mcs7 wrote:
...is it possible that we here in the United States even have enough talent educated here in the United States,...Native born Americans to even ENGINEER such projects? COuld we have 5 or even 10 SIMULTANEOUS projects of that scope, totally filled with TOTAL AMERCAN LABOR and engineering? How many people here from fayette couonty could ENGINEER something like that? How many LH and Uniontown High grads could have that degree in 4 years?
I am trying to comment on this point without bashing Uniontown or Fayette County too much because that's not my intent, but I think we don't run into a lot of brilliant "professional" people in Uniontown/Fayette County for a reason. I don't think you can complain about a lack of top notch investment bankers for example in a region/culture that has no competition or reward for achieving such brilliance. However, I do find brilliant American professionals in larger cities where the atmosphere and culture breed and require those skills.
To be honest, off of the top of my head, the main money coming INTO Uniontown seems to be all direct government money. As far as I can tell, Uniontown makes very little contribution in either service or products to the world outside Fayette County. It's like the social security money and other government money comes in, then hangs in the retail cycles promoting all these restaurants and stores that have been popping up recently. I know there are exceptions like the private plant near Laurel Mall that makes those government vehicles, but those are few and far between as far as I can think. If someone can correct me here I'd like to know. But, maybe if we had some large world class architecture firm for example, we'd have some incredibly skilled architects in our region, that's the whole point I'm making.
You have me curious about that woody allen movie, I just might track that down.
As far as your other points, I tend to agree with most of it. As far as the FICO issue, I am actually a believer in having no debt anyway. I understand it's almost impossible to buy a house without a m0rtgage, but if people had no other debt at all and paid cash for their things, then any time anyone went to get a m0rtgage they'd have a good FICO.
I got into that discussion with friends some time ago and they actually completely disagreed, citing that you had to keep a balance on your credit card and pay it and make a credit history, but just last month I applied for a m0rtgage and had my credit scored. I have paid cash for my last 3 cars so I have no car l0an history, no sears cards or other store credit cards, no nothing on my credit. The only things on my credit were my m0rtgage, and the one credit card that I have never used that has a zero balance, that's it. And, my FICO was 804.
I see your point about FICO being a little unfair that if you miss 1 payment it kills your ranking, but statistically speaking, the guy who missed the one payment is more likely to have problems down the road when compared to the guy who has missed none. I can see both sides.
I tend to agree with a lot of your other points, but I don't think there's much we can do. It's a fact that the general population is stupid. They're all sheep. And, since we are going to keep doing what we're doing, we're going to keep getting what we're getting.