Making Big Macs builds jobs?

New York Daily News ^ | February 21, 2004 | Corky Siemaszko

[sarcasm]

A White House wonk says building a Big Mac is a manufacturing job.

Fast-food jobs should not be considered service sector work because it actually is "combining inputs to manufacture a product" - and should be reclassified as manufacturing work, Gregory Mankiw wrote in the Bush administration's annual economic report.

Democrats accused President Bush's chief economist of trying to mask the fact that 2.2 million high-wage jobs have been lost since Bush took office.

"Unable to stop the hemorrhaging of American manufacturing jobs, the Bush administration is offering up some world-class job creation sleight of hand: Change the definition of what constitutes a manufacturing job," griped Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.).

[gulfwarvet]

What an insult to those of us who are not even trying to raise a family in Republican style. At this point, I'm just trying to keep a roof over our heads, the same roof that protected my family during the Clinton administration!

I have voted every election since the age of 18, but I am seriously thinking of sitting this one out in November.

[Antoninus II]

Fast-food jobs should not be considered service sector work because it actually is "combining inputs to manufacture a product" - and should be reclassified as manufacturing work, Gregory Mankiw wrote in the Bush administration's annual economic report.

This article is intentionally misleading. It doesn't state that this reclassification is actually occuring. Merely that Gregory Mankiw thinks it should be....

[Iscool]

This article is intentionally misleading. It doesn't state that this reclassification is actually occuring. Merely that Gregory Mankiw thinks it should be....

Isn't that enough...Isn't this guy Bush's lead financial economic advisor??? And he wants to skew the definition to be able to alter the books to make it look like things are really better than they are...That's dishonesty at it's worst...If George has any sense, he will can this idiot...If Bush has any sense...

[meenie]

It is just a trial balloon. An effort to see if the public will support it. If they will, then it becomes a small leap to make up the loss of manufacturing jobs created since Bush took office. The Goebbels propaganda machine needs something to justify the lack of jobs.

[OldFriend]

3 million jobs lost is now 2.2 million. Little by little we might get the truth.

HOWEVER,this suggestion that fast food jobs are manufacturing jobs is as lamebrained as it gets.

Am beginning to smell sabotage from within.

[JZoback]

A White House wonk says building a Big Mac is a manufacturing job.

Wonk being the operative word here.

I imagine we would be scared to death to know what the policy wonks in the Clinton administration were throwing out there for consummation. Probably far more troubling than this piece of nonsense

[Indie]

I haven't seen such pablum since my sons were 6 months old.

[trebb]

We started turning away from manufacturing and towards a service economy decades ago. Why is everyone getting so keyed up with the "manufacturing" word. A job is a job is a job if it also offers a paycheck. This administration did not chase the manufacturing jobs away - the exodous has been steady. This administration did not put NAFTA in place, it inherited it. This administration did not inherit the economy the Dims would have you think it did - the Klinton administration cooked the books so as to make a recession that was gathering steam look like a boom.

I pity the idiots who listen to the Dim lies and the media bias and think that "teaching Bush a lesson" will solve anything. Sinking a boat with a few leaks in it drowns people - some of you think that's preferable to having soggy socks. Do some real thinking for crying out loud.