U.S. Poverty Rate, 1 in 6, at Highest Level in Years

[BridgeTroll]

Hmmm... not sure about that.  There seems to be quite a few interchangeable and and moving targets of "rich".

Rich = 250k+
Super rich = 1 mill +
uber/ultra rich = 100 mill +

What if a millionaire no longer has income?

So most people talk about the uber-rich not paying their share, and the over $250 folks needing their Bush tax cuts be rolled back. Two distinct groups.

The Bush tax cuts were supposed to be temporary, and the uber-rich need to start paying their share.

For every 3 jobs that produce something, there is one job that keeps the lid on, yet our security personel are under-paid.

You don't get to make or keep your wealth in an unstable society. Taxes are the price you pay for a civilized society that enables you to:

1. Make the wealth
2. Keep the wealth

Nobody ever makes their wealth in a vacuum.

The Bush tax cuts were supposed to be temporary, and the uber-rich need to start paying their share.

Mr Obama had two full years of absolute majorities to fix that.  Instead... he extended them.

In fairness...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/04/majority-of-millionaires-tax-increases_n_994219.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Less than a quarter of wealthy Americans support raising taxes on households making $250,000 or more a year, the level being targeted by President Barack Obama, though tax increases further up the income scale have broader support, said a poll released on Tuesday.

Nearly half of those polled approved of income tax increases on discretionary household incomes of $500,000 or more annually, said the poll sponsored by two marketing and publishing companies.

For those earning $1 million or more annually, 65 percent of respondents said they would support income tax increases.

Only 23 percent of respondents said they support tax increases for households making $250,000 a year.

The poll was conducted in September by the Harrison Group, a research and marketing firm, and American Express Publishing Corp., a media subsidiary of American Express Co. It surveyed 769 respondents with minimum discretionary income of $100,000.

Only 43 percent said tax increases would improve the overall economy, while confidence in the economy dropped from 50 percent in September 2010 to 33 percent this year.


The poll found 55 percent of those surveyed do not blame the Obama administration for economic woes.

Obama has called for tax cuts to expire for households earning $250,000 a year. The president is also looking to pass a new levy that would tax Americans earning $1 million or more a year to ensure they do not pay taxes in a lower bracket.

(Reporting by Patrick Temple-West, editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Gerald E. McCormick)

[finehoe]

...stay in school, go to a college, get loans from Government for education, it is a great cycle and could be a great economy once again, but you have to get up off the coach and decide you WANT to do it.

Education does provide many individuals with a pathway out of poverty, but educating a workforce doesn’t change what jobs are available to society as a whole. Our economy produces more jobs that do not require degrees than jobs that do, and a college degree will not make those jobs pay any more than the pittance they already do. Barring radical changes in our economy, the vast majority of those extra college graduates will end up in jobs that don’t require degrees, and don’t pay.

[ChriswUfGator]

...stay in school, go to a college, get loans from Government for education, it is a great cycle and could be a great economy once again, but you have to get up off the coach and decide you WANT to do it.

Education does provide many individuals with a pathway out of poverty, but educating a workforce doesn’t change what jobs are available to society as a whole. Our economy produces more jobs that do not require degrees than jobs that do, and a college degree will not make those jobs pay any more than the pittance they already do. Barring radical changes in our economy, the vast majority of those extra college graduates will end up in jobs that don’t require degrees, and don’t pay.

Also, you have to take into account the cost of higher education. Pre-1970s, it was quite expensive relative to most incomes, conscious efforts to make it more accessible and to have states subsidize college tuitions brought the price down to affordable levels. The percentage of college-educated adults in the U.S. is already completely woeful by European standards, only 22% have a bachelors degree. A stunning 2.94% of the population has a secondary professional degree.

So what's our solution to this problem? Especially as the entire rest of the world is overtaking us in innovation? Well, naturally, we are going in and removing tuition caps, eliminating state subsidies, etc., and allowing the cost of higher education to increase 600% in the last 10-15 years, with absolutely no end in sight.

If this keeps up at the pace it's going, we will be back to the 1950s and earlier, where education was a wealthy man's hobby and the rest of the country can just suck an egg. Which is a regression, and will hurt our ability to compete in the long run. I have read numerous articles in the WSJ and typical pro-business right-leaning publications, arguing that if anything there are too many people with higher education competing for too few positions, which is ludicrous and is a self-serving explanation that glosses over the economic crisis and the root causes, namely outsourcing and misbehavior.

We are rapidly getting back to where only the top layer of society will be able to afford it. This perpetuates the wealth gap.

[FayeforCure]

Complain, complain, complain.....you want to surpass the Republicans? Get your people educated to where they can stand on their own without having to rely on the Government. Can't keep running up debts with spend, spend, spend mentality, so get educated, get out and build a business and see what building something on your own can be like. Tax cuts are a drop in the bucket if just 5% of unemployed went back to school to get educated in some growth area of the economy. Kids stay in school, go to a college, get loans from Government for education, it is a great cycle and could be a great economy once again, but you have to get up off the coach and decide you WANT to do it.

Mtrain are you sure mass numbers of people accumulation debt via student loans is a good cycle?

manasia, it's actually an excellent cycle for the only high-growth sector in Jax: Private For-Profit Colleges.

Somebody is getting rich off of government loans, and private student debt............and it isn't the students who find themselves without jobs after completing their studies.

[CS Foltz]

Currently roaming around in the western end of South Carolina and must make note of the empty business's all over the area's. I am wondering just what, if any, is growing at all. From my viewpoint, not many at all!

[BridgeTroll]

...stay in school, go to a college, get loans from Government for education, it is a great cycle and could be a great economy once again, but you have to get up off the coach and decide you WANT to do it.

Education does provide many individuals with a pathway out of poverty, but educating a workforce doesn’t change what jobs are available to society as a whole. Our economy produces more jobs that do not require degrees than jobs that do, and a college degree will not make those jobs pay any more than the pittance they already do. Barring radical changes in our economy, the vast majority of those extra college graduates will end up in jobs that don’t require degrees, and don’t pay.

Really??  What is our HS dropout rate?  How many of those are employable?

http://blackcareers.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/available-jobs-not-enough-skilled-workers/

Available Jobs, Not Enough Skilled Workers
Posted by Alex Barillas on April 21, 2010



Two years after the start of the recession, the unemployment rate is still near double digits, which translates to millions of Americans looking for work. For every open job, employers have dozens or even hundreds of applicants eager to get hired. Yet many employers insist that finding qualified candidates is difficult, even in this economy. How can that be?

These employers don’t have a shortage of applicants â€" they have a shortage of qualified applicants. For most positions, the necessary skills, experience and education requirements are firm and can’t be loosened because of a lack of suitable candidates. Bad economy or not, employers need to know their workers are the best possible people for the job.

A good worker is hard to find
“These jobs were difficult to fill prior to the economic downturn,” says Julian L. Alssid, executive director of the Workforce Strategy Center in New York. “Hopefully, they will be less difficult to fill as we move more toward a more demand-driven work-force development system in the  U.S. This means local employers working directly with community colleges, trade schools and other post-secondary institutions that help people gain skills that are in demand by employers.”

Education is an invaluable asset for any applicant, but as many job seekers can attest, it isn’t the only prerequisite for employment. When employers are choosing the right candidate for their organizations, they want to see years of experience and an education that isn’t outdated. As you can imagine, any worker who falls at extreme ends of the spectrum â€" such as a new graduate or an industry veteran â€" can be at a disadvantage. New graduates know the latest research and technology, but they don’t have the years of firsthand experience that employers value.

“We do hear employers complain that younger workers fresh out of school often lack a practical understanding of how to apply what they have learned in their classrooms to the workplace,” Alssid  says. “That said, we have heard from several experienced workers that they feel they are losing out on jobs to younger â€" less costly â€" candidates.”

Education matters
Don’t mistake a need for experience as a reason to dismiss education. The problem is that job seekers have to take responsibility for their education because many employers no longer have the time and budget to groom new hires.

“Employers seem to be less willing to invest in training in this economy. Again, it is the combination of the right credential and practical experience they look for,” Alssid says.

Take the initiative to improve your credentials so employers see a candidate they’re ready to hire now.

“Many job seekers can make themselves more competitive by getting industry-recognized credentials that are valued in today’s  workplace,” Alssid says. “In many cases, that might mean a short-term certificate, not another college or graduate degree.”

But many employers are ready to hire.
“We hear about the skills shortage from industries including health care, advanced manufacturing, IT and energy,” Alssid says. Although no specific job title is in constant need, any positions relying on math and technical expertise are consistently difficult to fill. “I have heard from several advanced manufacturers that they would hire engineers and engineering technicians in a heartbeat.”

Supporting his assessment is the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which expects biomedical engineers and network systems and data communications analysts to be the fastest-growing occupations between 2008 and 2018. As a result, job seekers who are applying to these fields and who have the qualifications need to put their experience and skills front and center. In the cover letter, résumé and interview, don’t let hiring managers forget that you already have the skills they need. After all, you are just one job seeker in a competitive market; show employers that you’re different from the rest.

[BridgeTroll]

Even Al Franken...

http://franken.senate.gov/?p=news&id=1168

Sen. Franken Op-Ed: "Preparing Our Workforce for 21st Century Jobs"
Thursday, October 28, 2010 As our economy continues to recover, manufacturers across Minnesota are facing a surprising challenge.  Many good-paying manufacturing jobs in central Minnesota and across our state are going unfilled because there are not enough qualified employees to fill them.   That's tragic when so many people are out of work.

This week, as we celebrate "Minnesota Manufacturer's Week," we are not only reminded of the important role manufacturing will play in our state's economic recovery, but also of the need for industry leaders and policymakers to work together to ensure that we produce enough well-trained workers to allow employers to expand and innovate.

There is no disputing that manufacturing is critical to Minnesota's economic success.  It accounts for one in every seven jobs in our state.  In central Minnesota alone, 36,000 people-or 14 percent of the region's workforce-are employed in manufacturing.  They earn an average of $40,000, with some jobs paying as much as $94,000.

My son Joe recently went back to school to study engineering and business because since he started taking apart car engines in 8th grade, he's wanted to make things right here in America.   For him to succeed, his generation and the generations to follow will need the core tools and the training to prepare them for the 21st century economy.

Unfortunately, as the first baby boomers begin to retire next year, the number of well-trained entry-level workers to replace them could leave Minnesota employers tens of thousands of workers short.

The looming shortage of qualified workers is partly due to the outdated perceptions that many young people have about manufacturing jobs. Educators and employers around the state have told me that students often are unaware of manufacturing job opportunities and the skills they need to pursue them.

We can rekindle student interest by showing them that manufacturing is alive and well in Minnesota. The days of assembly line workers doing routine tasks in dirty factories are largely gone.  They've been replaced by workplaces that need tech-savvy employees who are trained to compete in a global marketplace.

I have visited manufacturers all over Minnesota and found that today's employers need workers with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills who can quickly master multiple tasks, using high-tech machinery and tools.  They wince when they hear about education cuts and declining enrollment in our technical colleges.  Even cuts in high school Industrial Arts classes mean students are less exposed to manufacturing and the STEM skills that employers need.

Earlier this year, I toured Pine Technical College in Pine City, and was amazed at the high-tech education students need to prepare for manufacturing careers.  As I tried the school's computer simulators, I realized how dramatically manufacturing jobs have changed and how manufacturing represents a whole world of good-paying career opportunities for people with the right training.

As a member of the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, I know that arming students with the core STEM skills they need should be a central priority as we update federal education laws like "No Child Left Behind" in the coming months.

In Central Minnesota, manufacturers are proactively pointing students toward STEM careers by sponsoring student tours of local businesses.  And many high schools in the region have adopted Project Lead the Way, a curriculum which helps students develop STEM skills and get excited about technical careers.

During Minnesota Manufacturer's Week, our state should not only celebrate the strength of Minnesota's manufacturers, but also work to teach the next generation of workers that a career in manufacturing means a good-paying career in the jobs of the future.

People interested in a manufacturing career can learn more by visiting the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development's new website, www.MNManufacturingCareers.org.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

The articles that I've read here keep referring back to 'manufacturing' jobs.  Maybe it's because I've been in my trade for so long that I don't really remember, but since when did it take an engineering degree to extrude plastics or machine metal or fabricate cabinet parts?  I've always believed that these are skills that you learn in either a trade school or on the job. 

What am I missing here?

[manasia]

The articles that I've read here keep referring back to 'manufacturing' jobs.  Maybe it's because I've been in my trade for so long that I don't really remember, but since when did it take an engineering degree to extrude plastics or machine metal or fabricate cabinet parts?  I've always believed that these are skills that you learn in either a trade school or on the job. 

What am I missing here?

+1 I have been saying the same thing.

[Garden guy]

It's easier and less messy for investors to go overseas for their manufacturing projects...no regulations..slave wages..who would'nt...the rules have to change...we are to blame for this bs...we want everything cheap as can be and then bitch because we don't make them...trade war sounds good about now does'nt it?

[FayeforCure]

[BridgeTroll]

I rarely agree with Al Franken on anything... but he seems to corroborate what Julian L. Alssid, executive director of the Workforce Strategy Center in New York is saying.  Plenty of recruiters and HR execs say the same thing...

"We have openings but few are qualified."

HS dropouts and GED grads are not EVER going to get hired for those jobs... without adult education.  Dropout rates vary between 10 and 35% depending on definitions and area.  They are likely to be doomed to poverty and no amount of "living wage" BS is gonna help because they are not employable.  Unless they go back to school...

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

What types of jobs are they referring to then?

Last I checked, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to build a rocket - it takes sheetmetal craftsmen and electricians and pipefitters, etc....  You don't learn these kinds of trades at a university. 

 

[finehoe]

I am currently interviewing for a position where I work.  The requisition that the corporate office has put out for the job wants the candidate to have fifteen years experience (which is more than I, who will be this person's boss, have), yet the salary they are offering is about half of what I make.  The truth of the matter is, we could get a bright recent collage grad and train them for the position and everyone would be happy, but instead we get these over-qualified candidates who once they find out the pay, aren't interested.

So when I hear this line about "we can't find any qualified applicants" I think about what is going on in my own line of work and I can't help but wonder how many of these employers are doing the same thing:  Setting the qualification bar way too high, low-balling the salary, and then crying because they can't find anyone.

[mtraininjax]

HS dropouts and GED grads are not EVER going to get hired for those jobs... without adult education.  Dropout rates vary between 10 and 35% depending on definitions and area.  They are likely to be doomed to poverty and no amount of "living wage" BS is gonna help because they are not employable.  Unless they go back to school...

+1