OT Tech Nations

Back in the 1970s I used to do contract work for Esso at one of their refineries. By 1980 all the supervisors were complaining about cut backs, had to get by with less staff, etc. I said, "Boys it's a simple answer, when I first came here all dozen or so management personell were driving Buicks, Olds, Mercury's Imperials, etc. Today you are all driving Toyotas, Hyndias, etc. You cant expect unemployed auto workers to buy gasoline."

Today the number one selling car in America is Toyoto Camery. Smarten up, the blame is with each and everyone of you.

And not to bash anyone...or start an argument. Besides the stockholder it is the worker him/herself. It's a never ending circle.. "I need a raise because..... .." you can put your own finish to it. After a bit...and this is common sense guys...you all know it..complain about it.. it all comes full circle at some point in time. Things can't keep going up and up and up. There is a ceiling and the ceiling has been hit....HARD.

I'll admit...I have a sour taste for unions...but they are just as much to blame as anyone else. They share the blame. Striking for more pay...more benefits. Harder to let someone go. Job security..etc etc etc. A few rotten apples figured out they can slack and not get fired. Poor quality work and still get paid. It's like a rolling snowball. It got bigger and bigger and bigger. There went the work ethics...our kids have heard it for years... and we now reap what we have sown.

Now the circle has closed. The US worker has reached the top of the pay scale and said they need more. Econ 101...supply and demand. The company has said no more and moved on. Focusing on the stockholder instead of the "family".

Just think what this country would be like if the farmer had the capability of doing what the union worker has done for years. The cost of gas would be miniscule compared to the food bill everyone would be faced with.

My flame retardant suit just got zipped up and I'm off my soapbox.

The crux of the problem here is we the people elect governments who in turn hire bureaucrats to carry out what's best for our countries. Problem is, politicians get elected by people and in turn serve the stock holders, yes they cater to that that multi million dollar group. We the people don't exercise our right often enough. In essence we are to blame. Now just maybe if we carry out enough discussion, get enough people interested. Young guys amoung us could become articulate enough to match whits with the best. If we conduct ourselves professionally, just maybe we could send a couple of young guys off from YT to replace Bush and Martin when the time comes. Just think of the headlines YT educates President of US and Prime Minister of Canada.

I remember as a very young lad, Eisenhower of US, Churchill of Britain, StLaurent of Canada, and other world leaders were having a meeting in Brussels. My grandfather growled, " Just deciding how big of a war they had to start, kill off thousands of our young people, just to sell some milatary hardware for the stock holders thus profits in their back pockets." No my friends, we the people are to blame, we elect what we deserve.

Each person has to look deep and decide what their priorities are. 5 yr old car?? 2 yr old car?? 1000 sq ft house? 3500 sq ft house? You can go on and on. But when you are completely truthful and sincere... how much of what we say we "need" is actually how much we "want". What more is needed than a roof, full stomach, and transportation? Not much IMO.

As far as the tariffs... I don't have the knowledge to comment with a plausible explanation. Wouldn't even be a WAG if I tried. But if they put that much of a "crimp" on the products...they'd maybe do like has been done. Set up shop in the US.. claim outsourcing on the components.. and assemble here. I don't know, like I said...WAG.

I did hear something interesting the other day. One of my best friends is customer service for an electric motor facility here. They supply the motors for the drill doctor. Each and every one is made in China to the company's specs and shipped in by container. 18,441 motors per. Usage is about 3,500/week at the assembly plant in Washington.

In New England we had huge mills making all kinds
of textiles and shoes. They all shut down and moved to the Carolinas in the 1950's.

They have all since moved off-shore and the same thing is happening with other jobs. (I'm a laid-off software eng myself.).

We all want a $2.00 tee shirt at Walmart, not $40 at Maceys.....

I read a funny article in a business paper months ago, "horse shoers in 1900 (maybe alittle earlier)
could not imagine (approx) 1925 but looking back noone would of wanted to pass a law to stop the manuf. of automobiles.

This same shift is happening today, we understand the economics of it but do not know what the future will be.

Education is definetly an issue. Assumimg the rest of the world is not as smart as we are is a huge mistake.

I am old enough to remember when you could earn a living and buy a home working in manuf. (I'm in the 495 belt outside of Boston). A small house here in the 1970's...maybe $30,000.

Not anymore. Today the average is closer to $300,000.00

Now I believe Dell assembles all it's desktop PC
is the US, so it is not impossible to manuf. here
either but for a quick reduction in costs outsourcing is an option.

Bill

Do a little math and figure out the amount of time a kid spends in school each year vs. the amount of time he spends at home. I"m not saying every school is perfect and every teacher great, but if you want to blame someone, look in a mirror. When you listen to how some parents run down the school, teachers, and anyone with a college degree, it"s no wonder the kid doesn"t think school is important. I bet there"s a quite a few parents who don"t even know what subjects their kids are taking, never go in to conferences, etc.

I did well in school, but some of these kids coming out of the high schools and colleges today are pretty sharp, and it"s not just in college-prep stuff.

The school my kids went to has the largest FFA program in the state and three ag teachers. The wood and metal shops are unbelievable, and the kids can take 3 years of electricity\electronics. Each spring, they put on a show of the projects the kids have been working on, and you wouldn"t believe the quality and sophistication of some of this stuff. My wife and I go every year even though our youngest graduated 25 years ago. China hutches that would probably cost you $3500 at furniture store, one kid restored a Super H to mint condition, another fabricated front wheel fenders for a 4640 that were a lot better than those plastic ones JD sells. Those boys (and girls) are so damn proud of what they have built they"re just about bursting, and the school had 2500 people come through the show over 3 days last year. (This in a town of 3600 people, mostly farming community). It"s not just the skilled trades stuff, the chemistry and physics teachers and the advance math teacher are top-notch. This school has sent a couple farm boys to MIT. I"m glad all my kids went on to college and have good careers. I doubt if they"ll be milking cows, mowing hay and pitching out calf pens at 74 like they"re old man.

As for the "Dr." who said that these boys growing up without the Dad around are going to be all messed up, that"s not always true. I got a daughter who is a school teacher and single Mom raising two boys. She takes them fishing and is teaching them about how an engine works, how to use tools. She can weld better than just about every guy I know, a heck of a lot better than me. When the boys come to stay with me, I get up early to finish chores so I can spend time with them in the shop. They"ll be in there for 8-10 hours just totally wrapped up in building a log cabin out of scrap wood or whatnot.

I"d like to thank you and all the other teachers who work hard for what is probably modest pay. Probably the biggest reward is hearing from a kid 15-20 years later who is real successful and appreciates what you did for them. We had a physics teacher retire here after 30+ years at the school. I think it was 800-900 people showed up for his retirement party and he received over 1200 letters from former students.

If you still want to bash the schools, maybe ask yourself if you could help out in any way. Maybe donate a piece of old equipment for the kids to work on, give some materials, go in and give a talk if you"re a pro at buildin engines. The FFA dairy judging team comes out to my farm every year. I put together about 6 different age classes of heifers and cows, fit them. I put on a couple clinics for the 4Hers and FFAers on clipping their show cattle and fitting them. It takes some of my time, but I get some enjoyment out of it.