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« on: November 13, 2015, 06:50:16 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 11-12-2015
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest
Nov. 12, 2015
THE FOUNDATION
“In our private pursuits it is a great advantage that every honest employment is deemed honorable. I am myself a nail-maker.” —Thomas Jefferson, 1795
FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Rubio Is Right About Wages1
By Allyne Caan
Just hours after protesters nationwide hit the streets demanding a minimum wage increase, Marco Rubio took to the podium at Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate2 and noted a higher minimum wage isn’t needed but rather an America where hard work and perseverance lead to success. In other words, higher wages don’t come from government.
“Here’s the best way to raise wages,” Rubio said. “Make America the best place in the world to start a business or expand an existing business, tax reform and regulatory reform, bring our debt under control, fully utilize our energy resources … repeal and replace ObamaCare, and make higher education faster and easier to access.”
But he didn’t stop there. Instead, he immediately emphasized the importance of vocational training. “For the life of me,” he added, “I don’t know why we have stigmatized vocational education. Welders make more money than philosophers. We need more welders and less philosophers.”
Apparently, them’s fightin' words. After all, it’s one thing to say America needs more trade professionals, but dare to question the plethora of philosophers and all of a sudden you’re giving Socrates an extra dose of hemlock.
In truth, Rubio is on to something, in more ways than one. Primarily, he was making a sweeping generalization aimed at a particular audience: minimum wage earners. Want a job that pays better than the McDonald’s drive-thru? Don’t major in philosophy (i.e., shorthand for something not practical) only to be a higher-paid burger flipper. Go to trade school and learn how to weld.
Don’t get sidetracked by literally comparing the earnings of welders with the highest-earning philosophy majors in white collar jobs. That completely misses the forest for the trees.
But there are some numbers that work in Rubio’s favor. Consider, for example, that work in skilled trades — and training for those trades — has significantly declined in America in recent years. For the past six years, skilled trade job vacancies have proven the hardest to fill in the United States, according to Manpower Group3, a human resources consulting firm. Furthermore, as Forbes reported4 two years ago, in 2012, 53% of America’s skilled-trade workers were 45 years and older, while nearly 19% were between 55 and 64.
It wasn’t accidental that Mike Rowe’s “Dirty Jobs” series on the Discovery Channel highlighted the importance of the trades. Blue-collar work is an American tradition — and one that has made the American Dream possible for countless individuals and families. Jobs in the skilled trades are waiting, but we’ve discouraged young people from pursuing them.
On top of that, many trade jobs are now being taken by hard-working Hispanic immigrants. Rubio takes a lot of criticism for his stance on immigration, but it’s obvious here that his message is more Americans should be filling these jobs.
Additionally, the colleges so many portray as the only path to success have too often become knowledge-free havens for leftist drivel — a fact not lost on Rubio. While we dissuade people from honest blue-collar work, we push them towards an education designed to transform them into leftist lemmings, with massive student debt to boot. Rubio’s observation that America could use fewer philosophers clearly hints at the tendency in colleges to teach things that don’t matter rather than real-world marketable skills. At the University of Iowa, for example, students can take a course in “The American Vacation”; at Georgia State, they can study “Kanye vs. Everybody”; and at Occidental College, students can spend an entire semester immersed in “Stupidity.” Thankfully, there is no prerequisite for that one.
Finally, given the philosopher-king in the White House, it’s quite possible Rubio was emphasizing that empty philosophizing may make someone a decent community organizer or phony “constitutional law professor,” but it didn’t transform a particular man with precious little real world experience into an effective leader. Rubio may very well have been intimating that a blue-collar upbringing, such as his own, is more reflective of the fabric of America than the experiences of a narcissistic Ivy League-educated ideologue who does not, in fact, share our values5.
Unfortunately, instead of recognizing Rubio’s comment for what it was (an endorsement of skilled trades) and what it might have been (a commentary on the sad state of higher education today), some conservatives accused him of excoriating intellect altogether. The Federalist’s Rachel Lu, for example, said6 Rubio reserved his “contempt for the intellectual pillars of Western Civilization.” And The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto claimed7 Rubio was the worst offender of the debate in “the bashing of philosophers and philosophy.”
Good heavens, one would think the man destroyed the Republic — both the book and the nation! But apparently his comment, while connecting thoroughly with average Americans, soared over the heads of the wisest scribes. Which, some might say, merely confirms the truth of his words.
TOP RIGHT HOOKS
Hillary Pontificates on Betraying Vets8
Hillary Clinton supports our veterans — or so she says. After all, she says she tried to sign up for the Marines earlier in life, right? Never mind the factual questions9 surrounding her tale… Today, she’s trying to take advantage of the scandal10 at the Department of Veterans Affairs to bash Republican plans to fix it through privatization. “Today we are failing to keep faith with our veterans,” Clinton said, adding that her administration would have “zero tolerance for the kinds of abuses and delays we have seen.” Clinton hurriedly put together a VA solution to give veterans VA insurance that they could use with private providers. She also focused on prominent services for women and homosexuals.
Meanwhile, Republicans have proposed to offer veterans a choice of services within the system or vouchers to receive services in the private sector. Of course, Democrats oppose vouchers for veterans' health care just as they do vouchers to help kids get out of failed government schools. And much for the same reason, Democrats want to maintain a stranglehold on every sector of services they can. They certainly don’t want to offend their government and school union constituents.
But as for GOP proposals, Clinton declared, “As we work to improve the VA, I will fight as long and hard as it takes to prevent Republicans from privatizing it as part of a misguided, ideological crusade. I will not put our veterans at the mercy of private insurance companies. Privatization is a betrayal, plain and simple, and I’m not going to let it happen.”
No, betrayal is allowing 300,000 veterans die11 while waiting on the VA.
Germany’s Emissions Blitzkrieg12
The German agency tasked with regulating that nation’s automobiles announced Wednesday that it was investigating 23 automobile brands for emission cheating, two of them13 American-based Ford and GM. The announcement comes two months after news broke that the EPA found14 software on Volkswagen diesel cars designed to fool emission tests.
Out of 50 models being tested by Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA), Germany’s auto regulator, KBA said it has finished testing about two-thirds of them. “Since the end of September KBA has been investigating whether further manipulation of emissions, of nitrogen oxides in particular, is taking place in the market,” said KBA in a statement in German, according to translation by the magazine Foreign Policy15. Because it is announcing its investigation before it has its results, it appears that KBA is trying to lighten the pressure Germany’s car manufacturer is facing over its cheating. In other words, KBA is making the situation political. It matters not if the charges stick — that is, if GM’s Chevrolet Cruze also spews nitrogen oxide at many times the limit set by the EPA — the seriousness of the accusation is enough of a cloud. KBA is protecting Volkswagen by emitting more hot air. |
