Obama: 'We don't have enough engineers'

[madengr]

Maybe he ought to just stay out of this, but even with the outsourcing and H1B insourcing, they still can't drive labour cheap enough. Yes, there is a 4.5% unemployment, but this is still twice what it was a few years ago.


A look at the numbers behind the president's call for 10,000 new engineers in the U.S.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217624/Obama_We_don_t_have_enough_engineers_

[Austrian Econ Disciple]

The audacity. I wonder how many store clerks, shoemakers, welders, nurses, or otherwise the Unitary One thinks 'we' need.

[acptulsa]

Well, what do you know. They drove up the price of higher education so that only the children of the rich would be rich and the class system could be maintained, and now we have a shortage of educated people. Who'd've ever thunk it?

They outsourced the middle class and now they can't find customers. Who would have dreamed such a thing? We converted a huge chunk of the economy to arms manufacture and now our economy is more destructive than productive. Who could have foreseen that? They piled on the Medicare paperwork, passed laws saying doctors couldn't charge less for paperwork-free cash customers, and now can't figure out why the hospital emergency rooms are clogged with head colds and ear infections.

And Obama chides us like it's our fault. Thanks, Barry.

[Travlyr]

The Ivy Leaguers are in charge... they've studied this stuff. If we need 10k new engineers, then we need 10k new engineers. Who are you guys to question the master? Sit down, shut-up, pay, and obey.

[fisharmor]

Is there such a thing as a "country engineer"?
Any licensing requirement creates a guild system, a barrier to entry, and a dearth of people in the licensed profession.
That's the entire intent of licensing. Barry shouldn't act surprised when the system is working as intended.
If he wanted more engineers, the answer's easy: remove barriers to entry, and you'll reach market equilibrium.

[AceNZ]

Another attempt at central economic planning.

Does anyone remember what happened a few years ago when they said the country needed more pharmacists? Pharmacy schools made a killing, but newly trained pharmacists could no longer find a job. Same for lawyers.

Let the free market work!

[swiftfoxmark2]

That's funny coming from a failed lawyer.

Here's the rub: more teenagers are going to college than ever before. Yet somehow we need more engineers? Perhaps you should force universities to cancel all the useless majors like philosophy, women's studies, African-American studies, sociology, anthropology, etc. Then maybe students will flock to departments that given them actual job skills.

[acptulsa]

That's funny coming from a failed lawyer.

Here's the rub: more teenagers are going to college than ever before. Yet somehow we need more engineers? Perhaps you should force universities to cancel all the useless majors like philosophy, women's studies, African-American studies, sociology, anthropology, etc. Then maybe students will flock to departments that given them actual job skills.

See, I know what you're up to. You're just trying to ensure that the next shortage of professionals to come along is a Bureaucrat Crisis.

Keep up the good work.

[AceNZ]

This looks like another example of punishing the successful: in this case, those who chose engineering careers. After all, we can't let those relatively low unemployment rates last forever!

[LibertyEagle]

That's funny coming from a failed lawyer.

Here's the rub: more teenagers are going to college than ever before. Yet somehow we need more engineers? Perhaps you should force universities to cancel all the useless majors like philosophy, women's studies, African-American studies, sociology, anthropology, etc. Then maybe students will flock to departments that given them actual job skills.

No way! The government should stay the frig out of education, completely.

[swiftfoxmark2]

No way! The government should stay the frig out of education, completely.

Oh, I agree, but they're neck deep in it and I'm just suggesting a better alternative to meet the supposed goal.

[LibertyEagle]

Oh, I agree, but they're neck deep in it and I'm just suggesting a better alternative to meet the supposed goal.

I understand. But, more government intrusion is hardly ever the answer to solve a problem caused by too much government intrusion.

[PaleoForPaul]

Rofl, they let corporations outsource, H1B, offshore, etc and then they wonder why students don't go into engineering or comp sci. Duhhhhhhhhhh

[TheBlackPeterSchiff]

It's true we do need more engineers in the country, but we don't need unemployed engineers.

[Southron]

Rofl, they let corporations outsource, H1B, offshore, etc and then they wonder why students don't go into engineering or comp sci. Duhhhhhhhhhh

I thought we had a service economy now. Why do we need engineers.....?:rolleyes:

[axiomata]

How will more ATM designing engineers stop dem ATMs from taking r jerbs?

[notsure]

Reporting for duty.
http://ewpopwatch.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/threestooges_l.jpg

[notsure]

Gardez-Khost Highway, one of the most expensive and troubled transportation projects in Afghanistan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/world/asia/01road.html
2011


GARDEZ, Afghanistan — When construction crews faced attacks while working on a major American-financed highway here in southeastern Afghanistan, Western contractors turned to a powerful local figure named simply Arafat, who was suspected to have links to Afghanistan’s insurgents.
Subcontractors, flush with American money, paid Mr. Arafat at least $1 million a year to keep them safe, according to people involved in the project and Mr. Arafat himself. The money paid to Mr. Arafat bought neither security nor the highway that American officials have long envisioned as a vital route to tie remote border areas to the Afghan government. Instead, it added to the staggering cost of the road, known as the Gardez-Khost Highway, one of the most expensive and troubled transportation projects in Afghanistan. The 64-mile highway, which has yet to be completed, has cost about $121 million so far, with the final price tag expected to reach $176 million — or about $2.8 million a mile — according to American officials. Security alone has cost $43.5 million so far, U.S.A.I.D. officials said.



The goal is to transform Afghanistan into a modern nation, fueled by a U.S.-led effort pouring $60 billion into bringing electricity, clean water, jobs, roads and education to this crippled country. But the results so far — or lack of them — threaten to do more harm than good.
http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/07/26/in-focus-fixing-afghanistan/2354/
2010


Case in point: a $100 million diesel-fueled power plant that was supposed to be built swiftly to deliver electricity to more than 500,000 residents of Kabul, the country’s largest city. The plant’s costs tripled to $305 million as construction lagged a year behind schedule, and now it often sits idle because the Afghans were able to import cheaper power from a neighboring country before the plant came online.

...

The Afghans fell back into bad habits that favored short-term, political decisions over wiser, long-term solutions. The U.S. wasted money and might by deferring to the looming deadline and seeming desirability of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s 2009 re-election efforts. And a U.S. contractor benefited from a development program that essentially gives vendors a blank check, allowing them to reap millions of dollars in additional profits with no consequences for mistakes. Rebuilding Afghanistan is an international effort, but the U.S. alone has committed $51 billion to the project since 2001, and plans to raise the stakes to $71 billion over the next year — more than it has spent on reconstruction in Iraq since 2003.



Civil engineers plan Afghanistan's future foundation
http://www.afso21.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123154620
2009


Many of the projects the PRT is currently working on address concerns of inadequate infrastructure throughout Nangarhar. To date, the team has 55 active projects worth $63.4 million with another 60 projects in the queue worth $100.6 million. Currently, the team is working on 15 roads, 33 schools, a two-story women's resource center as well as surveying and designing a dam in the mountain valleys.

[steph3n]

Maybe he ought to just stay out of this, but even with the outsourcing and H1B insourcing, they still can't drive labour cheap enough. Yes, there is a 4.5% unemployment, but this is still twice what it was a few years ago.



http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217624/Obama_We_don_t_have_enough_engineers_

Our education system makes people too stupid to be engineers, so they have ot be sourced from countries that actually have people that want to succeed and not be an apathetic slob of a human lifeform.

[RoyalShock]

I thought we had a service economy now. Why do we need engineers.....?:rolleyes:

Custodial engineers
Food preparation engineers
Customer experience engineers
Retail payment processing engineers
Remote troubleshooting engineers

So you see, there is plenty of need for cleaning staff, fast food workers, wait staff, cash register clerks and call center workers.

[Pericles]

Our education system makes people too stupid to be engineers, so they have ot be sourced from countries that actually have people that want to succeed and not be an apathetic slob of a human lifeform.

The issue being that success as an engineer requires the ability to do math. Feeling good about yourself does not cut it.

[Brian4Liberty]

Rofl, they let corporations outsource, H1B, offshore, etc and then they wonder why students don't go into engineering or comp sci. Duhhhhhhhhhh

Agreed. They convinced an entire generation not to pursue engineering degrees.


according to U.S. Labor Department data

Like I beleive that. :rolleyes:

[Brian4Liberty]

Obama: 'We don't have enough engineers'

Translation: Bill Gates says "We don't have enough engineers", and the Obama puppet moves his lips.

[PaleoForPaul]

I thought we had a service economy now. Why do we need engineers.....?:rolleyes:

I remember when they were calling it a FIRE economy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIRE_economy) on CNBC...from like 2004 on. Using that term in a context that has a positive connotation has vanished since the crash.