What careers have a shortage of people in them?

[Massacure]

What careers are good for high school students to look into right now? Something where I can be picky about who I work for and can get paid decent money. I cannot seem to make up my mind on what I want to do or what I want to go to school for. Hopefully you will overlap on something I'm interested in.

[rzemanfl]

1. I know this is snarky, but there is a real shortage of infantrymen

these days.

[Massacure]

4. Christian or Muslim ???

</Republican mode>

:evilgrin:

Like there's a rats chance in hell I'm going to join the military! Pft!

[babylonsister]

2. I've heard/read pharmacists are in great demand. This makes

sense considering how many new drugstores are popping up all over the place, and the $$ is apparently good.

[LiberalEsto]

9. Working conditions can suck

The pharmacists working at our local CVS are always incredibly overworked. They work long shifts and have to fill so many prescriptions, without assistance, that I'm amazed there haven't been foulups. With the closing of individual drugstores and the growth of large chain drugstores like CVS, Rite-Aid, Eckerd and the ones at Target and Walmart, I think pharmacists have to accept lower pay and worse working conditions than, say 20 years ago.

Any comments? Am I wrong?

[mcscajun]

29. One of the reasons they're overworked is the shortage...

...oddly enough, reported by AP just this evening.

Pharmacist Shortage Worsens Nationwide

November 07, 2005 7:36 PM EST

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Unlike most college students nearing graduation, Clarissa Hall isn't worried about finding a job - she's already considering several offers, including some with possible starting salaries of at least $80,000.

Hall is benefiting from a nationwide shortage of pharmacists, which has prompted fierce competition between employers for new pharmacy graduates.

"Pretty much everyone in my class has people calling them left and right about jobs," said Hall, a University of Missouri-Kansas City student from Poplar Bluff. "I've had several people calling me and I don't even graduate until May."

(snip)

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores reported about 5,950 full- and part-time openings in July in its 37,000 member stores. The American Hospital Association reported a 7.4 percent vacancy rate for pharmacists as of December, 2004, with 38 percent of its members saying it was harder to recruit pharmacists last year than in 2003.

Much more detail here: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Pharmacist-Shortage.html

[fasttense]

57. You're right and there have been numerous foul ups.

I picked up some medicine from the pharmacy at Rite Aid the other day. I went to take it and noticed that the pills were a different color and size. I looked at the bottle and discovered that though the name was the same (I have a very common name) the address and phone number were different. I returned them and got my correct prescription. Now, I wonder how many more people this has happened to. I wonder how many people have actually taken the wrong drug.

When I was a kid, I went into the hospital to get my tonsils taken out. They prepped me and took me down to surgery. I was nine at the time. As they were setting me up for the anesthesia, I was talking to the nurse. She said you have a name that is used for both girls and boys. I thought she was talking about my nick name. I said yes but my real name is very feminine and I told her my name. She quizzed me five ways to Sunday on what my real name was and the next thing I knew they took me back to the hospital room. Turns out they thought I was the boy "Chris" in the room across the hall who was there to get his nose fixed. So hospitals can be just as careless as pharmacies.

[AndyTiedye]

19. We NEED More Pharmacists Who Will Do Their Job

There are too many who are refusing to fill birth control prescriptions these days!

[girl gone mad]

34. Long term I would be concerned about choosing a career as a pharmacist.

Pharmacist's could be facing job losses due to increased automation and "factory pharmacies" where one pharmacist fills thousands of prescriptions a day.

[sabate]

3. Truck driving.....OTR or Long distance driving

...after the first 3 years, you'll make over $100,000/annum.

[babylonsister]

5. Welcome to DU, sabate! nt

[Massacure]

6. What kind of education do you need for that?

[sabate]

7. Virtually none....just a high school diploma and a clean driving record

...and good vision, good hearing, and a CDL license.

[freeplessinseattle]

11. a friend of mine took a 6 week course for $1500

first two weeks was classroom work, the rest hands-on driving. said it was pretty easy (if you like driving. which I don't, but some people do so that could be an ideal job).

[Rick Myers]

8. The population is aging, health care careers will grow

truck driving is big. And you get alot of time to listen to AAR! I think trucking would be great, go out and write a novel or something.

[acmejack]

13. Everyone I know who owned a rig has sold it.

It is very hard to make $100K/yr driving a truck. If someone knows who is paying this to experienced OTR truckers, hazmat certified and experienced with oversize & overweight loads, I'd be obliged if they would tell us where.

[sabate]

16. More on truck driving....as a career change

I have a friend who spent over 20 years in the computer software industry. After surviving many layoffs, his job was outsourced to India. He's 54.

He got a truck driving job with one of the big nationals. They trained him and paid for his training. Now he drives for them all over the 48 states. He takes his bicycle with him, has a laptop in the tractor with a free Internet connection, has XM radio.

If you're a loner, it's a sweet deal.

[NVMojo]

10. just heard "pharmacists" will be reaching a critical level of shortage

soon ...low number graduating ...

[calico1]

12. Don't know if its still true but there was a big

shortage of nurses. Not sure about how picky you can be though.

[Massacure]

14. Last time I had bloodwork done, I puked on the nurses feet.

I don't think I could handle that. >_<

[calico1]

32. Yeah, I know what you mean.

My dad dreamed that I become a nurse but I can't even stand seeing my own blood drawn. However, its a great career opportunity for anyone who has the fortitude to be in that type of job.

[Yupster]

15. The oilpatch is starving for workers

right now. Companies are holding job fairs hundreds of miles away.

It could all be turned around two years from now though. Oil work is boom and bust.

[dcfirefighter]

17. Get a paramedic license

and get hired as a firefighter / paramedic. With the license, you have a much easier chance of getting hired, and you'll earn a pay premium. In the northeast, you could expect between $40 & $65K for a ff/paramedic. Internal advancement through the officer ranks would put you in the 6 figures in 10 years. There's almost always overtime available. You'll be unionized, and, in most places, never have a chance of getting laid off. You'll probably work shift work (which is a positive thing). You'll almost never take your work home with you, and your job will never be shipped overseas. You'll probably be friends with the people you work with, and enjoy just about every day you go to work.

And FWIW, quite a few of us have bachelor's and master's degrees. If you ever want to go into business for yourself, it's a great way to have a stable income and benefits while having plenty of time during the week to work on your business (due to the shiftwork). The best schedules are 42h a week, many are 48h, some are 56h.

From the BLS the top jobs in the future will be:
Education and Health Services
Professional and Business Services
Information
Leisure and Hospitality
Trade, Transportation, and utilities (if you get an Electrical Engineering degree, you might work here)
Financial
Government

[Massacure]

21. Paramedics involve blood though, don't they?

Like I said in another post, the last time I had bloodwork, I puked on the nurses feet. >_<

[dcfirefighter]

24. They can

Most people get over the sights. It's the smells that get you, and noone really gets over them.

[ret5hd]

18. i think i heard there's going to be an opening for a...

"media spokesman for a nationally recognized figure" soon. How good are ya' at lyin'?

[Massacure]

20. lmao! My face would be as crooked as can be.

I can never keep a straight face while lying.

[Champion Jack]

22. Mercenary

Do you like to kill people? Are you good at it?
No bennies tho'

[dcfirefighter]

25. Pro deals on H&K products n/t

[TallahasseeGrannie]

23. Teaching and nursing

[pinto]

26. Nursing. The profession has opportunities at all levels.

[Nay]

27. Huge shortage of electricians and plumbers. My son is a 2nd-yr

electrician's apprentice, loves it, makes $14 per hour and goes to school one day a week. If you are at all mechanical or like to fool with stuff like switches, car stereos, etc., consider it. 4 years and you have your electrician's ticket -- very good money, and union protected. All insurance, etc.

To get started, contact your local union -- International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (part of the AFL-CIO) and find out the application process for your area. My son had to apply in October, take some tests and go through a panel interview, and he officially started in January. Depends on how the school is set up.

PM me if I can help you in any way.

[dalaigh lllama]

28. My daughter got a book called

"Do What You Are." It has some simple tests in there to determine your personality type and then lists various jobs and descriptions that best suit your personality. My daughter is very creative and loves the arts -- all aspects of the arts -- but didn't want to be a teacher or performer. She decided to go into graphic design (which was one of the book's suggestions for her) and is now working in Manhattan and loving it. Good salary, too.

[mcscajun]

30. AP: Pharmacist Shortage Worsens Nationwide

Pharmacist Shortage Worsens Nationwide

November 07, 2005 7:36 PM EST

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Unlike most college students nearing graduation, Clarissa Hall isn't worried about finding a job - she's already considering several offers, including some with possible starting salaries of at least $80,000.

Hall is benefiting from a nationwide shortage of pharmacists, which has prompted fierce competition between employers for new pharmacy graduates.

"Pretty much everyone in my class has people calling them left and right about jobs," said Hall, a University of Missouri-Kansas City student from Poplar Bluff. "I've had several people calling me and I don't even graduate until May."

(snip)

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores reported about 5,950 full- and part-time openings in July in its 37,000 member stores. The American Hospital Association reported a 7.4 percent vacancy rate for pharmacists as of December, 2004, with 38 percent of its members saying it was harder to recruit pharmacists last year than in 2003.

Much more detail here: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Pharmacist-...

[kweerwolf]

31. Any field having to do with care for the aging

Gerontology, physical therapy, rehabilitation, all sorts of jobs in assisted living settings.

[sendero]

33. I applaud you..

.... for giving this serious thought.

But I caution you also. 10 years ago, there was a "critical shortage" of electrical engineers and particularly computer scientists.

I don't guess I have to tell you that those fields are not doing so well at the present time.

Certainly, look for areas that seem to have promise. But understand that things can and do change on a dime, be especially wary of any job that can easily be outsourced.

And whatever you do, make your personal ideas of what would be a good job play heavily - making a living doing something you hate sucks a lot. :)

[nick303]

35. This probably sounds corny and cliched but...

Find something that you are interested in and then find out as much as you can about it. Keep expected income on the back burner. Do not try to guess what the upcoming trends are, as we have seen they are just that--trends, whose coming and going seem to be happening at an accelerating pace.

So to reiterate I'd recommend finding something you are passionate about and then become an expert on it, and make some connections in the field. A number of people in this thread have lamented the "IT crash". Guess what? I work in IT and I'm still employed. In fact I could probably find another company tomorrow to jump to and get a 20-30% raise. Why am I so lucky? I don't really know, but I can tell you that I didn't decide to study this field because an article in People magazine told me that computers were the "next big thing".

[Massacure]

36. I was thinking computer science for a while

But it seems like everyone here says it is tightening. Are they full of shit?

[nick303]

40. In my experience there is still opportunity..

Just make sure you are going for it for the right reasons. Answer the following questions for yourself:
1) Were you good at mathematics in high school? Did you enjoy it?
2) What do you know about the topics so far? Most people I knew who were worth their salt did not have to put much effort into their intro CS classes because they already had quite a bit of familiarity with the topics.

I guess you might want some real information, so anecdotally I can tell you that I graduated in 2005 from a mid-size engineering university in Philadelphia that I'd estimate is in the top 40%, but is certainly nothing fancy (currently in grad school part time for a masters' in econ). All of my friends in my field received jobs, and the starting salaries ranged between $50,000-$62,000, which isn't too shabby for the cost of living there. While not absolutely necessary, you are probably going to have to live in or near a large city, unless you plan to strike out on your own.

On a side note, unless you are some sort of willy-nilly chump I wouldn't sit around worrying about whether your job will be outsourced or if the demand for high-tech labor will implode. Do you think the founders and early employees of Google were sitting around worrying about the dot-com flame out? Or did they instead plunge onward and create a company that currently has a higher market cap than GE?

[Massacure]

41. I took a computer science class my softmore year.

I was the only softmore in it, and I got in A in it, but I most certainly did not find it easy. I had to think a lot, but I like to think. In fact Computer Science was my favorite class I took. I'm taking Computer Repair next semester, I'll have to see how that turns out. That can always be a crutch seeing as that has to be insource rather than outsourced. ;)

[nick303]

42. article on IT talent

This article may give you more perspective on things. Note that it focuses on the role of IT talent on Wall Street (where I work), but it's a fair assessement.

http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=YLVJHKXXQJOJIQSNDBOCKH0CJUMEKJVN?articleID=174400038

[Massacure]

43. Page not found. >_<

[nick303]

44. Remove the space in the address

Not sure why that happened..

[Bouvet_Island]

46. If you can get into something like the MIT media lab,

getting work will not be a worry.

IT is in fact picking up. The next wave is happening and it will be a lot better. You have to be an complete idiot to think this will be not be a viable long term career. Like, what is that idea? We will get fed up with computers, stop depending on them?

The value of good and hard education in the business is up compared to last time where people would get headhunted after 1st year in university. I would generally say that it is good to get courses that teach you skills and concepts rather than programs. Like many educated web designers does not even know that designing a good computer interface is an exact science with rules, much of the important work made by psychologists in the 60s, measuring up millisecond responses towards a workable model of the brain. Don't know art theory, don't know typography, don't know any real programming, doesn't know design theory eg how an engineer is trained to think. It is in fact pretty much a janitor education for computing IMO. Obviously there are cool and learned people making web pages as well, it is the type of study where you learn "programs" I am trying to point to.

An idea for you could be to call companies that you could imagine you would really like working for, ask for HR and just tell the people there your situation and ask what it takes to get to work for them and so on. Those people can have better knowledge about trends than us, and you might even get contacts. It is a lot less people than you would think that does this kind of check, and if they feel you respect their time they will likely give you for free what costs lots of money at career consultancy companies.

I'd also recommend to go and visit a school/course you are looking at in advance, before even applying. If you will spend years of your life there and make such an important choice, it could be worth it, in particular if you could avoid unpleasant experiences. Just talk to the students, what is good, what is a problem, what is good preparation, what is a good budget etc. I was headed for a school that was entirely overhyped and a total mess in all ways, I would have wasted just a lot of money if I didn't take the time to check that first.

[newyawker99]

50. Hi nick303!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Quequeg]

37. Companies don't wait for shortages to be filled by US citizens.

"What careers have a shortage of people in them?"
Posted by Massacure

Any shortages can be easily remedied by outsourcing the jobs to cheap-labor markets or by importing cheap labor. While working on your career, spend us much time working on our government. We Americans are hardworking on our jobs and education, but we spend very little time working on our government. It really matters who's running the country and what policies/laws they create.

Paul Craig Roberts paints a dire picture, but in this article (Sep 4th, 2005), he also had a couple of suggestions here.
http://www.vdare.com/roberts/050904_marx.htm
----------
(snip)
What occupations will be left to native citizens? This question comes to me from many frustrated parents who are trying to give their children some career counseling. It is possible for Americans still to earn good incomes from being dentists and lawyers (if they are in the top 20% of their class). Next one thinks of skilled trades such as electrician, plumber and auto mechanic.

However, Mexican immigrants are crowding Americans out of the construction trades and may soon dominate other trades as well.
(snip)
Higher paying jobs are being lost to outsourcing and to work visas. Lower paying jobs are being lost to Mexicans. With real income falling for five years (despite an economic recovery), the US poverty rate has climbed from 11.3% in 2000 to 12.7% in 2004, adding 5.4 million more persons to the poverty roll.

Yet, nothink free trade economists and libertarians--like LBJ who promised us light at the end of the tunnel in Vietnam and Bush who promises light at the end of the tunnel in Iraq--still promise that outsourcing and H-1B visas mean increased wealth for Americans.

Economic science no longer exists in America. Its place has been taken by emotional commitments to dogmas. Americans and their hopes are daily paying the price for this great failure of economic thinking.
(snip)
It is detrimental to the future of freedom that at this time, when our civil liberties are under attack by the Bush administration and diminishing economic opportunity is breathing new life into class war, libertarians and market economists are demonstrating more commitment to ideology than to the welfare of fellow citizens.

By associating freedom and market solutions with policies that are eroding Americans’ prospects, freedom’s defenders are unwittingly stabbing freedom in the back.

[Porcupine]

38. CEO- no qualifications required and performance standards lax!!!

there's an obvious shortage because even CEO's that drive companies into bankruptcy still demand and get 200 times an average workers pay. Yep the demand for CEO's just can't keep up with the supply.

[Indy_Dem_Defender]

39. Just a quick question

Are you a male or female? I'm not being sexist but if your a female this job probably isn't for you, If your in good Physical condition from playing sports without having serious injuries you might want to try this out.

Find out if there is a pepsi cola plant near your home. Go into the office and find out their jobline number or browse Monster.com under pepsi cola to see if there are any warehouse/loader positions available waste no time apply they will contact you back.

It might take 6 months total from start to finsh to get hired. But if your young fit and want all the hours you can take and really make some good cash quick do it. The down fall yes of course there is one like all jobs there isn't absolutly perfect job straight out of high school. They will work you like a dog long hours (Average 14 hrs a day 6 days a week along with half day every other sunday 8 hours) the union doesn't really support you if you don't want to work those kind of hours your pretty much stuck working those kind of hours or you'll be let go. The positive it's overtime time, time and a half after 8 hours each day. On that sunday if you work all the hours during the week you'll get double time for those 8 hours. Working these type of hours you can make easily $70,000 in a year, but I will be honest you don't have a life. This was my problem money wasn't everything, I had more important things in life to worry about and I wasn't happy at all, I was also on the road driving 2 hours to and from work and you need all the sleep you can get so I had no life, I didn't even have time to take a shit. :sarcasm:

So if you have the discipline try it out, save your money, live at home with the parents, Have it your head that you're only staying there for X amount of time, and you should be ok. A lot of the folks working for pepsi are there cause they don't think the can find anything else making that kind of money cause most have families and are stuck. Word of advice work there a year save as much money as you would like, use it for college, you could probably pay cash for a 4-year college and in that year deteremine what you want to major in.

Hope that maybe helps you out.

[Idylle Moon Dancer]

59. I worked a somewhat similar job for the past 2 years

I'd be in a lot better shape now if I'd had a clear goal in mind when I started. Now I'm mentally and physically burned out on that sort of work and don't have a whole lot to show for it because I wasn't focused on an end-goal and frittered away a lot of the money I earned. Now I'm seriously considering going for nursing. I have a degree in computer science but have largely lost interest in it. Sometimes it sucks having varied interests and being at least somewhat good at a lot of things. As far as making a career out of something I enjoy goes, I think my best bet is music. It can be amazingly difficult or impossible to get by on it, but it's the only thing in which I've maintained a consistent interest in over my whole life. So I'm trying to figure out some more stable employment that will both pay well enough and leave enough free time to work on music. Arg!

[Jamison]

45. Law enforcement/corrections.

This is a field where jobs are abundant, and there is plenty of job security. Outsourcing is not an issue b/c people in Asia cannot come and lock up offenders here. Crime is something that will never go away either.

There are cons to this field however, pay is not too great, you work with the scum of the earth on a daily basis, and burnout is high.

[ReaderSushi]

47. Saints.

nt

[Warpy]

48. You can't go wrong choosing health care

and there are dozens of job categories, from billing and coding, to transcription (although that's being outsourced to countries that have no privacy laws, go figure) to all levels of nursing, plus respiratory, physical, occupational and speech therapists, medical assistants, physician assistants, and the list just goes on and on.

Most of these jobs are hard on your body, but they generally pay a little better than the average corporate drone job. Since they involve face to face contact, they're a little less likely to be outsourced, although uninsured wealthy people have been known to go to resort hospitals in India and Thailand for elective procedures in a new hospital with good staffing (instead of the barebones corporate hospitals we have here).

Educational programs range from weeks to six years, depending on the field.

[glasalle]

49. I worry about guest workers

I pretty much agree with what you say about the current situation, and I think about going back into health care sometime, but
employers are already using guest workers in health care and teaching. At some point, we will have enough US workers, but the hospitals and other employers will be still be claiming shortages,as they are in tech fields. This will end up depressing wages and causing unemployment, since the supply will fill or exceed the demand, at which point American workers will stop going into the field.
I also believe that these guest workers are being paid less that American(citizens and green card holders)workers since there is little or no enforcement to ensure that employers pay prevailing wages. We see this in the tech field with H1-b visas. And regarding education, I recently read about Las Vegas bringing in Filipino teachers. One was a principal with a PH.D. and the other was a math teacher with ten years experience. I think neither was being paid much more than $20k and they were happy to be here.

[raccoon]

51. I've read similar articles about teachers and nurses. nt

[Quequeg]

54. Then, you should worry about Bush's guest worker bill

President Bush's guest-worker bill is touted as something that will reduce illegal immigration, while providing access to cheap labor.

Critics say that it will NOT reduce illegal immigration and will allow companies to legally bring in "guest workers" that will effectively be indentured servants.

But it's worse than that.

Bush wants to setup an Internet job bank, in which all jobs can be posted and anyone in the world can apply.

If a U.S. employer is paying $20/hr and they can find some desperate person in the world who's willing to work for $10/hr, then Bush says, "By golly, there's a willing worker who will do a job that an American won't do."

So, then the U.S. employer will import the foreign worker and fire the American worker.

This has happened in the tech field. But it will happen in all fields. I imagine that the elitists will destroy one occupation at a time in a controlled manner, so as to gradually lower our standard of living to the level of 3rd world people living in shanties beside the road.

If they did it quickly, then there would be a revolt. But slowly, they can get away with it, one occupation at time. Because nobody cares about someone else's occupation.

To learn more, this article alludes to it.
http://www.channelingreality.com/Economic/Free%20Trade.htm
"In fact, George Bush is going to implement a government website to aid corporations in finding foreign workers to import to the U.S."

If you'd like more info, then I can give it... Just respond to this post.

Please sign my pledge to stop globalism.
www.pledgebank.com/StopGlobalism

In the pledge, I request that signers get 2 people involved, but if you just get 1 person, then would definitely help.

Also, it doesn't have to be in conversation or directly by email. It could just be encouraging people on-line, such as in a forum.

On the right side, there is a box titled "Spread the word on and offline", which facilities printing-out flyers or sending emails.
www.pledgebank.com/StopGlobalism
We really need to stop the globalism. It's a genuine, real-life WMD for the middle/lower classes. :nuke:

[glasalle]

55. I do worry!

Bush (and most of our politicians) either believe or are actively pushing this idea of matching any willing employer with any willing worker- and the workers are usually not American workers.

[Name removed]

52. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[dcfirefighter]

53. If I were your age, I would look at the Coast Guard

I watched a friend 'graduate' from basic training recently, and realized that I was jealous - I'm too old to join, even as an officer, apparently.

And for a long time wished I had enlisted in the military prior to college - but that's just me, and that was then, not now. I do think I would have done better in school though, and perhaps chosen a different path - it's amazing how much your priorities change between 17 and 22.

But, as for the USCG - and I do know something about interpersonal dynamics, etc. All those people love their job. It's a small group. They do neat things. They treat their people well.

If I were you, I'd talk to a recruiter. Don't talk to an Army recruiter, but a USCG recruiter honestly doesn't need you. I doubt very seriously you'll be pestered at all.

[glasalle]

56. These are almost all non-export related jobs

Looking through the list of recommended jobs, it hit me that these are almost all jobs that receive their pay from Americans. They are mostly service workers that get their pay directly or indirectly from other Americans. This is okay for the individuals who get these jobs, but does not bode well for America as a whole. When most of our good paying jobs were manufacturing jobs( and then tech related service jobs for a period), a lot of the personal and national income was from foreign sources. As our trade deficit increases due to a dramatic decline in exports, we can expect a corresponding decline in our personal and national financial health.

Has anybody else seen this as an issue?

[Quequeg]

58. Yes, I think this qualifies as an issue

Big Issue!!!

In the year 2004, we developed a trade deficit in technology for the first time ever.
In the year 2005, it is estimated that we will have a trade deficit in food for the first time in 50 years. (I think this is because cannery is done offshore now and also some food can be grown more cheaply offshore.)

There's an old expression, "Give someone a fish and they feed for a day. Teach someone to fish and they feed for a lifetime."

Well, we're giving away our fishing poles as well as our fishing skills. For example, I recall reading one article in which a manufacturer of tech equipment said that if the dollar would just fall 20% against the Yuan, then he could keep production going. But he added that after several years of the current situation, it's going to be hard to find the workers and they will need to be retrained.

Wealth is the ability to create valuable goods/services. We're hollowing-out this ability.

Delphi already has manufacturing plants in China which compensate workers just $3 per hour (including benefits). I think the goal of Delphi and many other companies is just to move wherever the labor is cheapest. But it's a strategy without much of an encore. I mean, what do they do after they've moved the whole company to China? Is there cheaper labor on Mars, which they can then move production too? At some point, they're going to have to come up with some other strategy anyway.

I think this guy has some good ideas:

Balanced Trade - Not Free Trade

Balanced trade described in simple terms is, if a country desires to sell products to the United States, they are required to buy an equal dollar amount of products or services from the United States.

...

Since Red China has the greatest imbalance of trade, 124 billion dollars in 2003, we should apply a ten-percent balancing tariff on their total value of exports. In 2003 this was 152.4 billion dollars.

If ten percent were not sufficient, it would be increased to 15 percent then 20 percent and increased until the balance of trade is obtained. A tariff of 20 percent would provide the U.S. government with 30.5 billion dollars in 2003.

America imported products and services valued at 1.259 trillion dollars in 2003. This produced a trade deficit of 535 billion dollars. A ten-percent tariff on this would have provided the government with 126 billion dollars.

Select your favorite government program; Drugs for the Needy, Education, Social Security, Medicare, National Defense, Reducing the National Debt or Reducing Income Taxes, etc. Here are the funds.

If American purchasers choose not to buy Chinese products at the higher prices, good. BUY AMERICAN. This will put the American factories and their employees back to work.

I believe Warren Buffet had a similar idea with a concept called "chits" in which countries would receive "chits" (instead of dollars) from the U.S. for their exported goods. These "chits" could be redeemed at some later time by purchasing U.S. exported goods. So, countries will not sell to us, unless they plan to buy from us. I don't know if that makes any sense (or if I described it right), but we need to do something.

www.StopGlobalism.com       www.VOIDnow.com

[TheCentepedeShoes]

60. Torch and pitchfork

manufacturing. Long overdue. :evilgrin: