Greenspan Says Workers' Lack of Skills Lowers Wages

[Rose Siding]

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, disputing election-year assertions that the U.S. economy is producing lower-quality jobs than it has in the past, said yesterday that continuing wage sluggishness reflects the fact that many workers are ill-prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that the economy offers.

Growing U.S. income inequality largely reflects differences in workers' education and job skills, not an underlying problem with the economy, Greenspan said during a House Financial Services Committee hearing, echoing many of the remarks he made before a Senate committee the day before.

The growing pay gap reflects the "skill premium" commanded by relatively higher-educated, better-trained workers, and represents "a major problem of matching skills of workers to the technological base of the economy, which I believe is an education issue and requires that we address that as quickly and broadly as we can."
...
Because of how information is collected, there is no way to know whether a new hire at a retail company is flipping burgers in the kitchen or overseeing global operations from a headquarters office.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4121-2004Jul21.html?nav=rss_politics

[2Design]

1. yes I remember this propoganda in the early ninties.....

you don't have the skills....(hint we want younger people)

hint now (we want cheaper people)

the jobs created pay low....you need no skill and no education to do them....

[lottie244]

30. You have to really be skilled in bilking folks out of their life-savings

to be paid six figure salaries. Isn't that right Mr. Lay?

[lottie244]

31. You need a degree from a 'degree mill' to get a job with Bush regime

Just ask Sen Snowe. You really need to be skilled at lying, cheating, stealing, smearing and shifting the blame for all problems to the other side to earn your six-figure salaries. Learn how to kiss-ass, suck-up, spin and smear. You will be worth at least 1 million.

[mulethree]

33. if they gave you the job without the degree

they might have to pay you for overtime :(

[PeaceProgProsp]

2. Thanks for destroying public education so that nobody can get skilz

Thanks a lot.

[physioex]

3. I disagree...Lack of JOBS lowers wages....

And this man is the chief economist in this country... :spank:

[schultzee]

4. The jobs are leaving Greenspan , you greed pig

[madrchsod]

5. al-go fuck yourself

i heard this shit for years and every time we retrain ,you assholes pull the off shore or mexico bullshit and there goes our jobs. al- go fuck off

[BiggJawn]

29. Yeah, same shit we were fed back in the 80's.

Factory jobs went away, so "Keypunch" and "Data Entry" jobs were supposed to be the new wave. Schools popped up like fucking weeds to teach these new desirable skills....For a PRICE.

I answered the call of the Technology Siren, and in 2 years I went from $6 an hour to $7 an hour.

20 years later, I would venture a guess that "adjusted for inflation", I'm actually making less than I was on the assembly line. I made about $16 an hour as a high school graduate then, I make $18 an hour now. With a Degree.

So what, now we're all supposed to go back to school and learn to be "Project Managers" (the latest "self-improvement" craze at my job)or something? Yeah, millions of Project Managers with no projects to manage. lots of fast-food joints, but no projects...

Alan Pondscum is a whore for his masters.

[Catt03]

45. Yes

Same thing happened in the 80's.....train on computers.

Yeah...sure

[4MoreYearsOfHell]

6. Just one word Greenspan

Ok - more than one - f*ck you very much...

It's all our fault, right?

Burn in hell, you piece of sh*t

[not fooled]

10. Where he gets his social Darwinist mores

No shock hearing this bullsh*t from "Mr. Ayn Rand":eyes: Definitely a gov't official NOT to trust!

[jpgray]

7. Someone should dash this guy's brains out with a Computer Science textbook

He gives more and more breaks to the corporations until the average CEO-worker salary ratio is 541 to 1 as compared to 42 to 1 in 1980, and it's the WORKER's fault that corporations still aren't hiring in the states for SKILLED positions? Greenspan needs to be axed--trusting corporations to hire in the US when you cut their costs (they'll just pocket the profit) and blaming the US worker for being underskilled(!) is just appalling to me.

[drscm]

8. Gee, how I wish I were an economist. I'd have a ready job.

eom

[jpgray]

9. Alan's an objectivist Randbot to boot!

It's comforting to know the head of the Fed espouses the philosophy of fourteen year-old girls. :silly:

[punpirate]

11. In light of Mr. Greenspin's comments...

... it's quite odd that most of the job losses in the past three years, along with those being outsourced, are for white collar jobs requiring a fair amount of education and highly desirable skills.

Methinks Mr. Greenspin doth protest too much....

[Democat]

12. Greenspan: Americans have gotten stupider since Bush took office

:)

[Zorra]

13. HORSESHIT! There are college grads out there flipping burgers.

Lots of them. People with Masters and PHD's also.

Greenspan is a wealthy sanctimonious elitist republican shill.

He will be forcibly retired when John Kerry takes office and stands up for the working people!!!!

[luaneryder]

14. This relic needs replacing.

Like this administration Greenspan is living on another planet.

[saigon68]

15. CLEANING TOILETS AT WALMART

Flipping burgers

Killing chickens

Sweeping up dust

Making beds at hotels

Ya that sounds about right </Sarcasm>

[0007]

16. So now we need a PHD and Masters to make 17K a year

The country will be okay in a another twelve years when we catch up on our education.

Isn't that what junior tells us? It's not about raising the minimum wage or keeping the jobs here that are going overseas, it's about "Education" - Even Greenspan sez the same thing. Gee, why can't we get it?

[mrbassman03]

46. Yep!

That seems to be the current trend. A BA does not seem to hold much water these days.

[CWebster]

17. What I like to see is when Bernie Sanders goes after Greenspan

The difference between Kerry and Dean is when Kerry was demanding that Tenent step down,in passing the buck of blame to Intel, Dean was demanding Greenspan's ouster.

What job skills would those be Greenspan, high tech skills of jobs of the future going overseas?

[union_maid]

18. Skills in what fields, exactly?

I know a lot of highly educated and skilled people who are out of work. They're willing to retrain, but for what? They're not kids. They can't spend four expensive years getting a whole new education and then start out as interns. They've got mortgages and mouths to feed now. Is Greenspan talking about our friend the database analyst who's now taking courses in medical billing (which will no doubt be completely outsourced soon, too) or is he talking about people like my husband who did get a skilled job after losing his old one? Trouble is, he's new in this field and making just over half of what he was making before. Maybe Greenspan should create on job opening by retireing.

[LizW]

22. That's what I'd like to know

Just what skills do we need? How many times can they send us back to the end of the line and tell us it's our fault we're not getting ahead?

I want some of the "experts" to get specific. What should I be doing? I've been out of the workforce for ten years raising kids. I have a law degree, but no one hires a lawyer who hasn't worked in ten years. I'm quite aware that I'm starting over, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes. But I'm 47 and I don't have time to get retrained for a new career, only to be told at 57 that the jobs are going somewhere else, and once again I don't have the skills to remain employed.

[tabasco]

19. In their gilded palaces ...

the sanctimonious wealthy elite issue proclamations about a world they know nothing about.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

20. Well isn't that a great big happy pants-load??...

Thank you, Mr. Greenspan...may I have another?

[dumpster_baby]

21. string his skinny ass up and stretch his neck

after indicting, trying and convicting him of crimes against the people

[Triana]

23. bullshit

if american workers are lacking skills - how is it that so many of them have had to TRAIN their Indian or Chinese cheap-labor replacements?

bullshit!

[Maeve]

24. A lack of job skills IS an underlying problem with the economy!!

We don't need a "trickle down" economy but a "bubble up" one--take care of the people at the lower levels and their improved condition and imporved skills will lift the whole country. (To be fair, Greenspin seems to know this, but he's also letting the blame fall on the workers instead of on the structures that create the divide. The only way to pay for improved training is to raise taxes on those who are in the "premium" job levels)

[Robbien]

25. It is surprising he doesn't get he is angering the unemployed

Of course he targets his speech to the "elite", but he is angering a lot of unemployed and underemployed people. Those angry people may be angry enough to vote his RW party right out of office.

[JohnyCanuck]

26. Newsflash! Greenspan gives some advice for the unemployed.

Mr.Greenspan says,"If they can't afford bread, let them eat cake instead."

[Ferretherder]

27. Ya' know, ya' gotta love ole' Greedspin.

There he sits, 500 - 1000$ suit nicely tailored and pressed; nice, secure little six - figure job in pocket; not only 'all expenses paid', but GETTING PAID to come attend gala functions if he'll only speak a few words to the glistening throngs....and tells US - 'We'd like to help you, but you're just so GOD DAMNED STUPID! GET AN EDUCATION, YA' MIZZABLE RAT-BASTID! YEESH!'

....and, after EVERYONE in the U.S. gets their college education - all PH D's, mind you - and start their own corporations, or come on board as top-echelon management,.....

.....who is left to actually get down in the pits and MAKE THE PRODUCT or PROVIDE THE SERVICE these corporations offer? And do they even get paid a living wage to do these dirty, thankless jobs?

How 'bout it, Mr. Greedspin?

[NashVegas]

28. "Skill Premium"

When low-level job advertisements require 2 years experience with MS word over basic English skills, I wouldn't call that a premium.

[Moderator]

32. kick

[redqueen]

34. This as they up the # of L-1 and H1-b visas EVERY YEAR

Hope every single solitary out-of-work-for-years or working-for-a-fraction-of-their-former-salary IT worker gets this message.

Is he not betraying the public trust? Can we demand he be shamed and run him out of town?

:mad:

[gtar100]

35. Isn't it interesting how everyone who gets involved with Bush

loses all credibility.

Everything Bush touches turns to crap.

[DaveClearwater99]

36. The US is looking more and more like

a science fiction novel where the corporations control governments and the population is divided into the priviliged corpies and proles.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

37. Wow. I want to hit this idiot in the head with a rotten codfish. Can I?

It won't even hurt, I promise.

[bushisanidiot]

38. I think he's got it backwards..

if you pay someone 2 dollars an hour, no one who is skilled will work for that because they can get higher pay somewhere else. so, who gets these jobs? the uneducated and desperately poor.. mostly immigrants who get treated like farm animals.. and they stay in the cycle of being desperately poor because they don't have the time or the money to get an education.

[primavera]

39. What, don't you guys want to work in sweatshops?

Sheesh! Here Greenspan is doing his best to create opportunities for people to slave away 18 hours a day for low wages and no benefits, and nobody appreciates it! Are we ingrates or what?

See, this is where market economists always come up lacking. Sure, comparative advantage is a sound theory - assuming that there is no cost to mobility of labor. But in the real world, it costs a fortune to change careers and who's going to absorb the retraining costs? Certainly not the businesses, nor evidently will the government offer any helping hand. Moreover, what if people simply don't want to work in the industries in which the US has a comparative advantage? Okay, so we make computers better than most others, so can produce them more efficiently, but what if I don't want to make computers? The reality is, people aren't robots who can just be shuffled about to serve whatever purpose economists think they ought to serve.

[DaveClearwater99]

40. Our lack of skills isn't the only problem

Americans are just plain lazy. If we're going to compete in a global labor market the first thing we have to do is get those lazy 8 year olds off their butts and back into the textile mills.

[Disturbed]

41. Coporate Benedict Arnolds

J. Kerry uses that phrase. For the millions of ignorant Americans who probably don't know who Benddict was and why Kerry uses his name, I feel that Kerry should just say Corporate Traitors and in simple sentences explain why he is calling them traitors.

Relocation of mfg. and outsourcing has been rewarded by both the Right Wing and Dems. All NAFTA and other trade policies need to be changed and the WTO should be abolished. Any corps. that have relocated &/or are outsourcing should be punished and those that do not do so should be rewarded.

[hyphenate]

42. Traitor

I hope Greenspan is one of the first assholes to go when President Kerry takes over. Following right behind him, I hope to see the end of Gale Norton and Michael Powell. Then as they fall from grace, I hope they disappear overnight into instant obscurity, never to show their traitorous faces ever again to the American public.

Let's make those $4.50 jobs available for them all!!!

[Hekate]

43. Tell your pals to stop trying to starve public education to death

That and stop sending quality jobs overseas following the cheapest possible labor.

What skill-sets is he talking about, exactly?

Hekate

[banana republican]

44. Help me understand this

Pukes don't fund No child left behind

and

then claim they don't have skills

did I get it right??????

[Catt03]

47. Boy...what a shameful indictment

to poor and hard working middle class citizens. Blame the victims.

Someone should make this a talking point and make sure every American reads it.

[enki23]

48. jesus christ. greenspan is a liar, an idiot, or both

we've never had higher graduation rates from colleges, universities, technical schools, all the above. we have more fucking skills, as a workforce, than we've ever had in the history of the god damned world. a high school diploma, now, barely qualifies you to wipe your ass in today's workforce. a college degree will barely merit you a pamphlet and complimentary doughnut at a job fair.

greenspan, you are fucking fired.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

49. A well-educated and healthy worker enhances American productivity

which improves American competitiveness and the economy. So why are we wasting tens of billions of dollars on military adventures instead of investing in education and health care in America? I'm shocked when I see how much young people are spending on education and the size of their student loans compared to when I went to the university in the '70s. I don't even want to talk about the costs of medical care or medical insurance today.

[will work 4 food]

50. I just have to say

F_U Alan Greenspan. There is nothing else to say, as you all have already said it.

[yorgatron]

51. i hope that asshole keels over and dies,but not before

donating his many millions to a worthy cause.