As I read the September 25Th publication of Newsweek Magazine, I found this interesting report from Rana Foroohar ( http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/25/new-jobs-are-twhere-the-workers-are.html ) where she declares that "The Great Recession that began in December of 2007 offically ended in June of 2009". This came as part of the news flash of last week from the National Bureau of Economic Research.
But more interesting to me were the facts shared about the unemployment crisis and how much influence politics of the times play in the numbers; and the social implications that go in hand with the situation. As explained, there are political presures to delay the hiring process in certaing regions of the country(or the reports of good trends) in benefit of political candidates looking to unseat incombents from power. Three fields are carrying the bigger hit to the economy, construction, manufacturing (automotive sector) and finance but sectors related to health and education are growing strongly!
As the reporter made the point to suggest that the GOP (being in full campaing) will stall on any plan from the administration to create a bank infrastruture that will help allocate skillful and retrained workers to available jobs; the point is clear that the unemployed workers live elsewhere from were the employments are! In clarifying, Rana mentions that "there are plenty of jobs in places like DC, South Carolina; North Dakota; and Luisiana. But the unemployment in Nevada, Michigan, California and Florida can't afford to take them."
Paradise in Puerto rico
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Undercover Boss!
For all of us who like to see new business reality shows in cable broadcast tv, there is a new series of the “Undercover Boss” show on CBS airing in late September!
As featured in the September 27, 2010 edition of the Fortune magazine; three CEO’s took time to go undercover as front line employees (with false ids, changing hair color and more) and took company basic trainings to become satellite dish installers, forklift operators, customer service rep. and even a rear-tire carrier for NASCAR. The common denominator seemed to be the disconnection of high level management and common employee and the appreciation(mostly lack of) level for the hard work expected from the workers.
The Fortune magazine interviews of the Chiquita Brands, Nascar, Great Wolf resorts and Direct TV CEO”s was excellent but I will be looking for the TV show that will showcase some of the human factors affecting the front line workers and the respective recommendations for change proposed by the “converted” CEOs.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Today, I wake up at 3:30 in the morning (thanks to my cell phone’s alarm) and jumped out of my Holiday Inn room to catch a Philly cab to the airport. To my surprise, right behind the driver’s seat there was a credit card swapping device that allowed me to include a tip and print a receipt like in any self served store cashier!
Technology and convenience working together at their best! And as I got to the boarding check point In the airport, I saw this couple with their baby been pull out from the line because they had big bags of baby stuff, including baby food, baby drinks and medications. I thought, “inspectors are going to throw everything away for fear of chemicals and explosives” but to my surprise, they pull out this strange looking metal gun with an air filter that was pointed around each bottle like a drug sniffing dog. And in a blink of a second the couple got their whole bag inspected and released for their baby enjoyment.
I got to my plane without any delays and as I reflected on our class discussions about the current generation of techno-boomers, I smiled. Just in a couple of hours, I discovered myself in the realization of my generation gap and still feeling proud of my capacity to understand what I have seen without the fear of not having control of the speed in which technology changes this days.
As Michael Kinsley published in the Atlantic of October, 2010(http://www.theatlantic.com/); we, the baby boomers have three presidents representing our “generational time” Clinton, Bush and now Obama. And in the opinion of most Americans, we came after the “Great Generation” that won the World War II and took our country to its highest level of greatness after defeating communism, the great depression and giving us prosperity and wealth. Now, after less than 20 years of switching party’s presidencies Kinsley adds; “The CBO projects that the national debt – nearly 62 percent of GDP – will rise to 87 % by 2020 and to 185 % by 2035.”
He, propose a generational legacy to the Baby Boomers and embarks on the idea that we should clean the bill for our children. As insane as it may sound, he insist that we should try on behalf of our national interest because our debt is unsustainable and we need to change our image of self absorbed and selfish.
The problem on his idea is that in order to accomplish this, “we must tax” estates and family wealthy inheritances that go beyond the necessary means because contrary to popular thinking; that won’t be double taxation because “people who leave estates of more than $1 million didn’t earn this amount through wages… fortunes consist of unrealized capital gains”.
As I looked out my window at more than 37 thousand feet from the ground and see some of our beautiful landscapes, farms, rivers and mountains; I know we must do something to change our economy course. These ideas may sound too drastic or even more philosophical than practical, but as a parent and conscious citizen; we are responsible for the fiscal mess and still have time to turn our spending habits to a much fiscally responsible level. We are considered the generation of the Civil Rights and the enforcers of social equity; our children deserve a better economic future!
Monday, September 13, 2010
The Best of me!
I can't believe I'm over 50 years old already! A Latino American born and raised in Puerto Rico who migrated to Pennsylvania 21 years ago and had nothing but will and a brain to build on a dream. As I came to Philadelphia to leave with relatives until I could bring my family with me, I continuously told myself there was no room for failure. And no welfare or unemployment or any entitlement programs ever crossed my mind because I was too proud to accept anything but a chance to work. I wanted to prove my sons, my three most valuable treasures that no matter what; an honest, hard working and law abiding men always have a chance to success.
And work I found in Philadelphia, starting with the IRS as a Tax Examiner and then worked a second job as a Case Worker for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. No time for game, day and night shifts that eventually helped to bring my family with me!
I still work for the Commonwealth and have plenty of beautiful memories and great professional experiences but my last 5 years have been incredible. My three sons now grown up men, all joined the military life! Two marines and one army soldier; all decided to put their lives in the line defending our US values. They are now veterans from the Iraq war! Not without much pain and and anguish from all our family members who saw them depart and prayed every day until they returned to us.
They are the best of me! They are my all and then some more and I can only hope that God will bless me with time and opportunities to let them know how much pride I feel for what they have done for this country! But instead, they continue to bring joy to our family and last year gave me the privilege to become a grandpa!
And then I have to count my blessings again! Not only they are the best of me, they now have the opportunity to learned about the gifts of parenthood and the chance to become immortals in the extensions of life that we acquire from our children!
And work I found in Philadelphia, starting with the IRS as a Tax Examiner and then worked a second job as a Case Worker for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. No time for game, day and night shifts that eventually helped to bring my family with me!
I still work for the Commonwealth and have plenty of beautiful memories and great professional experiences but my last 5 years have been incredible. My three sons now grown up men, all joined the military life! Two marines and one army soldier; all decided to put their lives in the line defending our US values. They are now veterans from the Iraq war! Not without much pain and and anguish from all our family members who saw them depart and prayed every day until they returned to us.
They are the best of me! They are my all and then some more and I can only hope that God will bless me with time and opportunities to let them know how much pride I feel for what they have done for this country! But instead, they continue to bring joy to our family and last year gave me the privilege to become a grandpa!
And then I have to count my blessings again! Not only they are the best of me, they now have the opportunity to learned about the gifts of parenthood and the chance to become immortals in the extensions of life that we acquire from our children!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Immigration & Business - Immi/ness(Also imminet!!)
One of the biggest problems in US economy of our times seems to grow from the basic law's of supply and demand, the unstoppable immigration! We have entered in a race of global businesses were there is an obvious gap between the high level Corporate businessmen and our common working class who have seen the fields of good paying jobs shrink, while hospitality and agricultural opportunities are filled by undocumented workers some times accepting less than minimum wages.
Today, the rich is more rich than ever and the poor have little advances on salary while dealing with a much depreciated dollar and higher cost of living.But the blame is always given to the weakest link, the human being without a voice, the exploited who will put his life on the line just to have a slim chance to live the American life even at the expense of never seeing those he love the most ever again!
Nobody dares to challenge the CEO for exporting thousands of jobs every year and investing their US profits in foreign lands. You don't hear the "Made in America" or Buy American" slogans anymore because labor movement have been silenced and media have made everybody believed that globalization is the best thing that ever happened to us.
The people in US is desperate to a point where even spiritually speaking the majority believe that we are at the end of times, there is not just a lack of trust in political leadership but in the economic wisdom of the scholars and the models they propose too! There are no more pure Capitalism or Communism in the world! China loves the changes that foreign capital investment have created for them while Castro is resigned to accept that Cuba's model is obsolete! No pure models could survive the new world order of global dependency.
And that may be precisely what US needs to understand about immigrant workers. We need them to survive the demands of times. I truly believe we have the solution of the problem at our fingertips but the politicization of the matter prevent good leaders from doing the right thing and keep polarizing the people in exchange for a seat of power. We are in debt, and immigrants are willing to pay for a workers visa without naturalization, Our agriculture and hospitality industries need hardworking hands and our children don't want to get their hands dirty! It's not rocket science, we can legislate good immigration reform as long as we stop cynicism and ethnic discrimination as a political tool to mobilize the white vote. We should have the brain power to write such legislation in a bipartisan way, but only is we have our people at heart and not another excuse to enlarge the pockets of the wealthy while impoverishing our low working class and pretending to export democracy to a world that already know we are not necessarily, the center of it!
Today, the rich is more rich than ever and the poor have little advances on salary while dealing with a much depreciated dollar and higher cost of living.But the blame is always given to the weakest link, the human being without a voice, the exploited who will put his life on the line just to have a slim chance to live the American life even at the expense of never seeing those he love the most ever again!
Nobody dares to challenge the CEO for exporting thousands of jobs every year and investing their US profits in foreign lands. You don't hear the "Made in America" or Buy American" slogans anymore because labor movement have been silenced and media have made everybody believed that globalization is the best thing that ever happened to us.
The people in US is desperate to a point where even spiritually speaking the majority believe that we are at the end of times, there is not just a lack of trust in political leadership but in the economic wisdom of the scholars and the models they propose too! There are no more pure Capitalism or Communism in the world! China loves the changes that foreign capital investment have created for them while Castro is resigned to accept that Cuba's model is obsolete! No pure models could survive the new world order of global dependency.
And that may be precisely what US needs to understand about immigrant workers. We need them to survive the demands of times. I truly believe we have the solution of the problem at our fingertips but the politicization of the matter prevent good leaders from doing the right thing and keep polarizing the people in exchange for a seat of power. We are in debt, and immigrants are willing to pay for a workers visa without naturalization, Our agriculture and hospitality industries need hardworking hands and our children don't want to get their hands dirty! It's not rocket science, we can legislate good immigration reform as long as we stop cynicism and ethnic discrimination as a political tool to mobilize the white vote. We should have the brain power to write such legislation in a bipartisan way, but only is we have our people at heart and not another excuse to enlarge the pockets of the wealthy while impoverishing our low working class and pretending to export democracy to a world that already know we are not necessarily, the center of it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)