<The Status of Canadian Oil ProductionThe Oil DrumDrumBeat: August 19, 2007>

147 comments on So they all knew it was a bubble, now?

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

step back on August 18, 2007 - 8:52pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

as US corporations have hollowed out technical staff in favor of outsourced expertise

We complain here at TOD about Joe Sixpack being unaware of Peak Oil.

I wonder how many here are aware of this other phenomenon, namely, that being all you can be and getting an engineering degree is the new lie of our society?

Prole is not kidding. I work in a tech-affiliated field and see over the recent years how the engineering ranks have been decimated in the USA.

The big laugh is watching politicians (like Barak Obama on CSPAN this morning) extolling the virtues of getting a higher education and graduating more engineers in this country. He probably means well. Just doesn't have a clue.

Today, even getting an MBA is questionable as the financial remnants of our hollowed out economy begin to crumble under the stress.

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
bruce from chicago on August 18, 2007 - 9:27pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I had a friend in law school whose brother graduated from Notre Dame with a an engineering degree and high honors. Could not find a job. Wound up going to DePaul law school.

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
step back on August 18, 2007 - 9:33pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Problem is ... everybody is going to law school.

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
bruce from chicago on August 18, 2007 - 9:40pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

There are WAY too many lawyers. It is a pretty sad commentary on our society that everything has to be settled by litigation or incarceration.

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
step back on August 19, 2007 - 7:42am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Better that than settling everything the old fashion way ... by uncivil action, such as by a duel to the death.

But my point was not that. Rather; when they "all" graduate from law school, who is going to be their client? There won't be anybody else left.

While it is true that a single lawyer in a small town starves while two do well, the curve doesn't keep going that way. If the whole town is filled with nothing but lawyers, they're all unemployed.

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
bruce from chicago on August 19, 2007 - 9:18am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Milton Friedman made the observation years ago that our economy was heading towards a unsustainable service economy where there would be two insurance salesman facing each other at a table and trying to sell each other insurance.

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
step back on August 19, 2007 - 11:49am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Bruce,

My records show it is time for us to meet and reassess your current insurance policy. We have many novel packages that will match with your evolving needs. We have a new post-peak plan called Catchusifucan which is ideally suited for your demographic.

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
bwking on August 19, 2007 - 6:31pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

"If the whole town is filled with nothing but lawyers, they're all unemployed."

That would be..... Buffalo, NY.

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
WNC Observer on August 20, 2007 - 6:16pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Well, as they say, a town that cannot support one lawyer can always support two.

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
billp on August 18, 2007 - 10:28pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

We're trying to do something about the lawyer problem.

http://www.prosefights.org/nmlegal/nsalawsuit/nsalawsuit.htm#reportrespo...

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
jjhman on August 18, 2007 - 9:34pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I have an MS in Mechanical Engineering. When I started school in 1967 the LA Times had (no kidding) 100 pages of employment ads for engineers. Even though I don't look for work anymore I am amazed at how few engineering jobs are available in the SF Bay area. I suppose if your talents are in software or specialized EE areas you are employable but for mechanical types: head for China.

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
step back on August 19, 2007 - 7:54am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Ditto for Silicon Valley.
There was a time, before the 2001 dot.com bust when the Sunday paper was thicker than two telephone books because of all the help wanted sections.

Now it is an anorexic shadow of itself.

There aren't even the same number of regular advertisements.
Who are you going to advertise to? The unemployed engineers?

(Of course, part of the problem is that jobs, classifieds, etc. are now advertised on the internet rather than via newspapers which is why papers are dying. However, the general trend is still that all the hardware jobs are heading to China and all the software jobs to India and Romania. Silicon is no longer made in "Silicon" Valley. It's all made in China, Taiwan, Malaysia. We have "evolved" into a "new" economy thanks to globalization.)

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
SacredCowTipper on August 18, 2007 - 9:51pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I'm an underemployed engineer myself - Iowa State's computer science program, and now I work in that icky VoIP area. Its booming, even today, but I'm underworked due to disability. I have a mild case of Asperger's Syndrome - I look and act normal a good bit of the time, but I'm different enough in person that its caused me immense grief in employment.

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
greenish on August 19, 2007 - 1:50pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

A number of people posting here seem to have mentioned Asperger's. If there's ever a new demographic questionnaire done, that might be an interesting question for it. Could be that hyperanalytical people are disproportionately drawn here.

Or maybe not caring about social herding cues confers an advantage for 'black swan' type perceptions.

Or perhaps we're just peculiar.

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
robert2734 on August 19, 2007 - 7:07pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

You can add me to the list. I definitely have ADHD and may have some kind of aspergers/high functioning autism. Or just have lousy social skills. In any case, one person said I have it and other people say I don't. People don't come to TOD if they think the solution to peak oil is to con some other poor bastard out of their oil.

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
fabuzi on August 20, 2007 - 4:52am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I also have Asperger's. I have also noticed more and more those posting on this forum and others saying the same thing. I too have wondered what the percentage of "Aspies" or others on the Autism scale are represented on TOD. I do know that we with Asperger's tend to view the world differently than most.

Anyone else out there?

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
luisdias on August 20, 2007 - 7:12am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Given the high maths involved, the aspect of this case being very complex, though very interesting, from a logical point of view, so counter-intuitive (from the business-as-usual standpoint), anti-social, and so fundamentally "big", I have no wonder at all that many "aspies" are interested in this subject. For me it is corroboration that it is such an interesting phenomenon...

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
Orion on August 19, 2007 - 11:18am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I wonder how many here are aware of this other phenomenon, namely, that being all you can be and getting an engineering degree is the new lie of our society?

New lie? You think this is a new lie? You obviously haven't been around very long. Engineering is and has been a terrible career for anyone wanting steady income and security. I know engineers who spent half the 70s on unemployment after the aerospace crash. Every senior engineer I know from the 80s on has told me to get my MBA if I want a chance of staying with a company beyond the completion of a contract.

You're much better off becoming a plumber. Toilets always need unplugging and it's not a job that can be successfully outsourced to India (the trip charge is a deal killer!).

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
step back on August 19, 2007 - 12:07pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Orion,

New lie? You think this is a new lie?

I'm right there with you. I was on one of those on the unemployment lines in the 70's (when the Vietnam war ended and there was no more of a need by our Great Society for engineers to calculate how much Butter is needed for lubing the Guns).

However ...
Do realize that every year our universities graduate a new litter of technology-armed graduates, salivating at the mouth, wagging their tails, and eager to serve their masters. The Market will provide.

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
Magnus Redin on August 19, 2007 - 1:09pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

You got a surplus of skilled engineers? That is one of the bottlenecks in the Swedish workforce. You dont happen to also have a surplus of skilled programmers, welders, plumbers, metal cutting machine operators, concrete workers and so on?

Its odd if skilled people cant get work, you ought to invest like mad in the energy sector and so on.

0
Comments can no longer be added to this story.