[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Take a Look At The Kind Of Jobs Created Last Month

[Morton K. Brussel]

FYI  --mkb See you in September; We're off to the east coast.

Begin forwarded message:
>
> Paul Craig Roberts: 'Watching the economy crumble'
> Date: Wednesday, August 10 @ 08:57:39 EDT
> Topic: Economic Policy
>
> Good News! Soon You'll No Longer Need an Expensive College  
> Education to Work in the US
>
> By Paul Craig Roberts, CounterPunch
>
> The US continues its descent into the Third World, but you would  
> never know it from news reports of the Bureau of Labor Statistics'  
> July payroll jobs release.
>
> The media gives a bare bones jobs report that is misleading. The  
> public heard that 207,000 jobs were created in July. If not a  
> reassuring figure, at least it is not a disturbing one. On the  
> surface things look to be pretty much OK. It is when you look into  
> the composition of these jobs that the concern arises.
>
> Of the new jobs, 26,000 (about 13%) are tax-supported go! vernment  
> jobs. That leaves 181,000 private sector jobs. Of these private  
> sector jobs, 177,000, or 98%, are in the domestic service sector.
>
> Here is the breakdown of the major categories:
> * 30,000 food servers and bar tenders;
> * 28,000 health care and social assistance:
> * 12,000 real estate;
> * 6,000 credit intermediation;
> * 8,000 transit and ground passenger transportation;
> * 50,000 retail trade; and
> * 8,000 wholesale trade.
>
>
>
> (There were 7,000 construction jobs, most of which were filled by  
> Mexicans immigrants.)
>
> Not a single one of these jobs produces a tradable good or service  
> that can be exported or serve as an import substitute to help  
> reduce the massive and growing US trade deficit. The US economy is  
> employing people to sell things, to move people around, and to  
> serve them fast food and alcoholic beverages. The items may have an  
> American brand name, but they are mainly made off shore. For  
> example, 70% of Wal-Mart's goods are made in China.
>
> Where are the jobs for the 65,000 engineers the US graduates each  
> year? Where are the jobs for the physics, chemistry, and math  
> majors? Who needs a university degree to wait tables and serve  
> drinks, to build houses, to work as hospital orderlies, bus  
> drivers, and sales clerks?
>
> In the 21st century job growth in the US economy has consistently  
> reflected that of a Third World country--low productivity domestic  
> services jobs. This goes on month after month and no one catches  
> on--least of all the economists and the policymakers.
>
> Economists assume that every high productivity, high paying job  
> that is shipped out of the country is a net gain for America. We  
> are getting things cheaper, they say. Perhaps, for a while, until  
> the dollar goes. What the cheaper goods argument overlooks are the  
> reductions in the productivity and pay of employed Americans and in  
> the manufacturing, technical, and scientific capability of the US  
> economy.
>
> What is the point ! of higher education when the job opportunities  
> in the economy do not require it?
>
> These questions are too difficult for economists, politicians, and  
> newscasters. Instead, we hear that "last month the US economy  
> created 207,000 jobs."
>
> Television has an inexhaustible supply of optimistic economists.
>
> Last weekend CNN had John Rutledge (erroneously billed as the  
> person who drafted President Reagan's economic program) explaining  
> that the strength of the US economy was "mom and pop businesses."  
> The college student with whom I was watching the program broke out  
> laughing.
>
> What mom and pop businesses? Everything that used to be mom and pop  
> businesses has been replaced with chains and discount retailers.  
> Auto parts stores are chains, pharmacies are chains, restaurants  
> are chains. Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Lowes, have destroyed  
> hardware stores, clothing stores, appliance stores, building supply  
> stores, gardening shops, whatever--you name it. Just try starting a  
> small ! business today. Most gasoline station/convenience stores  
> seem to be the property of immigrant ethnic groups who acquired  
> them with the aid of a taxpayer-financed US government loan.
>
> Today a mom and pop business is a cleaning service that employs  
> Mexicans, a pool service, a lawn service, or a limo service.
>
> In recent years the US economy has been kept afloat by low interest  
> rates. The low interest rates have fueled a real estate boom. As  
> housing prices rise, people refinance their mortgages, take equity  
> out of their homes and spend the money, thus keeping the consumer  
> economy going.
>
> The massive American trade and budget deficits are covered by the  
> willingness of Asian countries, principally Japan and China, to  
> hold US government bonds and to continue to acquire ownership of  
> America's real assets in exchange for their penetration of US markets.
>
> This game will not go on forever. When it stops, what is left to  
> drive the US economy?
>
> Paul Craig Roberts! has held a number of academic appointments and  
> has contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as  
> Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration.  
> His graduate economics education was at the University of Virginia,  
> the University of California at Berkeley, and Oxford University. He  
> is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at:  
> paulcraigroberts at yahoo.com
>
>
> Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/private/peace-discuss/attachments/20050813/1a4363ed/attachment.htm