Paper Pushing Geeks Ruined Our Economy!

Ask anyone who held a blue collar job before the 1980's and they will tell you they learned through the Trade..
My own father worked as a HVAC tech and learned through the union how to do his job, no schooling required. Most guys working in factories didn't need a college education.

Now-a-days you need a degree to do ANYTHING unless you plan on working for yourself.

People who have true genius in specific catagories would be passed over in favor of a degree. And it's given rise to the culture of "McCollege" USA. Where you pay 20k a year (or more!) to get a "degree" or certification to do a very menial job (like medical assistant, LPN, certain computer related jobs). Ultimately what it comes down to in America.. it's not what you know, or even who you know anymore ... it's are you willing to buy yourself into the job market. And depending on how much money you have, determines the level of education you get and thus your job. Certainly education should be praised, it's important, and in many fields it's needed above all else.. But for much of blue collar America it's simply not needed, should never have been introduced. If I want to be a certified mechanic I'll need a degree from some crackpot school unless I'm lucky enough to get with a union or company that will train me. Even HVAC like my own father, I know I could get in with a union and learn the trade through apprenticeship but it's incredibly hard to, most people go to ITT type schools where they shell out a fortune for their "training" which is often subpar.

So I go on to read an article today: www.time.com...
about Bob Lutz former vice chairman of GM (and Ford, and Chrysler and BMW!) who didn't have the "traditional" education, but rather the technical and industrial know-how. In otherwords.. he is a down to earth god-honest American. The type that built this country from the ground up, with their hands and an idea.

To get the U.S. economy growing again, Lutz says, we need to fire the M.B.A.s and let engineers run the show.

....
The auto industry is actually a terrific proxy for a trend toward short-term, myopically balance-sheet-driven management that has infected American business

I suggest taking the time to read the article in full .. it absolutely outlines the reasons why American products are often inferior, why American corporations continuously layoff Americans and go overseas for higher profits. It explains why our indutrial base has collapsed and "white collar" jobs is the mainstay of the new "American Dream". In short.. it's a perfect example, looking at the auto industry particularly, of why our economy is nothing but a sham.

To get the U.S. economy growing again, Lutz says, we need to fire the M.B.A.s and let engineers run the show.

I agree whole heartedly.

"They were New Yorkers and they didn't understand it.
they thought is was very very bizzare,
and they set about peice by peice
really dismantling the corporate culture
and fundamentally destroying the company,
ah ye know,
it's the damndest thing I've ever seen."

Nolan Bushnell
on the sale of Atari
and the subsequent demise
of american home entertainment systems.

Timestop 7:56 - 8:19

Later in the video the former engineers of Atari revolt
form their own company and sell a few hits under the title of Activision.
But american production of sucessful home arcade systems faded
and it wasn't till the nintendo that the entire market started to recover.

/sarcasm on

Thank you so much M.B.A.'s

/sarcasm off


David Grouchy

What a coincidince! I posted the following from a car site that did a post about Bob Lutz telling "why" Cadillac lost its glory to the boys from Germany and Japan.

To achieve the same goal would take 5 Jap engineers, or 8 for a German team, or 15 for a Korean team (while still probably cheaper than the Jap team) and 700 engineers from a US team. And the Americans will demand more salaries per head, take two hour breaks shooting the s@#t, high fiving each other and whining and bitching about everything under the sun. And ask for a longer time frame.

Why worry, though? When America finally becomes 3rd world most people won't have (or can't) go to college anymore. I live in such a country and I support small business that employ such people. College is a load of crap! I'm probably smarter than all of those dumbass professors.

I'm one of the geeks going to college, but I totally agree with you. I would love nothing more than to not have to suffer through all this junk just to have a shot at a halfway decent job. I've seen people who can't write a grammatically correct paragraph to save their life, but they can rewire an entire house with ease. Not everybody is cut out to go to college, and there's nothing wrong with that; it's time the U.S. embraced this fact.