2 Aug
2004
2 Aug
'04
9:18 a.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Vintage Computer Festival" <vcf(a)siconic.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, August 02, 2004 3:25 PM
Subject: Re: Electronics Barn closing
Festival
A) The school system has always been producing kids with the skills
employers are demanding for the future workforce. The newest generation will
have skills designed for the service industry which is where 80% of the jobs
of today are. Why should Johnny go to tech school and spend $20,000 on loans
to get an ITT tech degree and make $8 an hour when he can get just about the
same rate moving boxes in a warehouse with nothing but a HS diploma.
Accounting, law, business, and IT is where the money is to be made today,
engineering and science along with programming is a waste of time.
B) Society in general is 100% reactive, kids go to school and kill a few
people so society clamps down with no tolerance school policies. Its the
same with government, people hijack a few planes and fly them into a
skyscraper and we pour billions of dollars to hassle passengers while doing
nothing to seal our borders or even inspect the billions of packages that
fly in our airplanes every year.
C) I agree with what you said. Americans are the most overworked and have
the least vacation time used then any other workforce in the industrial
world (this does not include CEO's of course).
D) I don't know if they are skimping in chemistry or physics in schools
today since they are still college prep classes. Computers are probably
pushed more today then when I was in school. Maybe they cut back on some
woodshop and metalshop classes, I wouldn't know. I do know that a school
district has to be on the verge of bankruptcy to get rid of football,
baseball, and basketball since these activities draw in too many parents who
do pay local taxes.
E) Do it yourself is still very big in the home renovating area, probably
bigger then ever since a house is the biggest investment most people make
and is still the largest sinkhole for money for repairs. Humans ARE mindless
consumers. Go look at a 1930's mail-order catalog and see all the
nonessential junk being sold to people even back then. The only difference
is today that there are catalogs targeting the very poor just like there are
always catalogs targeting the middle class and rich. Companies have done
their homework on marketing their junk better, consumers have not changed at
all.
> my other hand was on the keyboard, ESD),
equipment was expensive. Today
if a
> pc card breaks its cheaper to chuck it and get a
new/used one then it is
to
even think of
looking for the parts to fix it, same with all other
This is the biggest aspect of the problem. But if that's all it was, it
would be easy to solve. The main issues are that we have a) dumbed-down
school and educational requirements, b) stifled creativity in ways too
numerous to mention (i.e. kids being arrested for writing fantasy essays
about killing other students, teachers, etc.), c) have gotten so busy in
life that we have little spare time for hobbies, d) removed the hands-on
science classes from school because of budgetary reasons, e) generally
de-emphasized do-it-yourself and supplanted it with "Collect all 8! BUY
ME NOW YOU MINDLESS CONSUMER!!"
I'll bet an electronics surplus store would be very successful in a
third-world but emerging country like China for instance. India for sure
I'd imagine (John?)
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer