Poor, poor Oil Companies.

I don't disagree - which is why I said there will always be those we need to help. But my observation - and it is simply mine - you may still disagree - is that these are the few, not the many. And even those with little "native intelligence" can perservere and make a decent life for themselves if they are willing to work hard and apply what brainpower they have to avoid bad choices. After all, how much brainpower does it take to decide not to take drugs, to try your best, and to work hard. I maintain it is not much, though I agree there may be a fine line in some instances between what constitutes bad decsion making (by choice) vs. lack of ability to make good decisions due to lack of "native intelligence".

 

As for Walmart using sweatshops, there is a fine line here. It is great for those of us lucky enough to live in the "1st world" to look at some of these jobs and call them "sweatshops". The reality for many of these people is that these jobs are their only means of survival in a difficult world. Unfortunate certainly, but by a relative standard many of these people are quite happy to be employed -- and as these 3rd world economies grow and prosper these jobs will fall by the wayside and labor standards will improve, just as they have here. Granted, there are some situations & conditions we should not condone (forced/slave labor, child labor, etc.).

As for Walmart's "strong arm tactics", I see nothing wrong with demanding more for less from suppliers. This is the essence of GDP growth. Without it, the economy moves backward. I suspect one of the reasons many on this forum bought a Prius is because it is an affordable, well constructed car. Do you think it would be so affordable and so reliable if Toyota didn't hold it's suppliers feet to the fire, constantly demanding better quality and higher productivity for less?

As for "High degree of education and skill = high wages?", it is funny that you complain about Walmart paying employees too little and then complain about the checker at Vons making too much. One of the things Walmart will do is drive down the wage of the overpaid Vons checker and at the same time, make the dollars you do earn go a lot further when you do your weekly shopping.

That said, I do believe as a general proposition that teachers ought to make more $, if that makes you feel any better.

PS - I personally don't care much to shop at Walmart, but my belief is they are a net strong positive for the economy and they are probably the only organization in the country with the scale and resources to meet the demands of a disaster like hurricane Katrina ... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5090501598.html

"the chain's huge scale is suddenly an advantage in providing disaster relief. The same sophisticated supply chain that has turned the company into a widely feared competitor is now viewed as exactly what the waterlogged Gulf Coast needs."

 

I do wish you luck in quitting. I suspect you wouldn't have started had you known the dangers, which weren't apparent 50 years ago. Since I never smoked I cannot relate to the difficulty in quitting. It seems to be an individual thing - for some easy, some very hard. My grandfather smoked a pipe for 60+ years and then quit, so it can be done. Again, I wish you luck.

BTW, did you see the recent news article about all of the illegal smokes making their way into the U.S. from North Korea? To Godiva's point, talk about slave labor! Yikes.

 

What's your point? Exxon has 90,000 employees and sales of over 1/4 of a TRILLION dollars. They are a big company in an industry that is critical to the U.S and world economy. In your view, what kind of profit is OK, given their scale and importance? What would be the dollar amount per hour that would be acceptable and just how do you arrive at that number?

If you have complaints about the manner in which they operate, that is one thing. But last time I checked profits in and of themself were still legal here, even large profits.

 

What makes me saddest in the world is that I "know" it's the many. First I taught high school 3 years in the 60's, specializing in what educational euphemisms then called "slow learners". That was followed by 3 more years in Johnson's "anti-poverty program" as a VISTA Volunteer working exclusively with poor blacks in VA.

The "catch 22", the intractable problem (in, among other places, Appalachia [read whites] and urban America [read mostly blacks]), is that 90% of the time the limitations in intelligence are linked to the same self-destructive cultural attitudes, held by the same peers and parents, that preclude most from ever achieving what we sometimes called "white middle class values"---e.g., perseverance, thrift, respect for work, no matter how "lowly", etc. I met some remarkable exceptions, and they're the ones the media latch onto (no problem with that) and hold up as examples (problem AND not!), leading many to think, "anyone can" (major problem). It's what I call a "leap" that does more harm than good. You have to live there to see how unspeakably bad it is. Not much has changed in the near 40 years since I did that, except there are relatively a few more exceptions, some a result of billions in public and private funding.

Yet in the same time the gap between "them" and "us" has grown, and there are more of "them". Ask any veteran social worker or cop.

 

Jack06,

I got pulled into a discussion regarding the poor, which is fine; but my main point regarding waste, poor decisions, and entitlement in regard to energy use was really directed at the US population at large. People who drive 20 mpg vehicles and complain about oil company profits make me scratch my head in wonder. People who set thermostats above 70F in the winter, and in the 60'sF in the summer, and congragulate themselves on the self-sacrifice, and explain the destruction of Alaska as a societal necessity make me want to scream.

Since ONLY sky high prices will lead to these people acting differently, and they number in the 100's of millions, so be it.

 

No, didn't see that. North Korea? Did they spell "Marlboro" right?

I won't even hide behind "we didn't know the dangers 50 years ago". We did, but, of course, not the full story. We called cigarettes "cancer sticks" in 1955. What we didn't know was how damnably addictive tobacco is for some of us, and that many of us COULDN'T give it up whenever we wanted (of course, our bravado was that we could---we were immortal, an indigenous disease of the young).

BTW, I happen to be a liberal who agrees with you on Wal-Mart. I watched the anti-WM documentary now making the rounds among liberals/Democrats, and I think it's shallow. Wal-Mart is almost "pure capitalism" in its most efficient/brutal form. Capitalism has always been a double-edged sword. What's new?

 

I agree with you on that "side" of the equation. Problem is, I've seen way too much of the non-working and working poor to "blithely" (and I know you don't intend it cruelly) prescribe astronomical gas/fuel oil prices as a necessary antidote. The media bleats much more about the potential toxic effect of high distillate prices on "the economy" than about the effects on those already living on the edge of hope/hopelessness.

 

Nor should they complain about our government's efforts to stabilize/perpetuate our economy through diplomacy, financial aid, or even war.

Vote with your dollar -- the ultimate democracy.

 

Of course the government lets it go on. Look at the big-wigs' histories, and especially where * spent his formative years (and ran some oil companies into the ground). Big oil is their friend; of course they won't step in.

 

Energy costs have always been artifically low in this county compared to the rest of the world. Why can't we have higher gas taxes and lower the crippling income and PROPERTY(!) taxes to boot? Probably would never happen but... it would lower demand, and lower energy company profits while keeping government out of the market.

If energy was more expensive, it would make more sense for people and businesses to conserve. Why do our escalators run nonstop, while most are only used a short time a day? Why not only run them when people are on them? Until energy is more expensive, conservation will be unimportant. Often the energy saving devices are more expensive than the energy they would save. Altruism won't trump economics, not in this world.

About the smoking, don't knock the support groups. Studies have shown they're the most effective tool for long-term smoking cessation, even more so than Zyban and the patch used together.

 

Sorry to pull this back into the cigarette addiction segue but here's an idea...let's put a $500/pack tax on cigarettes. Then let's see who can't possibly break the habit.

 

Just getting into this one. I hate to see that the oil companies are making money "hand over fist". For myself increasing oil prices are not as much of an issue as it is for the not for profit organization I work for. We have a fleet of outdated vans that we use to transport individuals with developmental disabilities. These are individuals that cannot access public transport. Small businesses and organizations like ours suffer when prices rise on essentials.

At what point in time will Corporate America finally choke the life out of its everyday constituents??

 

And on smoking, I have seen the death bed drags.......People with an addictive personality are always highly likely to continue negative behavior despite anything. Nicotine, Sugar, Caffeine, Salt all contribute to addiction by providing chemical training of our bodies.

We all can be addicted to something. I have never had good control of my weight. No matter how many times I lose it, it always finds me with a vengeance.

We can just do your best

 

They don't need to. There are tons of lightweight Japanese cars from the 80s and 90s that get 40+ mpg, and those are the kinds of cheap used cars people with little money are likely to have. There's no excuse for driving a gas-guzzler unless you actually need a truck to do your job.

 

I am not sure what you are describing as "native intelligence", but I can agree 100% there is a misery of "cultural intelligence" that leads to poor adaptation.

Poo-pooing education is the US is a recipe for generation on generation failure
Grandizing drug dealers and pimps is destructive to the community
Anti-institutionalism for it's own sake is self-defeating
The list goes on and on ..

 

Talk about good timing on your post.

I stopped by the office today to pick up work-related mail and get caught up, even though I'm not due back till next Monday. Among the mail waiting for me is my Jan/2006 issue of Plant Engineering.

On p.23 is a serious discussion of the Skills Gap, in response to a survey by Plant Engineerng a few months back. Overall, 80% of respondents reported a shortage of skilled workers, with 13% ranking that shortage as "severe."

It gets worse.

Fully 50% of respondents report their employees have inadequate basic employability skills (Attendance, timeliness, work ethic, etc).

46% report inadequate problem-solving skills.

36% of respondents report their employees have insufficient reading, writing, and communication skills.

Of these serious problems, 83% of respondents report these shortcomings are impacting their ability to do business. In particular: 56% cannot meet customer demand, 43% cannot meet productivity targets, and 33% cannot meet target customer service and satisfaction.

On p.24, the real hot-button issues are:

-Attitudes about careers and job satisfaction among Generation Y-ers
- *Significant dissatisfaction* with the quality of K-12 education
-Declining percentage of American students studying science and engineering.

The report was commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers (www.nam.org) and the Center for Workforce Success. Deloitte Consulting LLP did the study.

 

A seemingly intractable problem unless those capable of changing (i.e., with the "native intelligence") choose to do so. And even then, to your point, what are the numbers? I don't think anybody can say - maybe it is a few, maybe it is a lot. One thing is clear, there will still be a huge number who will never change either by choice or by innate limitations. sigh...

 

The greatest threats to the planet are from the very poor that have no option but to take what they can (from the land) to survive. And from the rich, that take all they want, without regard to the excess of their consumption.

 

I agree. I did not see anybody complain when oil companies were losing money in the mid 80's while going through major lay offs. Drilling rigs mothballed, wells shut in. And again in mid 90's when refinery margins were so low that the oil companies were losing $ on every barrel of crude they refined. Now that they have had a few good years of profits, they are thieves and the enemy. Go look at how much of their profits are being reinvested in looking for new reserves and expanding refinery and pipeline capacity. If high crude prices and high refinery margins would have been experienced in the 80's and 90's there would be many refineries upgraded, expanded and still in operation instead of being shut down. There are also many people employed today because of the amount of dollars the oil companies are pumping back into the economy.

The end result of this should be more refinery capacity for the US, more reserves replaced and more pipeline capacity. This in turn could result in lower or stable gas prices in the future. With the constant increase in demand for petroleum products, how are the oil companies going to keep pace without some decent profits to grow their business.

If you want to look at some industries that make the most profit on dollars invested go look at the drug and banking industries.

Finally, you would think that these high prices would cause the Americans to begin to conserve. $2.00/gallon doesn't seem to have affected most people but maybe $3.00/gallon will. I got rid of my 17 mpg SUV two weeks ago.