Career field shortages

Beloved wrote:I don't know of any countermeasure to these lies.

Or any lies, for that matter.
Do you know that the mainstream media news propagates their own brand of lies (beyond the well-known biases)? Media fakery = staged events (some parts real props, some parts actors, some parts computer generated images). How does one open peoples' eyes to this?

Beloved wrote:I saw a TV ad for a trade school for engine mechanics. The school said there will be a shortage of mechanics over the next few years. The ad showed happy people working on motorcycles, marine engines and cars and even showedgraduatetiful woman with perfect skin who has likely never picked up a wrench in her whole life.

And employers may declare that there is a 'shortage' of doctors, lawyers, engineers, mechanics, roofers, carpenters, electricians, etc., etc..

The idea is to cause a glut of people trained in a specific field so the salaries can be kept down.

I don't know of any countermeasure to these lies.

These commercials are very misleading. Majority of these careers can be obtained from a community college for a forth of the price. I think they get these poor folks in debt with student loans for so long they have a difficult time when and if they graduate .The government won't intervene because they are behind majority of these loans. People will have homes, cars, any asset taken or levied if the loans are not repaid. It is a sham.
McCain

Beloved wrote: The idea is to cause a glut of people trained in a specific field so the salaries can be kept down.

The statement is a contradiction. Low salaries takes care of any glut, i.e. the low salaries takes care of demand for the courses. It is the basic principle of supply and demand.

When real estate is booming, everyone wants to be a real estate agent. Try causing an artificial glut of real estate agents in a down housing market. Ain't gonna happen no matter how many commercials you produce.

McCain wrote:These commercials are very misleading.

Agreed. The commercials are an unfortunate sham IMO.

Yeah, I hope we are critical enough to differentiate what's true and what's not. We must check the source and the backgrounds.

Richard@DecisionSkills wrote:

Beloved wrote: The idea is to cause a glut of people trained in a specific field so the salaries can be kept down.

The statement is a contradiction. Low salaries takes care of any glut, i.e. the low salaries takes care of demand for the courses. It is the basic principle of supply and demand.

When real estate is booming, everyone wants to be a real estate agent. Try causing an artificial glut of real estate agents in a down housing market. Ain't gonna happen no matter how many commercials you produce.

I'm not an economist, and some people think economics is not a true science, but:

IMO, it may be harder to hide the truth in the housing market, unlike hiding the true demand for a certain career.

With the low salaries, there may be a time lag between the artificial demand and the people taken in by the scam. Possibly this lag is what makes this work.

"DEFINITION OF 'PRICE STICKINESS'
The resistance of a price (or set of prices) to change, despite changes in the broad economy that suggest a different price is optimal. "Sticky" is a general economics term that can apply to any financial variable that is resistant to change. When applied to prices, it means that the prices charged for certain goods are reluctant to change despite changes in input cost or demand patterns.

Price stickiness can also occur in just one direction, as in "sticky-up" or "sticky-down". A price that is sticky-up, for instance, can move up rather easily but will only will move down with pronounced effort."

Or else it works because 'there is a sucker born every minute, and two to take him.'

The schools talk about career field shortages to pull in students and thereby profit. The companies talk about career field shortages so they can pick and choose among the many applicants they have lured in.

And car dealers talk about how they are overstocked with new vehicles or have "a shortage of used cars", implying that they can be taken advantage of. It is the gullible buyer who will be taken advantage of.

Beloved wrote:With the low salaries, there may be a time lag between the artificial demand and the people taken in by the scam. Possibly this lag is what makes this work.

There is no artificial demand and the schools are not scams. Certainly in any field there are low quality schools, there are dishonest people, etc. but the "scam" schools pop up as a result of actual high salaries that are available because of actual demand, not artificial demand.

Any person that decides the way they want to "scam" someone is by setting up a sham mechanic or truck driver school has got to be one of the dumbest scam artists in the world. Why take out loans to lease training space, purchase all sorts of equipment, hire instructors and pay huge marketing costs to scam people for $2000 in tuition for promise of a $100,000 a year career when you can avoid all that hassle by telling a much wider target market that for $4000 you will teach them the secrets to day trade on the stock market and they will be a millionaire?

Commercials about XYZ seminar to success are scams. The career field commercials are an unfortunate side effect of supply and demand being out of line. Like you have pointed out there is a time lag, there is price stickiness. Actual real world gaps are created between jobs available and labor. There are not enough legitimate, established schools to fill the gap (community colleges/votech schools). This creates opportunities for smaller schools to enter the marketplace. They are unknowns, small businesses so to compete with the established schools they create these ridiculous commercials that over promise. To make up costs for all their overhead expenses they charge more. It ends up being an over promise and under deliver scenario. If that is a "scam", then fine. I agree buyer beware.

The only thing I do not agree with is that it is some conspiracy to artificially create demand in order to lower salaries.

Richard@DecisionSkills wrote:The only thing I do not agree with is that it is some conspiracy to artificially create demand in order to lower salaries.

I wouldn't call it a conspiracy.
con·spir·a·cy/kənˈspirəsē/
noun
a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.

Groups/orgs try to artificially inflate supply because it works for them.
The IEEE journals probably have articles on this.

I searched using

supply demand price curve shift salary "falsely claiming a shortage" pdf

and the supply/demand/quantity/price curves (no secrets there) that came up seem to support my position.

Try a search on

"shortage shouter"

Decide for yourself. I don't have a stake either way, except I hate being deceived more than once on the same issue.