This Is Why There Are No Jobs in America - Page 2

Beetree,

I have seen a ton of large farms around my area going solar. I asked a farmer how much he is saving on electricity and he said thousands a year. I have thought about roofing my house with the solar shingles but am waiting for the price to drop and quality/reliability to get better.

 I have not read this thread just saw gsdmod POST.. I spoke to three builders last yr about Feb when my son came to stay with me and the price to run my electricity is horrible and he wanted me to put some solar up for just my hot water heater..
Builders in tyler are not building solar much..they said the initial cost is high and most people are not gonna add 30,000.00 to a home for solar ..some homes it is closer to 50,000.00 for initial .

tHEN WITH OTHER things inconsideration , most people do not live long enough in their homes to get back the savings

I spoke to the top three big builders here. I did my research because my son and I got into a heated argument  over it.

MY home is 32yrs old and a cottage in the woods under trees..

I just learned to turn off the hot water heater 12 hrs each day ..it works...

it draws a hugh amount and my  stove I cook on too. SO I started using electric skillets..
MY airconditioning I have cut by using two window units in bedroom and one in living room..They run on 110 instead of 220 so my bills this month are very low in leu of last yr when I did neither to cut..

Everything is sky high here so all are cutting back on everything we can.

Yr

YR,

I pay 220.00 a month in electricity. The bad part is I have a gas dryer, stove, heat and hot water. I think my state has some of the highest electric rates in the nation. Next time I get past some of these farms I will take pics of their solar panels. They have to be in banks 15 feet wide by a hundred feet or more long. Not sure of the initial cost but these large farms don't appear to be worried as they will pay for these systems in a few years time by saving on their bills.

I quickly did some searches and found systems for 4 to 6 thousand dollars.

This will be a very lenghy one... and please excuse me my whining... This one is from a perspective of a small employer...

There are no jobs in America because hiring an employee cost employer plenty of $$$$ for years to come, even if the 'employee' works only for a day or two... and because government helps only employees and not employers.
 
The majority of jobs in America is created by really small businesses that employ only few employees. However according to the government - small business is company that employs over 100 employees... and any company that has less does not qualify for any help.
 
In my state (reality check):
1). Prevailing wage - a laborer that sweeps the streets have to get $40/hr... additionally every week I have to prepare ton of paperwork for every job, every employee and report it back to L&I. Additionally I have to pay L&I $90 per project to approve my reporting...
2). In my business L&I wants from me additional $4.5 per every hour worked by employee (over the standard hourly rate paid to the employee) ... so on prevailing wage I have to cough up from company's pocket $62.70 per hour for employee wages, L&I and IRS (cost only)...
3). Every quarter or so L&I raises the % that employers have to pay into the bucket...
4.) L&I approves and pays big $$$ for phony injuries to employees (even to the people who have never paid into L&I and are not eligible) - "Well, that poor person needs our help, and what do you care - it's only NUMBERS"
5.) Our business is paying for every employee's benefits paid by L&I that was on our books for the last 3-4 years even if they worked only for a day...
6.) There are 50 free L&I lawyers for the employees and 0 L&I lawyers for the employers. Lawyers will represent you if you demand - but they warn you that you will never win... According to the L&I - employees are always victims - employers are abusers... therefore employees are always right and L&I is there to give them everything they want from the employers...
8.) Government is extending employee's benefits into indefinite. Why would somebody work for $800/week and pay taxes, if they can stay at home and get $550 cash/week from L&I for doing nothing. I personally know few people who do it for the last couple of years. They also receive plenty of additional freebies - free school (retraining fund), free gas to school (L&I pays them mileage), $800/month for a dependant (that lives with the ex), free full healthcare. One women I know did all her teeth including plastic dentistry, implants and braces totally for free. She also gets all the health screenings and medications for free. Unfortunately they don't feel ashamed to brag about it all to us. They feel so smart... All of them work on the black market for cash because they don't want to loose 'freebies'... It all has been paid by us who still have jobs and pay taxes.
9.) IIllegal immigrants receiving free healthcare...
10.) People having more kids because they get more freebies from the government. People not getting married (even if they live together) and have children because as marriage they wouldn't get freebies from the government... Every kid means additional bedroom in Section 8 apartments ($50/month rent for a 2 bedrom appt.), 2 babies gives you $650 cash/month for 'groceries' in addition to $350/week unemployment benefits. $7,000 braces for the kid for free... Those numbers were given to me by my friend, who's sister is doing exactly that... He is a hard worker and just cannot stand it - it makes him sick because he needs to take a loan for his kids braces... If he was to divorce his wife and go on unemployment it would be given to him for free...

Should I go on? The thing is getting worse every year. The unemployment is getting bigger, not smaller. Government created something called "Shared Work" that will pay employee for up for up to 35hrs a week (if they don't have enough work) so they don't have to count them in the official unemployment rate... Three years ago we made company's strategic decision NOT TO HIRE any employees (we still employ our tested old-timers) until this nonsense is over.
 
I know that what I said is harsh, I know that there are many good people who just can't get the job because there isn't one available. But there are too many parasites and scammers that suck the blood out of the system and employers to produce more jobs. I cannot offer a job to people who call my office every day because it will ruin my business and as a company's owner I am NOT allegeable for any help either from L&I or government, I won't get unemployment, I won't get disability if I get hurt, won't get benefits for my kids, nobody will pay for my or my kids health, nobody will give me food stamps, nobody will give me anything... 
 
I do 95% of turnover with business customers. Since 2008, over 60% of them went out of business. 6 out of 8 competitors went out of business as well...
Government is 'protecting' employees by pushing employers harder and harder to the point of them shutting down. But who cares - government creates jobs - $100,000 government jobs, paid by declining private sector, at a time. Soon there will be not enough employees employed by the private sector, that actually produce something and pay taxes, to pay for all the government jobs that live of taxes...

Where are these $40/hr street sweeping jobs? Which state is this?

GSD:

Any investment in solar for your home will not be wasted. It is something than can be recouped if the house were to be sold. There is resale value, unlike money thrown into building an inground pool. That you should never expect to recoup. I think we should look into solar panels to heat our pool, I've seen others with those, popping up here and there, too. 

I'm not listening to the naysayers on this one. I know it will only grow, the use of solar, that is. I mean, what is a bigger endorsement than seeing solar panels on a gas station? These were just built by the way, I'll take pictures if I have the presence of mind when I pass them one day. My point though, is somebody else, an energy decision maker it appears, is also thinking, like I'm thinking.

Beetree,

I live in WA state and my company does a lot of jobs on roads, etc - therefore public works - even if we don't work for the city or the state directly. You can look up prevailing wage rates on the L&I website http://www.lni.wa.gov/tradeslicensing/prevwage/wagerates/
 
This is a great gig for employees but huge burden on employers trying to stay in business. I had all (I'm not kidding - 3 in total) newly hired employees - get 'back injury' on the first or second day of work on prevailing wage jobs and ride L&I wagon for years. On injury claim they get 80% of $40.77/hr for 40hrs a week, why would they work? (For those who don't want to do math themselves - that equals to approx. $1,304.00 in lost wage benefits per week). And we are asking why there are no jobs in America?
 
I know that WA state is the most pro-employee state in the Union, but common! They have only one inspector in the whole state to check if any of those injuries are a fraud... And the amount of 'injuries' according to the L&I auditor, who turned our business up side down looking for anything they can catch us on, double every year... 'Injury' is better than unemployment, you can ride it indefinitely ... Doctors love it, they get paid by L&I big $$ for every visit, they refer the 'case' for second opinion to specialists, suggest therapy, etc. etc.
 
PLEASE DO NOT THINK I BELIEVE THAT ALL INJURIES ARE PHONY. However, there are too many phony once, to take good care of those who really got injured. People who do phony injuries know the drill, they know how to arrange the accident to get the most benefits. Real accidents are rely so 'convenient'. I know a honest person who broke his leg on the jobsite and didn't get any bennies, while the slam bag for a phony 'back injury' is freeloading for the last 5 years (all expenses paid). I know a person, that claims to 'fracture (not brake) her left wrist' in a public park playing with kids and get L&I disability on it, the 'doctor' didn't let her go back to work in two years, because of the 'pain that she indicates'... The gal became a full time College student, paid by the state and works as a house cleaner for cash.... And I thought that the law says, that if you can be a full-time student, you can go back to work... ETC, ETC, ETC
 
There will be a point when public sector (that according to our government) does pretty well, will just give up, take their money, all jobs and wealth and go away... I wonder what will the Government, and those who live of it, do then? Start killing each other for all the leftovers?
 
To prosper and create new jobs, I need plenty of 'rich people' to spend their money. I don't resent rich people - I love them, I want them to be even richer, so they spend more money with me. Please give them tax breaks so they spend this saved money on luxuries that we workers will produce for them. That will create much more jobs than if we tax them to death and make them skedaddle... Please watch or read "Atlas Shrugged". Do we want to end up like all the Russians who starved to death in 1921 "after the government took away everything from 'rich' and gave it to the poor"? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droughts_and_famines_in_Russia_and_the_Soviet_Union

Niesia, I also live in Wa. and find just the opposite. I started my own business years ago and was able to keep more of what I made. I have 2 sons in their 40's here in the tri cities that are also piping contractors that started their own business for the same reason and are both doing great. I don't know where in Wa. you live or what you do but,  if you're having a lot of L&I claims, I would be for finding out why. Pipe welding & fitting in the northwest has been booming for several years as well as a lot of other states. I hope things get better for you

Hank

Hank, I live up North on the coast, close to Canadian Border. I know that every L&I office may be different, depending on what kind of people work there. We have 2 employees of 8 and 10 years that never had a scratch doing heavy work, our company has very strict safety procedures. The rule #1 is DO NOT GET HURT! They can refuse the work if they think it is too dangerous. We've lost expensive equipment because we ordered employees to leave it and skedaddle as conditions became unstable.
 
The only 'injuries' were reported to L&I by brand new employees, on the first or second day of work - right after their C-Stop certification (that our company paid for) and 'jobsite safety training' i.e.: 'propane freeze' injury from the propane tank that 'exploded' (as reported to L&I) - well the tank didn't explode, was checked and safety certified after accident by authorized body (still in use today). The only way the person could get a 0.5" freeze burn on their chest is to actually manually open the valve and put their chest to it..., etc. BUT it is OSHA's 'recordable case' that affects our EMR rate... EMR rate higher than 1.1 won't let you work for refineries, OSHA 'safety conscious' General Contractors working on government jobs (normal is 1.0 and below) that use as on a regular basis. What it really means is that our long time employees won't get 'juicy jobs'.
 
Hank, I'm so happy that your business is doing great. I wish to hear it more often. Are you all owner-operators or do you have employees on your books?
Sorry for being grumpy today, but another competitor of mine just closed his doors leaving his employees unemployed. They called looking for work... My supplier is calling me up to order some more stuff, as his business declines quickly... If he goes out of business - there will be more people out of work and I will have to start ordering supplies made in China instead of those made in USA.
 
Did you have any experience with situations like this or have you been lucky enough to have employees that honestly want the work and make sure that they don't get hurt? All it takes is a common sense and being careful. I'm not talking about the accidents where the equipment fails (never happened to us) and you don't have a chance.
 
After all the BS we went thru with 'new employees' and L&I we cannot trust anybody not to do it. Three of them, one by one - did exactly the same thing. It does make my company look bad. Now, I have to look at every potential employee as a potential scammer - I hate it but this is actually a reality for me, not my imagination.

Niesia I have been retired for 2 years. I ran my welding rig pipelining for years, then hired hands later on. Mostly at nukes and gas plants. I live about 30 miles from the Hanford nuclear site.

 Unfortunatly you are right about some people. I have always been union, but i like you have no problem getting rid of those kind of people. It is a lot easier to get rid of guys like that then it used to be. The hall don't tolerate it either. It happens once or twice they kick them out if they were found doing things they no are wrong. It has not always been that way.

One of my sons had a claim a couple of weeks ago. A guy was putting a piece of  pipe on a rack and he had just walked by and told him to clamp the pipe so it wouldn't roll off, and not ten minutes later it rolled off and smashed his toe. He was off 2 weeks when L@I quit paying him. 

He was just not paying attention. Well good luck to you, if you ever get on this side of the hill get in touch, I always have coffee around. 

Hank 

Maybe this has something to do with it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/romneys-bain-capital-invested-in-companies-that-moved-jobs-overseas/2012/06/21/gJQAsD9ptV_story.html