The Return Of The Giant Sucking Sound

SFGATE.com (The SF Chronicle) ^ | 02/09/04 | Adam Sparks

[sfwarrior]

Since 2001, the United States has lost 2.8 million manufacturing jobs. Hello! Is anybody listening? This is a crisis. Our house is on fire, and few in Congress are paying attention. And, at the rate things are going, the only jobs even college graduates will be able to get will be in the service industry. That's political lingo for flipping hamburgers.

[riri]

The middle class is on a one-way ticket to extinction!

And then when that happens the service sector implodes. It's common sense. If I lose my income or most of it--first thing that goes will be the frills. That means less drycleaning, less takeout, Dad's packing his lunch most days, monthly trips to the nail salon or beauty salon for root touch ups-gone. I am cleaning the carpets myself, doing the gardening, the pest control, satellite might get unconnected, no more $40 bottles of Lancome face creams, no more $3.75 lattes and coffees. Etc, etc, etc.

[Hank Rearden]

Where do you get these numbers? There are no jobs paying $40/hr. to high school dropouts.

You ever looked at Detroit wages/benefits? Even today?

How about the union thugs in the longshoreman's union? $80K+/year to push container-crane buttons. Or those who supervise these thugs? $110K+ to push paperwork.

Click here for some details. I excerpt:

The highest paid longshoreman on the West Coast docks earns $340,000 a year. That's a job worth protecting. Average pay for members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) ranges from $105,278 to $167,122, depending on the job category. Part-time workers on the docks can earn as much as $70,000 a year.

Time for robots to do this.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

American call centers have flocked to India. India residents answer much of Amazon.com's e-mail. Technical calls for the customers of America On-Line and Dell are already answered in India.

No wonder I can't understand a darn word they are saying. They are rude too, especially if you are female.

[NRA2BFree]

I've read THE book

Out of curiosity, what is "THE book?"

The NWO (Revived Roman Empire) comes right out of the Bible. God gave us History BEFORE it happened so that we would KNOW that His Word is true. It's Bible Prophesy and it's coming true right before our eyes. :)

[Poohbah]

No wonder I can't understand a darn word they are saying. They are rude too, especially if you are female.

If you can't understand a darn word they're saying, how in the hell can you know if they're being rude or not?

[jpsb]

Yes, why? That is the flip side to cheap labor, lack of incentive to innovate.

[Sofa King]

You have done a good job of repeating the stupidity of your previous post. I'd say that your intellectual contributions are as pathetic as one would expect from someone with a name like 'jpsb', but where's the challenge?

You should probably just concede that you're an idiot now instead of embarking on a campaign to prove it like people of your type generally love to do.

[NRA2BFree]

And Amen to that...

Isn't it great to be "enlightened" with the Truth? :)

[reluctantwarrior]

The IBD (Investors Business Daily) asserts with a fair degree of certainty that 330,000 jobs were lost not 2.8 million. SO no big swoosh of jobs to India, or Mexico. The Bush proposal on immigration is absurd on its face and with your assistance will be defeated. The free trade mantra that you label me with isn't a conservative or liberal dogma rather that wages like other inputs find equilibrium in the system and that system is now global, hi tech industries have abused the H1-b visa s to keep payrolls down that is the nature of business to sell the product for the most and pay the least to produce it and make profits. The folks in fly over country like Dell in Round ROCK Texas AND Gateway in the Midwest understand this and they wring every possible efficiency out of the inputs to their products and services Fair isn't always a business best practice yet it can be but it must not be regulated or then we will see the NRA style boards set up to determine quotas on buttons to microchips. The system is not fair and sometimes businesses fail and people lose their jobs it is Schunpeters creative destruction otherwise there wouldn't be people available to fill the jobs of industries that replace old tech. I have been downsized and rightsized and change jobs a few times now and the opportunities exist to improve ones lot if seized upon.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Since you are being ever so sweet this Sunday morning, I will rephrase for the more literally inclined.

I can't understand most of what they are saying. The tone of voice, overall manners and few words I can understand are not polite.

Better?

[RockyMtnMan]

Convienent excuse I suppose. I think his son runs most of the show nowadays. Ultimately corporations don't give a damn about anything but their profits.

It's like a hoard of rats on a drifting raft with only one wheel of cheese. They eat away at the cheese trying to get as much as possible for themselves not realizing they'll die of starvation when it's gone. If only they knew that an island was in their path and conservation would allow them to survive the trip.

[raybbr]

First I must correct myself. The figure I quoted was the percentage in overall union membership. Manufacturing is around 14.6%. From here.

In 2003, full-time wage and salary workers who were union members had median usual weekly earnings of $760, compared with a median of $599 for wage and salary workers who were not represented by unions.From here.

Why shouldn't workers get the best for themselves. It's okay if a CEO takes millions from a company in compensation but let some guy/girl who is the backbone of the company want more and you are ready to hang them.

In 2003, 12.9 percent of wage and salary workers were union members, down from 13.3 percent in 2002. The union membership rate has steadily declined from a high of 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available.

From here.

Union participation is at the highest levels in government. How come none of you blast the police, firemen and teachers about their unions?

[Veracious Poet]

"We can not always be at odds with labor and pretend to want to continue to be the majority party."

You mean the unions aren't an evil entity that should be crushed, leaving capitalists to force 80 hour work weeks on pre-teen children? </sarcasm>

[navyblue]

And don't forget the foreclosure on the mortgage!

[Veracious Poet]

You have to be kidding...trading good-paying blue collar jobs for fast-food positions isn't a good deal in my book. ;-)

[jpsb]

This comment Sofa King

If you think it's such a huge problem, then stop buying imports! What I am appalled by is so-called conservatives demanding that the government MAKE them do it.

In response to an article that clearly explained conservative and Republican thinking regarding income tax and tariffs, until fairly recently is what motivated me to take a shot at you. You want to junp in a make absurd posts? Cool, but you can expect to take a few hits when you do.

Get back to me if and when you have anything to say worth listening to.

[B4Ranch]

Looks like growth of HLC, not a reduction in US employees.

[NRA2BFree]

Many RepubliCRATS are pushing this bill, it's only going to get worse. Castro, Chavez, et. al., and the rest of the communists in South America will become partners with the USA in trade, we will forgive debts and bail them out, etc

You've got that right. I've read up on FTAA, and it will be the ruin of America as we know it.

[raybbr]

Over the years, various shipping innovations have reduced the number of West Coast dockworkers to about 10,000 permanent longshoremen and 5,000 part-time workers.

You are talking about 15,000 workers out of 120 million. Virtually anecdotal.

Why do you begrudge these people their pay? It sounds as if you have a personal stake in this? If a CEO wanted millions to run a company would you despise them as well?