Hey Arizona, how bout we talk about the REAL issue here...

[reefraff]

Originally Posted by Fishtaco
http:///forum/post/3272444
Not so much Darth, I am a certified welder with years of steel fab experience and have looked around since relocating and due to all the lay-offs and plant closures in the area, people with this kind of experience are basically having to give those skills away because of the bad job situation here and employers are taking advantage of the surplus of skilled workers. Welcome to the brave new world where you can work hard to get what was a great job skill and if your lucky you can start a dollar above minimum wage. It's not just the morons who are stuck making low wages these days. I guess all the really smart people work for Wall St. and the too big to fail banking system and they "deserve" every penny they have made.
Comrade Fishtaco
Fishtaco
If you want good pay welding I suggest Western Wyoming. They were paying kids just out of high school with no skills stupid money to work the gas fields. Hell, a Pizza hut in Rock Springs was running an ad for a delivery driver, 12.00 an hour plus benefits.

 

[fishtaco]

Originally Posted by reefraff
http:///forum/post/3272473
If you want good pay welding I suggest Western Wyoming. They were paying kids just out of high school with no skills stupid money to work the gas fields. Hell, a Pizza hut in Rock Springs was running an ad for a delivery driver, 12.00 an hour plus benefits.
I am doing fine Reef, just not in the welding industry. It is great there are still good paying jobs out there, but the fact that people in order to make a living wage have to pack-up everything and move reminds me of the Grapes of Wraith which is what this part of the state looks like already. I have a problem that people have to go through this because politicians and the big banks and Wall St. broke the economy at absolutely no risk to themselves.
Comrade Fishtaco

 

[reefraff]

Originally Posted by Fishtaco
http:///forum/post/3272475
I am doing fine Reef, just not in the welding industry. It is great there are still good paying jobs out there, but the fact that people in order to make a living wage have to pack-up everything and move reminds me of the Grapes of Wraith which is what this part of the state looks like already. I have a problem that people have to go through this because politicians and the big banks and Wall St. broke the economy at absolutely no risk to themselves.
Comrade Fishtaco
Do ya REALLY think the banks and wall street like to make the economy bad?
Hard times is nothing new to Oregon. My step dad went through it there is the early 70's. His brother had a gas station up there that his kids might still own but he did OK, nothing close to what they made in California but that's the trade off you make. I took better than a 50% pay cut when I left Orange County but the quality of life improvement was worth it, never thought of going back for a second.

 

[oscardeuce]

Originally Posted by bionicarm
http:///forum/post/3272302
You can't compare what you got paid during your residency to what a day laborer makes on a daily basis. You making that $100/day or less now? Don't think so. I used to shingle roofs in my youth in Houston during the summer. Ask stdreb what summer's in Houston are like in the shade, much less on top of a roof. But like you, I got a college education and made something for myself to where I now have financial stability. Those opportunities aren't available to every person living in this country. You have people that can't even graduate high school, much less make it through college. It's not completely their fault, they just simply don't have the 'smarts'. These people could get vocational training to better their lives, but even those jobs are getting hard to come by. Minimum wage earners would jump at the chance of making $15.50/hr these days. How many companies do you know in this country that offer those type of wages as a starting hourly wage?

My dad flunked out of college, signed on with the Ohio State Highway patrol. 8 years as a Trooper, then he quit, got a loan and built his business up by hand. He grew up in one of the poorest parts of Findlay, Ohio. His business bloomed, and he became a 5 term State Representative.
All this through hard work and dedication to self improvement. You don't need a college degree, just the work ethic to make it happen for you.

 

[reefraff]

Originally Posted by oscardeuce
http:///forum/post/3272574
My dad flunked out of college, signed on with the Ohio State Highway patrol. 8 years as a Trooper, then he quit, got a loan and built his business up by hand. He grew up in one of the poorest parts of Findlay, Ohio. His business bloomed, and he became a 5 term State Representative.
All this through hard work and dedication to self improvement. You don't need a college degree, just the work ethic to make it happen for you.
In my family my sister has all the education, and made the least money of any of us. There are two high school drop out included in that. I was the first kid to get a diploma.

 

[stdreb27]

Originally Posted by oscardeuce
http:///forum/post/3272574
My dad flunked out of college, signed on with the Ohio State Highway patrol. 8 years as a Trooper, then he quit, got a loan and built his business up by hand. He grew up in one of the poorest parts of Findlay, Ohio. His business bloomed, and he became a 5 term State Representative.
All this through hard work and dedication to self improvement. You don't need a college degree, just the work ethic to make it happen for you.
Don't forget some good ol American smarts.

 

[darthtang aw]

Originally Posted by Fishtaco
http:///forum/post/3272444
Not so much Darth, I am a certified welder with years of steel fab experience and have looked around since relocating and due to all the lay-offs and plant closures in the area, people with this kind of experience are basically having to give those skills away because of the bad job situation here and employers are taking advantage of the surplus of skilled workers. Welcome to the brave new world where you can work hard to get what was a great job skill and if your lucky you can start a dollar above minimum wage. It's not just the morons who are stuck making low wages these days. I guess all the really smart people work for Wall St. and the too big to fail banking system and they "deserve" every penny they have made.
Comrade Fishtaco
Fishtaco
I have changed employers a couple times in my life. Even fields of work. I have never had a job that paid less than 11.00 an hour in my life since I turned 17. Am I that lucky? Even Home Depot started me at 11.00 for just working part-time.

 

[bionicarm]

Not sure when they'll relwase more info, but I just saw this on CNN:
President Barack Obama will deploy up to 1,200 more National Guard troops to the U.S. border with Mexico, an administration official told CNN on Tuesday.

 

[reefraff]

Originally Posted by bionicarm
http:///forum/post/3272755
Not sure when they'll relwase more info, but I just saw this on CNN:
President Barack Obama will deploy up to 1,200 more National Guard troops to the U.S. border with Mexico, an administration official told CNN on Tuesday.
Probably so they can escort illegals safely through Arizona.

 

[fishtaco]

Originally Posted by Darthtang AW
http:///forum/post/3272678
I have changed employers a couple times in my life. Even fields of work. I have never had a job that paid less than 11.00 an hour in my life since I turned 17. Am I that lucky? Even Home Depot started me at 11.00 for just working part-time.
What are you getting at Darth? I have pretty much accurately described the job situation around here and yes, if you advertised in the paper for a certified welder with 10 years experience starting at 10.00 dollars an hour, no doubt you would have 50-100 people applying. I would not test your luck around here, you might end up homeless or living in your car. Last time I saw the umemployment rate, the actual numbers are around 20 percent with another 30 percent underemployed which means they are making less or working part-time.
Fishtaco

 

[reefraff]

Originally Posted by Fishtaco
http:///forum/post/3272788
What are you getting at Darth? I have pretty much accurately described the job situation around here and yes, if you advertised in the paper for a certified welder with 10 years experience starting at 10.00 dollars an hour, no doubt you would have 50-100 people applying. I would not test your luck around here, you might end up homeless or living in your car. Last time I saw the umemployment rate, the actual numbers are around 20 percent with another 30 percent underemployed which means they are making less or working part-time.
Fishtaco
Yet you folks keep electing anti business politicians to state office. Rich retirees and trust fund babies love it though.

 

[stdreb27]

Originally Posted by Fishtaco
http:///forum/post/3272788
What are you getting at Darth? I have pretty much accurately described the job situation around here and yes, if you advertised in the paper for a certified welder with 10 years experience starting at 10.00 dollars an hour, no doubt you would have 50-100 people applying. I would not test your luck around here, you might end up homeless or living in your car. Last time I saw the umemployment rate, the actual numbers are around 20 percent with another 30 percent underemployed which means they are making less or working part-time.
Fishtaco
It aint that way down in Texas... I know some millionair welders working in the oil patch...

 

[fishtaco]

Originally Posted by reefraff
http:///forum/post/3272798
Yet you folks keep electing anti business politicians to state office. Rich retirees and trust fund babies love it though.
Actually things where fine until gas went up and the stock market crashed, our local economy was never super strong but we seemed to have a decent long term manufacturing base. The rich retired and trust fund babies have pretty much ruined things along the coast and over in Bend though.

 

[mantisman51]

Would anyone care to wager that President Obama has ordered them not to carry weapons or they can't have live ammunition? This has the potential to get ugly since it is Mexico's special forces, that were trained and armed by our special forces for drug interdiction, that are running shotgun for the cartels.

 

[reefraff]

Originally Posted by Fishtaco
http:///forum/post/3272924
Actually things where fine until gas went up and the stock market crashed, our local economy was never super strong but we seemed to have a decent long term manufacturing base. The rich retired and trust fund babies have pretty much ruined things along the coast and over in Bend though.
Some good friends of my parents moved to Sandy in the early 70's. They had some acreage they finally had to sell off a few years ago because the taxes finally forced them out. They bought the land with the idea of keeping it in their family for generations but once the yearly taxes become more than they paid for some of the property they couldn't hold on to it any longer.

 

[reefraff]

Originally Posted by mantisman51
http:///forum/post/3272977
Would anyone care to wager that President Obama has ordered them not to carry weapons or they can't have live ammunition? This has the potential to get ugly since it is Mexico's special forces, that were trained and armed by our special forces for drug interdiction, that are running shotgun for the cartels.
Yeah but the mexicans aren't going to start a shooting war on our border with the guard, that could easily bring out special forces into it. It should like this is more of a political stunt but we will see. If all the guard is able to do is wave as people come across the border it's just a 500 million dollar campaign stunt.

 

[darthtang aw]

Originally Posted by Fishtaco
http:///forum/post/3272788
What are you getting at Darth? I have pretty much accurately described the job situation around here and yes, if you advertised in the paper for a certified welder with 10 years experience starting at 10.00 dollars an hour, no doubt you would have 50-100 people applying. I would not test your luck around here, you might end up homeless or living in your car. Last time I saw the umemployment rate, the actual numbers are around 20 percent with another 30 percent underemployed which means they are making less or working part-time.
Fishtaco
I am saying people need to learn to broaden their skill set over time...that is all. While I agree there are a lot of jobs that pay crap, those that study and learn skills sets outside their normal won't be stuck with these low wage jobs. You don't need college or a tech school to do this. That is my point. I will grant each area is different, but I have also learned to watch the market and have been willing to move to follow the money. I am at a stage in my life where this is not needed now...thank God.