Corporate puppet Thomas Friedman: Average is Over

[geefloyd46]

Everything was great in America and everyone got along. He missed slavery and the labor fights for wages. It turns out everyone got along in old time America. You got to be excellent from the same guy who wanted to get a couple of American boys to kick in the doors in Iraq and they'd thank us. It just shows that some people can't be so wrong that they lose your job. The ones at the NY Times are people who can get the story so wrong in a new way.

[geefloyd46]

1. The fruit lady who probably doesn't have health care but can still get him an extra cantelope

thank God for the fruit lady. Her boss later found out about and fired her butt because she was costing him money. From his perspective she was a below average waitress. It always great when the corporate titans and their lap dogs from NYTimes pat the little people on the head.

[blackspade]

2. He is living in a fantasy land.

[drynberg]

3. AND NOW, THE BRIDGE BIDDING SECTION OF OUR PROGRAM...

Who will start the bidding for this fine bridge crossing the East River, New York! It's called the Brookyn Bridge...

[jtuck004]

4. There are some things I don't like about him, but I am waiting for specific facts

from anyone that can prove he is wrong about how hyper-connected we are, how that gives people with capital access to smart (and to other people), and how much that is going to lead to a worse world for a lot of people. People here today.

And that means instead of taking potshots at this idiot most people ought to be studying the technology to figure out how they are going to have a place in a future that is increasingly being built without their old-ass and outdated skills in mind. Many people ought to be engaged in picking out a nice ditch to live the rest of their life in while they try to survive with their new McJob. If they even have that.

Look at the job stats. the JOLTS survey says there are 3.1 people looking for each job, but they are lying to us. They leave out the millions that, reported in the unemployment survey, say they want work, they need work, but there are no jobs out there to even apply to. They are ignored because they have been moved to the "not in job market". Do the math - it's simple addition. There are at least 8 or more people looking for EVERY job.

Wait - I just lied to you as well. There is a whole world, connected to these companies, for which they can bring in, or outsource, the work you think you are the only one that can do. Now the pool for most jobs is more like 100 to 1.

Wait - that's a lie too. If you can work at that job for 20 years, and learn it well, so that you can do it in your sleep, someone can write it down and program it into a machine that will do it for a little electricity.

Buh-bye.

Is that every job? No. In our last jobs report it showed we created 70,000 jobs for people in the travel and fast food industry, jobs which, averaged nationally, pay about $13 to $15/hr. (May want to remember that you can increase your tips by just giving someone a little extra fruit. And maybe the boss won't fire you if he thinks you are bringing in business). The same report said over 200,000 people lost their full time jobs.

We are pushing an immigration bill. Immigration is one of the strengths of our country. When this country was being built it was the immigrant experience of working together that helped make us strong. The CBO says that the immigration bill will make us stronger economically.

In 2033. (You planning on living to 110?)

If you read the details it says that it will increase unemployment for about the next decade, because it will increase the number of people looking for jobs.

The era of cheap exploitation of our resources, both natural and human, is gone. Now we are trying to exploit the whole world (our housing market is being supported by those dollars, our food is dependant on it, so please don't kid your self that you aren't part of it).

That advice of his, to think like an immigrant, realize that you are in a new land, with a new language, and that no one owes you anything - that's not bad advice. Whether you like him or not, it's going to be irrelevant if you wind up with no home or retirement.

I may think he's a racist dick, wouldn't want him as my neighbor even if I got to live in a much nicer home. But it would be a logical fallacy to think that some of what he is talking about is false just because of that.

[geefloyd46]

5. No doubt he's giving real advice for the real world.

The problem is he has helped create this world. As back in the old days aristocrats had jesters. We have the news and so called journalists who give you the straight scoop. Friedman is clearly a well-connected "journalist" who's wife's company owned Fanuel Hall, which is one of the richest tourist properties in Boston. What Friedman has been great at is giving advice to the downtrodden. Maybe that waitress could swing by his address and see if she can get in the front door.

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[jtuck004]

6. Accurate (or snide) observations won't put 100 million people back to work,

send their kids to college, provide an income that lets them have any kind of retirement, pay for health care.
Even for the waitress. Nice house too, but kick him out and sell it and it wouldn't have paid for the repairs in
the collapse of the I-35 bridge, and thus pretty unimportant in the larger scheme of things.

The really important part is that if his observations are accurate, and and so far I have heard no factual evidence
that his observations are not generally correct, then there are perhaps a couple hundred million of our neighbors
in real trouble going forward - while they are being told that everything is going to be just fine.

Respectfully, I don't care a whit about him. He is taken care of. And spending time on that misses the larger,
and damn-well more serious picture.

His thoughts, however, merit attention.

[geefloyd46]

7. And following a word this guy says won't put people to work.

He is well paid by the people who put 100 million people out of work. The fact are those jobs sailed and the people who he represents cashed in. He will teach how to get a job, just before his backers send that job overseas. I guess that's the summation of what I see. The people who have done this clearly buy politicians and they clearly buy journalist and in my opinion Friedman has been a willing commodity. Another words I would agree: he's the symptom not the main problem. After the war went south Friedman actually had a period of time a "Friedman moment", google it, because he declared we were on the verge of victory so many times before the end of war. All's I'm saying if somebody had to good at his job he isn't and by his own philosophy why does he still get to write articles, put out books, and appear on television putting out his simplistic view of the world.

[jtuck004]

8. Enjoy your hate Firedman soiree, I have more important things to do.

Still waiting for anything factual that disputes the observations in that little sales talk, as opposed to one more of 312,000,000 opinions, worth about .000000003 something cents. Each.

[geefloyd46]

9. Apparently you don't because you keep responding back.

And I'm still waiting for one thing factual his sales talk. It is all largely his opinion and if you want to agree with him, you are more than entitled to. It is my opinion, which I am certainly as entitled to as you, that his whole life is a counter point to his own talk: namely he has been rewarded for mediocrity or for just getting things wrong many times over. He has picked in chosen what facts he has chosen to give you and he does so in an entertaining style.

[jtuck004]

10. Well, I was trying to be polite, and give you the benefit of the doubt,

to see if there was anything substantive. But while he provides supporting information to his assertions, and facts in life around us underwrite what he says,
you provide snarky comments, your own prejudice, and a level of analysis that would be more appropriate in a junior high locker room. Iow, nothing really useful, except perhaps for some real estate agent.

But the post above seems to indicate that it is enough to appear to be playing with oneself, taking potshots at people who are trying to accomplish things instead of discussing the ideas, and that may be all you have to offer. But perhaps, like the child who grows tall enough to get on the ride with the adults, one day there may be more to offer.

You are entertaining in your own right, but my standards are higher. But you are right about one thing, so I won't make that mistake again. Enjoy the echo...

Bye

[geefloyd46]

11. On behalf of snarky junior high students I find your comments funny too

Mr. Friedman offers a deep reservoir of supporting information that holds up beautifully when you don't consider everything the guy has ever written or his whole careet. Maybe I'm a little less impressed by his "supporting information" than you are but I think you are entitled to your opinion. Don't worry I wouldn't be bowled over to hear Dick Cheney's "supporting information" on what he thinks we should do next in the middle east. Take care too.