Ed Schultz (see video below) had a segment about buying American during the holiday season. I have to say, that sadly that is a lot harder than it would seem to be. Precious little is actually made in the old USA. We’ve become a service industry nation. Sooooo, if you can’t find enough items made in America - the second best alternative is to support small local brick and mortar businesses over the holidays.
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The Nov. 4, 2011 New York Times article on STEM (science - technology - engineering - math) career paths shows clearly and succinctly that NO ONE is engaging in true investigative journalism anymore. The article by Christopher Drew, Why Science Majors Change Their Minds (It’s Just So Darn Hard) shows an appalling lack of insight into the issues facing flocks of interested and engaged science majors. Did this author spend five minutes in a laboratory talking to scientists working in the trenches? No.
Yes, science and engineering are HARD. OF COURSE ITS HARD...Science is fascinating in the abstract - but “doing science” is never easy. If it were easy we would have cures for cancer, heart disease, obesity and all infectious disease coming out of our ears. We’d have a shuttle to Mars where people would take vacations and someone would be working on a Warp engine to go faster than the speed of light by now. I know its hard because I have a Ph.D. from a highly regarded medical school and was a molecular biologist by trade for over 15 years.
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Thomas Friedman has been offering career advice for far too long. This week he was at it again with “The Start-Up of You” in The New York Times. Thankfully, our youth do not seem to have been listening….and woe be to those that actually would because they would find themselves choosing between corrugated cardboard and a plastic bag for their digs.
For years Friedman was crowing about S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) career paths. He loudly bemoaned the loss of American students in these fields while he beat the drums for loosening H1-B visa rules for foreign nationals so they could further crowd out the few American Nationals that had clung to their jobs. Friedman never connected the dots between the flood of foreign scientists and the massive glut of Ph.D.’s in America. He never paid attention the gutting of salaries - the natural result of a glut because he didn’t dig a little deeper for the facts. I doubt the man ever stepped foot inside an actual lab.
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Lately I’ve been hearing an alarming number of pundits suggest that the reason for wage stagnation is the lack of inflation and the actually presence of deflation in the economy. Inflation - so the argument goes - would have the laudatory effect of exert pressure on the private sector to raise wages.
Really? Seriously???? What are you smoking?
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Over the past few months I have really become addicted to TP. I loved the content and the detail in the Wonk Room and the style of Matt Yglesias in general. But the new format forces comments away from DISQUS and onto FB. How many times can I say that this is a STUPID, STUPID, STUPID idea.
I’m a busy person. I do NOT have TIME to log off of FB in order to post to TP. I DO NOT WANT to use Yahoo or AOL just to post to TP in order to avoid having all my comments posted to my FB account. Who uses AOL or Yahoo anymore anyway? And Hotmail? Please!
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On this Memorial Day I think it is fitting that we take a look at how our Veterans are fairing. After all, we have been at war for nearly 10 years and many serving our country have been on multiple deployments. Sunday Candy Crowley of CNN addressed Veterans issues in depth on her show “The State of the Union”. She had several segments on Veterans affairs - two of which I have embedded on this post. These interviews revealed some shameful facts:
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Recently, I came across a book by Caitlin Kelly with the simple title “Malled: My Unintentional Career In Retail”. (http://malledthebook.com/) It is a witty, devastatingly sharp critique on our big-box retail sector. Written by a 50-year-old journalist who after losing her job at the Daily News landed in the alternative universe of a large retail franchise in the Westchester Mall, it is part autobiography and investigative journalism rolled into one book.
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This chart was posted on The Hand that Feeds You post “They’re Just Not Hiring”. The data was initially published on the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The chart starkly displays what we all knew in our heart to be the case…we are in the deep, dark jobless recovery. Although there have been a few green shoots, the economy is still in the ICU in critical condition. But what interested me the most about the chart was the emerging pattern that demonstrates the intellectual bankruptcy of trickle down theory.
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Spencer Johnson’s “Who Moved My Cheese” “might” be a great read for those in the business sector. But for those involved in careers that involve advanced degrees in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (the STEM careers) the solutions offered are quite simply “non-solutions.”
“Who Moved My Cheese?”
For those who don’t know the story - its about four beings that live in a maze together. Two of the beings are mice ( Sniff and Scurry) and two are very small humans the size of mice (Hem and Haw)
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Ever since Obama’s State of the Union address in January, we have been hearing more and more about American “exceptionalism” and about so-called “STEM” careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Engaging young minds in these all too critical areas of study is supposed to be the key to Americas future - paving a way to our supremacy in the 21st century and beyond.
Spin vs Reality:
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