Shipping 2009 Blog

Archive for the ‘Jobs’ Category

Financial success and true wealth go hand in hand. They complement each other like peas and carrots. However, most of the country will never know what financial prosperity feels like. This is reflected in the numbers. It is why only 5% of the country is considered to be wealthy, while the remaining 95% are left out of the loop. Why is this? What do these people have that we 95% don’t? Some of us would love to know the secret behind there affluence.

I like to think of it like this. Certain people have the keys to the door. The people with the keys have the power over us “little people”. Who are these key holders? They are the people with the real wealth. They are known as conglomerates, corporations, or law makers. In other words, they do know something that we don’t, which is why they continue to become richer and richer. Some of these people are so rich that they don’t have to work another day in there natural lives. There money could support them and thousands of others.

What is true wealth though? True wealth is money that continues to grow even after you’re gone. For example, the Hiltons have hotel chain that will go on for years even when they are gone. The name is so well known. Cigarette companies such as Marlboro and Camels will continue to increase in size. The people in charge of these conglomerates will get richer and richer. When they die, they will pass on the torch to someone. It will never end. Car companies have grown to affect the economy in such a way that the government must pass a bail out for them.

This economic downturn has revealed many dirty secrets about how the rich get richer. Corporations get paid for shipping jobs over sees. Some of these people get severance packages that look like more like a lottery payouts. What is going on? The recent bail out of the banks was paid for by US; the 95%’ers that are not wealthy. We come to find out that half that money was used to send Ceo’s and CFO’s on vacations. Some of them even got all expense paid spa treatments. Wow.

The bottom line is, we all have the access to true wealth. The people who got to the top were not always there. It took time and patience. Along the way, they made some mistakes. However, they learned from them. The way to financial success is becoming a business owner, investor or a mix of the two. Their is no way in the world you could do it by remaining a worker. It just doesn’t happen. The way to the top is by inventing something, owning something or investing in a successful corporation. You must add something to the mix. That is how you earn a key. A job will not make you rich. What will make you rich is how you use your money. If you invest it and make it grow for you, it will support you. Spend time doing this and you will see results.

Instead of paying hundreds of dollars to see the world, why not get paid to travel? This is what motivates many people to pursue careers on boats.

There are many kinds of boat jobs for people who want to travel the seas. People can get shipping jobs, yacht jobs, cruise jobs, navy jobs, fishing jobs, and many more types of jobs that involve sea travel.

Cruise jobs are among the most popular jobs that travelers want. Getting a job on a cruise ship is a great way to travel to exotic destinations and meet people from all over the world. Because the destinations are vacation destinations, cruise ship workers end up going to beautiful places with great tourist attractions.

Cruise ship work can be hard work. Many cruise ship employees work 7 days a week, and some work 12-14 hour days. Those long days don’t make cruise ship work the perpetual vacation that some people envision, but the job is great for folks who want to save money. There aren’t very many living expenses on cruise ships, so people can keep almost all of what they earn.

Cruise ships sometimes hire through cruise ship recruiters. There are many websites that feature cruise ship recruiter contacts, but sometimes it is a safer bet to go straight to the cruise ship company itself.

Some of the other boat jobs are harder to get. The noncruiseship boating careers are often more involved and harder to get into because there are so many people who want to get paid to sail. Hank Schmidt of Offshore Passage suggests that potential boaters look for jobs by boating into a port and then walking around the dock inquiring about jobs. He says that it is easier to get a job if you are already on a boat.

If the job search is too discouraging, or crusing just doesn’t seem to offer enough adventure, a sea lover can always join the navy. The navy offers multiple career paths that range from meteorology to work as a chaplain. This is a great way to combine career interests with a love for sea travel.

I was reading a recent survey that said if given the choice, most people would rather get increased healthcare coverage than a pay raise. We in the industry know it’s a mess and that many people delay getting treatment for fear of depleting their savings. The current state of healthcare in America can literally be deadly.

Which is why I wasn’t surprised to read an article that stated many patients are now going overseas for their healthcare. Get a load of this:

“Carl Garrett of Leicester, N.C., will fly to a state-of-the-art New Delhi hospital in September for surgeries to remove gallstones and to fix an overworn rotator cuff. His employer, Blue Ridge Paper Products Inc. of Canton, N.C., will pay for it all, including airfare for Garrett and his fiancee. The company also will give Garrett a share of the expected savings, up to $10,000, when he returns. “

That’s right! We’re not only shipping jobs overseas, we’re now shipping patients there, too! Of course, if this trend continues, we will essentially be sending jobs for medical professionals overseas by default.

I don’t know about you, but this embarrasses me deeply. I didn’t get into healthcare management to only help treat the people who were lucky enough to have coverage or could afford it. Ill health doesn’t discriminate, it potentially affects us all, and the longer we let the situation get out of hand, the more bizarre and defeating solutions will be found by companies and individuals who are fed up with the status quo.

I got a good response to a previous article about people going overseas for medical procedures because it costs less. If you don’t mind, I’d like to respond to some of the comments.

The first commenter said:

“…like you, (I) entered healthcare management (twenty years in hospital administration, consulting and eight managing medical practices)to help based on my non clinical skills. I worked largely in innercity hospitals and then transitioned to medical practice management. There I became more jaundiced with the attitudes of specialty physicians. Behind the scenes the focus of a surprising number of doctors was on paying patients, although periodically altrusim did shine through. I had to look carefully for the quiet ones who took care of patients and did not bluster at the closed door business meetings. When things got tough they would speak up, but only when really pushed. Rhetorically, I wonder why organized medicine, and our lofty management societies and associations don’t focus more on the caring side, the professional side, the hippocratic side.”

Here again, someone says it better than I can. Another reader makes a good point based on experience:

“Why would H/care be exempt from the global marketplace? Health care services are a product that is consumed by consumers (patients). Accordingly, patients will shop for services. Consumerism in health care has been a long time coming. For instance, my family went to Colombia to get dental work done for a fraction of what it would cost here, and we managed to add in a vacation. Now the one thing to consider, is what if there are complications, is the company going to fly the employee back to resolve the complication? (Probably not).”

Actually, I don’t blame the patients for taking advantage of better deals in other countries. Your trip to Colombia sounds like a marvelous combination of business and pleasure, although I wonder if your vacation wasn’t affected by the dental work! Still, you ask a great question at the end, and while I’d suppose it depends on the company and the agreement worked out in advance, another reader makes this excellent point:

“You got it right when you said ‘COMPLICATIONS’. Try suing the doctor overseas and see how far you get. The malpractice piece is a large part of our health care dollar.”

Then there was this comment by Lifeline Medical Associates President/CEO Jack Feltz that eloquently summed up the frustrations he experiences heading the largest provider of women’s healthcare in New Jersey:

“One of the biggest wastes of resources is practicing defensive medicine because of the medical liability crisis and lack of meaningful tort reform in New Jersey and elsewhere. Physicians, I believe tend to order more and more tests because they are frightened not to. If there is a bad outcome you can bet there will be an attorney and expert to say they should have ordered every test imaginable. This is tragic, making health care unaffordable. I would rather see these wasted dollars go towards cures for breast cancer, immunizing poor children, improving care and keeping healthcare in the hands of expert doctors and nurses in the U.S.A.”

I think you make an excellent point, Jack (may I call you “Jack?”). If only more CEO’s had your sense of compassion. I often forget the legal part of the equation because I am so frequently enmeshed in battles with insurance carriers. Or to again quote yet another reader who says it better than I can:

“Insurance carriers are problematic, and don’t pay or delay paying claims, and then don’t pay them according to the appropriate fee schedule. This means patients get billed eventually for services that should have been covered. Unhappy patients complain to employers about coverage. Employers decide to go elsewhere. This doesn’t reflect on American physicians, it reflects on American insurance carriers. “

Exactly. Personally, I think the solution to our healthcare crisis will have to combine tort reform with insurance reform. Outsourcing illness is a symptom of a diseased system. In the end, our political representatives will have to summon the will to play doctor and cure this problem. As I noted in my previous post, their inaction on this issue is deadly.

How does the saying goes? There are two sure things in life; death, and taxes.

To determine what the Democrat Party’s official position on taxes is; we should read their party’s platform. Unfortunately, their new platform will not be available until the end of their Convention in Denver; so after looking at their 2004 platform, we can summarize it as follows:

a. The Democrat Party supports tax credits for businesses working on alternative fuel technology, to include ethanol credits for farmers.

b. They want to eliminate tax credits for corporations shipping jobs overseas while providing credit incentives for those who create jobs here.

c. They stated on their platform that they would promote Research and Development via tax credits.

d. They also support tax credits for small businesses to pay for health insurance.

e. Strangely, they call “harmful” tax increases on an economic downturn (“and to prevent harmful tuition and tax increases”)

f. They wanted to cut taxes for 98% of Americans.

g. They stated that they would support tax breaks for college students, and the elderly and would roll back the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for those making over $200000.

We should also look at their potential Presidential candidates in order to foresee any deviations from these basic guidelines. And after reviewing Senator Obama and Senator Clinton’s position on taxes, we can say that Senator Clinton is more hawkish on taxes. She stated at one time: “We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.” However, Senator Obama also believes in raising taxes, especially of those who are already paying over 33% of all taxes in America, according to the IRS. Their platform said something, while their speeches say otherwise.

The Republican Party is known for its aversion to taxes. In 2001 and 2003, President Bush signed, after much debate in Congress, the Bills reducing taxes for all citizens in the United States. President Bush ran in 2000 based on a platform of reduced taxes for all. What surprised most politicians, as that he got busy and fulfilled his promise by lowering taxes for everybody. By lowering taxes on dividends, about seven millions seniors, whose income depends on the dividends of their pension plans, saw tax relief. The Republican Party Platform for 2004 said that the party believes that good government is based on limited taxes and limited spending, and that all citizens have the right to maintain more of their pay check so they can