Is Job Prospect In America Really Doomed?

It really sinks my heart for the day when I read the lattest : The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed. When did America get to this point? Is there really no real solution for this? When my mother called me from Hong Kong this morning and told me the good news about my brother-in-law's 20% pay raise because the company just decided to raise every employee's pay when new investment funds flowing in from foreign and local investors, his company just went public.(of course not everybody get 20%, and it varies depending on position, and performance), now bumping my brother-in-law's monthly salarly to US$10,260 a month. Don't forget that in Hong Kong, personal income tax doesn't go beyond 20% for the highest income bracket and my brother-in-law is way below that bracket.... We have no sales tax there either... So compared to an American who makes $10,260 here in the U.S. who can be taxed 40% and more, my brother-in-law is doing very very well back there in terms of the American standard of living. (considering there is state income tax, city tax, social security tax, and sales tax on everything here in the U.S.) As America's economy provides no bright prospect for investment growth, cash flows from America and Europe into Hong Kong and China seeking better return, thus benefitting my brother-in-law. So whatever strategies the American government plans to fix the economy with (laws that will get more money from the wealthy people in America, whether by raising taxes, or by passing more bills to make them pay more employee benefits) the wealthy can always choose to stop investing in America and go to places like Hong Kong, or the Bermuda, wherever provides a better return on investment. Won't we ordinary folks do the same though? Who wants to invest in a place where he/she will get less return?

Just when a middle class family in Hong Kong starts to do much better than the upper middle class here in America?? (like my dentist friend here, who has to actually pay the additional AMT tax, as if her original tax burden isn't enough.)

What has democracy in this country got America into? So far I only see how mediocre and incompetent politicians who have worse sense of economics than my grandma in Hong Kong but got elected under such a great system and have been running the country into the toilet. America's unemployment today didn't begin this year, not last year. It's been a problem that has been brewing for decades, with poorly run public school systems that fail to train the Americans to be competitive; a public school system that completely fail to produce a generation of educated voters who can exercise their voting preliviges based on good sense of logic and reasoning. When I see the politicians here in California and the ones in Washington, I can see the intelligence of the voting public, which is very sad.

With a poupluation that is lacking in skills and education compared to citizens in other countries, (the sad part is, they don't even know about their lack of skills and competitiveness, if they know, they can at least do something about it....most of the pepole here don't know much about the world and what others are doing or working on....one of my support staff who is supposed to be one of my book-keepers, I would fire her if I owned my company....she thinks Japan and China is the same country....and she still has her job. In Hong Kong, she will only be good for serving tea, cause she is slow to understand everything, in my opinion, she moves slow... but she is considered to be normal.. and I am considered to be a pushy and demanding boss.. I wanted to get rid of her but if I do, I will definitely jerk up the unemployment and I don't own my company, and if they can tolerate her, I will close one of my eyes.... I don't want to be condemned as the evil foreign boss...cause if I tell her she is no good for the job, she takes it as a personal attack and that I am like Hilter...I've learnt that in here when someone is stupid, you still tell her that she is smart...to avoid further sabbotage and resistence from her....my dentist friend and my MD friend are experiencing the same thing with their assistants... what did they learn from their teachers in school to have this kind of attitude...) it's not surprising to me that unemployment rate is high. What can this country make anymore? I can't find anything that I can bring home as sovenirs that are made here... I'm driving a Japanese car whose engine and vital parts are designed and made in Japan and then shipped here to be assembled. Even my laptop is made in China.

So where are the jobs? There won't be more jobs until there is something America can make that can sell to other countries in the world. There won't be any job until the government creates no incentive to make a Dell computer in China. (well, to do that the gov't got to lower taxes, institute tort reform, and de-regulate labor laws which have been making it more a hardship for companies to create jobs here than in Hong Kong that has business friendly employment laws, and low employment taxes etc. etc..)

But to be business friendly, America got to reduce her huge deficit (stop engaging in wars anymore that don't bring in any economic benefits for the country), eliminate all the worthless welfare programs that don't do any good anywhere. All these programs that were pitched to eliminate poor in America, that eliminate crime, that improve school districts, all failed miserably in my opinion.

America still has a very high crime rate and overcrowding prisons, still has a bunch of people who can't work any faster, or more effienciently than the workforce in Asia, many of them can't even take simple instructions from their bosses... In terms of poverty, America actually has a rise of poverty despite spending on all these programs.... I see so many homeless people walking around Los Angeles, it's shocking to me when I first came here from Hong Kong. I thought this was the wealthiest country in the world so I didn't expect there could be more serious povety problems here..

So, what's the point of paying for all these programs when we still have the same problems that started it all?? Until the government and the voting public can figure it out, there won't be any solution to America, and don't expect things to get better any year soon...

Meanwhile my dear mother from Hong Kong was so worried about me losing my job, she told me, "You know, you can always come back here if you lose your job, I want you to know that you can always fall back on us. Economy here and in China are still doing good." That's very nice, mom, but I hope I will never need to embarrass myself by move back to live with you. I don't want to be the weakest link in the family. I hope I won't for America's sake, cause when I lose my job, then I think America's jobless rate may be up in the 50%...