27 November 2007

Travels, etc.

I just got home a short while ago. Morning comes early and I will set off on a 3-day whirlwind trip that will have me in Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and two cities of southern and southwestern Arkansas. And coming in on the last inbound flight Friday night. Did I mention that I hate to fly? But I have no choice - I need a job, bad.
I spent some time recently with people at a locally-based 'Executive Recruiting' firm, looking at the stacks of resumes of persons who, like myself, went into the so-called STEM occupations (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) who have had a rough road. Despite what you hear about the need to graduate more engineers and constant pressure to admit even more foreign ones, there are good people (including myself) who have been scrambling to eat for years now. I saw records just today of people with great records of accomplishment, verifiable achievement, multiple patents, true contributors, who are stocking Wal-Mart shelves, driving trucks, and all the rest, all of it far removed from their fields of expertise. Or, in many cases, working a series of 4 to 5 month long ''contract'' jobs at locations far removed from their families and homes. Then I was shown a stack of other resumes, persons either in country or trying to get in on H-1B visas, from India, Pakistan, Egypt, Korea, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Guatemala, Mexico, and elsewhere. I saw one from someone who was just 19months ago at a university in Iran. And some of them will be hired. Mustn't be accused of being ''nativist'' or of being opposed to the wonderfulness of unrestricted immigration.
This may be good for the country. But you couldn't prove it by me.
Add to that, the continued hollowing out of manufacturing and production in this country, and the outlook is bleak, despite what the ''progressives'' will tell you. I am reminded of my own history.
1981-2 with a division of ITT, making parts for nuclear plants. Closed in 1983?
1984 -90 with a division of GM, now part of Delphi, massive downsizing and bankrupt
1990-92 with a maker of electronic components. Massively downsized, sold 3 times and closed.
1992-1999 with the most admired corporation in America. Takeover victim, gutted, much production sent to Mexico and China
1999-2004 with a well respected niche manufacturer supplying the appliance industry. Division dissolved, hostile takeover, massive downsizing of the supplier and the major customers
2004-2006 series of short 'contract jobs
2006-2007 manager with a manufacturer now in massive retrenchment and turmoil and another downsizing.

Two of the unstated requirements of a good society are certain levels of stability, as well as enough vitality that the stability does not become stasis. I've seen far too many good people hurt badly to think that it is always a Good Thing to send my neighbor's job - or mine - to Mexico or to the ChiComs. Like it or not - and I don't necessarily - Ross Perot was right in 1992 about the ''sucking sound'' and a whole lot of people owe him an apology.

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