Winners and Losers in the Tax Bill

[Old plug]

But they need far less

[snagged in outlet 3]

True.  But the work the robot does would probably wear out a human anyway.

[Quillback]

Better to have the robot factory here than in China. 

Plenty of machinist jobs out there from what I hear, and again based on what I hear, those jobs mostly involve controlling machinery that does the actual machining. 

[Mitch f]

34 minutes ago, Quillback said:

Better to have the robot factory here than in China. 

Plenty of machinist jobs out there from what I hear, and again based on what I hear, those jobs mostly involve controlling machinery that does the actual machining. 

Yes, nobody is filling by the void of the retiring skilled tradesmen. It’s not cool enough anymore

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

The machinist jobs I've seen, don't pay like the jobs of yesteryear.   The benefits are hollowed out,  and the ones you will work with are not the quality of the past.  You are typically hired on as a temp, and they pay just barely over some restaurants.  

[Quillback]

Talked to board member Stein whose company employees machinists.  I want to say they start, right out of school, at $15/hour plus full benefits.  He was complaining that other companies will hire them away, give them a raise and a $5,000 signing bonus.  His company is in Nebraska.  I may have the details wrong, but that was the gist of my conversation with him.  Sounded like plenty of overtime is available also. 

[Stein]

30 minutes ago, Quillback said:

Talked to board member Stein whose company employees machinists.  I want to say they start, right out of school, at $15/hour plus full benefits.  He was complaining that other companies will hire them away, give them a raise and a $5,000 signing bonus.  His company is in Nebraska.  I may have the details wrong, but that was the gist of my conversation with him.  Sounded like plenty of overtime is available also. 

That is starting for right out of school with no experience.  Our top machinists get around $35/hr and dang good benefits.  and yes, they can work as much overtime as they want.  We have several positions open that have been tough to fill.

Our local trade school used to take 12 students per quarter at each of the two campuses.  There used to be a waiting list to get in.  Now they have closed one campus and occasionally not start a quarter when they don't have at least 6 applicants at the remaining one.  It's tough finding machinists.

[Stein]

14 hours ago, Old plug said:

I will not forget after all the job claims that the factory is highly robot automated. Where is the jobs in that. 

Well, a company's primary objective is to make money, not jobs.  It's not a charity or hobby.  We continue to automate as much as possible.  Primary reason is cost reduction but we have also been driven to it by lack of job candidates.  I say driven to it because it takes a lot of capital to automate things.  Realize that Nebraska has a 2.7% unemployment rate.  Technically they say you are into the "unemployable" ranks once you hit 4% unemployment.

[Mitch f]

These sophisticated 3, 4, and 5 axis machine tools still require a skilled person to program the CAM software. Also, there needs to be annual recalibration with a laser and skilled people do that. Yes, it’s more automated but the need for skilled people won’t go away anytime soon.

[ness]

2 hours ago, Mitch f said:

These sophisticated 3, 4, and 5 axis machine tools still require a skilled person to program the CAM software. Also, there needs to be annual recalibration with a laser and skilled people do that. Yes, it’s more automated but the need for skilled people won’t go away anytime soon.

...and needed skills will change. If you expect to prosper because what you’re good at *used* to be in demand, you can expect to be left behind.

We can dream of labor jobs with great benefits and a pension, but that’s a smaller and smaller piece of the pie these days. And it’s not because cigar-chomping executives are sucking off all the money and getting rich at the working stiffs expense, it’s because of competition from all over the globe—something we weren’t up against as much a generation ago. Best to get ahead of the competition and take charge of your future, rather than expect somebody to provide one for you just because you won the ovarian lottery and were born in the most prosperous time and country in the history of mankind. BTW, if you’ve got what it takes to be a cigar-chomping exec, more power to you. We’ve got room for hundreds of thousands of you in our 300 million-plus population. 

As to taxes...our elected officials have saddled us with this cluster stuff of regulations, which are more about making constituents happy and less about funding the necessary functions of government. Best to take your deductions to the extent they are available and minimize the amount your pour into the bottomless pit.  Don’t cheat—pay what you owe, and nothing more.