quote:

ORIGINAL: UtopianRanger

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bluebird

I am perhaps the only one who wonders at the irony of this thread - note the typos in the subject line of this topic.  I see one misspelling and one capitalization error in that one simple sentence.  I wouldn't tolerate that in a subordinate - if someone won't learn proper English communication skills, I don't have use for him or her. 
 
Yeah, I'm cranky tonight.  The grammar police are ALWAYS alert.

Hell.....If you think you've got bug up your ass now—over an innocuous thread title-- how do you suppose you will feel once those big eighteen-wheelers start rolling in from across the border with folks driving them who basically have the mental capacity /education of 5th grade elementary student?





- R

quote:

ORIGINAL: Joseff

Have you noticed that unemployment is only 4.5%, the lowest it has ever been in this country?
Joseff

quote:

ORIGINAL: gooddogbenji

The people.

Welcome to capitalism.  We could buy only Made in USA products, but then we couldn't afford our lifestyle.

How many people shop at WalMart for items they could buy that are made domestically, even if at a higher price?

If WalMart started buying their products locally, their prices would skyrocket and people would buy elsewhere.  So that aint an option. Not making a profit isn't really an option either, because the investors (banks, funds, the superrich, and us) want some returns.  Besides, going out of business would suck, eh?

Yours,


benji

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ORIGINAL: Estring

Popeye, I understand your disappointment with Bush. I feel the same way about him in some respects as well. But he did the one thing that almost every economist agrees will stimulate the economy. He cut taxes. Normally I don't think that a president has that much to do with how the economy goes, but he understood what the economy needed to get on it's feet after 9/11.

quote:

ORIGINAL: satyrne07

Has anyone here used a buggy whip on a slave?
My point is that this is about the only community who may still be buying buggy whips.   There used to be thousands of people employed in making them, now there might be a handful.   We can't shelter everyone from the fact that competition develops and what is now eventually becomes obsolete.  We think of the 50s and 60s as the good old days of good jobs and good wages --- HEY!!! We had also just seen all the factories of all our competition bombed into rubble...Germany, England, Japan...everyone else was starting again from zero.    This is now. We have to be willing to prepare and compete.  Sort of like the American Olympic Basketball "Dream Team"  after a while, if we are sloppy, we lose.

I visited the Audi/Volkswagen factory in Changchun China last summer.   A clean efficient factory pumping out new cars for a Chinese market.   Crazy thing is, that if China would focus on electric cars they would jump to the head of the pack, but they can't.  They have the workforce to replicate existing methods, but are at a distinct disadvantage in creating new techniques and technologies.

An interesting fact... All the cars were being made in China, but do you know where every machine used to make the cars was made? The specialized super precision assembly tools and calibration machines were all made in Germany. That's where the German workers were needed.   Once a job becomes routine and standardized it is up for grabs. American workers are on the front lines of innovation. We need to see that this is our strength.   Learn, produce, systematize, then move on. We can be better and faster than the rest. But we need to embrace this as our standard.