Yesterday I went to Sam’s Club to pick up some groceries. One of the items I was purchasing was a case of wine. I buy the wine by the case to take advantage of the 10% case discount. Every time I buy a case I am amazed at the difficulty the cashier and her manager have with calculating a 10% discount. They bring out their smartphone, start up the calculator app, and scratch their head. Sometimes they resort to paper. I offer them the answer since this calculation is pretty easy to do in your head but they look at me with a blank stare. After several minutes of fiddling around they come up with the answer and ring up the case. I used to be amused with this small piece of drama but now I am annoyed.

The problem with jobs in America is that we have a lot of unemployed people with less skills, education, and common sense than those who are employed. How are we going to find a job for these people? I am very skeptical that President Obama’s Manufacturing Jobs Plan is the answer. His plan focuses on high tech manufacturing. I just do not see many of the unemployed ever running a CNC machine. We need a lot of low tech industry jobs that have a competitive advantage over our foreign competitors. We need entry level jobs and I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

The White House’s plan follows four general guidelines: Investing in American-made technologies; ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas; new partnerships to bring jobs back to America and encourage companies to hire in America; and opening global markets to American-made goods.