The next X prize

That's the free market. It sucks, sometimes.

[With respect to engineers] It's more than simply the free market. I
work for a state water agency, no offshoring going on there. But
society's interest in entertainment in the last couple of decades, and
decreasing interest in accomplishment, has rendered our agency a bad
place to work for engineers, just like many other places. Americans
want to be entertained, and think the material things they enjoy just
sort of happen to a deserving people. Imagine their surprise when they
find out ya gotta work for them.

"Dan Luke" writes:

That's the free market. It sucks, sometimes.

It is getting to the point where it will suck ALL the time for the incomes
of many Americans. The global free market economy will tend to level out
standards of living world-wide. Americans (and West Europeans) will not
like this, I predict.

True, but we could lessen this affect quite a bit by pursuing free
trade agreements with 1st world partners, instead of 3rd world. With
3rd world partners big business gets cheap labor and they get a market
to dump cheap goods. Our middle class loses. With 1st world partners
we'd get a market for high-value-added goods and no cheap labor
competition. The middle class would win.

On 06 Oct 2004 06:10:46 -0700, Bob Fry
wrote:


That's the free market. It sucks, sometimes.

[With respect to engineers] It's more than simply the free market. I
work for a state water agency, no offshoring going on there. But
society's interest in entertainment in the last couple of decades, and
decreasing interest in accomplishment, has rendered our agency a bad
place to work for engineers, just like many other places. Americans
want to be entertained, and think the material things they enjoy just
sort of happen to a deserving people. Imagine their surprise when they
find out ya gotta work for them.

What? Work? You mean I'm supposed to be working? No wonder I didn't
get that new Baron for my Birthday.

Roger (I love Retirement!) Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

True, but we could lessen this affect quite a bit by pursuing free
trade agreements with 1st world partners, instead of 3rd world. With
3rd world partners big business gets cheap labor and they get a market
to dump cheap goods. Our middle class loses. With 1st world partners
we'd get a market for high-value-added goods and no cheap labor
competition. The middle class would win.

Which 1st world countries don't we have free-trade agreements with?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Although using taxes for this kind of stuff rubs me the wrong way, it
*does* provide "seed money" for thinking outside the box.

I'd much rather pay this than for gasoline subsidies to Iraqis.

Boy, that's for sure!

Although, in the long run, fixing Iraq is the better thing to do.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Bob Fry wrote:

Imagine their surprise when they
find out ya gotta w**k for them.

You shouldn't use those four-letter words in a public forum.

George Patterson
If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have
been looking for it.

"Bob Fry" wrote in message
...

That's the free market. It sucks, sometimes.

[With respect to engineers] It's more than simply the free market. I
work for a state water agency, no offshoring going on there. But
society's interest in entertainment in the last couple of decades, and
decreasing interest in accomplishment, has rendered our agency a bad
place to work for engineers, just like many other places.

The private sector still respects accomplishment pretty well. However, the
prestige of an engineering degree is certainly not what it was 20-30 years
ago. But then, neither is any degree.

As for entertainment, this is a by-product of leisure time and disposable
income, which have increased significantly over the long haul. People are
"struggling to get by" but they're still finding an average of 4 hours/day
to watch TV, according to Nielsen. They'd probably be struggling a little
less if they weren't making 15% interest payments on a credit card they used
to buy a $3,000 plasma TV.

Virginia Postrel has also written an interesting book called "the Substance
of Style" that talks about the increasing importance of aesthetics as a
value generator. Basically, with global manufacturing turning every product
into a low-cost commodity item (think mobile phones) the only way to
distinguish products is through their design/fashion. Thus "soft" factors
become real value generators.

I think scifi writer Neal Stephenson said it best in one of his books set in
the near-future. It went something like, "in a global economy every country
does only what it does best, and what the United States does better than
anyone is blockbuster Hollywood movies and fast-delivery pizza." FWIW, our
entertainment industry is actually a huge export earner for us. The rest of
the world may hate us politically but culturally they're still hooked.

-cwk.

Best,
-cwk.

"C Kingsbury" writes:

People are
"struggling to get by" but they're still finding an average of 4 hours/day
to watch TV, according to Nielsen. They'd probably be struggling a little
less if they weren't making 15% interest payments on a credit card they used
to buy a $3,000 plasma TV.

You got that right. Some years ago we were landlords for a 2 BR
condo, which attracted entry-level renters. It was astounding to see
people with incomes not much above minimum wage with accounts at
Nordstrom's (high-end department store), new car payments, cell phone
bills, cable TV payments, yada yada. And of course lots of bad
credit. They had not a clue what the word "thrift" meant.

"Jay Honeck" writes:

Although, in the long run, fixing Iraq is the better thing to do.

The Mid-East cannot be fixed, especially by outsiders (hated
infidels). Bush and his buddies were incredibly naive, arrogant, and
ignorant to think they could.

The best thing we could do is do a crash program, like the atom bomb
or space race, to develop other energy sources (safe nukes and solar
primarily) and give away the technology to Europe so the Western World
can tell these camel-f****ers to go back to the 8th century where they
want to be anyway.

Bob 30-years-studying-and-working-besides-mid-east-people Fry

On Wed, 06 Oct 2004 15:10:07 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

Which 1st world countries don't we have free-trade agreements with?

It would be easier to list those we *do* have FTAs with. There's
Canada. And soon: Australia. Anyone else?


all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

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