A Plan to Save American Manufacturing

TradeAlert.org ^ | Wednesday, December 31, 2003 | Kevin L. Kearns, Alan Tonelson, and William Hawkins

[EGPWS]

Americans with low wages and declining dollar will not be able to afford foreign made goods.

Define "low wages" and what it is referenced to please. : )

[templar]

The industrial infrastructure itself is collapsing.

The human part of that infrastructure is what worries me mostly. We have highly skilled and experienced workers and tradesmen in their middle ages driving busses and working at walmart and service jobs instead of using the benefit of a liftime of experience to train the next generation of highly skilled workers. We can always build new plants quickly, but we can't regain lost skills and experience, we have to relearn them from scratch; and that is both costly and time consuming.

[alrea]

The Trade Unions have caused the price of labor to go so high its no longer feasible or cost effective to produce goods here.

Trade unions(bureaucrats), regulators (bureaucrats), lawyers(bureaucrats), Congresspersons(bureaucrats)... things that should be cut to acheive more competitive models...are seemingly increased in this Plan to Save American.

It's more like "Save the American Company's Labor Unions, Regulators, and Lawyers Employment Program.

Just call it socialism and make it simple.

[ninenot]

Actually, "employment" is on an upswing--you are correct. Except that the "employment" is increasing in retail, self-employment (up 118,000 in September), and temporary employment.

Paul Craig Roberts, who is NOT a liberal, nor labor-affiliated, looked at the October increase of 160,000 jobs and found that only 6,000 of them were professional/technical; the rest were schlepper-types.

Another interesting fact: if one takes out the highest-earning 20% of Americans over the last 6 years (whose incomes increased by 9% during that period) the rest of income-earners' wages actually DECREASED by about 2% in the same timeframe.

Always remember that there are liars, damned liars, and statisticians.

[Willie Green]

A fair and uniform tariff across all industries. No special deals for certain industries over others.

I agree with you 100%.
IMHO, a single, relatively low (10~15%), flat-rate "revenue tariff" placed on ALL imported goods is by far superior to more complex proposals. Furthermore, the proceeds from such a tariff could be utilized to offset further reduction of other forms of domestic taxation. This would provide the necessary stimulus for domestic production without depriving the Tresury of funding and increasing our National Debt.

Federal R&D spending is typically a disaster. It takes needed money out of the economy and directs it to politcally favored R&D, when the whole concept of R&D ought to center around entrepreneurship and risk taking.

While I lean toward agreeing with you in principle, there are exceptions that I must concede despite the Panodora's box that is opened. Federal R&D in nuclear technology is one such example. There are myriad examples of commercial product development originating from Military or Space Program R&D. And Government also has a legitimate role to play in the development of national infrastructure (transportation, energy generation/distribution, water treatment, etc.) where government interaction with associated technological development is unavoidable.

[ninenot]

While your understanding of tax/reg problems is excellent, please advise which politician will advocate even the SLIGHTEST rollback in EPA, OSHA, or EEO regs/standards.

Similarly, while I think elimination of the C-Corp income tax would be a very good thing all-around, it doesn't take too much to hear the demagogues ranting.

Last, even though the numbers are noticeable, tax/reg costs are only about 15% (or less) of sales for most organizations. That's not quite the same as the 70% difference in costs for most comparos of China/USA

[templar]

Frankly, if your job is to pick up a nut and put it onto a bolt, you are a drag on our economy.

Frankly, if your job can be done more cheaply in a foreign country, you are a drag on our economy.

Same reasoning.

What industry are you in?

[EGPWS]

The stronger the tariff, the SMALLER the trade deficit will be,

Oookay..., next please.

[Rodney King]

The stronger the tariff, the larger the trade deficit will be.

I'm sorry, I meant to say that the stronger the dollar, the larger the trade deficit.

[ninenot]

Not to mention that the US-China Industry Council was formed by Prescott Bush, Jr., who would seem to be GWB's uncle.

[Elliott Jackalope]

Thanks for posting that info. Do they have statistics on how much of our GDP is produced by "service" jobs, as compared to those other countries?

[VOA]

bump

[A. Pole]

Define "low wages" and what it is referenced to please. : )

You really don't understand?

[EGPWS]

Always remember that there are liars, damned liars, and statisticians....and the market as free as it is, watch it closely, for it is very informative.

[ninenot]

BS.

The Trade Unions only have 14% of workers in private industry. You are proposing that this miniscule slice is dragging costs out of control?

About 20 years ago, it became clear to most Union leadership (not all, I grant you) that cost of labor was getting out of hand. In other words, the AFL-CIO actually reads the newspaper.

Two things occurred: a significant shift of organizing resources toward Gummint and social-service employees (quite successful) and a re-shaping of negotiating policy towards 'cooperation' in industrial bargaining.

This re-shaping has been somewhat (not perfectly) helpful.

[A. Pole]

We have highly skilled and experienced workers and tradesmen in their middle ages driving busses and working at walmart and service jobs instead of using the benefit of a liftime of experience to train the next generation of highly skilled workers.

Free traders believe that eating/selling corn seed and throwing away the work of generations is justified by the short term profit for the few.

[ninenot]

Let's look at the Buggy Whip manufacturers who have significantly off-shored their operations in the last 10 years:

3COM
3M
Accenture
Adaptec
Adobe
Adobe Systems
AMD
Aetna
Agere Systems
Agilent Tech.
AIG
Alamo Rent A Car
Alliance
Alliance Semiconductor
Allstate
American Express
American Standard
Amphenol Corp
Andrew Corp.
AOL
Applied Materials
ATT
ATT Wireless
Avery Dennison
Bank of America
Bechtel
Best-Buy
Black & Decker
Bmc
Software
Boeing
Capital One
Carrier
Cendent
Charles Schwab
Chevron Texeco
Ciena
Cigna
Circuit City Inc.
Cisco Systems
Citigroup
Coca Cola
Comcast Holdings
Continental Airlines
Convergys
Cooper Tire & Rubber
Cooper Tools
Covad Communications
CSX
Dell Computer
Delta Airlines
Direct TV
Discover
DuPont
Earthlink
Eastman Kodak
EDS
Electroglas
Electronics for Imaging
Eli Lilly
EMC
Emerson Electric
Ernst & Young
Exxon Mobil
Fidelity Investments
First American Title Insurance
Flour
Ford Motor
Franklin Mint
Gateway
General Electric
Goldman Sachs
Goodrich
Google
Green Point Mortgage
Guardian Life Insurance
The Hartford Financial Services Group
Health Axis
Hewitt Associates
Hewlett Packard
HSN
IBM
Intel
International Paper
Intuit
ITT Educational Services
Jacuzzi Brands
JDS Uniphase
Johnson & Johnson
J P Morgan Chase
Juniper Networks
Kana Software
Kaiser Permanente
Keane
KLA Tencor
Lehman Brothers
Levi Strauss
Lexmark International
Lillian Vernon
Linksys
Lockheed Martin
Lowe’s
Lucent
Mattel
Maytag
McData Corporation
Mellon Bank
Metlife
Microsoft
Monsanto
Morgan Stanley
Motorola
Nabco
NCR Corporation
Network Associates
Newell Rubbermaid
New York Life Insurance Company
Northwest Airlines
Office Depot
Oracle
Otis Elevator Co.
Palm One
Parker-Hannifin
Parsons E&C
Pearson Digital Leasing
Pericom Semiconductor
Perot Systems
Pfizer
Portal Software
Pratt & Whitney
Primus Telecom
Proctor & Gamble
Prudential Insurance
Qwest Communications
Rainbow
Raytheon Aircraft
Regence Group
Rohm & Haas
SAIC
SBC Communications
SEI Investments
Siebel Systems
Sikorsky
Solectron
Sprint
State Farm Insurance
The Sutherland Group
Texas Instruments
Triquint Semiconductors
Tyco Electronics
Tyco International
United Online
United Technologies
Veritas
Verizon
Washington Group International
Washington Mutual
Yahoo!

[nmh]

I see the disgruntled right wing, socialists who want to relive the past are having a pity feast again. Trying to resurrect the past.

Thank goodness America was not founded on this but rather ingenuity and competitiveness that welcomed challenge. If they didn't we'd still be using horses and carriages and fought off the Model A since making those took away livelihoods too.

There are times when I am truly ashamed of Americans who insist on knocking their head against the wall hoping that raw emotion will make their old fashioned fantasy come true. It's not up to the government to give you a career. It's up to YOU to make that happen through doing something else for a living. No one is enslaved to only ONE kind of work.

What a bunch of losers!

[nmh]

"Nobody wants to manufacture anything here in the states because they cant afford it! The Trade Unions have caused the price of labor to go so high its no longer feasible or cost effective to produce goods here."

Dear Willie doesn't want to acknowledge reality. He lives in a socialist utopia that includes a deficit on common sense.

[ninenot]

Go here: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ to find out. CIA breakouts are different from those provided by BEA/DOLabor; I don't think you'll find 'services' too easily.