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One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?

finance.fortune.cnn.com

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Re: One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?

#101

Post by sixtofour »

namdnay wrote: post #82
danenania wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of them produce useful goods and services, but at a drastically lower efficiency than the private sector due to lack of competition and economic incentives (spending other people´s money). Still it´s good that someone is planning out the roads and running fire departments, even if they´re bad at it. On the other hand, the government also produces a lot of counterproductive ´services´ like war, financial meltdown…

"the government also produces [...] financial meltdowns, and software patents": Huh? Isn't that a) Banks and b) Software companies?

Pretty sure he meant that the govt enables software patents.

Re: One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?

#102

Post by achompas »

oneofthefive wrote: post #75
achompas wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes sense, as financial firms want to avoid cash-strapped employees who might sell HFT algorithms to competing firms for money.

Your credit score has nothing to do with being strapped for cash. You can have plenty of cash and a bad or nonexistent credit score.

What you're saying is true, but It's difficult to imagine a common scenario where someone with a lot of poor credit decisions has a lot of cash on hand, as those credit decisions usually occur because of limited cash flow.

Also, companies can tell when low scores result from sparse history or poor decisions. They don't just get a 3-digit number. The issue here isn't low scores per se, but low scores resulting from poor history.

Re: One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?

#103

Post by achompas »

ck2 wrote: post #98
achompas wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, and you're not even discussing the subsequent tariff war. Other countries would tax the hell out of American goods, global demand for our goods will fall, we'd produce less, companies would make less money, and people would lose their jobs.

We barely sell anything overseas as it is - what exactly are they going to "tax the hell out of" ? Have you seen the mountain of shipping containers in our ports from inbounds with no outbounds? They are stacked a dozen high over HUNDREDS of acres of land. No exaggeration. We are the only potential consumers of our own products - because every other job has been shipped overseas that can easily shipped. Most of what…

I'm tired of hearing this from people. The US exported more than every country except China and Germany last year.[0] We're the leading producer of airplane components and engines, and we still produce a high volume of heavy equipment that goes overseas.

[0] http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_exp-economy-exports

Re: One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?

#104

Post by nowarninglabel »

sixtofour wrote: post #99
nowarninglabel wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an interesting chart, although it's for state prisons, drug offenses are the main source of incarcerations for federal prisons: http://www.bop.gov/news/quick.jsp#2

"federal prison inmates only account for six percent of the total incarcerated population" From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_Sta... I couldn't find a better breakdown of fed vs state prisoner population numbers.

Yes, I think that does mean your original point still stands, although not to quite the same gap as when looked at state prisons alone.

Re: One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?

#105

Post by danenania »

paulcedars wrote: post #78
danenania wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of them produce useful goods and services, but at a drastically lower efficiency than the private sector due to lack of competition and economic incentives (spending other people´s money). Still it´s good that someone is planning out the roads and running fire departments, even if they´re bad at it. On the other hand, the government also produces a lot of counterproductive ´services´ like war, financial meltdown…

I think that your position is ideological and not correct. The government provides institutions that lower risk to the rest of the economy and enable more stability and growth. Is regulatory capture a problem at some agencies? Sure. Are some departments outdated or ineffective? Sure. But it is irresponsible to look at a few cases and claim that the entire government is a problem. You want to see less government? Visi…

"You want to see less government? Visit Yemen or gangster Russia"

Quite a strange statement given that the governments of both those countries are central to their problems and deeply involved in crime and corruption themselves. In Yemen the government employees shoot innocent people in broad daylight with impunity. Real libertarian haven they've got there.

Re: One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?

#106

Post by [deleted] »

paulcedars wrote: post #78
danenania wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of them produce useful goods and services, but at a drastically lower efficiency than the private sector due to lack of competition and economic incentives (spending other people´s money). Still it´s good that someone is planning out the roads and running fire departments, even if they´re bad at it. On the other hand, the government also produces a lot of counterproductive ´services´ like war, financial meltdown…

I think that your position is ideological and not correct. The government provides institutions that lower risk to the rest of the economy and enable more stability and growth. Is regulatory capture a problem at some agencies? Sure. Are some departments outdated or ineffective? Sure. But it is irresponsible to look at a few cases and claim that the entire government is a problem. You want to see less government? Visi…

[deleted]

Re: One in five American men don't work: Where's the outrage?

#107

Post by astrec »

dschobel wrote: post #97
astrec wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you on a 457 visa by any chance?

yep

I suspect you'll find that clause in your contract is to protect your sponsoring employer from liability in the event that you declare bankruptcy. That is, they cease to be your sponsor and thus absolve themselves of any liability.
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