If we want local employers to be more competitive,
we should allow them to fail or survive by their own
designs (with a bit of encouragement from the gov't).

Very good news... :-)

Good news: I have no kids at home. Bad news: I've had to quit riding
motorcycles because of all the trucks spraying imported wet garbage up
and down the roads hereabouths. A nice chrome plating shop dumping a few
poisons would be more welcome but the mob isn't interested in chrome
shops. But that's beside the point, which is that if we want local
employers to be able to compete with foreign companies that don't have
to abide by our expensive laws then we'll have to tax imports to level
the playing field.

I was thinking coffee break....

Give me a break.

OK, arm or leg? (c:

.... Also, your assumption that automation will eliminate jobs was
debunked in the 50s.

We're not currently using capitalism, so failure isn't really an option.

Yup, by propagandists fighting communism. Yasee capitalism is a great
system but it will inevitably be killed by the same advancing technology
that gave it birth and then what. Some prefer Naziism, others Communism
and still others to stick their heads in the sand in denial. Me? I'm too
old to care.


Not a flaw at all. One must constantly relearn and reeducate oneself
to remain valuable. What you did years ago and how you survived or
didn't isn't really related to professions or education today. Same goes
for me, but I have a science and literature education, which means I can
do most anything badly. :-}

Watch the lawyere crack... my mom's a lawyer and she's quite honest
and ethical, or so the stories go.

It's just not true. Automation will eliminate *some* jobs, but others
are created. We need to be knowledge workers not laborers.

The flaw in your theory is that the jobs automation creates require ever
more intellegence and education than an ever growing part of the
population can provide. Not everyone can be a rocket scientist or MD
even if they wanted to. When I graduated from High School half the class
went to work at the Ford plant and the other half at the aircraft plant,
all earning enough to buy homes and raise families. Less than 1 in 10
went to college and most of them flunked out. Those factory jobs are now
done better and cheaper by machines. Ditto ever more "professional"
jobs. There was a big demand for EEs til large scale integration came
along. Then they became computer programmers, until high level languages
came along. Then they became unemployed. I guess they should have got
honest jobs as lawyers or ministers, right?

A BS or a BA is still valuable not so much for the actual degree, but for
the testament to actually finishing something. That's a lot of what
employers
look for in new grads.
Of course there are still plenty of jobs for kids getting out of high
school today - at McDonalds and Wendys and Buggerking - but unless you
are in the top half of the population and motivated and financed enough
to get at least a BS don't expect to earn a living. Tomarrow ....

I would tell them to find something they love to do, something they're
really
interested in doing and pursue that. If they're unsure, then experiment with
different things when they get to college (no off-color or drug puns
intended).
I doesn't matter an iota what they pick, as long as they're motivated. If
it's
science or medicine, great. If it's being the best at repairing cars, that's
great
too. My mechanic works 3 days a week, 4-5 hours a day. He makes tons
of money.. if that's what motivates him, which I doubt. I think he's
motivated
by excellence.


If you had an *average* 15 year old kid what would you encourage him/her
to do today?