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21,995,000 to 12,329,000: Government Employees Outnumber Manufacturing Employees 1.8 to 1
CNS News.com ^ | September 8, 2015 | Terence P. Jeffrey

Posted on 09/08/2015 11:33:46 AM PDT by Hojczyk

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To: central_va
“We are importing products that were at one time manufactured in the USA prior to 1970.”

We go out of our way to buy products that are made in the USA. But many labor-intensive products are simply too costly to make here at prices most people are willing to pay. For example, it is still possible to buy a nice, all-cotton, double-stitched dress shirt that is made here, but it will cost $100 or more. The same-quality shirt made in Sri Lanka will cost about $60.

The story is very different in technologically advanced, capital-intensive industries. We manufacture millions of US-, Japanese-, Korean- and German-branded autos here in the USA each year. I urge you to take a tour of one of those plants. I think you will be surprised by how quiet, clean, and automated those facilities are. The number of worker hours required to build a car (parts plus assembly) has decreased by more than 40% in the past 25 years. The employment “losses” in the domestic automobile industry (and in many other US industries similarly benefiting from increased labor productivity) have nothing to do with offshoring.

41 posted on 09/09/2015 6:45:22 AM PDT by riverdawg
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To: riverdawg
For example, it is still possible to buy a nice, all-cotton, double-stitched dress shirt that is made here, but it will cost $100 or more. The same-quality shirt made in Sri Lanka will cost about $60.,

Ahh yes "for example". So Free Traitors™ take an outlier, shirt production which is one of the most labor intensive made, and use it as an example to illustrate what? A disingenuous argument against protectionism. Really? F that.

The truth is most manufactured goods are not labor intensive as a making shirts which are still hand sown for the most part. What a bunch of disingenuous weasel < expletive deleted > Free Traitors™ really are.

42 posted on 09/09/2015 6:51:47 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: riverdawg

Do you know how many man-hours on average it takes to make a passenger car? I do, but you probably don’t.


43 posted on 09/09/2015 6:53:02 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va
“So put up with high unemployment of our lower classes or try to fight the off shoring madness.”

The high unemployment of “our lower classes” (especially minorities) is mostly the result of (1) the failure of our public education system; (2) the surge in legal and illegal immigration in the past 25 years; (3) rampant drug use and abuse; (4) the dissolution of stable family life; and (5) the increased generosity of our welfare system. Not necessarily in that order.

Well-paying jobs in several local manufacturing companies go unfilled because applicants (1) can't read a blueprint, perform simple arithmetic calculations, or follow a short list of instructions; (2) can't pass a drug test; or (3) once hired, don't show up for work on time or at all.

44 posted on 09/09/2015 6:59:00 AM PDT by riverdawg
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To: central_va
“Do you know how many man-hours on average it takes to make a passenger car? I do, but you probably don’t.”

The last time I checked, probably 5 or 10 years ago, it was around 32-35 hours in the US, less in Germany. But I recall that this figure is for assembly, paint, etc. only and doesn't include the hours at off-site parts suppliers.

45 posted on 09/09/2015 7:06:43 AM PDT by riverdawg
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To: riverdawg
Well-paying jobs in several local manufacturing companies go unfilled because applicants (1) can't read a blueprint, perform simple arithmetic calculations, or follow a short list of instructions; (2) can't pass a drug test; or (3) once hired, don't show up for work on time or at all.

Well paying? Prove it. The fact is you can fill any position if the salary level is commensurate with the skills and the background. Funny how Free Traitors™ like to bash the social ills of the USA's workforce but want to forgot those same arguments when it comes to Free Trade. Then it is a purely economic argument, all other consideration are not important.

But getting back to your example I'll bet if you pay someone 100K/yr with benefits you could fill that position tomorrow. I'll bet if you pay $8.00/hr you will get few takers, the ones you get will be of low IQ, have an attitude and a police record too plus generally unreliable. So the trick is to find the correct price point between 10k/yr and 100k/yr. You can't set a price then try to shoehorn people into that salary range. What happened to supply and demand and free markets? The Captains of Industry seem to forget them at hiring time.

46 posted on 09/09/2015 7:09:35 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: riverdawg
So if it takes 30 hours (rounded off) to make a $25,000 car then at $50/hr labor was $1,500 per car (unit). So all things being the same, slave built car ($0/hr labor) costs $23,500. A union built car costs ($100/hr) costs $26,500.

So

  1. Slave = $23,500
  2. Nonunion = $25,000
  3. Union = $26,500

To me the economic stimulus a car factory has on a community is well worth the additional $1,500 per car. I am in favor of building cars in R-T-W states, unions not so much.

All of this is predicated the fact that the $1,500 "savings" by using 3rd world slave labor is passed on to the consumer and not the stock holders. Big if....

47 posted on 09/09/2015 7:18:55 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va
The problem is that many of “our lower classes” don't have the skills and work ethic to warrant $15/hour, much less a “well-paying” job. If it takes $50/hour to hire a drug-free, literate production worker to install windshields on an auto assembly line, then management will buy and use a robot to do the job. That choice has nothing to do with offshoring.
48 posted on 09/09/2015 7:25:49 AM PDT by riverdawg
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To: riverdawg
worker to install windshields on an auto assembly line, then management will buy and use a robot to do the job.

I am not a Luddite; so that is fine as long as the factory is in the USA. There is still an economic stimulus of just having the factory here. It is good for national security and generally creates wealth.

49 posted on 09/09/2015 7:32:33 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Hojczyk

Add govt contractors employees and the number is probably double.

Next add those getting govt assistance and the picture of why we have such a massive deficit and high taxes is very clear.

Reminds me of that joke which ends so only you and me are contributing to govt coffers and I hear you are being laid off next week. Something like that :)


50 posted on 09/09/2015 9:34:52 AM PDT by free_life (If you ask Jesus to forgive you and to save you, He will.)
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To: central_va

But it won’t stop you whining about the loss of manufacturing jobs.


51 posted on 09/09/2015 1:17:57 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy
But it won’t stop you whining about the loss of manufacturing jobs.

I have no problem with automation as long as the factory is in the United States. A factory, even one that is 100% automated, still creates wealth due to secondary maintenance, supply and support. Plus national security is supported when we keep production in the USA.

52 posted on 09/09/2015 1:22:10 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va

And apart from #51, you have no trouble with making the inputs to that factory more expensive. That’s not the road to prosperity.


53 posted on 09/09/2015 1:25:07 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy
And apart from #51, you have no trouble with making the inputs to that factory more expensive. That’s not the road to prosperity.

I disregard everything you say because you are an Anti America bigot and a Free Traitor™. Your arguments are specious at best.

Ok, you have the floor, using the standard Free Traitor™ logic explain why should the USA be involved in any manufacturing what so ever? A follow on question, what would a de industrialized USA look like? Would you survive it?

54 posted on 09/09/2015 1:31:05 PM PDT by central_va
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To: central_va

And when the inputs to that factory become more expensive, it manufactures fewer products. Costing manufacturing jobs.


55 posted on 09/09/2015 1:34:49 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

Wait, so if the factory is moved to a cheaper place all the cost reductions are passed on to the consumer? Is this Free Traitor™ doctrine? Or does the stock holders benefit with the marginal profit increase going to them? Which is it?


56 posted on 09/09/2015 1:39:21 PM PDT by central_va
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To: central_va

Why should I repond to your silly strawman arguments when you disregard everything I say? Or is that too philosophical for you?


57 posted on 09/09/2015 1:43:46 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy
Why should I repond[sic] to your silly strawman arguments when you disregard everything I say? Or is that too philosophical for you?

So you cant answer? You lose, GTH away form me you pathetic state-less little man. Ask your ChiComs handlers the best way to handle that question and get back to me.

Warren Buffet made some outrageous statements; it is on another thread, you probably agree with him...

58 posted on 09/09/2015 1:47:14 PM PDT by central_va
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To: central_va

Actually, I have to go to work. At the factory. 60+ hrs/wk for the better part of this year, despite your efforts.


59 posted on 09/09/2015 1:49:26 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

I hope they close it down send it to China and throw your butt out on the street, have a good one.


60 posted on 09/09/2015 1:52:29 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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