Solution to career welfare ape-oids

[togor]

Maybe where you live, but around here in upstate NY every grocery store has a permanent "help wanted" sign, and the pay & benefits can't be too bad because in recent yrs more & more men are taking these jobs--which I don't like, because they're never as quick & efficient as the 20-something girls. Recently one of the two stores in the nearest town put in one of those self-service check-out machines because they said they just couldn't hire enough human checkers!

Actually the pay is not good but some people decide they have no other option. American and Chinese Capitalism have a lot in common these days. They copy our technology and we copy their compensation strategies.

You know what would improve the quality of life a lot for people working those low-paying jobs? National single-payer health care. The French spend half of what we do on health care and guess what, they get the same health outcome. If you're poor and you get sick or hurt then you're at the mercy of whatever the local bureaucracy at the hospital, doctor, state office, etc. wants to do with you. Get time off work to go meet with those people? Sorry, can't spare you, or "OK", but it's unpaid, and just this one time.

Poor people are actually a pretty reliable source of profits. They have to eat, and they spend every nickle they lay hands on. And some of them, you can get a lot of work out of them for cheap. What possible reason would Capital have to change that arrangement one iota? And there is automation. Machines can be owned, don't need to be paid. Sound like anything from our past?

[Vern Humphrey]

Maybe where you live, but around here in upstate NY every grocery store has a permanent "help wanted" sign, and the pay & benefits can't be too bad because in recent yrs more & more men are taking these jobs--which I don't like, because they're never as quick & efficient as the 20-something girls. Recently one of the two stores in the nearest town put in one of those self-service check-out machines because they said they just couldn't hire enough human checkers!

You better believe it -- there are plenty of jobs available. The problem is many people either don't WANT to work, or are too spaced out to hold a job.

[Bill D]

Problem is, everyone wants to start at a supervisory level. Jobs are there but people have to start at entry level and work (key word) up. Dems don’t think this is fair.

[Vern Humphrey]

Back in the '80s, Dems used to sneer at "McJobs." Take a look at where the kids who worked those jobs then are today.

Democrats just don't understand work.

[RED]

I laugh whenever I hear about the socialists/commies compare our economy to the socialist/commies. SOOooo... France has health care as good as ours for 1/2 the price. That is so off the wall ridiculous that it is laughable. Do they have CT scans? Can you get a MRI in France? Of course you can but hey were invented in the U.S. How many new antibiotics, new medical devices and treatments were invented in France in the past 50 years? Look it up and compare the numbers of new medical techniques and technologies that came out of the USA capitalist system. You will find that over 50% of the world wide number comes from the USA and .1% from France. There are 7.5 billion people on the planet and 330 million in the USA and we invent twice as many new medical devices, medicines, and procedures that are used by other 7.2, and you want to shut us down!!!!!

Why don't these people move to France, Venezuela, Cuba, and No. Korea. Health care is free there. Once you kill America's initiative and innovative by killing the the capitalist system... where are the new medicines and treatments going to come from? France? Venezuela? Argentina? Germany? Pakistan?

[togor]

Good old Red, who never lets the facts get in his way. This took less time to compile than you spent writing your post.

France:
Per Capita Spending (USD) on Health Care 2012: $4063
Per Capita Spending (USD) on Health Care 2015: $4407
Diabetes rate, adults 20-79 (2015): 5.3%
Life Expectancy, Both Sexes (2015): 82.4
Under-5 Mortality Rate, per 1000 (2015): 4.3
Infant Mortality Rate, per 1000 (2016): 3.3

USA
Per Capita Spending (USD) on Health Care 2012: $8423
Per Capita Spending (USD) on Health Care 2015: $9451
Diabetes rate, adults 20-79 (2015): 10.8%
Life Expectancy, Both Sexes (2015): 79.3
Under-5 Mortality Rate, per 1000 (2015): 6.5
Infant Mortality Rate, per 1000 (2016): 5.8

So how do you spin that Red? If it's how you say it is, then why do we get crappier results for more money? Two answers come to my mind: we're sicker, don't take as good a care of ourselves, get fat, have lousier diets, etc. than our French friends. Second, once we're sick, we're easy marks for the medicos to take our money.

[blackhawknj]

Any discussion of welfare should start with a viewing of the video "Swipe Yo' EBT!"

[JB White]

Problem is, everyone wants to start at a supervisory level. Jobs are there but people have to start at entry level and work (key word) up. Dems don’t think this is fair.

Not really. Something to keep in mind. People above the age of 45 are being phased out of positions due to either cutbacks or sellouts. Their skillsets are either considered obsolete or they're "too costly to hire". (emphasis on the second one) They still have mortgages to pay and are getting into medical care age which needs insurance. The jobs folks used to be able to make lateral moves to simply aren't there anymore. Would you want to flip burgers and work up all over again?
A friend of mine is being cut loose because the company she was working for is selling out and the locations are all going to different buyers. I cannot BELIEVE the hassles people have to go through to find work these days. Without a computer, a smart phone, and a professional resume', along with making time to attend last second interviews, you're pretty much out of most viable options. Then try getting a confirmation on past work history from an outfit who has changed HR services a few times...

[clintonhater]

Not really. Something to keep in mind. People above the age of 45 are being phased out of positions due to either cutbacks or sellouts. Their skillsets are either considered obsolete or they're "too costly to hire". (emphasis on the second one) They still have mortgages to pay and are getting into medical care age which needs insurance. The jobs folks used to be able to make lateral moves to simply aren't there anymore. Would you want to flip burgers and work up all over again?
A friend of mine is being cut loose because the company she was working for is selling out and the locations are all going to different buyers. I cannot BELIEVE the hassles people have to go through to find work these days. Without a computer, a smart phone, and a professional resume', along with making time to attend last second interviews, you're pretty much out of most viable options. Then try getting a confirmation on past work history from an outfit who has changed HR services a few times...

This is very sad (though still being in one's 40 or 50s doesn't seem so tragic). However, is the best answer to their financial problems a phony disability claim? If welfare is the only way out for them, of course that's a terrible plight, but at least it should be called by its right name.

[togor]

In the 19th century, human muscle power was needed to support civilization. In the 20th century, some of that muscle power was diverted to brain power. In the 21st, humans do more make-work because machines provide much of the labor. Think a tractor self driving a field by GPS.

That said we have plenty of make work out there. We're near what economists call full employment. But this time employers refuse to raise wages. They're betting that productivity increases--via technology--will come along soon enough such that higher wages are not a good idea.