Every one wants to condemn our federal government for making all these trade deals and ruining our economy and in this case it is the states that are outsourcing the jobs. Say it would cost even 20% more for a US firm to build the bridge the rolloever impact on the local economy would get that back in no time. Obvoiusly these leaders or business planners don't know much about economic growth. Short of welders?? When the turbine industry decided to land in our area our tech college ran three shifts 6 days per week and turned out the lower skill welders fast and also trained the more skilled ones as well. Sounds like a poor excuse to me but I don't know the tech college system of other states either.

Bryce

I can only speak for the field I work in,but most of the employees we hire and its a bunch show up early,work hard and give it there best.I'm in Michigan right now and we have 60 workers on the payroll,all in all there pretty good help.We have pre hire 10 panel drug testing and a breathalizer.Plus randoms,we have had zero positives!So you see there are good honest hardworking people out there....B.....

I can tell you this about welding. You won't train a welder to be able to weld structural steel in a few weeks. The operators are the same story that is why it takes a 4 year apprenticeship for most trades.

Drifter

From what I've seen the guys with a background in heavy equipment(dad had equipment or uncle john did) make the best operators.Get a good one and he's worth his weight in gold,get a bad one and you'll pull your hair out!
The best I ever saw were in the Mountains of WV,MD and PA,bar none,them boys are top notch....B....

This is the issue I am running into and seeing . I hired a kid last week to help with my landscaping ,he was afraid to get dirty. I hired another kid I knew of for $15.00hr yesterday to help no show. I can't get anyone that wants to work for anything more than beer money.I was in the same biz for about twenty years and this was an escalating and continuing problem until I hired mexicans .Then problem resolved ...had to tell em to stop working. Next back to foreigners they have a sense of responsibility and pride .Something lacking in USA as it has been destroyed by our gov't and modern upbringing . We have become a nation of lazy dependent good for nothings and it's only going to get worse .

By Pa I assume you mean the farm kids here and not the Philiy, Pittsburgh, Erie Harrisburg etc ones. With all the gas drilling, Fracing, pipelines etc going on here, lots of kids start out but it seems only the farm kids can produce and stay at it. Another thing, when I graduated form high school, most guys either went to service or college and their college studys were in chemistry, physics, engineering and math, things that made jobs. Not history, english, biology and all the psych stuff that they take now. In the 20 years that I have been here there are so few going into the science and engineering fields it is really sad. Visiting schools those fields are filled with all foreigners(many of who become good American citizens). What a big loss......jk

Now you've gone and done it. You've told the real truth and taken one of the quick and easy come back excuses from those who listen to the lies spread by some of our most popular talk show fools..... I guess the real story will never get in the way of a convienent story for some though.

It won't be long 'till some of our bussiness leaders have us begging to gain the standard of living they will have in India and China. They will still live some of the highest lifestyles in the world, and the faster they can bring down american wages the faster they will get there. The economic difficulties have hurt them little and, in many cases, have been more profitable for them.

The funny thing about this whole Union,EPA,Child Labor,etc is that at one point in time our country had none of them and the people stood up and created them, as well they should have and with the way human nature is they kept asking for more and more.There was a time when lake erie was just about toxic,there was a time when 12 years old was old enough to go to work,there was a time if you really got hurt at work your career was over.All of that stuff needed attention and it got it,now some of it is out of control.I understand that,people that are in charge of that stuff have jobs and want to keep them.
But remember these, the very same companys that abused all of those things have now moved to countrys where the govts can be bought off.
So don't for one second think they don't need oversight,I do however agree they are out of control on a lot of things....B.....

Interesting, You don't figure our government is bought off. Secondly, the last time I researched this, Unions were the biggest political contributors in the U.S. Just a fact, not a judgement.

So you think our Govt.can be bought off to where some corperation can dump toxic waste in a river or get by the child labor laws and I did include the Unions in the whole speal!
Which part of that didn't you get?

9 of the top 15 political contributors between 1989-2012 were Unions and gave over 90% of their money to the Democrats. 3 of the top 15 were corporations and they gave out the money pretty much 50/50.

Source: OpenSecrets.Org.

I'll try to confirm.

This is what I found when I googled it.

Lobbying in Washington Top Spenders
All years (1998-2012)


Lobbying Client
Total

US Chamber of Commerce
$885,975,680

General Electric
$274,100,000

American Medical Assn
$274,017,500

Pharmaceutical Rsrch & Mfrs of America
$224,263,920

American Hospital Assn
$223,869,136

AARP
$217,612,064

National Assn of Realtors
$194,515,133

Blue Cross/Blue Shield
$191,197,552

Northrop Grumman
$180,565,253

Exxon Mobil
$176,362,742

Verizon Communications
$167,546,543

Edison Electric Institute
$165,566,789

Boeing Co
$164,139,310

Business Roundtable
$162,910,000

Lockheed Martin
$158,350,688

AT&T Inc
$145,529,336

Southern Co
$138,680,694

National Cable & Telecommunications Assn
$132,340,000

General Motors
$131,704,170

Pfizer Inc
$126,227,268



From this list, I believe we can see why their is a healthcare crisis in this country. Many unions did very bad damage to themselves in the late 80s through the 90s. But anyone who claims that unions are the problem with our economy, or even a major part of it, is not considering the facts.

Now, look up campaign contributions.

Lobbying money goes to lobbying firms. Campaign contributions go to the politicians.

I suspect the numbers will show that the government is bought off by the unions not corporations, as is incessantly claimed by many.

One should also give a look at the "Super PAC Contributors"(group and individuals giving more than half million dollars to back their party/candidate). Seven of the top ten back the Rep. candidates. Two of the three that back the dems are unions.

The supreme court has found that attempting to buy elections is not as frowned upon as most American think it should be.
Unions or individuals, democrate or republican, these PACs are not good for a republic like we'd like ours to be.

From all the facts, or data that is supposed to factual, you would be wrong in that suspicion.

Everyone has the right to favor unions, hate them, or not care one way or the other. I see the need for unions. I can also see that they cannot be allowed to be the tail that wags the dog. I am curious, though, as to why those who hate them so strongly, do so.

But that doesn't completely describe contributions. 2 of the top 10 may be union pacs, but how many total union pacs are there and how much do they spend?

I'm not sure which party has been given the most money. I'm not even sure who has the most PACs in their corner. The list is made up of something like 112 contributors. Some individuals have givens millions by themselves.

It's funny, when I read through the list, it makes me angry to see any person or group doing what I believe is attempting to buy an election, no matter which party they support.

To bad we aren't able to take the top five ideas from BO, MR, and Ron Paul and hammer out some way to use the ones that would really better the country.

One source I read said that 159 Congressmen list unions as their top political contributors.

I think this is going to be tough to shake out. Independent spending by unions does not have to be reported to the FEC. The list I gave earlier as the all time top donors means what, maybe direct contribution to candidates. Work in progress, may not be able to compare apples to apples. The only consistent things is overwhelming support of Democrats by Unions.