On TV these days, we seem to have all kinds of Reality shows, but where is the reality in real life? What I have come up with is a simple "Reality Test". We all know that the USA economy is in the toilet and too many people are looking for jobs. I might add, they are looking for good paying jobs with good benefits. One of the points that I have blogged on in the past is that the economic world is changing and changing fast. The world is getting "flatter" and "fairer" and by that I mean more countries around the world are now able to share in and produce wealth. This means that some who were on top have moved down and some on the bottom have moved up. Isn't that the way it should be?
When ever there is a lot of change going on, it is important that the people who are the drivers of the economy, also change. They need the ability to change as the world around them has changed. This is where my test comes in. I got this idea while watching TV news where some liberal was being interviewed and were claiming that poor people and people who were out of work were "victims". I wanted the interviewer to ask the liberal, "Where in the world could you move to and make more money than you are making here doing the job you are doing now?" This is question number one. I can tell you for a fact that 99+% of the liberals who are running off at the mouth could not make more than they are making now any place in the world. If that is the case, then you would have to conclude that they are over paid based on international standards. In other words, they can not compete one on one any other place in the world. That is our problem with the liberals and almost everyone else if we would all just look into the mirror.
As I said, this is question number one, so what is question number two? The TV news interviewer should ask the liberal what other job they could get here in the USA that would pay as much as the job they now have? I am sure the answer would be the same. They could not get another job that paid more. Now think about this, if the world is going to be changing, then wouldn't you also expect that we should also change so that we can "keep" the same level of income? You always hear the "buggy whip" example and most people just think that is some kind of story for business schools, but it is true and it is happening all the time. Kodak just filed chapter 11. I remember when I got my very first camera and it was a Kodak. How could Kodak go the way of the buggy whip?
I mentioned "brittleness" before when applied to big systems like our economy. If we can only compete here in the USA against people in the "league", what does that say about us? If we can only earn a living by doing one singe job, what can that say about our ability to change with the times like Kodak needed too? People can be "brittle" just like systems. We have to figure out how to get some redundancy into our work force. That is, we need people who have the education that makes them "flexible" so that they can change with the changing times. People need the skills and training to do more than just one job. Or goal should be to see that our kids can compete in 2 or 3 different types of jobs.
If a football player can only kick, the chances of making the team are going to be small. We all understand that. We all know that players need to have the ability to play more than one position and it is the same for us and our kids. If I have heard this one from college graduates, I have heard it a 100 times. When asked a simple question, they answer that they did not study that in school and it is "not" required for the field they are going into. It seems that there is some kind of active program to prevent kids from learning anything except the minimum that they "think" they will need for the single profession they are planning on going into.
My scoring goes like this:
(1) If you are not qualified for another job that pays an equal amount, I rate you "Zero".
(2) If you can't move to another country and make the same amount, I rate you "zero".
(3) If you are qualified for a different but equal paying job in the USA, I rate you "one".
(4) If you are qualified for two different but equal paying jobs in the USA, I rate you "two".
Based on my scoring, much of the world would have a score between "1.0" and "2.0" while we would have a score between "0.0" and "0.5". The fact that the future does not look bright for the USA is made clear by my scoring. What do we do about it?
That is the subject of another blog and it affects our kids in school and those of us who are out of school.
