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barnaby33ParticipantAs a consumer and citizen I don’t care who does the engineering… or the science… or anything else for that matter as long as it gets done.
I bet you wouldn’t say that about defense, or healthcare. Both fields I have worked in recently. Your assumption is that these things are done equally well by any commoditized engineer.It’s interesting that you assume that the marketplace is “unfair” simply because you have to compete with people who are just as skilled as you but are willing to work for less. I assume its unfair because the costs of education/life/skills are higher here than in other places.
I bet from their perspective it’s “unfair” if they’re not given the opportunity to compete with you. Is it their fault they weren’t born in a country with as much opportunity as the U.S.? What’s fair or unfair often depends on whose ox is being gored.
On this I agree. Ultimately its my, “ox that is being gored.” However we have a nation that has very real needs, one of which is to stay one step ahead of our competition. Its not my or even our national responsibility to look after other nations. One of the things that we need to do as a nation is protect to some extent those industries that are the fundamental engines of invention and new technologies. The only way you can do that is by having people who have a vested interest in the sustainability of a country leading that charge.Its like food production. I am generally against subsidies for farming, with a caveat. America needs to make sure it can always grow enough food on its own so that it can survive when and if its trading partners decide to stop doing so. The only way we will keep our competitive technological advantage is by growing it at home.
If you offer a company a short term boost to profitability at the cost of a long term inability to find trained workers, guess what the company does? We have created a financial system the places no real value on long range decision making, and the sort of protectionism and I have no illusions about what I am pushing is meant to address that short circuit.
Whew that was long. If you made it through all the way congrats!
Josh
barnaby33ParticipantBoth points are well taken. My first statement is that I am not against the H1-B visa program. As origonally envisioned it was to allow 65k engineers scientists etc to come to the US. That is not an insignificant number, but here is the rub.
Engineers scientists etc are not cheap to educate and train. Hence your comment about re-habbing our educational system is just what I am all about. By allowing the importation of foreigners, in huge number, we are dis-incentivizing native born people to compete. Rather than allowing true internal market forces to force our education systems to reform, we are providing a short circuit way out. Why invest millions in creating schools that will turn out engineers and then wait a decade when you can have them now and cheap!
As to Perry’s comment, thats cool I understand the theory behind why protectionism is bad. I just don’t agree. There are high fixed costs that are very long term to persuing an science or engineering education. If all of a sudden there is some major tectonic shift in the marketplace, ie NAFTA GATT, then those fixed costs need to be addressed. As it is all enlarging the current program will do is depress wages and force me and others to compete in an unfair marketplace.
Everyone thinks free trade is a great idea until they realize that it has some very dark corners. Currently one of those dark corners is the export of high dollar high value jobs from the US to foreigners. Some of that is good. It helps spread development and bring new ideas to our nation.
In a way this really is just a highly specialized sub-section of the broader immigration debate.
Josh
barnaby33ParticipantNot sure what you are saying, but how does that affect my negative sentiment on mr Gin’s boosterism?
Josh
barnaby33ParticipantI went to the Padres/Rockies game on wed and sat in the bleachers out in left field. I could see 3 unfinished condo buildings looming in the darkness just outside the ballpark lights. It was scary!
Josh
barnaby33ParticipantNo, no hatred what-so-ever. I just feel that responsible reporting about ones area of expertise requires more than boosterism. I have nothing against Mr Gin as a human being. Its solely about his role as Oracle of San Diego RE. David Lereah doesn’t claim not to be a shill for the industry Alan Does, and yet all through the bubble I never heard him once in all his PBS appearances discuss how unaffordable or crazy our RE market became. When I read his quote on Ben’s blog today I was suprised by the tone of it. Yes it didn’t in any way mention declines in pricing, I implied it.
Josh
barnaby33ParticipantAnx I liked number 5. I suppose what scares me so much about recession is that my father grew up in the great depression and didn’t fail to impress upon me how bad it was.
Josh
barnaby33ParticipantThe lifestyle may change but the idiots don’t. Just their names.
Josh
barnaby33ParticipantPS your statement needs a caveat. “As long as investors crave MBS, that they think they’ll get paid back for.” The systemic risk comes not from the loan being made, but from not being paid back.
Eventually everyone wants to get paid. Maybe the regulations will do little, maybe they won’t, what really caught my eye was how much in line with Private Bankers musings this article was. He just said it over a year ago.
Josh
barnaby33ParticipantI don’t believe we are, “hating on you.” You do however need to substantiate your statements. Otherwise its called heresay. Most of us are here, because we wanted to find ammo for our beliefs. While in a strictly Fargo-esque manner it would be funny if all option ARMS adjusted at once, there are a variety of reasons why its not terribly believable.
- It requires coercive anti-competitive behaviour
- It would be monumentally stupid and cause far more people to be foreclosed on all at once.
If you have info and can divulge enough to be substantiable, then by all means share with the group.
Josh
barnaby33ParticipantI’m just kind of curious bigtrouble, were we not discussing this before? Have we not discussed this ad-infinauseum? Its cool to start a new thread, but it should probably,I am merely speculating here, be some new or interesting tidbit.
Josh
barnaby33ParticipantYou mean that there doesn’t appear to be much on the market, but also not much selling? What part of Clairemont are you looking in?
Josh
barnaby33ParticipantSee the thread on Mexico. In addition to the bubble problems you have to deal with being a non-native in those lands. I suppose you could try to take advantage of blowing bubbles in other countries, but ask yourself this. If you couldn’t accurately predict the bust in your native country, how would you do so in a place you don’t have intimate knowledge of?
If you have a good answer, I am so in.
Josh
barnaby33ParticipantI just ran into a friend of mine at the Hillcrest farmers market. She was really bummed out. She was having some serious family problems. On top of which she admitted that the one bedroom condo she bought for 280 in july of 04 has now depreciated about 60k. I tried to tell her about the RE bubble when she bought, but for naught.
Unlike most who speculated, she can at least afford it, but that hurts when you see these predictions come true.
Josh
barnaby33ParticipantAs a public service for today and because I had an El Cap crossing, I will make you a link.
Some article posted by IONEGARM
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