Seems to me that the problem is capitalists refuse to pay a high enough wage to attract workers. My 30 year career as a skim and scam savvy early retiree is looking better all the time.
intercst
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The armed forces also provide good training for people to move on to good jobs after leaving armed forces.
Here the focus is on civilian construction workers in the shipyards.
DB2
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While countries around the world can pay their ship yard workers well enough to have new ships.
Us resorts to buying ships:
https://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/breaking-the-ice-unpacking-the-us-finland-icebreaker-deal/
Or do workers in the US demand too high a wage?
In reality, it’s more of a global trade issue.
100 - 150 years ago, the knowledge, skills, and capital needed to make ships was concentrated in just a few countries in the world, including the US. Starting some time after WWII, the capitalists who actually build complex ships (including military ships) became more comfortable investing the necessary capital to build ships in places with lower labor costs. Today, the largest ship builders in the world are in Asia (with South Korea leading the charge). The US doesn’t have a ship yard among the 10 largest in the world.
For reasons that should be obvious, the US wants it’s naval ships built in the US. (For those that don’t get it - there are secrets the US doesn’t want to share with foreign ship builders, and they don’t want to risk having various security breaches built into the ships.) The problem is that labor costs in the US are higher than most other places around the world. That means few ships are built in the US, and those ships cost more and likely take longer due to the lack of necessary skills in the US work force.
It’s a complicated issue with no easy solutions.
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Not really. Pay them. period. Take it out of profits because that’s where the money to pay them is. Everything else is Abbot & Costello
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Very true, but only fully functional if we are moving towards economies of scale in our economy.
Pay who? The US no longer has the skilled workers to build ships in the US. That workforce is now in Asia.
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You also have to convince new recruits those new jobs will last for 30 years. Not subject to the whims of Congress and some cycle of politics.
Why train for a career where you might get layed off at age 50?
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Then I guess we don’t have a labor problem, do we?
@FCorelli My sarcasm detector is going off on your comment, so I’m guessing you see a labor problem here.
Can you be more specific about the labor problem you are talking about? I could come up with several, but I’d like to talk about the one you are referring to.
There are lots of jobs that don’t come with a 30-year guarantee (even US Senator).
DB2
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Ah, but those congressional jobs come with a very sweet retirement package (30 years not required), something that is getting increasingly rare in most occupations.
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So what’s the retirement package for a union construction job building ships (assuming they’re unionized)?
DB2
I dunno. Maybe I’ve always been an irresponsible punk, but do retirement packages really drive people into / out of careers?
We had IBEW in to talk to our group recently. He said their members now have 401k plans rather than pension. Years of service and contributions do matter.
Union seniority systems do offer better job security to most senior members. But if you get cut in mid career. Same problem. Replacing job with similar income or beginning new career at age 50 is a problem.
Career is one of the biggest decisions. Long term careers give the most options. Why gamble on an iffy one?
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Kids growing up nowadays will have 3-7 careers over their lifetime. The days of getting a job and sticking with it until you retire have long passed.
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I have had four significantly different careers (by career meaning I received governmentally reported paychecks that impacted my SS),
- wilderness workcamps (timber, road building, fire control) where I cooked and did equipment maintenance and repair;
- mathematical engineer specialized in C3I (Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence systems) as an employee of a major defence contractor and then as a free lance consultant;
- Wandering high pay short term gig secretary/cook/aide-de-camp to various maniacs doing bizarre but interesting projects in strange locations that I found attractive (mountains and surfing beaches as prime attractant)
- Executive at and eventual owner of a gay lesbian publishing corporation owning multiple titles and with 150 or so employees putting out political and erotic content from 1985 - 1997. The erotic paid the bills for the political.
I think I am somewhat of a forerunner, but I have met a lot of people who, like me, never settled on one career. But most of my friends stayed with what they started with….
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College graduates and professionals tend to be quite versatile. They are good at reinventing themselves when they need to.
I think many others–like a typical factory worker–do that less well. That is why they end up with a variety of problems like drinking and drugs in late career. Depression and more.
The old system of going to work where you father worked and trying to advance to a better position worked well for many. End of that system makes life more difficult for many. And automation, loss of manufacturing, and the need for more training make it worse. No wonder we have more homeless and more need for social services. They are being left behind.
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Thats not how it works.
I come from a submarine building state. General Dynamics can train in house.