And lo on Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:43:12 -0000, Jim Henderson  
<nos### [at] nospamcom> did spake, saying:

> On Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:28:30 +0000, Stephen wrote:
>
>> On 6 Feb 2008 17:02:53 -0500, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
>>
>>> Those who tend to be successful, I think, tend to be people who instead
>>> of learning "how to build a paint sprayer", but rather how to follow
>>> instructions on how to build something.
>>
>> That is dispiriting.
>
> What, that people have to evolve their skills?  That's the way the world
> is (at least in the so-called "western world") these days.  Adapt or
> die....It sounds harsh, but it's reality.

Except ever since conveyor-belt style systems were introduced the skills  
gap has gotten wider and more difficult to jump.

>>> From there, one possible career path is process optimization, which can
>>> open a bunch of other doors as well.
>>>
>>>> That's the problem or at least one of them. Not everyone has the
>>>> opportunity to re-skill and move up.
>>>
>>> At least in my experience, the opportunities are there, but the
>>> motivation often isn't.  Of course, it's not 100% who have the
>>> opportunities (or don't have the motivation).
>>
>> I saw it differently here when Mrs T started to go the way she did. (I
>> won't go into that. It is an old story and you shouldn't talk politics
>> or religion if you want to keep friends. Oh what the Hell I can't keep
>> my mouth shut :)
>
> I'm happy to talk either politics or religion.  Maybe that's why I don't
> have a lot of friends. ;-)

Heh my current favourite topic is how the Conservative Party is promising  
to either bring back or abolish things that they removed or introduced  
last time they were in power. No-one remembers that's the trouble.

> I'm having a great debate right now with someone about the relative
> merits of calling Wicca a religion (he doesn't believe it is, and he's
> wrong <g>) and the US armed forces holding weekly services for those who
> are observant of that particular faith.  Of course, his definition for
> "religion" is pretty narrow - you have to believe in a monotheistic god,
> which generally narrows the field to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
> By his definition, Buddhism and Hinduism don't (and shouldn't) qualify.

The FSM is monotheistic :-)

>>> A big problem also has to
>>> do with people living beyond their means; when you do that, you can't
>>> take a lower paying job while you are re-skilling.
>>
>> How very true. Debt is a major problem here in the UK.
>
> Yeah, I understand that you guys are catching the sub-prime mortgage wave
> that hit us the end of last year.  Don't get bitten.

Big fuss quite a while ago about banks encouraging people to lie about  
their earnings in order to qualify for a mortgage, ah well I dealt with  
that on my blog some time ago. But Northern Rock is still a touchy subject  
in terms of the sub-prime wave.

>  I also understand
> that there's been an interesting development in a bank bought by Citi
> over there - that they're terminating accounts for people with *good*
> credit because they're not making any money on interest.  Terminating
> accounts for people who pay their cards off every month:  What's the
> world coming to?

Egg. Supposedly terminating accounts of high-risk customers (about 7% of  
their base) i.e. those whose credit ratings have changed for the worse  
since they applied; trouble is some of those terminated customers are  
pointing at their perfect credit ratings. The common factors for these  
people appear to be their status as homeowners and that they pay off the  
balance in full every month. IOW they don't make any money for Egg and  
instead could be persuaded to take out a big fat loan instead using their  
home as collateral.

Not really new - MBNA added an annual charge to people who didn't use  
their credit card enough and apparently First Direct started charging a  
monthly fee for customers who didn't credit enough money into their  
accounts each month.

The option is simple - move companies, there's enough about.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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