Posted on 04/18/2007 7:59:30 AM PDT by A. Pole
In the 1950's 30% of US employees were in manufacturing - almost 1 in 3 jobs. This country was a relative manufacturing super power, we were the world's richest and most productive country. In 1994 approximately 1 in 8 jobs were in manufacturing. In 2014 if the US government (Bureau of Labor Statistics) projections are accurate that figure will have slipped to 1 in 12 jobs.
The government is telling us in black and white that the policies they are enacting will decrease both absolute and relative manufacturing employment to levels below that of the 1950's - over 2 million below.
In less than 20 years since America put in place some of its most self-devastating policy decisions (NAFTA, WTO, CAFTA, etc.), this country will have almost completely converted from a self-sufficient sovereign state, capable of manufacturing what it needs to sustain and protect itself, to a country of servants – serfs, working at the behest of foreign employers or engaged in the sales, marketing, and distribution of foreign-made goods – working at their discretion, for wages they determine, and forced to pay their prices for needed goods. This is the definition of a servant.
A country that ends up producing little of value will have little to consume at home and little to trade abroad, and will have a low standard of living. The way this country was built was by developing world-leading industries and dominating the markets for products that we invented. Now we have conceded that we are instead going to exist by selling our assets and eliminate most of our ability to produce for ourselves. This would make any country extremely vulnerable.
From 1994-2004, manufacturing was the second fastest job-losing sector in our economy (second only to agricultural employment). From 2004-2014, the government predicts that most of the employment growth will come from retail, health care, leisure and hospitality, government jobs, and “professional and business services.”
This country needs salespeople, waiters, attorneys, doctors, and managers. But how could we have ever built a superpower country on those professions alone?
Many say that we are shipping jobs overseas because they are too low-paying or too rudimentary. Anyone who has worked in factory operating a million-dollar piece of equipment can tell you the satisfying difference from being forced to work in a restaurant as a waiter because of lack of alternatives. Why would we send factory jobs overseas to replace them with jobs in retail and hospitality? Factories sustain communities. Retail and hospitality enriches absentee corporations and shareholders. Offshore outsourcing strips us of technology, taxes, profits, and career opportunities. Why would we choose that path as manufacturing jobs pay much more on average than service jobs?
Some other countries, like Japan, pay wages as high as or higher than America because their manufacturing is capital and knowledge intensive and requires fewer workers per unit of output. In addition, other countries like China that pay wages as low as 1/10 of ours, also does not have the same cost of living as the US. Their goods cost a fraction of what they cost here in America; therefore it is not possible to compare the wages on an absolute basis.
Many people also say education is the key. They say that not enough Americans are being trained for engineering, science, or production occupations. There is no point in educating people when there are no jobs – when these industries are being systematically and predatorily destroyed by foreign subsidized competition producing and operating both externally and here in this country through insourcing.
We are living in a fool’s paradise, being propped up by foreign loans to our government and foreign subsidized consumption of our incredulous trade deficits which is approaching $800 billion ($1.6 million per minute) this year alone..
The net takeaway of the Bureau of Labor Statistics report is that if you expect to earn a decent living by producing a product – any product – in this next 10 years, you will have little opportunity to do that in this country.
100 years ago, agriculture was the dominant industry and majority of the employment. Now it is probably less than 2%.
Times change - no fear!
Yet, America is self sufficient in food. This self-sufficiency is based on technology (not on cheap labor) and government support.
Jobs you mentioned are hardly done my “Americans” even if they are in America.
As I've stated several times before, manufacturing employment is in decline WORLDWIDE due to advances in technology, making semi and unskilled workers unnecessary. Even where such manufacturing exists, the fact that it is increasingly done by young women (who leave the factory floor in places like Guangzhou after 5-10 years), while the men pursue more lucrative fields should tell you something about where labor-intensive manufacturing fits on the global totem pole.
Times change yes they do but natural laws do not, wealth requires production of something of value. Haircuts, house cleaning and yard work are not the stuff of a great wealth producing nation.What are you talking about? We produce plenty of wealth! Like the little pieces of paper that the Chinese give us money for so we can buy their stuff ;)
Where I live they are done by Americans, however that was not my point. My point was that WEALTH REQUIRES PRODUCTION. We can not expect to be wealthy if we move production off shore. We being the entire collection of Americans.
The 1950's was just after wwII. In WWII, the world had zero manufacturing outside North America. Since then, the rest of the world has rebuilt their manufacturing.
LOL, yes keep the presses rolling by all means. BTW I noticed that the pound is selling at over 2 bucks today. Hmmm, wonder if that has anything at all to do with off shoring production of wealth?
I didn’t know Willie Green was still around. I hope to hear from him. It is my belief that manufacturing leaving the USA is not necessarily a problem. Let the Chinese and Mexicans manufacture our textiles or the usual crap Wal-Mart sells. Recognize that our country builds commercial aircraft (as well as military aircraft), automobiles, heavy equipment and other more sophisticated items. Also, our country still has three shipyards building military ships for our Navy. There needs to be an industrial base for this type of product. The Japanese, Koreans and Germans have factories all over the USA building cars. Americans can build good cars, it is just that the big three with the UAW continue to edge toward self destruction. Protectionism is not the answer, with the except of protecting our key industrial base.
Yep, I've been singing this tune for years. Our economy is being driven by retail, I don’t know how its holding together, but the stores are full and the factories are few and far apart.To be serious for a moment. Somebody with more economics background may be able to correct me, but to be able to buy things don't you need to provide goods and services to get the wealth to actually buy it? We still lead the world in services, like software, banking etc... which provide us with a good enough economy *for now*. But all of those areas have low barriers of entry to an educated population. Other than protectionism what's to stop India from providing say, the next big operating system and eating our lunch?
What is this talking! The Ameristan ruble is making good by being low for selling!
My mother’s wages at a salon paid for my college education and my brother’s college education. We went to the University of Akron, commuted, and were there at the same time for two years. No loans were taken out by my brother or me, and my parents did not take them out either. Before we were in college she was a stay at home mom. She cleaned the house and mowed the lawn.
Yep! Production and exporting and positive trade balance ARE wealth producers. Using brains to invent better products, raw material and productive labor to make, better things and then sell them to rest of the world. Put it all into the product, sell it and make profit. Government regulations, bureaucracy and taxing and stupid envirolawlessness only hamper American free spirit and kick companies to look outside for manufacturing. We are losing wealth creating production.
This can not be compared to production gains in agriculture that is still HERE.
Which brings the point, that we would be better off bringing cheap, legal laborers here into our factories, keep the production here and groom them to become consuming and paying citizens here, rather than being illegales and send our dollars outta home.
We can only go so long cutting each other's hair.
bump
Thank you for posting that. Good read and very much true.
If doctors, nurses, systems analysts, engineers and the like are mere servants, then I would say there is great honor in service.
In the United States of America, there are plenty of avenues open for someone who wants to break out of poverty, or the working class. You have to get past the hucksters and charlatans to find the path but it is there if you wish to find it. A practically-free education is available. Open access to worldwide markets is available in just about every industry you could name.
The world economy is like electricity flowing all around you, and all you have to do is make a decision to plug into it to participate. Placing more legal restrictions on the economy would only harm those who seek upward mobility, not help them.
Maybe you'll find a more receptive audience at DU. Over here we like ingenuity and hard work, and think it should be rewarded.
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