Tax credits?

For those that feel that tax cuts and tax credits are the only options to job growth. Here is a story for you to think about. Dish Network, a fortune 500 company is eliminating 600 local jobs in Pennsylvania’s technological center. When the bottom fell out of the Steel industry in McKeesport for cheap labor market of China the state gave Dish network a ten year deal of tax free status for locating a call center in the state. For ten years this company paid no taxes in PA even through cable premium rates increased year after year, that ten year tax free deal runs out Dec 15th 2009. The only taxes paid to the state and the city of McKeesport was paid by the employees whom got paid the sum of $9.00 a hour. Oh but some Dish Network call center jobs headed to New Jersey or at least that was as of Monday, November 16, 2009 but more then likely the jobs are India bound.

The company sent a letter to the state and to McKeesport Mayor James Brewster Nov. 9 to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

In a letter addressed to employees, the satellite television company said it planned to move those 37 positions to another call center location in Pine Brook, N.J. The letter said the company was analyzing the best ways to run a more efficient operation.

"Through this analysis, it has been determined that based on growth considerations in the McKeesport Dispatch location, we can relocate dispatch job responsibilities to obtain the optimum effectiveness," the letter said.

The company encouraged employees to apply for other jobs with Dish, but did not guarantee them a position within the company. Golden parachutes are for CEO and others who made the bad decisions that lost the company money. The company's announcement last week that it would shutter its call center in McKeesport means the city, already saddled with a 10.3 percent employment rate, will lose one of its top five employers. The company occupies a space in the Industrial Center of McKeesport and employs more than three-quarters of the people that work there. So my advice to the people of McKeesport is this: way your options and be prepared to move if it means a improved quality of life. And don’t rule out a move to international locations because economic growth and higher standards of living can be found outside of the USA

Something to think about

This is in no way my vote of support for Rush Limbaugh, or as I like to call him Boss Hogg. I find Rush, an useless, hater monger but In the early this year, I was listening to the Rush Limbaugh radio show when a young man from Youngstown, Ohio, called in to complain about... well, life.
The caller was upset that, since the company had closed years earlier, there was no opportunity for him in his beloved hometown. Youngstown. It was also the town that his father and grandfather had raised families (back in the heyday of the steel Mills) and where he had hoped to raise his own. So he was attracted to the protectionist rhetoric of presidential candidates promising to erect trade barriers in the hopes of resurrecting U.S. cities. But, short of attending a political rally, the young man from Youngstown didn't know what to do.
Noting that our most daunting obstacles are often self-imposed, Limbaugh gave the caller some simple advice: "Move!"
Brilliant. But moving isn't always easy. At various moments, some of us have felt inextricably bound to our hometowns by a loyalty that defies logic. That can be charming. Yet, especially in a sour economy, it can also be self-defeating.
Now I read about a new trend: More and more Americans are responding to the wobbly U.S. economy by fleeing the country. It seems that when the U.S. job market gets tough, the desperate get going -- to wherever the jobs happen to be.
According to a recent article in USA Today, with the nation's unemployment rate at a 26-year-high of 10.2 percent, many Americans are looking for jobs outside the country. In fact, U.S.-based staffing companies and executive search firms say that the job outlook abroad looks brighter than it does here.
The most welcoming job markets: India, China, Dubai, Brazil, and Singapore. The jobs that are most often taking people abroad: engineering, management or consulting. As the article points out, a survey by Korn/Ferry found that 54 percent of executives said they'd be either likely or highly likely to accept a post in a foreign country. Four years ago, in better times, it was just 37 percent. At MIT's Sloan School of Management, 24 percent of 2009 graduates found jobs overseas, a jump from 19 percent last year.
Sure, leaving the United States is an extreme measure. I'd be happy if most Americans were more willing to just leave their comfort zone. If you're unemployed, the secret to survival is to know where to go -- and where to steer clear of.
According to one set of job growth projections, in 2010 the three most promising states will be Idaho, Colorado and Texas -- with Wyoming, Washington, and New Mexico not far behind. The three least promising will be Nevada, Florida, and West Virginia -- with California, Illinois, and New York not much better off.
For me, this subject hits close to home. No pun intended. You see, I was once just like the guy from Youngstown. I was in love with a hometown and a nation.
The lesson I learned along the way: Jobs don't just come to you. More often, you have to go to the job. Too many Americans resist that truth and instead wait for their dream jobs to come knocking at their door. They treat the idea of living in a certain city or state as an entitlement that they're not willing to surrender.
A few months ago, I found myself having lunch next to a middle-aged man who told me that, when he was starting his business, he had moved all around the country until he arrived at what he considered the destination city of La Jolla, California -- north of San Diego.
He was frustrated because his son, who had grown up in that ritzy ZIP code, was now in his early 20s and considered it his birthright to keep living there. Shaking his head, the man said: "He doesn't understand that I had to work my whole life to get here, and that he has to move to a more affordable city and work his way back."
Multiply that story by 10 million, and you get a sense for what we're up against. Here again, the native-born could learn from immigrants, foreign students, and anyone else who has the moxie to leave behind family, friends, and the familiar in search of a better life. Those people may struggle, but they'll survive and get ahead. It has always been this way. And in a global economy, this is how it will remain for as far as the eye can see.
The sooner Americans accept that, the better off they'll be. The better off we'll all be.

Is Life Always Going To Be A Challenge?

I hate to burst your bubble, but yes, life is always going to be a challenge. But there’s good news: some days will be better than others!

There are times I would ask myself, why does life have to be so tough? People are imperfect (there are those that feel with sin) and basically selfish and proud, and seek to serve themselves rather than God.

I had this misguided idea that once I acknowledged Christ as the leader of my life (also referred to as “Becoming a Christian” or “Being saved”) my life in the land of milk and honey would be trouble free. Well, I was wrong. Being a Christian isn’t a guarantee of a trouble free and perfect life.
But it is life full of promises, one of the greatest being that I will never be alone. God promised both in the Old Testament (Joshua 1:5) and the New Testament (Hebrews 13:5) that He would never leave us or forsake us.

As a matter of fact, God also directly addresses this issue of a challenging life. In Matthew 6:34 Jesus states, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” There you have it, even Jesus Christ acknowledged that each day will have enough trouble of its own, acknowledging there is trouble and that is simply a fact of life.

This got easier for me to accept when I really started believing God was available to me 24/7, that He wouldn’t leave me or forsake me. And that my communication with Him wasn’t just one way, (either the perception that He was telling me what to do, or that I could go to Him with nothing but favors) but I could go to Him in dynamic communication which includes questions, misgivings, rantings and ravings in addition to praise and thanks.
So, yes, life in this imperfect world with imperfect people will always be a challenge, but as long as I remember I don’t have to mutter and complain to myself but I can talk directly to God those challenges are a little bit easier to swallow.

Life becomes much more live able with good friends.

The journey begins...

The world is like a book, and those who do not travel read only one page When I first thought about having a blog, in which to post my own feelings,so that people all over the world see what I go through, I had this statement in my mind, because I trully believe it is making much more sense than all the other personal sharing quotes I've been reading on so many other blogs.

The world is like a book... Where the "books" are the people, all the people that cross the street together with us, or that are going to the same school, workplace, shops we do, but in the end, not the cover matters the most, but the content, the story inside that can captivate you or can leave you as empty as before reading it. Day by day we are living in a huge library, in which books are surrounding us, present there to be "read" so that one can have a first glance of an experience even before going through it in reality. And those who do not travel read only one page! By choosing to "travel" you choose to "read" more "books", to listen and capture more stories, experiences, knowledge from the people around you. If you choose not to do it, not to travel from human being to human being, and searching for the beauty that lies in the content, I congratulate you for being another cover reader (and just say hello to the other eighty percent of the human population that strives to travel in life from tourist site to tourist site.. and not to understand the history, the past, the mistery lying behind an experience. I have been to many nations, England, Ireland, Costa Rica, Nicargua and soon I hope to add Lithuania, as well as the other Baltic Republics.

Play the game of life according to Scott

An friend of mine, her name was Tracy once wrote on her blog that she learned from a old college professor, “you play the game of life to win and at any costs.” At the time I was always impressed by that, then I thought about it for a moment and I realized that is indeed a shallow thing to believe. If you play the game of life to win, and win at any cost you will always be looking for opportunities to take advantage. You look for what you need in people, use them then cast them away, I was wrong to admire such a shameful statement. Life is indeed a game, an game that needs players. Imagine you're the quarterback of your favorite NFL team. On every offensive play, you take the snap from the center and drop to one knee.

Playing it safe would certainly prevent turnovers, but your team wouldn't gain a yard. The grueling hours spent training, studying game film, and practicing plays would be wasted.

In football--and in real life--players need to take risks.

"Open up the offense--mix in some long pass patterns, running plays, and screen passes," and On occasion, throw deep.

In "Difference Makers," Glading--founder and executive director of The Saints Prison Ministry, the largest athletic prison ministry in the U.S.--mixes sports-related anecdotes, personal reflection, and encouraging quotations from great men of God to inspire Christ-followers to take risks for God.

He says, "Every Christian must ask the fundamental question: Do I want to live a life that matters, or would I rather coast through my 70 or 80 years on this planet, making as few waves as possible?"

Glading's book equips Christians to become active in personal evangelism as well as in critical social issues. "God doesn't care about your ability; He cares about your availability," Glading says.

Glading practices what he preaches; in 2008, he ran for the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey. He won the primary and finished second among six challengers in the general election.

Anyone willing to veer from the path of least resistance--to take chances--will discover that the rewards outweigh the risks, but the trick is taking the risk and doing so without using others for your own personal gain.