[eastbay]

Cog, other than a few shills, very few here believe the economy will offer an improved living standard down the road. Any glimmer of hope will be quickly stamped out by rising energy costs and government fiscal incompetence.

[Cog]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'C')og what is your point? I would expect that concentrated wealth among the wealthy would concentrate at wealthy places? Like corporations. Why do you doubt the correlation between impoverishment at one extreme and wealth concentration at the other?

[Cog]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'C')og, other than a few shills, very few here believe the economy will offer an improved living standard down the road. Any glimmer of hope will be quickly stamped out by rising energy costs and government fiscal incompetence.

[Cog]

The realization that its a Ponzi scheme is the best way to prepare for the ultimate unraveling of it. The poor don't understand it and most of the middle class as well. Now you may choose to anchor yourself in some belief that I owe someone something by my mere existence. Maybe you have that luxury of time and energy. I choose to devote my energy and time to making sure I survive what is coming. Your results may vary.

[Questionmark]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mattduke', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', 'Q'): Why do so many people require US government funded food jobs?

[dolanbaker]

Mechanisation and cheap foreign labour (outsourcing) have killed western manufacturing industry.
Nothing can replace those jobs without a serious drop in living standards and expectations.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dolanbaker', 'M')echanisation and cheap foreign labour (outsourcing) have killed western manufacturing industry.
Nothing can replace those jobs without a serious drop in living standards and expectations.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', '
')Exactly right. Automation / Mechanization, coupled with technology like computers is just awesome in its ability to eliminate jobs. Companies jump on such opportunities to increase profits, or just to remain competitive.

Recent example I was struck by. (Link above, hardcopy is WSJ, Dec 1, page B1 article, "Glow from Solar factories fails to match town's hopes"), talks about how Greenville Michigan's employment hopes from Solar factories owned by Uni-Solar were crushed. They hoped for 6 factories, but no new ones were built after the original 2.

Why? Well, "shortly after the plants were built, the managers realized they could DOUBLE their capacity by simply attaching a small wing to the side of each and reconfiguring the floor plans to maximize the use of long rows of AUTOMATED machines.

[Outcast_Searcher]

Another thought on my previous post.

Consider the impact of the handful (or one) of folk(s) on the profit margins of Uni-Solar, by figuring out how to turn the production of two solar plants into eight (4-fold productivity increase) without ANY meaningful increase in labor?

I'ts absolutely HUGE.

This, IMO, is the "secret" behind the massive increase in the disparity of wealth in the US since the early 80's. It's not evil or a GOP conspiracy, no matter how many political points MSNBC crazies and their ilk think they can score by repeating it endlessly.

It's that brainpower coupled with technology makes HUGE changes in production, and therefore wealth -- orders of magnitude more than mere hard work and/or loyalty. So in the Uni-Solar case, 960ish jobs (320 times 3 plants) are eliminated before they even come into existence and a small number of smart peole who figure out how (should - dunno if they do in this case) make a GIANT bonus, promotion, etc. for making a BIG intelligent contribution to the corporate (relative) profitability.

Smart guys win big. Normal assembly-line folks lose jobs in droves. Wealth disparity increases.

No conspiracy needed.

Lots of high quality education for U.S. citizens obviously needed. Government not providing it. If the left wants to do something productive, how about focusing on THAT? Our society as a whole would benefit HUGELY from that. And it doesn't even involve (direct) government wealth transfers.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', 'A')nother thought on my previous post.

Consider the impact of the handful (or one) of folk(s) on the profit margins of Uni-Solar, by figuring out how to turn the production of two solar plants into eight (4-fold productivity increase) without ANY meaningful increase in labor?

I'ts absolutely HUGE.

This, IMO, is the "secret" behind the massive increase in the disparity of wealth in the US since the early 80's.

(snip)

It's that brainpower coupled with technology makes HUGE changes in production, and therefore wealth -- orders of magnitude more than mere hard work and/or loyalty. So in the Uni-Solar case, 960ish jobs (320 times 3 plants) are eliminated before they even come into existence..

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '
')Don't think you're recognizing the globalism and offshoring impact on American jobs, but that's ok it's great somebody is talking about the automation issue.

[Quinny]

It's not about entitlement and big government. Look at the scale of things.

Cost of UE pales into insignificance v bank bailouts, interest and war.

Who ran up the debt?

http://cedarcomm.com/~stevelm1/USDebt.png

http://zfacts.com/p/318.html

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '
')Don't think you're recognizing the globalism and offshoring impact on American jobs, but that's ok it's great somebody is talking about the automation issue.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Quinny', 'I')t's not about entitlement and big government. Look at the scale of things.

Cost of UE pales into insignificance v bank bailouts, interest and war.

[Cog]

@Ludi

A few weeks in a Sarah Palin reeducation camp and you will give up these foolish notions.

[Daniel_Plainview]

Now 43,200,000

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')url=http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-07/food-stamps-used-by-record-43-2-million-in-october-usda-reports.html]Food Stamps Used by Record 43.2 Million in October, USDA Reports[/url]
By Alan Bjerga - Jan 7, 2011 12:16 PM CT

The number of Americans receiving food stamps rose to a record 43.2 million in October as the jobless rate stayed near a 27-year high, the government said.

Recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program subsidies for food purchases jumped 15 percent from a year earlier and increased 0.7 percent from September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a statement on its website. Participation has set records for 23 straight months.

An average of 43.3 million people, more than an eighth of the population, will get food stamps each month in the year that began Oct. 1, according to White House estimates.

[IsThisRealLife]

In the meantime...$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '&')quot;Wall Street earned $21.4 billion during the first three quarters of 2010," Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said
...
Within a year after the bonuses were approved, Goldman Sachs took $10 billion from the U.S. Treasury, converted to a bank and was borrowing as much as $35.4 billion a day from Federal Reserve emergency programs, Bloomberg reported, adding that this year the firm paid $550 million to settle U.S. regulators’ fraud charges related to a mortgage-security the company sold in 2007.

[rangerone314]

You know seeing how social structures may break down after Peak Oil and there will be no more food stamps, and some people will try to have their permaculture and doomsteads... has it occurred to anyone to start training classes or write a guide with tactics for and info on forming raiding parties for pillaging post-peak-oil doomsteads and transition communities?

I mean not everyone has a green thumb, but if things break down into feudalism, why not be a Viking?