Dec. 29, 2003 - 18:10 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Melange

Gagging through the news this morning and finally reaching the comics, the antidote to what went before. Ziggy is sitting on a bench in the park along side of an old man who is saying, "As you get older, Iggy . . . work becomes less fun and fun becomes more work ! Tells me where I am and that I am not alone.

Sunday's Denver Post has a column by Jim Spencer of The Denver Post. "New Medicare 'doughnut hole' hard to swallow." He writes, "The 'doughnut hole' is the void that senior citizens will have to fill each year with their money or private insurance before the nations new Medicare prescription plan provides anything like a comprehensive benefit."

Mr Spencer says further, "The 'doughnut hole' combines with deductable and co-pays to turn what politicians have promoted as good news for seniors into an ugly surprise."

He goes a bit further, "Add it all up and in 2006 the country's elderly must find $3,600 apiece from other sources before Medicare pays 95 percent of the rest of their drug costs."

Here's what frosts my tochus, "Congress didn't want older Americans to become wasteful with their new federal entitlement," explained Leslie Norwalk, chief operating officer of the U.S. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. For instance, if you didn't have to pay out of your pocket for a significant amount," Norwalk said, "you might use brand-name rather than generic drugs." "Besides," she added, " the new Medicare bill also limits the cost of reform to $400 billion in the next decade."

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In 2006 I'll be 85 and not too sure of the state of my health or wealth then, but anyway those younger than I, will suffer greatly for a much longer time in their lives. Wouldn't it be nice if some sensible politician would come up with a revamp that would give the elderly a fair shake ?

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In Monday's The Rocky Mountain News is, "The Big Picture" an article by Eric A. Taub of The New York Times which talks about TV manufacturing. It starts thus, "The future of television production, like that of many other consumer goods, lies largely in low-cost areas of Asia, especially China. Last month, Thomson, the French electronics company that sells televisions under the RCA brand in the United States, entered into a joint venture with TCL International Holdings of China to form the world's largest maker of televisions, with an expected annual production of 18 million sets."

"Earlier this month, that company (Philips) closed picture tube manufacturing plants in Germany and Britain, citing continued price erosion and the need to remain competetive. Next year, it will move manufacturing of its tube based high-definition TVs for the American Market to Juarez, Mexico, from Bruges, Belgium.

In another part of the article, "Sony, which makes 75 percent of the picture-tube sets it sells in the United States in its plants in Mexico, announced in October that it would lay off 13 percent of its employees throughout the company over three years, end picture tube manufacturing in Japan and create a joint venture with Samsung of Korea to make LCD screens."

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Again in The Rocky Mountain News on Monday Bob Herbert of the New York Times discusses "White-collar workers the next target of 'outsourcing.' "

IBM of course is at the forefront of the article. "IBM has sent a holiday chill through its U.S. employees with its plans to ship thousands of high-paying white-collar jobs overseas to lower-paid foreign workers." "The company has not made any announcements, and the employees do not know who will be affected, or when." "I understand that this is a lightning rod issue in the industry," an IBM spokesman told me (Bob Herbert) this week. "its a lightning rod issue to people in our company, I suppose. But I don't think anybody expects us to issue blanket statements to the work force about projections." Referring to employees who may be affected by the plans, he said, "We deal with them as they need to know."

Mr. Herbert goes on, "Years ago, when concern was being expressed about the shipment of factory jobs to places with slave wages, hideous working conditions and even prison labor, proponents said there was nothing to worry about. Exporting labor intensive jobs would make U.S. companies more competitive, leading to increased growth and employment, and higher living standards. They advised U.S. workers to adjust, to become better educated and skillful enough to thrive in a new world of employment, where technology and the ability to process information were crucial components.

Bob Herbert says, "Pulling the plug on factory workers is one thing. A frontal assault on the livelihood of solidly middle-class Americans -- some of whom may be required to train the foreign workers workers who will replace them -- is something else."

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All of these things show the movement of jobs overseas or south of the border. And from other companies too. Which seems to be growing by leaps and bounds.

Even Bob Herbert ticks me off, he says, "Whatever you call it, the expansion of this practice from manufacturing to the higher-paying technical and white-collar levels is the latest big threat to employment in the U.S." Further on he says," "Pulling the plug on factory workers is one thing."

Right, Bob, seems like the highbrow philosophy oozes out of even you. I was in one of those factories when the philosophy of "Train yourselves to do more technical work," was floated and efforts to school the factory workers was established. What they didn't talk about was that many of the factory workers could not absorb the training ! Anything said was shrugged off by, "If they don't want to learn, its not my concern."

Anymore the movement of manufacturing out of our country is treated, eh, so what ? but that is what began the outflow.

So we are in a mess and it seems to be getting worse, what can be done to limit our jobs going out of country ? Bringing the world up to our standard of living doesn't I think, entail sacrificing the jobs of the people of the U.S. Why not control the income of rich people who draw military pension, Social Security and work a job too ?

So, urp, back to the comics. Today's "Committed" has a little kid at the table with writing paper in front of him, pen in hand asking his parent, "But I didn't want underwear and socks. Why should I thank Aunt Doreen for them ?" then in "Grand Avenue" today carolers in front of a house, singing, "We wish you a merry interest rate, we wish you a merry interest rate . . ." The man says to his wife, "Telemarketers have gotten pretty desperate since the "do-not-call" list went into effect."

Some good, some bad, some mediocre and then there is the comics, this entry is truly a Melange . . . . . . . . . .

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