On Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:56:51 -0800 (PST), "
wrote:
snip
and we need to make sure that all growth accrues to the well being of the
large majority of citizens.

--
Ed Huntress

The brightest spot that I can see is biotech. Still lots going on
there. Look at companies as Monsanto, Illuminati. But I do not see
much for the high school graduate. There is going to be much less
demand for low skilled labor.
snip
==========
One of the major problems appears to be continuing to apply
assumptions, theories, metrics and logic to situations/conditions
where these are no longer operational, particularly when these
are tacit and/or subliminal.

One example, how is U.S. economic well-being measured by a metric
such as the Dow that is grossly affected by internal/domestic PRC
fiscal/financial policy changes?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100212/...us_wall_street
Stocks swoon after China brakes lending again
By STEPHEN BERNARD and TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writers Stephen
Bernard And Tim Paradis, Ap Business Writers – 26 mins ago

NEW YORK – Stocks skidded Friday after China said for the second
time in a month it would force its banks to reduce their lending.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 105 points in midday
trading after China said it would require banks to increase
reserve levels. The surprising move comes a day after a tame
inflation report raised hopes that China wouldn't have to further
tighten its monetary policy or take other steps to put the brakes
on its supercharged economy.

Chinese regulators are trying to contain rapid economic growth
there to prevent speculative investment bubbles. Investors worry
that a slowdown in China could disrupt a U.S. recovery by hurting
exports and profits of companies that do business there.

A similar action to curb bank lending nearly a month ago in China
spooked the market and helped start a slide that has brought
major indexes down for four straight weeks. As of late morning
the Dow was trading just above 10,000 and barely in the black for
the week.
snip
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Other areas of concern include the fact that there are no longer
any American companies, only transnational corporations that are
domiciled in the U.S., including biotech.

Any advances/developments that in the past would have generated
domestic [U.S.] investment and jobs with high value-added
operations and high economic multipliers are now immediately
exported to countries with low wages/taxes and lax environmental
and other standards, including worker safety, in spite of the
fact that the products and methodology may have been developed
with governmental [tax payer] funds.

It should also be noted that "only" a high school education does
not automatically equate to low skills/knowledge nor does a
college degree necessarily equate to any useful skill or
knowledge for gainful employment.

The fact that it is now generally considered necessary for an
individual to invest 4 or more years of their lives and
100,000$U.S. to prove they are "worthy" [of employment and full
participation in society] says more about the problems of the
current U.S. socio-economic/political milieu than it does about
the individual. Increasingly, even after the "investment" of
large amounts of time and money, the individual is still unable
to find reasonable/suitable employment, and is burdened with
crippling student loan repayment.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...e+education%22
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One problem he sees with the estimates: They don't take into
account deductions from income taxes or breaks in employment. Nor
do they factor in debt, particularly student debt loads, which
have ballooned for both public and private colleges in recent
years. In addition, the income data used for the Census estimates
is from 1999, when total expenses for tuition and fees at the
average four-year private college were $15,518 per year. For the
2009-10 school year, that number has risen to $26,273, and it
continues to increase at a rate higher than inflation.
snip
------------

It should be crystal clear that the only alternative to the
current corporate kamikaze pilot dive to the economic bottom is
the forcing of the corporations to more equitably share their
advances in productivity with their employees by reducing the
standard work week, possibly to 30 hours with current pay and
benefits, with draconian penalties for evasion.

Additionally the very high earners, for example those earning
more than 10 times the median US income, [currently
704k$US/family] *SHOULD* pay much higher taxes, including social
security, as much of this income was the result of their
decisions to, or at least the aiding and abetting in, export U.S.
jobs, which would have paid taxes in the past.
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ocs/.../SMI75FY09.pdf

One useful place to start is the removal of the current social
security earnings tax cap, currently 106,800$. In and of itself,
this would resolve the projected SS "shortfall" for several
years.
http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshot...cial_security/

When we don't get what we want, we get what we deserve...


Unka George (George McDuffee)
...............................
The past is a foreign country;
they do things differently there.
L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author.
The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).