Wayne Lemley: A possible solution
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Steamboat Springs — Those who occupy Wall Street are fed up. Unemployment, now at 9 percent, has not been this high in more than two decades. It seems very unfair that investment bankers and others make millions while many of us have no job or struggle to pay bills with $10-per-hour wages.
Will it work? Will the Wall Street occupiers get anything changed? It is doubtful. Possibly, the better course for them is to become educated and productive.
Why do Wall Streeters, doctors, lawyers, engineers and business owners often easily find work and earn good money? The answer is supply and demand. There are relatively few capable people available and willing to be Wall Street investment bankers and other professionals. It takes more time and effort to become educated for higher-level work. Isn’t the real solution for the Occupy Wall Street participants to work hard and get a good technical or professional education? There virtually is no unemployment for these jobs. It is hard to believe, but companies and banks seeking engineers, chemists and professionals have a hard time finding qualified applicants.
Michael Dell, founder of Dell Inc., recently interviewed on CNBC and spoke of offering 10,000 technical jobs here in the U.S. Dell Inc. was, however, having a lot of trouble filling the 10,000 positions. What’s more, if many more people educated themselves for technological and professional work, the pay difference would be less extreme. Pay for Wall Streeters, engineers and professionals at least would be somewhat lower because more capable people would be available for this work.
Those who resent the wealthy and successful should start early and educate themselves, especially in math and science. Stay focused on education. Spend that extra time on math, science and engineering homework. Work with our wonderful special education and gifted and talented teachers to become great engineers or scientists. Plenty of high-paying jobs will await you.
Think of the late Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Inc. and developer of the iPhone, iPad and iPod. He was reasonably well educated, very productive, quite goal-oriented and enviously successful.
Learn to sell your skills in a job interview. Set career goals for yourself in math and science. Stick with your goals until they are accomplished.
Education starts very early. Parents and preschools should read with 2- and 3-year-olds each day. Do some simple math five minutes every day. It is hard to believe, but little toddlers are very bright and waiting to get a head start on learning.
If you start with an early education, set and accomplish goals, focus on math, communication skills, science and technology, you can live a productive and prosperous life. You might not resent Wall Street and successful business people. The world can be your oyster.
Wayne Lemley
Steamboat Springs School Board
Wayne Lemley has written a number of articles on raising capable children .. http://alumni.brown.edu/lemley.
Comments
heboprotagonist 1 year, 6 months ago
And they say the the left is full of disconnected elitists....
S_G30 1 year, 6 months ago
Why disconnected? Does not everyone have the right to pursue a career on wall street, or become a doctor? That's the great thing about this country, you can be whatever you want to WORK to be. I was brought up beleiving that nothing would be given to me, that I had to EARN everything that I wanted. What a crazy concept, earn your money, earn your life. Every protester could have become a CEO, broker, hedge fund manager and I'll bet they would do the same things with their money. The probelm is that they would have worked to ge there.
heboprotagonist 1 year, 6 months ago
If you think it's that easy, then you are disconnected.
You might as well have said, "Let them eat cake."
1999 1 year, 6 months ago
wayne...it's not successful business people the OWS people resent...it's the buying of America by corporations.
especially politicians.
you might want to read up on what the OWS street people are actually rallying against before you spout mistruths
Sandra Sharp 1 year, 6 months ago
However, not everyone has the aptitude it takes to be a stoke broker. It is a harsh reality, and not necessarily fair. Each of us are gifted with different abilities and limitations. No matter how hard one may study to pass a test for licensure to be a stock broker, some of us just do not have the aptitude needed to pass that test. In addition to not having the intellectual capabilities to achieve the education needed for these higher paying jobs, there are situations lacking the social and financial support needed to achieve a higher education. Take for example, the student that is on an IEP or attends an alternative school. Several of these students graduate high school not able to pass the placement tests needed to attend college classes. These students use their college financial aid to take classes preparing them for college level work. Thus, their financial aid runs out before competition of an Associate’s Degree. What is the issue here is the disparity between the haves and have nots. Before making judgments about those less fortunate, explore their world.
sedgemo 1 year, 6 months ago
SG and Wayne, with all due respect, have you happened to notice how much UNEMPLOYMENT is plaguing us? Got any idea of how many college grads have lost jobs, houses, credit, and hope? How many people have to string together three "McJobs" to buy groceries and pay rent/mortgage... and pray they don't need any medical care? How about those former food bank donors who are now patrons? They probably don't eat out the same places you do so you don't see them.
1999 has it right, there is a flash point when you realize how rigged the game is, and no matter how smart you are or how hard you work you will get nowhere. Look around a little more carefully, this is YOUR world, too.
S_G30 1 year, 6 months ago
I never said anything about easy. Excuses never get you anywhere.
sledneck 1 year, 6 months ago
It has always been easier to make excuses than money.
The mob mentality of OWS is an alternate world for people who desperately fear the struggles of real life.
sledneck 1 year, 6 months ago
Ms Sharp, That is about the most meaningless drivel I have ever read... ever!
Leaving high school illiterate is not "less fortunate". It is a decision... a dumb decision. Dumb decisions SHOULD bring poor results, not rewards and empathy.
Giving an illiterate person a high school diploma is not "social support" it is social suicide.
1999 1 year, 6 months ago
i agree with sledneck but that is NOT what OWS is about.
1999 1 year, 6 months ago
i agree with sledneck but that is NOT what OWS is about.
sedgemo 1 year, 6 months ago
I wasn't offering excuses... just reality. Your words imply you believe unanticipated unemployment is equivalent to moral failure. It may be true for some but your words paint with very broad brush strokes.
Something near 40 million people are out of work in this country TODAY. By your easy reasoning that means they must all be ignorant abject failures since they weren't ensconced on Wall Street when our economy took a nosedive. Our country is undergoing a massive shift of resources into fewer and fewer hands. Read "Aftershock, the Next Economy" for a concise explanation of these events.
I'd suggest you take your own advice, and spend five minutes a day taking a wee bit wider view of the world you share.
sledneck 1 year, 6 months ago
I think I'm glad resources are going into fewer and fewer hands because an ever-increasing majority (call it 85% and rising) can't find their ass with a guide dog.
Putting "resources" in their hands is like giving shotguns to kids on the short bus.
Scott Wedel 1 year, 6 months ago
Mr Lemley, You miss the whole point of OWS. It is not about wealth per se, but about insiders using their connections and political influence to win regardless of their performance. OWS is protesting how Wall Street was able to make horrendous financial decisions putting massive financial institutions either insolvent or facing insolvency that then required government bailouts only for the same individuals to make massive profits and bonuses with government guaranteed investments.
OWS is about financial institutions using their political influence (money) to make it harder for individuals to discharge debts in bankruptcy while themselves serving as executives can walk away with many millions from companies their mismanagement have bankrupted.
OWS is protesting the insiders and connections that allows a Jon Corzine to make bets with other people's money so he would have made hundreds of millions if right and still walks with $12 million after being wrong and bankrupting the company.
There is not an occupy Silicon Valley protesting the success of Sergey Brin or Craig Newmark because those companies rise and fall according to their merits. Yahoo! is not borrowing money from the Fed at 0% and loaning it overnight to other companies at .5% so that Yahoo! can rebuild itself with government guaranteed profits and give Yahoo's executives huge bonuses for their "brilliance" at profiting from free government money.
sledneck 1 year, 6 months ago
If the cheese disappaers when you leave it on the floor overnight, or when you stuff it into the rat-hole then who is more to blame, the rat or the supposedly intelligent person who left the cheese out???
It was the government that left the cheese out. They even FORCED a lot of banks to take the bailout money.
THAT is the reality. Damning the rats for being rats while excusing the criminal acts of others who are supposed to be smarter than the rats and in charge of the rats is more than a little one sided.
There is not an occupy washington movement because the protesters are not mad about the "injustice" of money being unfairly redirected. They are just mad that it wasn't "redirected" to THEM. THAT makes them as amoral as the government and the wall street crowd. Frankly, I can't tell the difference.
S_G30 1 year, 6 months ago
To slednecks point..
Occupy Wall Street Protester Wants College Paid For Because That's What He Wants by NROVideos
NamVet 1 year, 6 months ago
Mr. Lemley is correct when he says that education is the key to success however it is not that simple. The cost of a college education is up 600% ABOVE inflation over the past 30 years. Not everyone has wealthy parents who can foot the bill. Many students are finishing their degrees with debt as much as $100,000 for just a Bachelor's Degree.
He also misses the fact that OWS is about the unfairness today in our society. The Great Recession was not caused by the Middle Class it was a direct result of Wall St. Executives selling worthless securities around the world which they knew to be worthless when they were sold. They shorted the securities after they sold them and actually made money while the organizations that bought them lost everything. When Pres. Bush and Sec. of Treasury Paulson bailed out the big banks(TARP) $33 Billion went to pay bonuses to the executives that caused the financial crisis in the first place. How many Executives have gone to jail for this-NONE. Our political process has been sold out to the big corporations and the wealthiest of our country thanks to Robert's Supreme Court who said Corporations are people so unlimited amounts of funds can now be given to politicians without disclosure. Just look at the $15 million Rick Perry raised. 96% came from Corporation mainly Oil and Gas and Herman Cain got only 46% from Corporations. Our election process is for sale to the highest bidder. Wall St. Executives also get preferential treatment when it comes to taxes. They get to call their income Capital Gains which allows them to pay a 15% tax rate instead of 25% to 35% the rest of us pay. On top of that the people running for President want to exempt all taxes on Capital Gains which will be a bonanza for the top 1 %. Just yesterday the House finally did something and passed a bill which declared "IN GOD WE TRUST" as our official motto again. What they should have done is changed it to "IN GREED WE TRUST'. The net worth of Congress is up 25% over the past 2 years is there any wonder how this happened.
1999 1 year, 6 months ago
oh yeah...I can't believe congress takes time out to vote on such ridiclous matters.
again...shocking.
sledneck 1 year, 6 months ago
Nam, The cost of college education keeps skyrocketing because the government keeps throwing money into that arena in the form of grants and loans. Obama is the one driving up that cost. Just 3 days ago he was patting himself on the back for pumping more money into it. Did you hear that???.
Do you really think the corrupt relationships between business and government stopped the day your boy took office? Cause thats what you sound like. Really???
Do you not know that the same Freddie and Fannie execs who were among the "ring leaders"of those evil executives that helped nudge the american economy into the abyss still are getting tens of millions, even now??
Are you completely ignorant as to what capital gains tax is? People who get gains from capital had to first EARN that capital, at which time the INCOME tax was taken from it. The capital gains tax is being applied to the return on money that was ALREADY TAXED AND THEN PUT AT CONSIDERABLE RISK A SECOND TIME, and is now being taxed again. Do you not realize that millions upon millions of people living close to the poverty level still recieve capital gains from investments which is all they have to buy groceries??? Are you really that far out there? Do you not realize that the corporations you hate are made up of sometimes millions of shareholders; many of whom are poor and middle class who depend on dividends to keep them from hunger, to buy their medication, to pay their kids college tuition??
NamVet 1 year, 6 months ago
Sled your time line is a little off. Fannie and Freddie have been around for decades, government support for education started with the GI Bill after WW2, the definition of Capital Gains was changed during the Bush Administration to include the income of Hedge Fund managers and Wall St. execs, the Robert's Supreme Court changed the definition of corporations to allow undisclosed unlimited cash for politicians, corporations are sitting on trillions of cash and not giving dividends or hiring etc. The Boy as you put it was not President until after the country's financial meltdown and Great Recession was in full swing. Just compare where this country was on the day Pres. Bush was sworn in and were it was the day Pres. Obama was sworn in. Which one got screwed? Yes the Obama Administration has been a disappointment in that he has been unable to turn things around enough to help the Middle Class though the top 1 % and corporations are doing great. In the final analysis the Bush Administration was a total disaster and the Obama Administration is a total disappointment. We will just have to wait for Herman Cain.
sledneck 1 year, 6 months ago
My timeline? I did not lay out a timeline. And I as much as agreed that the economic decline was well under way under the last administration. I am not sure what your point about the lifespan of Freddie or Fannie was other than to redirect the argument away from the FACT that they are just as corrupt as your villans on Wall St. and just as responsible for the meltdown yet their execs are gettin' huge salaries UNDER THIS ADMINISTRATION. Here is one entity that government ACTUALLY HAS SOME SAY-SO OVER THEIR SALARIES and yet Obama hasn't done a damn thing about them...Why???
Regarding capital gains; I merely suggested that many people depend on it who are not "evil rich people" and that comparing capital gains to income tax is no less deceptive or ignorant than comparing income taxes to sales tax or to property taxes or to gasoline tax.
There is no "Roberts Supreme Court". There is a US supreme Court which is made up of appointees from several administrations, including the "wise latina woman" appointed by Obama as well as other very left-leaning appointees.
On the "... [unable] to help the middle class though the top 1% and corporations are doing great" statement: I don't know why I bother when you repeatedly demonstrate either your inability to comprehend basic communication or your permanent left-side blinders can not be penetrated, but I will try one more time...
Corporations, (you know, the ones you said are "doin great") they are made up of many, many middle class people who depend on their investments in those corporations for their humble existance. If you would get that into your head you might realize THAT IS PROBABLY WHY THE SUPREME COURT RULED the way id did about corporations' right to donate to politicians. How would it help the middle class to have the corporations or the 1% doing worse???
I hope you are right about Herman Cain. He would be the first Republican to get my vote since Reagan. After they finish crucifying him I'm afraid I'm back to Ron Paul.
bill schurman 1 year, 6 months ago
Yo, Wayne, I got me an education, so there.
arshouse 1 year, 6 months ago
wow, that is quite an article wayne, very inspiring! all you kids, go study hard and you too can be in the top 1% of income earners trading stocks and speculating on real estate! or better yet, hit the batting cages everyday and you can be the next albert pujols, learn to play the guitar and become the next john mayer, take some cooking classes and become the next rachel ray. in case my sarcasm is not obvious, this is one of the more riciculous editorials that i have read lately, and that is saying a lot.
rhys jones 1 year, 6 months ago
And I might disagree a bit... McDonald's and Wendy's serve shift meals, and provide free uniforms. How many movie stars know calculus? The best investments I know of aren't legal.
There are MANY ways to go, kids, just follow your hearts and don't listen to these old fuddy-duddies.
My Liberal Arts degree from WSC was virtually worthless, once I got out of TV. I just got lucky the Marines had shoved computers down my throat earlier.
And there's an option, for those wanting an education but unable to afford it: GI Bill. That's what paid for my worthless degree. The military has launched more than one career, if you can get out alive and whole. Wayne's right about one thing: The smart money is on the sciences, for those so inclined. And basketball. And rock'n'roll.
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