Rand Paul: Buying American isn't necessarily the right choice

[truth_seeker]

Of course it isn't anymore. It's all gone. There used to be five major mills in this valley alone. Now there's one, and it's a plywood mill.

The entire rocky mountain corridor. MT, WY, UT, CO, ID, and eastern WA and eastern OR.

Add Arizona and New Mexico, since they too are in that same Rocky Mountain corridor.

[truth_seeker]

Someone is. My house has gained 6 figures in equity appreciation since I bought it in 2011.

So have most locations in America. Write that off to historically low interest rates, for one thing.

[Suppressed]

What happens when Americans run out of money to send to other countries?

They say, "Well, this would have happened a lot sooner, if we'd followed @driftdiver policy and made things less affordable!"

At least by us taking a conservative approach, the consumer gets a better deal, and Canada sells their material at below market price.

[truth_seeker]

The long term trend seems to be lower skilled workers made obsolete, with automation. Jobs in automation require higher skills.

Wash repeat for many years, and a society winds up with a surplus of unemployable low/no skill workers.

And often a shortage of high skill workers. Pretty well describes America, today according to some accounts.

Skill do correlate with Intelligence. That is one reason foreigners fill high skill jobs. Ether by immigration, or remote contract status.

And still the no/low skilled ones bunch up in cities. And the answer seems to be giving them housing, food, drugs and telling them to go to college, for which they are not prepared, or capable.

[HonestJohn]

Screw that. Loggers ain't made for that, any more than cowboys are.

And how exactly do you sell a rural homestead and come up with enough money to move six kids and a wife to a place where real estate and rental is five times what your whole place is worth? You're crazy.

With regards to the example, companies will *PAY* for your move.

Quit looking for excuses.

[roamer_1]

Add Arizona and New Mexico, since they too are in that same Rocky Mountain corridor.

I didn't know the Taiga forest went that far south... Been as far south as Silverton/Animas canyon... Kinda four corners... seemed to me it was petering out... Which is why I went back north

[HonestJohn]

The major phone makers, have expensive versions for rich US customers. But they have cheaper versions, for India.

I have an HTC E8 which uses a plastic case, instead of a metal case. I put them into anther protective case anyway. I bought a brand new E8 for $240 from Sprint, instead of over $500-1,000 for the latest offerings by Apple, Samsung, LG, HTC, etc.

Different models, not versions.

The LG G6 sold in India is the same LG G6 sold in America.  And most of the cheaper models sold in India are also sold here (with the same stats). 

[HonestJohn]

Your remarks sound like a "chip on your shoulder," about rural people, and a babyboomers.

But the same capitalism forces you suggest for them, apply to EVERYBODY (age cohort), ANYWHERE (rural, suburban and rural).

Yes it does.

Yet some adapt... and some refuse to.  Instead looking for a Lord and Savior to have the government bail them out.

[HonestJohn]

Well it's easy to say retraining, until you measure it against the scope of the thing.

No, there is plenty of jobs out there if you look, are willing to retrain, and to move.

Not to mention that if people actually started really taking that up (like so many did at the height of the 2008 economic crisis; which caused some to scream about how unfair that was)...

...it produces a boom in retraining jobs, as well.  ITT Tech rode that wave.

[roamer_1]

No, there is plenty of jobs out there if you look, are willing to retrain, and to move.

No, not really.

[skeeter]

No, there is plenty of jobs out there if you look, are willing to retrain, and to move.

Easiest thing in the world to say.

One of the hardest things, if not next to impossible, for a middle aged or above person to do.

In fact its dangerously close to a fallacy.

[HonestJohn]

No, not really.

Have you tried? 

Gone to a technical school, community college, university?  Taken online courses?  Completed a managerial or IT certification? (Hopefully, you are in an area whose voting population hasn't voted away job retraining programs.  If not and you voted for the politicians that did so, you've got no one to blame but yourself for the predicament.)

Wrote a resume and placed it on LinkedIn?

Hell, if you are taking university courses, you can have those same course applied to a community college degree... and knock out two birds with one stone.

Don't think I don't know what it feels like to think that there 'aren't any jobs for me'.  I know that feeling.  And I didn't like it one bit.  So I *DID* something to make me marketable.

[HonestJohn]

Easiest thing in the world to say.

One of the hardest things, if not next to impossible, for a middle aged or above person to do.

In fact its dangerously close to a fallacy.

No.  I'm 44 and just went through it.  On the older end of middle-aged, too.

But it does require learned a skill that is in demand.

[skeeter]

No.  I'm 44 and just went through it.  On the older end of middle-aged, too.

But it does require learned a skill that is in demand.

I went through it as well. But only because I live in an area with ample opportunity. AND I had a spouse that could carry the load while I learned a new trade.

If I was the primary bread winner with a family it would've been IMPOSSIBLE.

[HonestJohn]

I went through it as well. But only because I live in an area with ample opportunity. AND I had a spouse that could carry the load while I learned a new trade.

If I was the primary bread winner with a family it would've been IMPOSSIBLE.

Why do you think I keep mentioning job retraining programs?  That's a good investment of taxpayer dollars, as it gets people back on their feet and into an equal or better paying job.  Which then means that the funds spent are more than repaid.

[roamer_1]

Have you tried? 

Gone to a technical school, community college, university?  Taken online courses?  Completed a managerial or IT certification?

Like I said, I haven't had a job since i was 18.

My managerial skills come from the multiple businesses I have had all my life.
Screw school, and certs. I am self taught and do just fine.

[skeeter]

Why do you think I keep mentioning job retraining programs?  That's a good investment of taxpayer dollars, as it gets people back on their feet and into an equal or better paying job.  Which then means that the funds spent are more than repaid.

How does a person, who has spent years, sometimes decades, climbing the salary ladder in one field, switch jobs and start from the bottom in another - and still maintain a family?

[bigheadfred]

No, not really.

I get what you are trying to tell them.  I really do.

[bigheadfred]

Why do you think I keep mentioning job retraining programs?  That's a good investment of taxpayer dollars, as it gets people back on their feet and into an equal or better paying job.  Which then means that the funds spent are more than repaid.

I looked at retraining in 2010. They had plenty of money available. Oh...you're not a minority disabled woman...good luck...NEXT!

[HonestJohn]

How does a person, who has spent years, sometimes decades, climbing the salary ladder in one field, switch jobs and start from the bottom in another - and still maintain a family?

You pick an in-demand field.

The example I gave for CAD/CAM assisted machining starts around $80,000.  And that's a high-growth field too. 

$80,000 goes a long way.

[roamer_1]

You pick an in-demand field.

The example I gave for CAD/CAM assisted machining starts around $80,000.  And that's a high-growth field too. 

$80,000 goes a long way.

yeah... half as far as 30k out in the sticks.

[HonestJohn]

yeah... half as far as 30k out in the sticks.

You really don't want a job unless it's what you expect, yes?

Millenial much?

[roamer_1]

You really don't want a job unless it's what you expect, yes?

Nope. I ain't proud.

[Suppressed]

And how exactly do you sell a rural homestead and come up with enough money to move six kids and a wife to a place where real estate and rental is five times what your whole place is worth? You're crazy.

Having six kids is a luxury many people decide against when they can't afford it.

I think there is much lost when a rural lifestyle is lost, but how much of keeping it should be put onto others "for the national goid"?

[roamer_1]

Having six kids is a luxury many people decide against when they can't afford it.

I think there is much lost when a rural lifestyle is lost, but how much of keeping it should be put onto others "for the national goid"?

I've had fair income... Comes and goes. It's just a way of keeping score. That ain't wealth.
The bounty ain't what's on the table. The bounty is what's around the table... And that's the first rural principle that is never understood by city folks, and why I don't understand them at all, and never will.

Sure it can get hard-scrabble. But that's what we're made for. If I get caught out here, I can make do. Not in the city.