"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
*JimH* wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
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NOYB wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
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Youths in Rural U.S. Are Drawn To Military
Recruits' Job Worries Outweigh War Fears

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 4, 2005; A01

As sustained combat in Iraq makes it harder than ever to fill the
ranks of the all-volunteer force, newly released Pentagon demographic
data show that the military is leaning heavily for recruits on
economically depressed, rural areas where youths' need for jobs may
outweigh the risks of going to war.

More than 44 percent of U.S. military recruits come from rural areas,
Pentagon figures show. In contrast, 14 percent come from major cities.
Youths living in the most sparsely populated Zip codes are 22 percent
more likely to join the Army, with an opposite trend in cities.
Regionally, most enlistees come from the South (40 percent) and West
(24 percent).

Many of today's recruits are financially strapped, with nearly half
coming from lower-middle-class to poor households, according to new
Pentagon data based on Zip codes and census estimates of mean
household income. Nearly two-thirds of Army recruits in 2004 came from
counties in which median household income is below the U.S. median.

Such patterns are pronounced in such counties as Martinsville, Va.,
that supply the greatest number of enlistees in proportion to their
youth populations. All of the Army's top 20 counties for recruiting
had lower-than-national median incomes, 12 had higher poverty rates,
and 16 were non-metropolitan, according to the National Priorities
Project, a nonpartisan research group that analyzed 2004 recruiting
data by Zip code.

"A lot of the high recruitment rates are in areas where there is not
as much economic opportunity for young people," said Anita Dancs,
research director for the NPP, based in Northampton, Mass.
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How can this be, in this wonderful Bush economy?
No jobs but the military.

Ummmm. Because they don't live where the jobs are.

"More than 44 percent of U.S. military recruits come from rural areas"
"The" jobs these days seem to be mainly "Mcjob" service sector jobs with
companies offering low wages and no benefits.

And how has that changed since, say 1999?

The trend of losing manufacturing to Mexico or overseas has been going on
for years.

How can we compete with labor prices in China?


By imposing tariffs and using the resulting funds to retrain our workers.


The tariffs have to be selective towards countries, not industries. I
propose that they create a rating system for each country wanting to do
business with us. If that country has labor and environmental standards on
par with the US, they start with, say, 100 points. For each area where a
country's environmental or labor standards are more lax than US standards,
they lose a few points. If that country subsidizes its companies (or the
companies are partially state-owned), they lose even more points. The lower
the total point total when all standards are calculated, the higher the
tariff.

This will help level the playing field without unduly punishing countries
like Canada, or groups of countries like the EU


We don't export much to the PRC these days. What are they going to do?
Stop buying what they don't buy?

The PRC would be close to zero on my point scale.