La Cucaracha by Lalo Alcaraz for May 31, 2015

That “no nepotism” thing is a killer.

Love the “I could have bought a house” sign. Always tell the kids going into college, either go into a field with a high demand for grads, or go to a trade school and get a real job.

There is an old joke in the academic world that tells of a university president who wanted to find out what his graduates really wanted to know after they were in the workplace and this is what he found:

The accountants want to know how much things costThe lawyers wanted to know who had money so they could sue themThe engineers wanted to know how things workedThe physicist want to know why things worked and the liberal arts graduates wanted to know if you want fry’s with your Big Mack.

First, my comments are about a joke in the academic world however there is some truth in the joke. In general a degree in English Literature, Ancient History Eduction etc with less that a masters does not assure employment in the respective fields.

Many liberal arts degrees like Anthropology, Archeology, Astronomy, Geography etc. are not very useful with less than PhD.

Of course there are plenty of exception but in general there is some truth in the joke.

One of the most employable fields is Electrical Engineering. I know of several engineers who could not hold a engineering job. In fact I fired two of them.

P.S. Correct English and spelling are not requirements in engineering. Only the results count.

Night-Gaunt, that is not true. Most of the new high paying jobs are in the high tech field. The USA is a world leader in that field. Our loss is in the labor intensive low tech and manufacturing jobs.

When I was young(I am 84), before the illegals arrived, a man could support a family as a gardener and other low paying jobs. The illegals brought the pay down so low that no one except illegals cam make a living in these fields.

When Clinton signed the NAFTA agreement the middle class manufacturing jobs went to Mexico. Now wages are increasing there so some of the work is going to China but even there, they are losing some the sweat shops in India other third world countries.

The next big step is occurring now. Our automation advancements is reducing the unit cost of many manufactured products to where they can come back.

What we need now is more confidence in the business community so they will risk investment money to get things going again.