Korean Job Discussion Forums

[pkang0202]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aWVkfEb8G6z0&refer=home

[jaykimf]

Do you think there is something wrong with manual labor? I don't know where you're from, but in the 4 states I have lived in, the building trades are largely unionized and well paid--$30-$45 and more / hour with excellent benefits. Moreover, building infrastructure involves more than manual labor. There are architects, engineers, project managers, inspectors, office support etc. Then there are the building supplies and materials manufacturers and distributors etc.

There is nothing wrong with manual labor. If you had a family to support and house payments to make, would you rather work manual labor all day and save your house or be unemployed and have the bank foreclose?

[Tiger Beer]

There are MANY Americans who are unemployed people from the construction industry - downturn in housing.

I'd also say that manual labor is what makes the economy. pkang, you are from a suburb or somewhere? The rest of America is based on hard-working Americans.

Not everyone in America is a yuppie, far from it, thank God.

[sojourner1]

Oh yes, a huge problem is declining manual labor due to companies decreasing physical activity while their officers sit in offices trying to manage companies and make money using a computer rather than actually physically leading a company. It takes raw physical manual labor at work to support for there to be those so called white collar jobs for educated people as well as the entire economy to function. What we have is a malfunctioning system crumbling under its' weight. We've largely became a service economy offering mostly retail, customer service, food service, and accounts jobs offering little real career opportunity as these are just low paying jobs. They're great for students, but not as a long term solution to employment. It's great to have all those services at our disposal,but we have to have the rest of what a strong economy brings. Jobs in all career fields.

2.5 million construction jobs is not going to fix it, maybe 25 million jobs of all types will. I feel with all this money the government is dishing out to corporations, they should just re-engineer the economy, infrastructure, and system from the ground up rather than trying to save a failed state of being by bailing out big non performers. It's obvious that what corporate America built is not right so it's time for big changes.

[ChopChaeJoe]

Infrastructure in the 21st century means lots and lots of engineers, managers, technicians, and skilled workers -- not just truck drivers and manual labor.

As for what they do after -- the idea is that the economy will improve in time. Improved infrastructure means a better future. walk around neighborhoods in the U.S. -- dilapidated schools, crumbling roads, dangerous bridges, weeds growing up through the sidewalks, pathetic public transportation.

[pkang0202]

[Tiger Beer]

[blade]

[ChopChaeJoe]

[asylum seeker]

This is ridiculous. How can Obama dream of using government money to create blue-collar jobs for poor people when executives at big banks are forgoing some of their million dollar bonuses and having to merely rely on their million dollar salaries? Surely this money should be given to the bigbanks on top of the hundreds of billions of bailout money they've already received.

[jaykimf]

[mises]

Quite a lot of libertarian or classical liberal economics will be blown apart if Obama actually is able to revive the economy with this plan. I seriously doubt it will do what he wants it to do (less the creating jobs) but it could.

[Kuros]

[mises]

Yes, I agree Kuros. My comment isn't about the need for infrastructure but rather a branch (or tree, more like) of economic thought that assumes as the central truth that government can't fix an economy with spending. I think I agree with that assumption. Wait n' see I guess.

[pkang0202]