Where is the US economy headed?

Like I said, for the most part I am ignorant on the economy and jobs, but I can read and use a search engine. Never heard of Germany's internship programs. Looked it on google, saw quite a bit.

New Options to Study and/or Intern in Germany!

It goes to show my point however, it seems we in the US do not concentrate as much as we should in technological fields training. As much as you been decrying Obama, he has been calling for investment in training folks in science and technical fields for a long time. It gets ignored as more "spending."

yes, this study tells us how many hours americans are working, as it was designed to do. it does not however tell us how many full time equivalent jobs this economy runs, nor was it intended to do so.

The GOP is cutting R&D from our universities and colleges, because they're JUST PLAIN STUPID! Their goal to make Obama fail is the most destructive government our country has ever had or experienced. Even then, the US spends the most on R&D through the businesses that must continue to improve their products and services.

It's also true that our schools are failing our children to educate them property in math and science. We are falling further behind many countries, and that's a failure of not only government, but our educational system.

GW Bush's No Child Left Behind was the worst regulation the feds enforced onto our schools and children. It's going to take decades to dig out of this quagmire!

The GOP is also working very hard to cut school funding (aka cut all government spending).

TNCFS

I am not sure what R&D is but the US does score low compared to other countries in math and science. I just read one test put the US 23rd in math and 31st in science. If people want the US to remain competitive, it seems to me it would be in our best interest to invest in those fields in whatever ways would work regardless of political views or aspirations.

U.S lag in science, math a disaster in the making

Research and Development.

I guess if you completely ignore what the survey tells you then you can claim that.



Simply cross reference that to the number of employees in each sector and you have your answer. Because you don't want to do it doesn't mean the study doesn't tell you how many hours Americans are working. In fact, you can tell how many people in mining are working over 60 hours a week on the job. Of course that would require you to actually look at the data rather then spending time here whining about how the data doesn't include what it does include.

Except the ultra rich that skim the money that should go to the workers whose productivity increased company profit. The middle class makes the economy go but has no influence in the board rooms that run the various companies. The unions used to give us some power but since the companies and government have almost destroyed the unions we live on the droppings of big business.

One way to get around some of this handicap is to allow foreign workers and students to work in our high tech and biotech industries by expanding the green card. Most of the PhD candidates at US universities are foreign students because they know our schools are some of the best on this planet. In the mean time, it's our country's responsibility to improve our educational system in all areas of study including math and science.

Our country's economy has remained strong because of our ability to innovate. That's being lost by the standardized testing of students; all students do not have the same interest or learning abilities at given ages. Our educational system fails to understand that simple fact.

Our local newspaper reports once a week the amount of stock options traded by the officers and board members of companies in Silicon Valley. Most weeks, many gain millions of dollars with a net approaching $50 million in one week. That upsets me to no end! Those greedy bastards just don't understand Econ 101.

I can't argue with any of that. Perhaps companies could offer courses for people to train for higher skill jobs of which they say remain unfulfilled for lack of skilled workers as well.

Those are some of the things businesses can do because in most cases they can be retrained in the skill level they require.

It's been common knowledge for a long time that US companies look at short term profit only, and ignore the long term benefit of retraining their workers.

It's a sad commentary on the greed of CEO's and officers of companies who only looks at how much they can gain from their stock options.

SAD

There might be another reason.

The people who run companies have a responsibility to their investors to do what they think best to maximise their profits under the strict and ruthless discipline of the check-out. If the consumers rewarded companies that engaged in re-training their workers I feel sure they would be eagerly re-training workers night and day. You silly old fool.

How did you get quite that stupid?

Are you a communist? Telling companies what to do with their own money for no other reason than you thinking it makes you look good.

I bet you are a real stickler at the check-out.

What sort of re-training do you approve of?

CEO's giving up multimillion bonuses would also increase the bottom line for stockholders. Think it will ever happen?

Obama needs to go after the CEO's and similar much like Teddy Roosevelt went after the trust thieves at the end of the 19th century.

BTW, does anyone agree that now is a good time to buy stock? The market was beat up pretty well in August, and should be ready for some nice gains.

You're absolutely wrong - again, and again, and again....


Germany is a very good example of how they successfully train people in factories to earn middle class wages and benefits - and they are not only profitable, but they don't have the same problem of the US income gaps.
They also must make money for their stock holders, and they do. Many of their companies are international, and have bases in most developed countries.

You have great skill at ignorance.

I see a lot of bickering about political spending and territorial blaming based on a dual party system that is adversarial on every tier. I think everyone agrees that the political system can not be fixed until the people come to a consensus. So until then, we the people need to target the corporations that keep the middle and lower class in dire financial strain. This comes down to interest rates. It does no good to lower federal interest rates if credit cards and pay day loan interest rates pick off the middle and lower classes. It doesn't have to be this way. I know the forum rules here; however, I will tell you about one business model that is helping the American people restore their own personal finances despite the government. The company is called Float Money. They do pro-consumer lending with no interest, fees, and no penalties. This is achieved by members buying their regular items like groceries, gas, and etc. Then, in return, they get a line of credit that gets reported to the credit bureaus; regardless if they ever borrow against it. This shows a positive line of credit just for buying necessities, which means the average American consumer can use this line of credit to pay off credit cards and loans at no interest. I think this is a solution to help the dual party spending frenzy which has been going on regardless who has been in office. If consumers start controlling their spending and budgeting, then they will start demanding the Fed do the same. In fact, I am open to any platform which will help the American people budget and spend wisely; Float Money is just the first one I have found that is taking a really good stab at it. I think this sort of thinking can cause a stabilization over the entire financial system if we, the affected populace of economic hardships, stop getting raked over the coals for spending our good old, hard earned cash by paying interest, fees, penalties, and special taxes that get shoved into the general fund! Just my view point.

The GOP is going after food-stamp recipients and other poor people in an effort to balance the budget. It is doing all it can to impose austerity, which is a failed economic approach.

In 1938, FDR imposed austerity measures, which were a disaser for the country. They caused the depression to linger on for many years.

Only until the second world war when we went to a spend and tax economy.