OT: need prayers for BIL

BIL lost his job, laid off--permanantly. He is a surveyor, He was making $18/hour. He and the SIL are only a few paychecks away from losing their house. I told him that if he doesnt find something in 2 weeks or so, then go to Home Depot and fill out an application, and then work at a restaurant on weekends. The Michigan economy is in bad shape. The building trades are just about dead.

Brother is a pattern maker in Michigan and has lost his job three times in the past year. He is now unemployed again. China has taken over the pattern making business. Notta so good butta so cheap. The 800 B dollar bailout won't help these guys just the fat cats on Wall Street and the politicians.

Goverment will only help the ones that come from other countries, or the one's that have never worked a day in there life.

Your brother-in-law should not waste his time looking for work in Michigan. Certainly not in his chosen profession.

What the Socialist Michigan State government has done
'for' Michigan is what we can all look forward to here in the US if external_link is elected.Guess we'll turn into a 'workers paradise' like Cuba

He should go to the Michigan Works people. They will assign him a caseworker, and direct him to availble retraining programs. My bil does similar work, enviornmental surveys for developers. He was laid off for almost a year, finally got a job - in NY. That job will end pretty soon, and he doesn't know what's next. Pretty tough job market out there. I am trying to find something myself. Anybody who says "the economy is fundementally sound" isn't mentally sound.

Anything in manufacturing is dead. I am a 3rd generation tool & diemaker. Most of the shops around here have either downsized repeatedly or closed. And the suvivors are not making much, if any money. One shop owner told me that he had a longstanding job with a hi tech company, they simply told him to cut his price by 25% or they would source it to china. What really angered him was the price cut included parts he had completed, shipped, but hadn't got paid for. He gave in, but says he is thinking of retiring. He employed 12 guys at one time, now works by himself. A lot of "Made in America" stuff now is assembled of offshore components.

I could go on and on but I'm not. To heck with it I am at least a little.

Our Economy is "fundamentally sound" not good and could collapse. I'll use this analogy. A person has heart trouble and is going to die if he doesn't get a transplant. He has liver problems along with colon cancer. They won't give him a transplant because his body isn't "fundamentally sound" and the transplant won't save his life because of too many other problems. I think our economy can be saved because it is "fundamentally sound" If it wasn't "fundamentally sound" we would be going in a depression and nothing could be done.

On China getting our manufacturing business---TERRIBLE TERRIBLE. Our country has the next to highest tax on business of any country. Our country has the most stringent epa regs and on and on. Out manufacturers don't have a chance to be competitive with China. With all those jobs going to China, add this. All that billions of barrels of oil we import and all that money leaving our economy is just part of it. Can you guess how many jobs it would create here to produce that oil.

Out manufacturers not having a fair playing field. plus our money taken from our economy going somewhere else to buy oil that we can produce making hundreds of thousands of jobs here that we don't have.

If we don't do something to fix that colon cancer and that liver problem so our heart transplant will do good and save us,---,brother we will fail!

prayers sent. Good luck

Of course we will pray for your BIL and all others who are lost in Michigan. Michigan nnalert have taxed the state into third world status and it is a shame that a once-vibrant state with a terrific base of skilled workers has been ruined.

He and your SIL need to escape right now and find something because in just a few months the entire rest of the USA will be in similar shape and it would be an advantage to them to be in new jobs awhile first - maybe they won't be the first laid off if they have a little seniority.

Actually, in addition to your BIL and SIL we all need to be praying for our country.

Ok what say we roll back all of our environmental regs so we can be like china. Then we will get rid of all our labor laws, so we can compete with China.
How much does business actually pay in taxes? Deduct this depreciate that get a credit for something else,what is the real% of profit that goes to uncle sam?

i have been praying recently for a lot of folks who are out of work now- a good portion of whom I had to lay off. My prayers are with your BIL...there but for the grace of God go we.
-BC

Most of the time I don't get into these types of OT disc., but I hear a lot of talk about the business tax being the reason that business leaves the US. Just a bunch of public relations bull. The real reason is the decreased cost of labor, reduced environ. regs and increased profit for the company and the MILLIONS the CEO can now rake in for himself, having raised the companys bottom line. The corporate culture club of entitlement leads to the rich paying the rich to help them become even richer. The boards of companies are full of other exec's paying each other enormous sums of money. These people have r*ped America. When the average CEO is making over 50 million a year total(bonus+options+salary) and sending jobs outside the US, then closing plants in the US, people still buy the pitiful excuse of "business tax".
That's a joke.
As with other major powers in the past, success + money + power has ruined the US. Very few really rich people actually give a sizable portion of their wealth back, either in terms of donations or job creation. RR's trickle down theory is really just the rich get richer and the poor get poorer
If all the major businesses in the US cut executive salaries to a reasonable amount not one company would ever have to leave the US.

Quote--Ok what say we roll back all of our environmental regs so we can be like china. Then we will get rid of all our labor laws, so we can compete with China.
How much does business actually pay in taxes? Deduct this depreciate that get a credit for something else,what is the real% of profit that goes to uncle sam?--Quote

I didn't say wipe out everything just some (and there are plenty without bothering labor) to be more competitive. DON'T get me wrong but if push comes to shove a poor paying job under bad conditions is better than having no job because the Chinese are doing them.

How much taxes to business pay-----none. They pass it along in higher prices to cover those taxes. We pay them buying products made here. That also makes our products hard to export.

For everyones Info. I am retired and still carry my Union Card,and will till the day I die, been a member for 44 years and made good money. Over the years I saw the company to have to spend more and more to COMPLY with every little whim of of Gov., Environmentalist, and to protect them selves against lawyers. I bought a garden sprinkler last week and you should see the warnings. Can you believe, ware ANSI-approved safety goggles, warnings about pressure, keep from children and much more. It cost them a bunch to write this up to where they can protect them selves from lawsuits.

The problem is not the fact that we have environmental and labor regs, it's that our competitors don't. I'm a conservative guy, but several decades ago our water and air were polluted much worse than they are now. Also, our labor situation is much better than it was at the turn of the century. The problem is that our competitors don't protect their land and workers so they can undercut us every which way.

Just a word about the business tax. About 78% of US comapanies don't pay any taxes according to the GAO. Copuldn't agree with your statement more!

Hummmm--Then external_link doesn't know what he is talking when he accuses McCain of giving all those tax cuts to big business--Hummmm