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Thoughts on McCain's Speech - 9/5/2008 1:05:02 PM

celticlord2112

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Thoughts on McCain's Speech
I have to agree with the author. McCain's speech gets better with each re-reading.

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RE: Thoughts on McCain's Speech - 9/5/2008 4:40:23 PM

Politesub53

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This was interesting.

quote:

-We will prepare them for the jobs of today. We will use our community colleges to help train people for new opportunities in their communities.
-For workers in industries that have been hard hit, we'll help make up part of the difference in wages between their old job and a temporary, lower paid one while they receive retraining that will help them find secure new employment at a decent wage.

How will he be able to pay for any of these schemes, given the state of the economy, and his claim that he wont raise taxes ?

Many of the cliches like "New deal" and "Back to basics" are bandied about on either side of the Atlantic, ( and over here by both parties ). Yet training alone wont provide people with jobs. Manufacturing needs a kick start, just as it does here in the UK.

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RE: Thoughts on McCain's Speech - 9/5/2008 4:48:56 PM

Thadius

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Politesub53

This was interesting.

quote:

-We will prepare them for the jobs of today. We will use our community colleges to help train people for new opportunities in their communities.
-For workers in industries that have been hard hit, we'll help make up part of the difference in wages between their old job and a temporary, lower paid one while they receive retraining that will help them find secure new employment at a decent wage.

How will he be able to pay for any of these schemes, given the state of the economy, and his claim that he wont raise taxes ?

Many of the cliches like "New deal" and "Back to basics" are bandied about on either side of the Atlantic, ( and over here by both parties ). Yet training alone wont provide people with jobs. Manufacturing needs a kick start, just as it does here in the UK.

There are currently retraining programs, and unemployment insurance. When he stated that many of these systems were designed with the '50s economy in mind, and that they needed to be updated, I would guess that this is just an example of that.

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RE: Thoughts on McCain's Speech - 9/5/2008 4:52:14 PM

Joenextdoor

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You pay for this retraining by cutting out the waste, fraud, and abuse in government. I don't know the actual number, but I imagine if we knew just what it was, we all would be sick, no matter what our party affiliation.

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RE: Thoughts on McCain's Speech - 9/5/2008 5:02:03 PM

Thadius

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Joenextdoor

You pay for this retraining by cutting out the waste, fraud, and abuse in government. I don't know the actual number, but I imagine if we knew just what it was, we all would be sick, no matter what our party affiliation.

http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reports_pigbook2008

quote:

The 2008 Pig Book identified 11,610 projects at a cost of $17.2 billion in the 12 Appropriations Acts for fiscal 2008.

Here's a list of the senate piggy counts for fiscal year 2008
http://www.cagw.org/site/DocServer/Senate_-_dollar.pdf?docID=3024

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RE: Thoughts on McCain's Speech - 9/5/2008 5:06:49 PM

Politesub53

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Thanks guys..... obviously we have similar problems here. You will find some of the programs to recover money from fraud, actually cost more to implement than they save.

My point still stands, without major investment, the newly qualified people wont have jobs to go to.

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RE: Thoughts on McCain's Speech - 9/5/2008 6:02:29 PM

celticlord2112

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quote:

My point still stands, without major investment, the newly qualified people wont have jobs to go to.

Best be careful....that's skirting dangerously close to "supply-side economics"

In all seriousness, however, developing new skill sets within a given labor pool itself is a potentially "major investment." By increasing latent skill sets, it becomes relatively easier for companies to expand operations, and open new operations--a larger available labor pool makes the associated hiring decisions easier.

Training, re-training, and other educational assistance is the best "investment" government can make toward business development. It is part and parcel of facilitating the necessary business growth that is the precursor of job growth.

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RE: Thoughts on McCain's Speech - 9/5/2008 11:37:11 PM

proudsub

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Joenextdoor

You pay for this retraining by cutting out the waste, fraud, and abuse in government. I don't know the actual number, but I imagine if we knew just what it was, we all would be sick, no matter what our party affiliation.

You also quit sending billions to countries like Pakistan.

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RE: Thoughts on McCain's Speech - 9/6/2008 2:31:51 AM

Politesub53

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quote:

ORIGINAL: celticlord2112

quote:

My point still stands, without major investment, the newly qualified people wont have jobs to go to.

Best be careful....that's skirting dangerously close to "supply-side economics"

In all seriousness, however, developing new skill sets within a given labor pool itself is a potentially "major investment."

I dont see some tax relief for investors as being such a bad thing. Far better that than farming out manufacturing jobs, and jobs in industries such as computers to overseas.

The problem with retraining is two fold, at least over here, though i suspect the US wont be any different. Firstly, money is wasted teaching adults basic education, which should, and could, have been taught in school. Any government can claim teaching basics is retraining, my view is its a failure of the education system.

The second problem is which training courses are actually provided. The number and type of courses must match, at least to some degree, the number and types of jobs available. Both UK parties, and i suspect US parties, have used the same trick, of providing "Skills classes" to offset unemployment figures. This is both a waste of resources and ungenuine politics. Bill Clinton offered retraining, as did Thatcher, but howmany people actually gained long term employment. The lack of official figures tells its own story. Below is an example of too many students for too few jobs.

[quoteDespite the fact that the NHS has admitted needing more physiotherapists, nearly three-quarters of this years graduates are still without a post.

Add to the the cases of fraudulent training centres, and you can begin to see the problems. It wont matter how many people are skilled in a set career, if job vacancies dont exist.

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RE: Thoughts on McCain's Speech - 9/6/2008 4:20:45 AM

celticlord2112

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quote:

I dont see some tax relief for investors as being such a bad thing. Far better that than farming out manufacturing jobs, and jobs in industries such as computers to overseas.

My warning about supply-side economics was firmly tongue in cheek.

Tax incentives to spur investment in new business/expanded business will help spur job growth and long-term employment. My thinking about things such as training is that tax incentives are a short term stimulus, but working on developing an educated workforce--and increasing the education of that workforce--is a long term structural improvement (actually should be structural maintenance) that makes the job growth sustainable.

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