Comments on The Burd Report: The unemployment industry circles the wagons

I made a suggestion that you look and find out the...

2009-04-26T12:12:00.000-04:00

I made a suggestion that you look and find out the information yourself, instead of expecting others to do the job for you. That's regarded as an attack? Wow!

Over my lifetime, my skin has thickened.

Perhaps Wally you could try focusing on the ideas ...

2009-04-26T11:08:00.000-04:00

Perhaps Wally you could try focusing on the ideas being discussed rather than attacking the posters themselves.
DJO

If it is hot, entrepreneurs and venture capitalist...

2009-04-24T22:53:00.000-04:00

If it is hot, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists will be there with the money to invest. Why? Because they are attracted by the smell of profit.

Oh, btw, you seem to have many ideas and concepts. Why don't you look and find it? Unless Ben is your devoted gopher.

As regards the Wicklow girl found dead in her barr...

2009-04-24T19:50:00.000-04:00

As regards the Wicklow girl found dead in her barracks at Kandahar Air Field, I wonder if there's such a thing as a 'Dear Joan' letter.

Not that it matters. I just get kind of uptight when I hear the same-old-same-old military claptrap dribbling forth from the semi-literate gop of some true-to-form fully-bilingual robot telling us how eager and proud and honest, decent, true, and....and....and well, and how nobody who ever went over there ever had any problems emotionally and how they all, each and every one of them, would go again on a godamned dime if only the military would let them.

Fuck but I'm so sick of the bullshit I could just puke...

djc

Nobody has picked up on the concept I tried to int...

2009-04-24T13:52:00.000-04:00

Nobody has picked up on the concept I tried to introduce: that the municipality or non profit group start businesses using public funds to do it.

That kind of enterprise is unheard of in our free market capitalist economy and I think it's something we should consider before we reject it as unworkable or unprofitable or unthinkable.

Ben, the feds certainly collect info on what occupations are hot, am sure if you look you can find it.
DJO

Reducing the number of admin staff will result in ...

2009-04-23T19:53:00.000-04:00

Reducing the number of admin staff will result in lost jobs for those people but in a streamlined agency that is rebuilt with a client focus, as opposed to one that says let's do the same thing but only in one agency. That's also nuts. BTW the idea of reducing admin staff is to save taxpayers money not to devise jobs for the unemployed. Two different things.

Well, Ben, how does laying off admin staff at thes...

2009-04-23T19:45:00.000-04:00

Well, Ben, how does laying off admin staff at these 11 agencies so that you and others can be hired with the funds saved represent anything but musical jobs?

I advised my son as he was growing up that the bet...

2009-04-23T19:36:00.000-04:00

I advised my son as he was growing up that the better his education the better his chances of obtaining better employment. Education will be a continuous process. The idea is to be nimble, because the opportunity for mindless line labour in advanced societies is contracting. The idea is to be a verb, not a noun.

Back during the 1980's I was working with groups assisting refugees to Canada. Most came from commie dictatorshits.

There was an interesting phenom from many of the refuseniks that fled to Israel, and the few who arrived here. Their first question was, "Where will you be sending me to work?"

"Oh you are free now, we don't tell you what you to do."

This was most troubling for people from the socialist dictatorshits because they had always been assigned to a job. The concept of freedom in this regard was bewildering for many.

The other phenom new to many was the fact that they had to work. "The state pretends to pay us so we pretend to work." was standard joke. It came as a surprise for many that they were expected to work hard.

hey Wally I'll even be satisfied with a string of ...

2009-04-23T15:06:00.000-04:00

hey Wally
I'll even be satisfied with a string of short term jobs but you have to work!

"the unemployed need ... long term jobs" The idea...

2009-04-23T14:21:00.000-04:00

"the unemployed need ... long term jobs"

The idea of long term jobs is a loser. Currently and in the future, long term jobs will be as common as buggy whip manufacturers.

Hey I got a great idea; let's start an enterprise -- yea, you can start it, but remember me, I came up with the brilliant idea.

Solutions for whom? The unemployed, they need shor...

2009-04-23T13:13:00.000-04:00

Solutions for whom? The unemployed, they need short term relief and long term jobs, neither can be found at any of these agencies. The chronically unemployed - those who should be on disability get some relief from these agencies but a lot more hassles because a, they are not good clean working folk, they have problems that bureaucrats understand but don't want to handle and b, they are chronic and repeaters and need more support.

The answer in a perfect world would be a connection agency between the unemployed, who would be classified as, retrainable, employable and job ready as opposed to unemployable due to the lack of the previous. And let's face there will always be those that cannot be employed for one reason or other. This frontline agency would sift and sort clients into various streams: back to work, education upgrading or just simple income support. The key is to know what jobs we need and where the job fillers are. I have been around this for 25 years and I am still waiting for a comprehensive plan that shows us where the emerging vacancies will be. And after all that we have have governments willing to put money into the unemployed and underemployed to make a full employment society possible.

some ideas for a start.
ben

On further reflection I am astounded that there ar...

2009-04-23T12:38:00.000-04:00

On further reflection I am astounded that there are 11 of these agencies around. That's a lot of duplication if they are all run by separate managers. I am a big fan of lots of locally based offices though; people in Campbellford should not have to travel to Cobourg to get services.

Seems to me the real problem is (a)the lack of funds to start businesses and (b) the resistance to the idea of the County or some other municipal or non profit outfit funding and running businesses.

If we could save a pile of cash eliminating all these make-work agencies and put the money into starting an enterprise or two, that might work out better for everyone.

Ben, you have experience in this sector, what do you think is the solution?
DJO

I have an even better idea: forget providing servi...

2009-04-23T10:54:00.000-04:00

I have an even better idea: forget providing services and just increase the welfare and unemployment insurance rates instead.

After all, how many agencies do we need to tell folks how to prepare their resumes? At the end of the day that's about all these agencies do anyway.

It appears that our poverty reduction committee is only succeeding in building a stronger poverty industry for themselves.

The Help Centre, by the way, lost their federal funding to provide employment related services years ago. They still type resumes but the bulk of their services these days is straight forward relief: a food cupboard and distribution source for Milk for Moms coupons; emergency funds to pay utility bills, some money management counselling and free year round income tax service. All vital services for the disadvantaged, but none of them job related.

DJO

I am suggesting that in order to make it easier fo...

2009-04-23T10:46:00.000-04:00

I am suggesting that in order to make it easier for clients and save taxpayers money 1 - ONE - agency be mandated to work with the unemployed. After all with the federal government only supplying EI all the other agencies are Provincial. Amalgamate and save admin money, 1 admin dept instead of 11

Interesting, for sure. Yet these many agencies do ...

2009-04-23T08:16:00.000-04:00

Interesting, for sure. Yet these many agencies do help some of the unemployed by employing them, yes?

Perhaps you are suggesting one or more of these things:

1) the people doing admin jobs in these agencies are overpaid

2) they would be better employed doing something else, like...

3) ???

I've had occasion to use one of these "se...

2009-04-23T08:01:00.000-04:00

I've had occasion to use one of these "services" because I couldn't take advantage of a program run by another until I used the first. I was given incorrect info about the program - turned out I wasn't eligible anyway. Complete & stupid runaround and waste of my time, but they both got their funding for "helping" me. Most of the programs might help a very young and/or inexperienced person, but they have nothing to offer for people with education and/or *middle class* experience.