Vague_Boy Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 A tax is paid and that would be the case regardless of any unemployment wouldn't it? But it could be spent on other things rather than adding to our overall debt burden. Benefit payouts will exceed income tax revenue Plus those back in regular employment would also pay more tax, thus increasing the revenue generated. Rocket science it ain't. The youth unemployment situation is tragic but really, in this age of outsourcing and globalization, it is hardly surprising: What Really Ails Europe (and America): The Doubling of the Global Workforce Amidst the Great Recession, people are finally coming to grips with the fact that the global labor force has virtually doubled in size in the last 15 years. In this feature from June 2005, Harvard University's Richard Freeman explored what the addition of countries like China, India and the ex-Soviet Union has meant to the global labor pool. The global economic community, and economic policymakers in governments and global institutions alike, have yet to fully understand the most fundamental economic development in this era of globalization — the doubling of the global labor force. The doubling I am referring to is the increased number of persons in the global economy that results from China, India and the ex-Soviet Union embracing market capitalism. The effect on advanced countries Mexico, Columbia or South Africa cannot compete with China in manufacturing, as long as Chinese wages are one-quarter or so of theirs — especially since Chinese labor is roughly as productive as theirs. The entry of China, India and the former Soviet bloc to the global capitalist economy is a turning point in economic history. The entry of 1.47 billion new workers also pressures labor in advanced countries. The traditional trade story has been that most workers in advanced countries benefit from trade with developing countries because advanced-country workers are skilled, while developing-country workers are unskilled. But this analysis has become increasingly obsolete due to the massive investments that the large developing countries are making in human capital. China and India are producing millions of college graduates capable of doing the same work as the college graduates of the United States, Japan or Europe — at much lower pay. In advanced countries, real wages and/or employment are likely to grow more slowly than in years past. In developing countries that have traditionally been part of the global economy, manufacturing jobs are at risk. Full article HERE When you factor in a decline in educational standards and increasingly worthless degrees, our global competitiveness just gets worse and worse. The awful truth: education won't stop the west getting poorer Western Europeans and Americans are about to suffer a profound shock. For the past 30 years governments have explained that, while they can no longer protect jobs through traditional forms of state intervention such as subsidies and tariffs, they can expand and reform education to maximise opportunity. If enough people buckle down to acquiring higher-level skills and qualifications, Europeans and Americans will continue to enjoy rising living standards. If they work hard enough, each generation can still do better than its parents. All that is required is to bring schools up to scratch and persuade universities to teach "marketable" skills. That is the thinking behind Michael Gove's policies and those of all his recent predecessors as education secretary. But the financial meltdown of 2008 and the subsequent squeeze on incomes is slowly revealing an awful truth. As figures out last week from the Office for National Statistics show, real UK wages have not risen since 2005, the longest sustained freeze in living standards since the 1920s. While it has not hit the elite in banking, the freeze affects most of the middle class as much as the working class. This is not a blip, nor the result of educational shortcomings. In the US, which introduced mass higher education long before Britain, the average graduate's purchasing power has barely risen in 30 years. Just as education failed to deliver social democratic promises of social equality and mobility, so it will fail to deliver neoliberal promises of universal opportunity for betterment. "Knowledge work", supposedly the west's salvation, is now being exported like manual work. A global mass market in unskilled labour is being quickly succeeded by a market in middle-class work, particularly for industries, such as electronics, in which so much hope of employment opportunities and high wages was invested. As supply increases, employers inevitably go to the cheapest source. A chip designer in India costs 10 times less than a US one. The neoliberals forgot to read (or re-read) Marx. "As capital accumulates the situation of the worker, be his payment high or low, must grow worse." We are familiar with the outsourcing of routine white-collar "back office" jobs such as data inputting. But now the middle office is going too. Analysing X-rays, drawing up legal contracts, processing tax returns, researching bank clients, and even designing industrial systems are examples of skilled jobs going offshore. Even teaching is not immune: last year a north London primary school hired mathematicians in India to provide one-to-one tutoring over the internet. Microsoft, Siemens, General Motors and Philips are among big firms that now do at least some of their research in China. The pace will quicken. The export of "knowledge work" requires only the transmission of electronic information, not factories and machinery. Alan Blinder, a former vice-chairman of the US Federal Reserve, has estimated that a quarter of all American service sector jobs could go overseas. LINK East is taking over from West in an irreversible shift of economic power Global megatrends - The accelerating shift of power from West to East From West to East: a shift in power If you want to buy your kids a present this Christmas, get 'em a shoeshine kit and have them learn "please" and "thank you" in Mandarin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uptowngirl Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business/market_data/currency/default.stm The £. Down vs every other currency. Wave goodbye to your spending power It's at 1.165 against the Euro. That's about 4% higher than 3 months ago. What's the problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukdobby Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Not necessarily. Imagine, if instead of 2 million unemployed costing around £3,000 p/a each, we had 2 million desk jockeys creating bureaucracy and costing £15,000 p/a each. 3k each,think you need a reality check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mecky Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 There was an article on the news this morning..aparrently there's been around 25 apprenticeships available on the new Leeds construction jobs and only 4 have been taken up... But how many applied? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mecky Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 If you want to buy your kids a present this Christmas, get 'em a shoeshine kit and have them learn "please" and "thank you" in Mandarin. Why would I want someone to clean my own shoes for a few quid when I could do it mayself for free? Think on from there ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandad.Malky Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 There was an article on the news this morning..aparrently there's been around 25 apprenticeships available on the new Leeds construction jobs and only 4 have been taken up... Have you got a link for that …….. Years ago my son applied for a apprenticeship and there was literary thousands of applicants, they held initial suitability tests in a local school and the surrounding area was gridlocked with the number of cars parked up, the police were needed to keep traffic moving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairyloon Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 3k each,think you need a reality check. JSA is a little over £60/week, x 52 weeks is a not a lot more than £3k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul2412 Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 You can't ignore the fact that many employers still prefer to employ foreign workers despite so many young "British" unemployed. The reason? It's simple, speak to an employer and they'll tell you that the English youth are generally lazy, unreliable and have a bad attitude. If I was someone looking for unskilled work I'd probably look elsewhere too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul2412 Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 It's at 1.165 against the Euro. That's about 4% higher than 3 months ago. What's the problem? I can remember when £1 bought you $3 AUD, now it buys you less than $1.5 AUD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ANGELFIRE1 Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 If you take the students who are looking for work out of the equation, the youth unemployment is around 700,000 I believe. Rather less than the headline one million. Regards Angel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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