State factory loss a 'crisis,' panel says

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | Sunday, February 22, 2004 | Len Barcousky

[Willie Green]

About 1,400 factories have closed in the state in the past three years, says the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association.

"If this isn't a crisis, then that word has no meaning," said David N. Taylor, communications director for the association. He was one of seven panel members representing an unusual alliance of labor and business who spoke Wednesday at a Trade Sanity Town Meeting at Butler County Community College.

[CaptainLou]

Industies ARE effective in this country, it is the fact that HUMAN GREED made the company CEO's move to a slave labor run country that makes American Companies no longer able to compete, and you call it rain on my back??

Oh please, if I want to listen to that kind of drivel I'll call upon Ralph Nader.

Corporations exist for one reason and one reason only, to maximize shareholder value, simple as that. If you want the state to manage how corporations are run perhaps you can find yourself a country that is more socialist to your liking.

[Veracious Poet]

Although the 16th Amendment and the Federal Reserve Act are two of the most heinous acts of tyranny to ever befall the American sheeple, this present evil is the direct result of an expansion of corporate interests away from being national concerns to becoming global entities...

At one time even the most vile of greedy corporate opportunists saw taking care of the US people as being tied to there interests, in a survivalist kind of way, but starting at the end of the cold war (actually going back to the late 60s when traditionally US Industry expanded into non-US countries) they started assuming the role once left to the Colonial Powers of previous decades: Privileged Elite Imperialists

With the coming of NAFTA & GATT they used Madison Ave. political spin to sell it to the American middle-class, who fell in love with the short-term benefits, but will be utterly destroyed by it's long-term consequences.

[CaptainLou]

You must have never worked at any manufacturing job, because if you did, you would see your cost of living rise, while your wages plummet to the floor in the last 10 years, and with all the offshoring, you calling it rain on my back, that makes me think you are an idiot.

You nailed it on the head there my friend. I never pursued manufacturing because I knew it was a fickle industry and I wanted a job where I would be paid for what I knew rather than how many widgets I could build in a day. I busted my rear to get myself a college education while working full time, then got a graduate degree and several professional certifications all the while supporting a family and keeping my wife home with the kids. Thanks the President's tax cuts, I'm enjoying a lot more of my money than I had three years ago.

Don't give me your sad-sack stories about those who lost their manufacturing jobs and now have no other recourse but to cry to the government for assistance. Look, here's a bit of news for you, people are responsible for their own situation, crying to the government instead of taking personal responsibility is what gives us liberalism and the wealth transfer programs known as social security, medicare, and welfare.

Perhaps you ought to call the Nader campaign, I hear he's getting his organization set up again.

[RaceBannon]

what a loser.

You sit back and enjoy the fruits of people who actually work for a living while you sip your Perrier and the rest of us actually make the items you sit on, watch, listen to, drive, and even fly in.

But, losers like you just want us to eat cake, despite the fact that many of us have multiple degrees, also, we just decided to use our hands instead of use other peoples hands and then look down our noses at those who actually get their hands dirty working.

You need to vote for Jane Fonda, she'll defend your high falutin lifestyle, right up there in her Com-intern Palace she and Hillary have planned for you elites.

The rest of us will work our fingers to the bone so you can trade stock and make money off all the foreign interests you so heartily endorse....

[stboz]

is there anyone left to grow the food we need?

Si, senor. But it gonna cost you.

[Veracious Poet]

Are you still bothering with us peons CaptainLou? Don't you have something better to do like say hang out on the Fascists-R-US.com forums?? ;-)

It couldn't be that your afraid some of us ex-Aerospace Eng'r. types (myself included) might get together and put a crinkle in your plans for that expansion on your family estate?

As a refugee that survived the destruction of the mfg. cuts in the 90s to go on and recreate myselfas a Journalists/Entrepeneur, I must scare the bejeezus right out of you! LMAO

[Veracious Poet]

"The scenario is scary."

If you think that was scary, hang-on for the worst is yet to come!

[RaceBannon]

What really kills me, is some of these free-traitor losers think all it takes is hard work and pluck.

I have been hard worked and plucked featherless in the last 10 years.

yeah, just move, right. To Where? This is a nationwide problem, entire industries are leaving the country, and the people who made it work are being tossed in the street, while all the marketing execs are rolling in the dough telling us to eat cake!

WE are the ones who make the stuff they sit on, ride in, fly in, drive to, watch on tv, listen to on the radio, that is the skilled worker, and people like that just let those technologies leave so the CEO's and shareholders can make a buck!

And they don't see anything wrong with that as long as we just shut up and take the hamburger flipping job to stay off unemployment like us ungrateful to be American louts we are!

When my government allows this to happen, and then we scream for them to STOP KILLING US, we are accused of asking government to prop us up...when it was GOVERNMENT that allowed and encourages these companies to kick out our legs to begin with!

[RaceBannon]

Good luck to him. I am retraining as an Electrical Engineer, I already am a Mechanical Engineer, havent done any of that for 3 years....ready to go bankrupt for the second time soon...hoping for an insurance settlement soon...

[Joshua]

Could you repeat that?

Seriously

"This is an industrial giant using computer controlled machines where all a person has to know is what button to push and when thanks to developments in CNC technology."

How does a US company compete when the Union demands 50K, benefits, early retirement, and lifetime health insurance, for this same job?

It appears the corporations are simply removing their own handcuffs and shackles.

[jpsb]

"Corporations exist for one reason and one reason only, to maximize shareholder value"

Absolutely correct, which is why, prior to globalism the US had antitrust laws, child labor laws, minimum wage laws etc to "house break" corporate greed. However in a global capitalist society there is no equivalent of the US federal government and therefore no counter weight to humanize capitalism.

An unrestrained capitalist is as cruel a master as any communist that ever lived.

[CaptainLou]

As a refugee that survived the destruction of the mfg. cuts in the 90s to go on and recreate myselfas a Journalists/Entrepeneur, I must scare the bejeezus right out of you! LMAO

Actually you are someone that is setting an example for lots of folks. However it seems others want to blame "greedy CEO's" or "the government" for their problems instead of doing what you have done and making a better life for yourself.

[CaptainLou]

When my government allows this to happen, and then we scream for them to STOP KILLING US, we are accused of asking government to prop us up...when it was GOVERNMENT that allowed and encourages these companies to kick out our legs to begin with!

So now we know that Ralph Nader is a freeper. Nice to see you Mr. Nader, thank you for running in 2000 and let us hope you can achieve the same results in 2004.

[jpsb]

Excellent!

[CaptainLou]

An unrestrained capitalist is as cruel a master as any communist that ever lived.

That sort of logic has gotten us to where we are today in regard to government regulation of business. That's something I'd expect to hear from Ted Kennedy or Ralph Nader.

[jpsb]

You need to understand the social contract between the governed and the government. The government exists solely to secure the security and welfare of the governed. Should the government fail govern in the best interests of all it's citizens for the benefit of a few capitalists then the government will be overthrow and a new government installed. It is really that simple, continue to send all our jobs overseas, and send the nations ability to create and fairly distribute wealth overseas and yall will be hanging from trees.

[jpsb]

Well, you picked one sentence to reply too, care to address the rest of my post?

[CaptainLou]

You need to understand the social contract between the governed and the government. The government exists solely to secure the security and welfare of the governed. Should the government fail govern in the best interests of all it's citizens for the benefit of a few capitalists then the government will be overthrow and a new government installed. It is really that simple, continue to send all our jobs overseas, and send the nations ability to create and fairly distribute wealth overseas and yall will be hanging from trees.

Maybe it's just me, but I "like" the economic plan enacted by the President over the last 3 years, it is why our economy is booming, why jobs are being created, and why we're going to reelect George W. Bush.

I'm not going to sit here and feed ammo to the John Kerry campaign by complaining about what has been the most pro-Business federal government since the Reagan administration.

[jpsb]

BTW, you should read about capitalism in the USA prior to labor laws.

[Veracious Poet]

"How does a US company compete when the Union demands 50K, benefits, early retirement, and lifetime health insurance, for this same job?"

How about stop paying CEOs billions of dollars in MONSTER employment agreements and golden parachutes?

I know it's a novel idea to pay the little guy that actually creates the product a measly living wage, but hey you wanted to know how to make US workforces compete with slave/prison labor, right?