Re: Thoughts On Recruiting The Next Generation

Posted by Tim Cole On 2011/12/29 18:34:19

Wow! This thread is going to be a lot of fun!

I got interested in Packards because years ago the CCCA crowd threw fantastic parties. They even carried little martini bars that were set up on the running board. In those days the drinking age was 18 and the BAL .15%. So you could get pretty stoned and still be legal. Of course there was less traffic on the roads too. And I was never a really big drinker, but a good party is hard to turn down.

Today incomes are falling, asset values are falling, and tax revenues are falling so expensive hobbies like old cars are subject to retrenchment. Also, the industrial base is a shambles and little services are disappearing as well. Not to mention that certain specialists are not being replaced.

I agree as well that education is a wasteland. I made a living as a practicing mathematician for 20 years. Work and interest in that technology became harder and harder to sell until the bottom fell out. During that period the corporate foundation changed from value added based profits to some screwy political system of self-centered communication schemes whereby nonproductive and counter productive aggressives systematically got rid of people who went to work to actually do something. At least the Vanderbilts had a railroad. Today we have junk like twitter and fortunes based on pure baloney.

I think the biggest problem though is that back in the 1960's if you got behind the wheel of a good Packard, it drove better than a brand new Chevrolet. You can't say that today. Also, when I was a kid a blue collar tradesman could earn enough money to live well and have a car as a hobby. Those days are gone. Supposedly if you earn $16 dollars an hour you are even with the people building the Model T. And they didn't have to pay as much in taxes. Today car mechanics are making less than 50% what they did 15 years ago and being chiseled by flat rate as well. I would never expect any youth to put up with that. Old people like me know how to put up with hard times which is why the average age for skilled automotive service is over 50. It's fortunate that the cars today are so much better because in a few years the automobile will become like the PC - something used until it breaks and thrown away.

Really, the car companies treat their service professionals like - shxt - and are systematically starving the technicians into oblivion.

Why would any young person want to put up with that? I don't blame them one bit. The system today is geared to reward bxllshxtters and anybody who spends the time to learn something besides how to manipulate other people is considered a darn fool.

That's not to say that the engineers aren't operating on the bottom line, but they aren't doing so well either. If you look at the compensation granted for the level of technology for todays' engineers, they have taken a huge hit compared to the pre-computer control days.

It's the same everywhere, the more you have learned the stupider you considered.