- What nonsense. Lego doesn’t destroy children’s souls. Now, My Little Pony, on the other hand …
- The ATF: as corrupt as they are cruel and incompetent.
- The 10 states people are leaving. Some surprises at the bottom of the list. No surprises at all at the top.
- Our glorious ally in freedom, Saudi Arabia, has declared all atheists to be terrorists. Of course, Christians were already on their naughty list.
- Good infographic on militarization of policing.
- Does it worry anybody besides me that this list of most popular (actually, just most populated) U.S. jobs contains not a single position in which someone is actually making something? Only the third from the bottom even comes close.
- Anybody need a temporary phone number? (H/T S)
- I personally use StartPage for my searches because … well, Katherine Albrecht. But kudos also to DuckDuckGo, whose very principled CEO is interviewed behind that link.
- The natives are getting even more restless. (Via Sipsey Street)
Lego’s can destroy a parents pocket book though.
How do we know tha the Hushed App isn’t sponsored by the NSA/CIA/DIA/KGB/Berkut etc?
The list of 10 states is not a huge suprise. All on the list would constitute Nanny State. New Mexico looks like a burgeoning Nanny State, combined with no economic opportunity outside of the major urban zones, lack of respect for human rights, and urban enclaves where non-rich aren’t welcome (except as staff), then people leave. The losses are probably young adults and newly retired.
Kansas, well have you been to Kansas? I think people are leaving from shear boredom.
Matt — re: Hushed. We don’t and can’t know that. In fact (as the person who sent the link to me acknowledged), it’s probably best to use a service like Hushed (if using it at all) to guard privacy against stalkers, telemarketers, etc. Or for any time you might need to talk with somebody in the short term but don’t want them having your number in the long run.
“Does it worry anybody besides me that this list of most popular (actually, just most populated) U.S. jobs contains not a single position in which someone is actually making something?”
Good point. The desire to go to college without money or goals, and to consider physical labor as anathema (which is a laugh considering the work they now are doing)… and to not commit to any intellectual input while unable to offer any intellectual output ― has all brought the US to its shallowest level in history. Without science and math, invention, risk-taking, or creativity, there is no way for a country to move forward.
Granted we have been side-tracked by government’s intervention in our lives, especially since 9/11. But that doesn’t explain the impulse not to seek and chase goals. Most of these jobs are “easy”, non-motivating jobs, something to do to make money because that’s the only way to exist. They are not always desirable jobs in their own right, but desirable only because that’s what fills the need of the moment ― for the worker, and for the employer. (Unemployment is *still* up, in spite of all these jobs.) And the employer is taking advantage of it because many of these jobs are part-time, labor pool, or seasonal work, thus offering less pay and no benefits.
Speaking of money, I have to address the fact that nurses make more in this chart.
“Nurses” may be classified across the board, including private duty, home health, office nurses, nurse management and educators, nurse practitioners, etc. (In fact that’s the only way I can account for an “average mean” wage of $68910. I’ve never seen anything near that amount in 50-plus years of nursing.) But nurses, too, have been “downgraded” to part-time and labor pool in the past 10-15 years ― often by employers they’ve worked for for several years ― just so the hospital/office/whatever doesn’t have to pay the higher scale or benefits.
I don’t know if that list of jobs bothers me.
If we saw a list from 100 years ago, farming might have been in it. Do we really want to bring back horse-drawn plows? (Something my mother did as a teenager.)
Mechanization does change the employment landscape. We don’t need so much hand-made furniture because machines do it better and cheaper. Only the rich can afford hand-made stuff.
What bothers me is how many people get a paycheck working for government (never mind all those getting a check for not working). Almost in every city, the number one employer is government.
The militarization of the American public, with their own $$$, in this economic era, would be an interesting article topic. Pretty much every grociery store is selling 3-4 tactical magazines, in addition to a similar number of old school G&A types. It was not that way five years ago. No doubt first person shooter games and the zombie fad has fed this to a degree, but that can’t explain all of it.
I’m glad to get the reminder about DuckDuckGo; I’ll probably start using it some. It’s O.K. as long as we make sure to remember the limitations of our efforts http://android-apps.com/news/the-nsa-comp-can-remotely-access-your-pc-even-when-turned-off-or-offline/
“Does it worry anybody besides me that this list of most popular (actually, just most populated) U.S. jobs contains not a single position in which someone is actually making something?”
I do.
The F.I.R.E. economy plus cheap credit fueled consumerism is a prelude to neo-feudalism.
There are three ways to create wealth: (1) agriculture, (2) mining, and (3) manufacturing.
That the top tier siphons wealth out of a system is inevitable. In a system where little or no wealth is not being created, the middle class ends up broke, then extinct.
And that is where we are.
Jim
re: search engines
Gibiru sounds good – I do not know if Giburu’s claims are valid. From its main page:
[begin excerpt]
Founded in 2009 by Internet Privacy advocats, Gibiru Fully Anonymous Uncensored Search Engine
Featuring
Blocked & Unpersonalized Search Queries
25 Free International Proxy IPs
Single Session Cookie deletion
User Agent Spoofing
and 128 bit encryption
Gibiru is the preferred Search Engine for Patriots.
Gibiru is faster than the NSA Search Engines since it does not install all sorts of personalization and tracking cookies on your system.
Gibiru provides Uncensored and Unpersonalized Anonymous Web and News Results
Gibiru is Not partnered with the NSA so you can Browse the Internet safely the way the Constitution would have intended.
[end excerpt]
Ooooh, hating on MLP? Can’t wait for Erin to show up. 😉
None of those states where they have net population loss is surprising. Most of them are festering pools of progressive pus. New Mexico has the potential to be a nice place to be, but the insane police behavior kills it. Not sure what to say about Kansas. I assume the general aviation industry is in decline, and that’s had an effect. (Yes, I know about the increase in popularity in some classes of aviation, such as ultralights. I don’t believe those things are a boon to Wichita.)
The main bad thing about people leaving most of those states is that they bring the lefty taint with them.
•Does it worry anybody besides me that this list of most popular (actually, just most populated) U.S. jobs contains not a single position in which someone is actually making something?
I’d argue that food prep is “making something,” particularly since it isn’t only fast food. And with modern factories it doesn’t take near as many people to make stuff as it does to sell it. And I’d think Claire would agree that lots of people already have too much stuff. (Except for what we can order on Amazon.)
Kansas, well have you been to Kansas? I think people are leaving from shear boredom.
Or so their kids don’t have to learn creationism.
and to consider physical labor as anathema
But what do we actually manufacture today that requires “physical labor.” Most factories are CNC, CAD, CAM, etc.
Most of these jobs are “easy”, non-motivating jobs, something to do to make money because that’s the only way to exist.
My youngest daughter and her husband would be included in food prep and serving. She manages a very upscale Honolulu restaurant and he’s a chef in another. That’s been their chosen profession for more than 15 years.
Funny about Duck, i just added it this morning when I was dumping all my Mozilla stuff (you either believe in freedom or you don’t). As for Atheists being terrorists, I’m seeing all the signs that just like the Lavender lobby, it’s about power at the end of the day. They no longer want the freedom to believe/not believe, they’re now pushing for Christian persecution. Having been raised by atheists I was all to aware of their embarrassment and shame at the fact that Socialist Atheists were not exactly Freedomistas and had killed more people in 100 years than Christianity had in 1600. But let’s not go crazy, Islam to kill and enslave Christians and will not tolerate atheists competing successfully with them. Maybe it’s always been like this but I’m thinking that a great WW I type slaughter will soon be upon us. People just can’t “tolerate” a free, prosperous and peaceful world. And like WW II it will come down to those who want control fighting it out.
“The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.”
— Warren Bennis, University of Southern California
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is still a significant amount of labor required in manufacturing, even with CAD, CAM…etc.
The elimination of jobs via efficiency improvement is all well and good. In my role as a manufacturing process engineer, I’ve done precisely that. However, the cost reduction for part ‘A’ allowed us to tool up and begin to manufacture part ‘B’ and prompting the need for more employees.
If this US manufacturing plant is offshored to Mexico or China, who benefits long term? Manufacturing creates wealth and high paying jobs. Those with manufacturing jobs could buy what they needed with cash or a check, not with a credit card or loan. A properly functioning economy can operate as a self reinforcing, closed loop system.
One undeniable economic truth is that you cannot do business with someone who has no money. In the current system, rather than spending a good paycheck, the middle class is borrowing itself into oblivion. Aided and abetted by the Federal Reserve and the Finance sector. This situation is not sustainable.
Is restaurant cooking manufacturing? Capital is mixed with raw materials and labor to create a finished product so I suppose it is. But there must be customers with disposable income (or credit) to keep a restaurant afloat.
The good jobs are mostly gone and the “free trade agreement” currently in the works may kill what’s left. When the cheap and easy credit dries up, the only restaurants which survive will be the “upscale” ones. The 99 percenters will not be dining out much.
“My Little Pony” may be soul-killing, but “My Little Pony- Friendship is Magic” actually has some kick and attitude. I was surprised that I can watch those without contemplating suicide. Good thing, since my daughter likes it.
There is still a significant amount of labor required in manufacturing, even with CAD, CAM…etc.
True, and it’s honorable work.
I was responding to “physical labor,” noting that there are fewer “take your ax into the woods and cut down a bunch of trees and shape them into logs to make a cabin” type jobs. Now you have someone in a factory (much more productively) operating the machine that makes steel 2X4 studs.
A properly functioning economy can operate as a self reinforcing, closed loop system.
On a planetary scale, perhaps. World commerce was invented shortly after the wheel. There’s nothing magical about manufacturing jobs. Without transportation, sales, management, and all the others, you won’t get the finished product.
Toyota is becoming more efficient by replacing robots with humans.