THIS IS MY 106TH BLOG ON UNDERSTANDING MONEY
TOOLS
Because of my pent-up mental stress we are going to discuss
America’s economic/employment malfunction, and inevitable outcome down the
road. We will first address the
general/macro picture and then give a couple of specifics. They are in the “hard to believe
column”.
We have always been educated toward the philosophy that
democracy and capitalism is the best form of government. To set the record
straight, our propaganda machine is the best in the world. Whether you have Communism, Socialism
or Capitalism they all “can” work and they all may be miserable. The key components for success or lack
of success in any of the three basic forms of government are honesty,
integrity, hard work and the forfeiture to only self gratify.
Things here and around the world aren’t functioning because
of the lack of most good measures above.
I keep reiterating “cause and effect”. Once again this blog is “understanding money tools”. It is not written to make one successful
nor full of hype. It is to give a
person understanding. Perhaps
through better understanding you can see opportunities, or avoid pitfalls.
The “liquidity factor” (available cash or sources to it) is
going to come home to roost. The
Central Banks around the world have lent countries approximately $152 trillion
and most of this can’t be paid back.
Bankers will be bankers!
Greed, control, politics, ego….should I go on? Oh yes, lack for long term planning and questionable
IQ’s. Negative interest rates
haven’t worked out as exemplified in Japan and Europe, hurting the elderly and
retired, and throwing off financial projections. In a similar vein,
countries are trying to come up with cash to function? China and Japan are the two largest
holders of US government bonds; both have been significant sellers of bonds the
past month. If you watch
government “repo’s” (repurchase agreements) we have been very active to get
liquidity. Simply put a “repo” is the act of a dealer in short term government
securities that sells the instrument to a lender for cash with the agreement
that they will purchase them back within a certain time frame. What if they
can’t buy them back? I believe
Goldman Sachs is very active in this for the US government.
Boiled down this means countries, as well as individuals,
are running short on cash; debt is crushing everyone. Large debt, no growth…simple economics! We run second only to Japan on personal
and government debt per capita.
China may be third, if you can believe their numbers. This has given a paltry growth to
countries, less employment, higher unemployment, corporations not putting money
into rebuilding factories and local governments permitting infrastructure to
deteriorate. Are manufacturing numbers aren’t that bad, however we are
producing using fewer people.
If we look at this from a different point of view, we went
from 93.3 million working-age unemployed Americans this summer to a current
94.1 million. You aren’t alone! Unemployment holds at about 5%, but more people
actually out of the work force.
Depends on how you look at numbers and how the media reports facts,
especially around election time!
My economic readings of late also brought home the fact that we rank
number two of G-8 countries in the lack of upward financial mobility only to
the United Kingdom. I point to how
we became different over the past 150 years on this. After the Civil War was the start of the “industrial
revolution” and a person had a fighting chance to gain wealth with hard
work. There were no taxes to be
paid. We now are similar to
England as our wealth and assets are controlled mainly by the top 1%, subduing
the middle class. “He who has the
gold rules”! Perhaps it is part of
my suspicious mind, but the wealthy are now hoarding cash and I think they
would love another hard recession so they could increase their world asset
holdings to perhaps 65 or 70% from a current estimated 55%. By the way, another institutional
report stated that the US is one of the top most corrupt countries in the
G-8. This should not surprise many
people as fewer than 20% think the government is honest. I don’t believe it matters who is
elected president in that we will most likely join the rest of the world within
the next year in a good recession.
Or is that a bad recession?
A quick comment on things that hurt employment for the
American middle class:
- NAFTA
- Pacific
Trade Agreement
- Masses
of immigration
- Globalization
All the above are desired by the large corporations, and the
top wealthiest people who control those corporations through stock
holdings. The US government
assists in the building of new/advanced factories abroad, cheaper labor, fewer
labor laws and insurance claims.
The increase of HB-1 workers replacing Americans at a lower pay scale. This
all contributes to the malfunction/dysfunction of our basic employment
structure.
Now, let’s look at two very real employment situations that
led me to write this blog, and thus shake my head as to where we are
today. Repeating the words from
one of my favorite TV series from the 1950’s, Dragnet, Joe Friday from the
series stated, “only the names have been changed to protect the innocent”.
Job #1 applied for in the real estate industry for selling
vacation home time-shares. Again
to protect the innocent, or not so innocent, I won’t mention the hotel chain
associated with this, however it
is one of the largest in the world. My friend has a very strong real estate
sales background with new homebuilders as well as re-sale homes. My friend walked into one of the
largest hotels where they sold time-sharing and asked to speak to someone with
that department. He was addressed
by a very nice young man who said he couldn’t speak to anyone, however needed
to apply for the position on the company’s website. Then, in confidence he said that unless my friend had a
relative or close friend who could “get him into the position”, it was very
unlikely he could get a job with the company. The real world today!
So started the procedure of applying for the job. After about 45 minutes into the on-line
application, resume, etc. the site wanted my friend to take a test. Fine. Well,
as you get far into a job application, you consider your time and effort to
that point so you move ahead to the test.
The test was broken down into three parts, each about 1/2 hour. They even gave you a “potty break”
somewhere half way through! Let’s go to bottom line. The young man was correct
at the hotel. Unless you have
contacts you aren’t going to get a decent paying job, it is whom you know. The total agony of applying for the job
consumed more than two hours. The hotel did have the courtesy to write a letter
of declination to my friend. The
excuse was that they were looking for “home run hitters” who had over 5 years
specifically in this type of sales.
Job #2 applied for in a low-level, part-time delivery
position for a national public company at just above the minimum hourly rate of
pay. This friend had an “in” with
the company and prior to job application this person spoke with the local
manager. Here we go on the
ridiculous nature of job applications and what is required to get any job. This directly relates to why we have
94.1 million working age Americans out of work, or not wanting to go through
the procedure for a part time work that pays minimum wage that no human being
could live on, and without health benefits. I don’t think I have to explain to anyone at this point that
companies play the “no benefits” game, and therefore only hire part time
workers, except the manager.
Well, my friend went into the local store to talk with the
manager. Yes, resume received.
Next step was to take two on-line tests at the store. With this step passed he went through
the interview process with the local manager. The next step was to be interviewed in a week’s time by a
manager trainee from a different nearby city. That came and went.
The next step in the procedure was to be interviewed within a couple
weeks by the District Manager.
This interview actually accounted for about 1.5 hours. The next step in the process was
two-fold. The paperwork for
employment would be sent to the Regional Manager for approval and my friend
needed to go to a specific hospital for the normal drug/urine testing. The paperwork for this step was to be
printed out at the local store, and the drug test needed to be completed within
24 hours of the printed company paperwork. Sounds simple, however the store couldn’t get the on-line
printer to work for over a week.
At this point we are almost two months into the procedure of getting a
part-time job.
Fast forward…my friend is hired. The next step for work is approximately 30 on-line company
tutorials covering every aspect of the company with a test following each
tutorial. Sounds simple
enough except that most of the tutorials run about 20 minutes each and then a
test follows. The tests are mostly
20 questions, but the kicker is that each test specifies if you need to get
them 100% correct, or only one error is permitted. If you miss two questions
you need to re-take the test. Most of the tests mix up the questions and
substitute a few new questions. If
you fail some tests twice you need to re-do the tutorial and then re-take a new
test. Fun! At least at this point my friend was
being paid the hourly rate for the torture. After hours of this tutorial study and testing my friend
needed to spend three days as a delivery trainee with a current employee. Said and done!
This tutorial “thing” and testing goes on and on,
weekly. From a corporate
standpoint I can see some positives. It is an umbilical cord between the
company and employees. As my
friend is a driver the tests also cover a lot of practical knowledge in
reference to driving, and hazardous material information that many people
should know if in an auto accident.
Lawyers and psychologists thought these tests up so they could get some
nice fees while increasing bureaucracy and paperwork. My friend almost quit the process several times, but hung in
there. How many Americans would have the patience and aptitude to put up with
this?
I thought I would give some real life circumstances to you
so that you would relate to
current day America, whether you are retired, currently looking for work or
will be seeking employment in the near future.
