VALUE IN EDUCATION

One of my favorite blogs, a chock full of stuff site, is ThomasNet Industrial News Room. If you don't already subscribe to this free site, take a look. Everyday the site has informative and useful information.

Today was no exception, and I think it dovetails with Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner's Friday, November 7, 2008 "Statement . . . that non farm payroll employment declined by 240,000 in October, and the unemployment rate rose to 6.5 percent."

Sure, there are all avenues of excuses now why employment is the lowest since we can remember in this lifetime, YA-BUT,what about manufacturing?

If you are a manufacturer or a dealer, do you not receive, on a daily basis, at least four major auction notices a day of some manufacturing business going to auction? According to an article written by David R. Butcher, NEW EDUCATION COUNCIL TO SHAPE MANUFACTURING WORKFORCE, some higher houses of learning are taking notice --we are losing our manufacturing expertise.

Now there's an epiphany. We've only been shipping the jobs and the technology offshore for the last thirty years. Dare I say that dreaded word, "DUH?"

Further, the article says, "As International competition intensifies, U.S. manufacturers are having a difficult time finding qualified people to replace the retiring baby boom generation in increasingly sophisticated, high-tech, jobs. Well double "DUH."

Wasn't it in Europe, I believe Germany the leader in this, where a K-12 student was led down the path of either college or trade school. Those that attended and finished trade school are engineer quality. Now the U.S. is recognizing this as a possible solution. Teach science, and math. I happen to be a proponent of liberal arts and I fervently believe that you need art, music and communication as well as physics to be literate. The history of the great thinkers of the world is that they could think in more than one dimension. Mathematicians were philosophers and great artists were mathematicians -- hand in glove.

If the jobs aren't here, if the wages aren't here, if the manufacturing plants aren't here, are we going to ship the new hierarchy of educated machinists and engineers to China to join the rest of our technology.

Come on now. If we want to compete, lets compete. Quit listening to those silly MBA's who hedge funds to put and mostly take. And unions, get real. You can't have it all. You may have to subsidize your own health insurance, I've been paying my full tab for more that thirty-years. Some of you will have to learn like most small businessmen, to support yourself if you want to survive. Keep manufacturing here in the U.S. so that we can compete and cut the deficit -- you think that a new administration is going to save you? Uncle Vinnie would say fugit-about-it. The new admin is going to help those who already stand on their own two feet because we are running out of money.