Lack of career drive holding the region back?

[blondemom]

Yes it should and often it is. But there's no motivation to take a lot of those jobs. Mike Rowe is saying that he hears the same thing over and over across the country. These people he does shows about can't get any help.

When I needed work I took whatever I could get. Even when I moved to Oregon and actually had skills, I took a job at a pear packing plant until I could find something else.
Actually even then, when we were asked who wanted to make an extra quarter an hour to work in the cooler. I was one of the few who raised my hand.

I guess you can't teach a good work ethic to a lot of people.

A good salary/wages could be a strong motivator for people. You know the old saying about what happens when you pay peanuts? You get monkeys. Highly-skilled jobs ought to command good money. They used to until the unions got busted and many manufacturing jobs were outsourced. Why knock yourself out learning how to be a plumber or electrician if you're going to be paid ten bucks an hour?

I do not know any plumber or electrician that have been working in the field for any amount of time that is making ten bucks an hour. Heck the grunts (the people who are doing the manual labor part of the work) make that and when they start working their way up and start getting the schooling their pay goes up.

[tvguy]

Yes it should and often it is. But there's no motivation to take a lot of those jobs. Mike Rowe is saying that he hears the same thing over and over across the country. These people he does shows about can't get any help.

When I needed work I took whatever I could get. Even when I moved to Oregon and actually had skills, I took a job at a pear packing plant until I could find something else.
Actually even then, when we were asked who wanted to make an extra quarter an hour to work in the cooler. I was one of the few who raised my hand.

I guess you can't teach a good work ethic to a lot of people.

A good salary/wages could be a strong motivator for people. You know the old saying about what happens when you pay peanuts? You get monkeys. Highly-skilled jobs ought to command good money. They used to until the unions got busted and many manufacturing jobs were outsourced. Why knock yourself out learning how to be a plumber or electrician if you're going to be paid ten bucks an hour?

I do not know any plumber or electrician that have been working in the field for any amount of time that is making ten bucks an hour. Heck the grunts (the people who are doing the manual labor part of the work) make that and when they start working their way up and start getting the schooling their pay goes up.

There actually are some pretty dam low wages for electricians in some states with what the call right to work laws. But why knock yourself out? because you don't have to work those low wages. And from what I'm hearing there will be a shortage of skilled workers and if that happens they will be in demand and can call their own shots, and wages.

[tvguy]

I have a grandfather that died young, allegedly from something he contracted from working long years in the coolers of Bear Creek. (I'm sorry, I don't remember details now, but it was something they can cure now but didn't know how then.)

I wonder if it has to do with the fact that in those days they used ammonia as a refrigerant?

[illcommandante]

When I weigh time I might have spent, out running, to the time I've devoted to posting, I come up about sixty grand south of even. I don't really see a lack of career drive. As much as I see a lack of interest. Fighting other, more compelling interests. Drugs? Nascar? Square Foot Gardening? Who cares? They branded me a "Type "A"' at Josephine County Mental Health. And, for once, they were right. But, I pick my work. And, it doesn't have to pay. It just has to amuse me. I hope Portland is having a good time. They're an inspiration.

[chuck white]

I have a grandfather that died young, allegedly from something he contracted from working long years in the coolers of Bear Creek. (I'm sorry, I don't remember details now, but it was something they can cure now but didn't know how then.)

I wonder if it has to do with the fact that in those days they used ammonia as a refrigerant?

Ammonia and the flu killed a lot of people.

[PonderThis]

It was a long, debilitating illness. He died when I was 2 or 3, so I really only remember him from pictures. My grandmother knew the details and told me, but that was 40 years ago, and she's gone now too. An aunt is still alive and probably knows, I'll ask her.

[TennisMom]

All I know is that there are some pretty skilled people in our area working for $15 an hour and when they ask about a raise, are told that 'there are a lot of guys out there like you, looking for work'. There isn't enough competition for highly-skilled workers to drive up their salaries. That has to be discouraging to the very people on which we rely now and will in future.

[illcommandante]

A lot of our highly paid jobs, have gone to robots?

[illcommandante]

With a little help from my friends (Oregon) and an eight hundred buck a month pension, I'm learning that I can be a well fed disciple, living a cramped, but very acceptable existance. One that would always have suited me. When my court hassle ends, I'll return to the lines. Wiser. About the value of my time. It'd be hard to pay me what I'm worth.