Siemens: We can't use burger flippers, real estate brokers and veterans.

[sunskyfan]

Re: Siemens: We can't use burger flippers, real estate brokers and veterans.

The question is who gets to create money. People who truly earn money ought to be able to charge interest. Rewarding productive behavior and good decisions is the cornerstone of capitalism but when there is no correlation with productive behavior and good decisions and money creation something is wrong. I see another billion dollars has been allocated to help underwater owners:

http://community.nasdaq.com/News/201...?storyid=81588

I guess its peanuts compared to what has been printed for the wall street/banking crowd. Huh?

After selling my house in 2000 to start my business I made the decision to put my money elsewhere in 2005 because I could smell a rat and decided to rent. It seems to me that I made the correct decision but those who made the incorrect decision are being rewarded. I also smelled a rat in an over-inflated under justified stock market but you can guess how that turned out. I am no where close to a Marxist I am just pissed. On one hand I am angry at the money wise men of the last 30 years for not living by their creed of failure earns failure and success earns success. When they screwed up they were the first to hit the government money tit and start changing the rules. Such bullshitters. I am also angry at the socially minded conscience types that can't get their philosophical minds around the fact people may need assistance in bad times because they made good decisions about investing in family and being responsible to the basics structures of life and don't have an obvious victim narrative to sell. They are also such bullshitters. Political ambulance chasers in the end. I am trying to stay positive but perhaps it is time not for reconciliation but a reckoning.

[touchring]

Re: Siemens: We can't use burger flippers, real estate brokers and veterans.

It is absolutely about the money. I suspect if they were paying German wages (or half German wages even), they would not have any trouble filling these low-mid level tech jobs.

I heard that education in Germany is free, up to Masters, is that true? They have got no shortage of highly skilled people.

[lektrode]

Re: Siemens: We can't use burger flippers, real estate brokers and veterans.

The question is who gets to create money. People who truly earn money ought to be able to charge interest. Rewarding productive behavior and good decisions is the cornerstone of capitalism but when there is no correlation with productive behavior and good decisions and money creation something is wrong. I see another billion dollars has been allocated to help underwater owners:

http://community.nasdaq.com/News/201...?storyid=81588

I guess its peanuts compared to what has been printed for the wall street/banking crowd. Huh

yeah HUH?

+1 and raise ya ;)

we who have lived - shall we say - at 'less than our potential' (read: dint spend ever last dollar we made when things were good) are less than enthused with the idea that those who wernt ride for free, cashing out for _billions_
just cuz they 'too big to fail' ?

and then the banks get their rules re-written for em by their 'beltway buds' - hell, WHATS ANOTHER ** TRILLION **
amongst friends - right?

[mooncliff]

Re: Siemens: We can't use burger flippers, real estate brokers and veterans.

One can place the blame for this squarely with the U.S. public school curriculum. The curriculum is fixated on so-called, "basic skills". And what are those skills? Reading, writing, arithmetic, number-cyphering drills, cursive, timed-testing skills, English-only, nationalism, U.S. history, memorization of lists of vocabulary, a focus on specifics and meaningless details rather than important and governing concepts, flag worship, meaningless stories and story-telling, clerical skills, U.S. government, physical education, art, and convergent-thinking.

And what are the important skills omitted in the U.S. public education curriculum? Divergent-thinking, critical thinking, reasoning, questioning, computer literacy, engineering and mechanical skills, a conceptual understanding in the sciences, understanding, construction skills, medical skills, machining, welding, plumbing, drilling, repair skills, basic wiring skills, basic internet use, driving skills, linguistics, entrepreneurship, basic economics, basic law in marriage, basic law in business, basic law in estates, basic law in real estate, and leadership and management skills. Even teaching a basic and rudimentary knowledge of how everything works is omitted from the education curriculum. Spanish for fluency is omitted. Foreign languages are omitted. A primitive and basic knowledge of world history is omitted. A primitive knowledge of the history of the universe is omitted.......

So how can graduates find employment?

I do not know anyone under the age of 30 who can write in cursive. What did they learn in second grade? At least they can touch type now. Up until I was 30, I was the only one I knew in college and graduate school who could touch type. Certainly the professors could not.

[Ghent12]

Re: Siemens: We can't use burger flippers, real estate brokers and veterans.

One can place the blame for this squarely with the U.S. public school curriculum. The curriculum is fixated on so-called, "basic skills". And what are those skills? Reading, writing, arithmetic, number-cyphering drills, cursive, timed-testing skills, English-only, nationalism, U.S. history, memorization of lists of vocabulary, a focus on specifics and meaningless details rather than important and governing concepts, flag worship, meaningless stories and story-telling, clerical skills, U.S. government, physical education, art, and convergent-thinking.

And what are the important skills omitted in the U.S. public education curriculum? Divergent-thinking, critical thinking, reasoning, questioning, computer literacy, engineering and mechanical skills, a conceptual understanding in the sciences, understanding, construction skills, medical skills, machining, welding, plumbing, drilling, repair skills, basic wiring skills, basic internet use, driving skills, linguistics, entrepreneurship, basic economics, basic law in marriage, basic law in business, basic law in estates, basic law in real estate, and leadership and management skills. Even teaching a basic and rudimentary knowledge of how everything works is omitted from the education curriculum. Spanish for fluency is omitted. Foreign languages are omitted. A primitive and basic knowledge of world history is omitted. A primitive knowledge of the history of the universe is omitted.......

So how can graduates find employment?

Students sure as hell aren't learning U.S. history, or at least anything important from it. They learn a hodge-podge mix of facts about how each oppressed group was liberated, but no chronology or anything of the sort.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: Siemens: We can't use burger flippers, real estate brokers and veterans.

Students sure as hell aren't learning U.S. history, or at least anything important from it. They learn a hodge-podge mix of facts about how each oppressed group was liberated, but no chronology or anything of the sort.

Public school textbooks are a global industry dominated by a few giant corporations. They are happy to pander to whatever fad is now washing through Texas, Florida and California to gain their billions in sales. A handful of crackpot local Texas political gadfly's have enormous impact on the classroom textbooks used in most of the US.

Here's a glimpse from inside that machine.

http://www.edutopia.org/textbook-publishing-controversy

[DSpencer]

Re: Siemens: We can't use burger flippers, real estate brokers and veterans.

I do not know anyone under the age of 30 who can write in cursive. What did they learn in second grade? At least they can touch type now. Up until I was 30, I was the only one I knew in college and graduate school who could touch type. Certainly the professors could not.

I'm under 30 and can write in cursive. Although I admit that I just pulled out a piece of paper to make sure...and it was pretty ugly. I've always had terrible handwriting though so I switched back to printing as soon as I could. Do they really not teach cursive at all anymore? Not that I think they should. Can they sign their name?

[DSpencer]

Re: Siemens: We can't use burger flippers, real estate brokers and veterans.

Public school textbooks are a global industry dominated by a few giant corporations. They are happy to pander to whatever fad is now washing through Texas, Florida and California to gain their billions in sales. A handful of crackpot local Texas political gadfly's have enormous impact on the classroom textbooks used in most of the US.

Here's a glimpse from inside that machine.

http://www.edutopia.org/textbook-publishing-controversy

Are textbooks the biggest scam ever?

[dcarrigg]

Re: Siemens: We can't use burger flippers, real estate brokers and veterans.

I heard that education in Germany is free, up to Masters, is that true? They have got no shortage of highly skilled people.

In Germany, things are different. At state-funded institutions, some states pay for all of tuition at University and Fachhochschule, some don't. It's generally very cheap either way. There may be other fees that have to be paid, but they are not nearly as extensive as American education.

Children of parents with less money often also get a living stipend (~$1,000/mo) in the form of 50% cash and 50% interest-free loan.

Fachhochschule is a technical 'university' that graduates engineers, computer scientists, business majors, etc. with bachelors and sometimes masters degrees (a German bachelors is often more equivalent to an American masters). Students typically come from Realschule or Gymnasium.

Children are put on one of three tracks from a young age (each with a capstone exam).

• Hauptschule goes through grade 9 or 10 and has the purpose of preparing a child for a vocation

• Realschule is a middle-of the road program that goes through grade 10 or 11 and prepares people for apprenticeships or professional school (high school)

• Gymnasium is the university track high school that goes through grade 12 or 13, has a capstone examination and then sends one to University.

It's such a fundamentally different education system that price is not the only relevant comparison.

[dcarrigg]

Re: Siemens: We can't use burger flippers, real estate brokers and veterans.

I do not know anyone under the age of 30 who can write in cursive. What did they learn in second grade? At least they can touch type now.

You apparently never met a child who went to Catholic school between 1985 and today.

[aaron]

Re: Siemens: We can't use burger flippers, real estate brokers and veterans.

My kids were taught cursive, recently in fact. I think even SS would approve. They spent a lot less time on it than I did when I was a kid. It was then not required for anything after they were trained. They are encouraged to type their writing assignments now. Other homework (like math) is expected to be legible (cursive or printing).

If I were designing a curriculum for writing cursive in the 21st century, I would do exactly what they did. Teach it. Get the kids to use it a bit. Then, let them do what they want. They will always have the ability (or pick it up quickly) to read cursive writing. It is still used by older people. It is widespread in historical documents. I would certainly like today's youth to at least be able to say "wow that is cursive writing... let me read it carefully", as opposed to "wow, I did not know George Worshington knew Chinese!"

Cursive still has value in reading historical documents and communicating with older generations.

[Dave Stratman]

Re: Siemens: We can't use burger flippers, real estate brokers and veterans.

I smell a rat. Some semblence of this story has been picked up by everyone after appearing in the WSJ. It reminds me of Moody's threatening to downgrade US debt. I know recent college grads (math /computer majors) with excellent GPA's who are having to settle for work far outside their fields.

+1 Your nose is working fine, Thai Notes. The article below is referring to 2009, but I see no evidence that the situation has changed. Employers always whine that there are no competent employees available, right before they outsource for cheaper labor.Engineering Jobless Rates Are Sky-High - Softpedia

[touchring]

Re: Siemens: We can't use burger flippers, real estate brokers and veterans.

I'm under 30 and can write in cursive. Although I admit that I just pulled out a piece of paper to make sure...and it was pretty ugly. I've always had terrible handwriting though so I switched back to printing as soon as I could. Do they really not teach cursive at all anymore? Not that I think they should. Can they sign their name?

I think mooncliff meant manuscript?