New Tractor Sales Are Declining

[ddbackhoe]

Every state and every school board is recruiting teachers. Anyone who has an education degree and can’t get a job has something sketchy in their background or a real lack of initiative. My daughter in law had 12 job offers after graduating with her education degree within a month of graduating.

Good for her

 

[ddbackhoe]

Your friend isn't hiring journeymen techs with two-year trade schools and experience. Your friend sounds like they are hiring kids in school or no trade school and then sending them to the dealer schools. These days $35-45 an hour to start for a qualified line mechanic.

I am his friend not his business advisor.

 

[rScotty]

Every state and every school board is recruiting teachers. Anyone who has an education degree and can’t get a job has something sketchy in their background or a real lack of initiative. My daughter in law had 12 job offers after graduating with her education degree within a month of graduating.

It's not just teachers, contractors, and industry..... Small towns all across the country need workers and can't find them. Check for ads in the local state municapal league website.

Things like town clerk, water department, parks, roads and bridges - all of those take a full time person or several just to keep them going. They all pay decent, but need a self-starter type person who understands how to do different jobs even if all they do is schedule them.

Housing and education assistance often goes with those jobs.

rScotty

 

[nova3930]

Section 8 housing, food stamps, and similar public assistance. I worked as a cashier at Walmart for a period of time between jobs where WIC and "food stamps" were abused as well.

I personally had customers who spent ~$200 on groceries with WIC and "food stamps" who then paid ~$600 for beer, wine, and cigarettes in cash. If they can afford that much alcohol and tobacco, why are they on public assistance to buy food for their kids?

At our clinic I see folks roll through with all sorts of nice toys that are on medicaid. They're usually the most entitled and hardest to deal with too. 20 minutes late, no phone call, no text, no email, no portal message and can't understand why they have to reschedule. Because there's 10 patients behind you who are here on time that I WILL NOT make wait because of you....

Meanwhile I see old folks who worked themselves into the dirt when they were young, living SS check to SS check and no extra help available for them. I make a point to squash their balances every chance I can where I won't end up in trouble with Uncle Sam....

 

[plastikosmd]

It's not just optimism, it's just that short term trends are so easy to work with. Easy to see, to change, and to see results. The downside to that is that you have short term downturns oscillating with short term upturns.... It can make a person dizzy and pessimistic.

I like to focus on the longer term. And it looks pretty good to me. Things world-wide are healthier, wealthier, and more free than ever before in mankind's history. We are exploring outer space and the bottom of the ocean. Fascination exists at every level.
And for tractors and equipment, nobody is forcing me to buy new; I can fix old things to my heart's content.

For proof of how all this is working in the good old USA, just take a look at our borders. Those people are fighting to get here, not to leave here for a better life somewhere else.

rScotty

The pee on my leg isn’t rain

 

[rScotty]

At our clinic I see folks roll through with all sorts of nice toys that are on medicaid. They're usually the most entitled and hardest to deal with too. 20 minutes late, no phone call, no text, no email, no portal message and can't understand why they have to reschedule. Because there's 10 patients behind you who are here on time that I WILL NOT make wait because of you....

Meanwhile I see old folks who worked themselves into the dirt when they were young, living SS check to SS check and no extra help available for them. I make a point to squash their balances every chance I can where I won't end up in trouble with Uncle Sam....

Good on you. I think you are in good company and there are more like you than folks think.

We know a lot of those old folks - being older ourselves. We do what we can with volunteer work & hospital visits. Many are feeling a bit estranged and some are lonely, but surprisingly not many are disappointed. There's even a few optimists!

rScotty

 

[rScotty]

The pee on my leg isn’t rain

No? It isn't rain? Could it be "trickle down" economics you are feeling?

 

[Hay Dude]

No? It isn't rain? Could it be "trickle down" economics you are feeling?

rScotty, are you not a fan of trickle down economics?
What is your utopian economic system?

 

[rScotty]

rScotty, are you not a fan of trickle down economics?
What is your utopian economic system?

Neat question! I hope that it doesn't disappoint that I don't have the answers....

Trickle down sounded good - very Jeffersonian & intellectual. As a economic system it hasn't faired well. Part of that is because trickle down does obviously promote divisiveness - and in doing that, the trickle down legacy is responsible for part of our social problems today.

My own utopian economic system would be based on a standard health and education for everyone - public or private - until they are adult. Then after that, riches in proportion to how much a person benefits society. i.e. socialism for the young followed by pretty pure capitalism. Not too different from what we have right now.

I'm afraid I differ from the American ideal in that I don't believe in inherited riches for a do-nothing class. If that offends anyone, it's nothing personal, I simply don't think that a democracy can survive if it spends its profits financing a hereditary aristocracy.

rScotty

 

[riptides]

....inherited riches.....

Danger...danger...

That's a rabbit hole the middle class has been sucked into.