "GE balked at the standards at first, knowing that they could impact their U.S. manufacturing. But the company also saw that with restrictions gaining momentum in more states and other countries, some kind of legislation was unavoidable." GE would not innovate until forced by government regulation? GE is mostly a company of finance people. A symptom of a slowly growing problem in America - people without education that makes them innovative. Finance guys - also called uneducated - could not see innovation in a light bulb for 25 years?

The question was America verses Germany. The Economist has recently discussed GE verses Siemens. Remove GE’s finance division to learn what is slowly over the decades happening to America. GE is mostly a finance company. Little in GE today is from innovation. Where would GE be if they manufactured those innovative light bulbs 25 years ago? A world leader. GE has fallen significantly behind Siemens. Because Siemens at the highest levels of management is about product and innovation. GE does what any dying nation does - less innovation and lots of finance. Don’t worry. Be happy – says a nation of communication majors.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I know, it's the damn teacher's unions.

[Lamplighter]

Notice anything here ?