Its not a job if you don't get hired. Its just another one that got away.
-- Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to prove it. Member of DAV #85. Michael A. Terrell Central Florida
Bobcat Goldwaith sums it up best. " I didn't lose my job, I know where it is but when I go there, some other guy is doing it"
On Thu, 20 Jul 2006 20:05:23 -0700, John Larkin wrote in Msg.
Fuck Germany. It's so amazing to see how it is stuck knee-deep in trouble but still knucking under each and every industry lobby who, after getting one enormous tax break after another, rake in record revenues year after year and still lay off thousands of people.
I've always admired the incredible American optimism which borders on (and often crosses the border to) sheer naivetee, but creates an incredible willing workforce (many of whose contituents are probably too stupid and too religious to see how they're f***ed over by the government they elected) and quite a lot of brilliant entrepreneurs. Let's not forget, though, that many of those are children or grandchildren of European emigrants who arrived in the US with nothing except what they had in their suitcases and -- most importantly -- their heads, and who had to build their existence without outside help from the ground up. I think it is this heritage that is still a source of the creativity which a thriving economy needs (along with cheap mortgages on over-valued property).
As far as job security goes -- job security is very high in Germany, but IMO that doesn't help the total number of available jobs in any way. Here, those who have a job are afraid of losing it, those that don't have a job don't have any hope of getting one, and those that might offer a job are afraid of hiring someone they can't ever get rid of. This creates a society in which part of the work force clings to jobs that they often don't like while another part has resignedly settled into permanent unemployment (which isn't quite as comfortable as many like to picture it).
I sometimes wonder if liberalizing the job market wouldn't be agood idea: Assuming that the entire economic power stays the same, the same total workforce would be needed, resulting in the same number of employed (and unemployed) people. However since hiring and firing would be easy, companies would probably "try out" more people -- and people would try to be better at their jobs, while at the same time the chances of getting re-employed after a firing would be higher. In general the fluctuation on the job market would be higher, and more people would wash ashore jobs that they're really good at.
Heck, a friend of mine runs a small machine shop. From what he told me, particularly about the impossibility of /finding/ good people through "normal" channels*, I could write an entire essay on the damn German job market.
robert
*actually the folks he's most happy with are the Bill Slomans of mechanical engineering, so to speak: Experienced old hacks with good work ethics. Impossible to find through Germany's "Arbeitsagentur" or via ads.
Well.......... it did just absorb what was once another country which wasn't in the finest shape at the time !
Graham
took a
a bit
That's only because they create auto repair jobs by allowing youth gangs to burn cars, about 30,000 cars a year.
Don't forget the 12 to 20 million jobs stolen by illegal aliens. Or to put it another way, the U.S. economy has created so many jobs workers had to be imported to fill them. Mike
The same has long been true of the UK, France and Germany too.
Graham
a
bit
Bloc
Russian
In a sense, unemployment doesn't matter. As productivity increases (thank the hard-working engineers for that) a progressively smaller part of the population actually has to work to provide for the needs of all. In the US, about 5% of the population manufactures stuff, and even fewer are farmers. I suppose, ultimately, everybody will be required to spend two years of their lives working, sort of like being in the army. School til you're 32, work two years, retire; sounds like modern Germany, now that I think about it.
I guess the issue about unemployment is actually: what do all those unemployed people DO? Many countries - US, UK, France - have sizable unemployed populations, often minorities, who just get into trouble.
I know what they should do!
John
Surveys indicate that most Americans like their jobs and their lives. Jobs give you something to do, social interaction, gossip, exercize. A lot of people decay and die a few years after they retire, from lack of stimulation.
Of course. Trial and error results in best-fit matches, benefiting the employer, employee, and society. And everyone should be fired at least once. Being fired was one of the more valuable experiences of my life. Or two most valuable, maybe, depending on the definition of "fire."
I have a French friend, force-retired from INSNEC, who has been trying to start his own business, without success. He says he can't hire anybody because the government overhead is too extreme.
John
Yep, they're so f***ed over by their government that they own their own home, a couple of SUV's, a plasma TV set and surround sound, and eat steak and shrimp every night.
Tell me. What percent of Germans own their own home ???
...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Jim Thompson wrote: [...snip disgruntled limey crap...]
If that is your measure of the "good life" then you are beyond hope. The US airwaves are choked with garbage.
Who cares? The German society is a model of modern infrastructure management, vastly superior to the dismal, anomic, and failed US system consequential to rampant greed and corruption in local government and corporate exploitation, with highways in total disrepair, bad water, bad air, low quality construction, despicably wasteful, unbridled, environmentally deleterious, ugly sprawl, and a majority of people with an average IQ bordering reptilian. And who says "owning your own home" is the American dream? Some marketing huckster?
Hey Fred! Just because you have to live in Virginia ("is for lovers"), doesn't mean the rest of us do ;-)
...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Hey Jim, We all KNOW that you are really retired. You just do this analog design stuff for fun, as a hobby!
Of course, it is a pretty profitable hobby... 8-)
Charlie
True ;-)
...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
There is also a negative side
martin
And that would be what?
...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
It was a slight re quote of Hunter S Thompson :-)
martin
Drinking already are we ?:-)
Do you think there is a negative side to home ownership?
...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
The US plays similar tricks...
-- Aaron
What's worse is when you're asked to do the job of someone who was made redundant. I know people who have refused.
"if he got laid off doing that job, why do *I* want it?"
- OR -
"If the position was surplus, it doesn't need doing."
Either way... (I couldn't be so lucky ;)
-- Keith
ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.