Blue-Collar Alert; Silencing Factory Whistles Will Muffle Economy, Report Warns

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ^ | 02/02/2006 | RICK BARRETT

[MNJohnnie]

Gee Willie. Why is the average hourly wage up $2.50 to 17.53? Why is the Average Serive wage $2.00 an hour HIGHER then Manufacturing average wage? Could it be all the Economic Isolationist nonsense pushed by the Buchannanites since the 1980s is just pure BS????

[Hank Rearden]

If your job can be performed by a robot, it will be.

Better get educated.

[Maceman]

Manufacturing is like soooo 20th century.

[Willie Green]

Gee Willie. Why is the average hourly wage up $2.50 to 17.53? Why is the Average Serive wage $2.00 an hour HIGHER then Manufacturing average wage?

Because WalMart is generous employer?
25,000 apply for 325 Walmart jobs...

</sarcasm>

[Beagle8U]

Make the entire US a "right to work" state, some of those jobs might come back, or less would leave.

[durasell]

Make the entire US a "right to work" state, some of those jobs might come back, or less would leave


None of those jobs would come back and the same number would leave. The difference in wages between the U.S. and China/India is simply too great.

[narby]

Better get educated.

True. Can't manufacture robots if you're stupid.

People who write these articles are promoting the idea that "manufacturing" is when untrained people screw thingies together on an assembly line. That's no longer the case. I'm in "manufacturing", because I write embedded software that controls vehicles better than humans can. We then manufacture those boxes and send them around the world.

The true motivation for these articles is actually union organizing, not any real worry that the economy is in trouble. The last 30 years has demonstrated that we can lose the "blue collar" workers, and become even more rich.

[Beagle8U]

"None of those jobs would come back and the same number would leave. The difference in wages between the U.S. and China/India is simply too great."

So..Your idea is to do nothing?, or is it to cut wages to the China level?

[Flavius Josephus]

If your job can be performed by a robot, it will be.

Unless you're an illegal alien.

[durasell]

I have no solution that makes any sense. But China hasn't even gotten warmed up yet. $49 DVD players are a drop in the bucket. They're looking at introducing a car for under $10,000 in the U.S. The only thing that seems a likely to halt it is if China quits lending us money to buy their stuff.

[HEY4QDEMS]

The labor unions have done more to decimate the blue collar work force than any big company ever has.

I worked for a company that went union,( I was in administration so not me), and within 18 months the production facilities were moved to Asia.

Our cost's were cut almost half and our production rose nearly 20%.

Before the union came aboard, the execs hadn't even discussed the prospect of running the line overseas and because of the union they got fat bonuses and raises for doing just that, (again, not me), and allot of marginally educated blue collar workers lost a decent paying job.

[HEY4QDEMS]

Make the entire US a "right to work" state, some of those jobs might come back, or less would leave.

Moving jobs over seas takes a large investment and major planning. Once a company makes that move it's very difficult to make the move back because the economic incentives are not there.

However, making the US a "Right to Work" state, would go a long way toward influencing companies not to make the initial move in the first place.

[Alberta's Child]

Downward trends in U.S. manufacturing are threatening the nation's long-term economic growth and living standards, according to a new report from two industrial trade groups.

. . .

Industrial output has not rebounded from the last recession as it did in earlier economic recoveries, according to the report released Wednesday. The 15% growth, for example, is only half the pace averaged in recoveries of the past 50 years.

Here's my dumb question of the day. How does a 15% growth in industrial output translate into a "downward trend"??

[N3WBI3]

1) Average is a whole lot telling than median
2) The effects of losing an industiral base can take some time to catch up (see spain)

[N3WBI3]

Robots (manufactured in the US) I could deal with. Its benefits for companies to offshore jobs that gets me...

[Beagle8U]

There are many more things that are manufactured than just auto's.
Some things make no sense to mfg. overseas. If something breaks, and no parts are available close by, you can lose thousands, or even millions, in just a few days.

It costs a fortune to stock spare parts in the hopes something breaks so you can sell them.

If you build a product that breaks often, nobody wants to by the original.

Close, fast mfg. is needed for many products.

Market share can be built by qualify products, speed of available parts, as long as you don't have a union trying to kill off the business.
Add in high taxes and business regulations, and everything that makes sense will go down the toilet.

[N3WBI3]

True. Can't manufacture robots if you're stupid.

And why would the robots be manufactured here?

[N3WBI3]

Or if we impose tariffs..

[N3WBI3]

Some things make no sense to mfg. overseas.

They are fighting to have US poultry slaughtered over here and sent to china to be packaged and then sent back! if for some reason that makes sense why would any kind of non biological process make any less?