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Loss of factory jobs may have a long fall to bottom
Boston Globe ^ | 8/10/2003 | Charles Stein

Posted on 08/10/2003 8:00:24 AM PDT by Willie Green

Edited on 04/13/2004 2:10:37 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

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To: Matchett-PI
Other hot jobs are expected to focus on industrial automation equipment, such as robotics. The U.S. Department of Labor projects that those jobs will grow faster than the economy as a whole and, in particular, even exceed growth in manufacturing. Toys and sporting goods, drugs, garden machinery, motor vehicles, metal coating and screw machine products, bolts and rivets industries are all in the top 25% manufacturing industries for both productivity growth and job growth, the Labor Department says.

What a bogus article...I'll just pick on one paragraph to save space...

I've been involved with robotics for over 20 years...You'll be hard pressed to find any American made robots and if you do, they will have Chinese electronic components inside...This is a bunch of bull put out by the Labor Dept...

Nuts and bolts, pipefittings,??? China...The trend is China, not the U.S. of A...Try to find an American made fishing pole...There's a couple on the higher end but very few...Shakespeare, Mitchell, Johnson reels??? All gone to China along with the quality...

About the only thing listed in this paragraph alone that hasn't gone or is not in the process of moving would be the drugs...And I'm not so sure about that...

This whole article was written to fool some people and it probably succeeded...

21 posted on 08/10/2003 11:57:50 AM PDT by Iscool
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To: syriacus
”I think it might be a good idea to encourage our children to go into careers that are harder to move overseas”

You mean like working for the US government? All high-tech jobs can be shipped overseas or performed by someone on a H1 visa.

22 posted on 08/10/2003 12:05:26 PM PDT by thtr
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To: Willie Green
This article has so much garbage it is hard to know where to start.

”Many of those higher-margin, technology-intensive production will remain in the U.S., and should help keep jobs here becoming steadily better, safer and higher paid than in earlier generations.”

This is sheer conjecture. Why should these jobs stay in America? Don’t the manufacturers of high-margin technology intensive products want to make higher profits?

”Other jobs serving certain protected markets, like medical instruments that are carefully monitored and require collaboration between doctors, hospitals and producers, should also remain, as will those involved with making something big and bulky, like kitchen cabinets that are costly to ship, or perishable items like frozen food and bread”

More dreaming! Medical instruments are already manufactured overseas and my grocery offers a wide variety of Mediterranean, Italian, and Mexican breads prepared overseas.

”Demand will also escalate for basic goods like washing machines, cars and telephones in parts of the world where many people have never had them before. That will keep global assembly lines humming”

Sorry Jack but those washing machines, cars and telephones are not manufactured in America!

”concluded a two-year study by the Manufacturers Alliance, a public policy and business research group in Arlington, Va”

Isn’t it interesting that the Manufacturers Alliance does not have a single manufacturer on its staff??????? Go to their web site and see for yourself.

”But positions in computer and mathematical occupations are expected to increase 29% in the coming decade.

This is based on absolutely nothing.

23 posted on 08/10/2003 12:24:18 PM PDT by thtr
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To: PokeyJoe
You forgot lawyers.

Thanks for adding another career to the list.

I'm sure people can recommend other jobs, too.

But not everyone seems to want to think as creatively as you.

24 posted on 08/10/2003 12:27:26 PM PDT by syriacus (Schumer belongs to a group that excludes women from full membership.)
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To: Matchett-PI
In fact, U.S. manufacturers are increasingly worried about a serious projected shortage in skilled machinists and other factory workers.

I am in the field (in sales)now and see its rapid decline daily. I would never encourage my son or anyone else to enter this field. It has provided me with a good living, but the politicians, CEO's, and elites have destroyed it through greed, incompotance, and no regard for thier country. When the middle class, built by manufacturing, disappears it will be a 2 class society. A revolution to take this country back is required. Republican....Democrat....it is all the same.
25 posted on 08/10/2003 12:47:57 PM PDT by cp124
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To: thtr
I've added the numbers in brackets

thtr wrote:
You mean like working for the US government? All high-tech jobs [1] can be shipped overseas or performed by someone on a [2] H1 visa.


You are writing in response to my post, but you must have stopped reading my post after the first sentence or you must have intended to respond to someone else.

I didn't suggest "high tech jobs" or working for the government.
I suggested particular jobs.

[1] I'll repeat what I wrote :

I think it might be a good idea to encourage our children to go into careers that are harder to move overseas.

Maybe they should think about becoming doctors, teachers, nurses, receptionists, dentists, therapists, auto mechanics, plumbers, housebuilders, etc.

I don't know that there is a demand for workers in each of these jobs, but factoring in "non-overseas-transportability", while considering careers, might be helpful.

[2] As for competing for jobs, against people with visas...
doctors have been doing that for 3 decades.

26 posted on 08/10/2003 12:48:41 PM PDT by syriacus (Schumer belongs to a group that excludes women from full membership.)
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To: Willie Green
Oh there's always a demand for these services... It's just that without jobs, people can't afford these benefits.

I've suggested getting the same kinds of jobs that plenty of other people have held for years. And, my list was nowhere near being all-inclusive.

I'm optimistic that people who have held jobs in factories are capable of holding those other jobs.

I hope you are, too.

27 posted on 08/10/2003 12:55:23 PM PDT by syriacus (Schumer belongs to a group that excludes women from full membership.)
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To: thtr
Isn’t it interesting that the Manufacturers Alliance does not have a single manufacturer on its staff??????? Go to their web site and see for yourself.

They're all on the Executive Committee and Board of Trustees, dummy.

28 posted on 08/10/2003 12:58:39 PM PDT by Willie Green (Go Pat Go!!!)
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To: syriacus
I know....everyone can work for the government. Isn't that the real goal? The Peeon society. We can get our government checks and buy our government food nad watch out AOL/Time Warner/Disney TV. Hale to the Bush....Hale to the Bush
29 posted on 08/10/2003 1:00:39 PM PDT by cp124
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To: harpseal
Your advice might make sense if we did not have H1B workers coming in to take those jobs.

It still makes sense.

Workers with visas won't be taking all the jobs.

US doctors have been "competing" with Visa holders for jobs for three decades.

We have a lot of foreign born doctors, but we still have a lot of US born doctors.

The trick is to be creative enough to find a job in a field with decent pay and a demand for workers.

Come to think of it....that's always been the answer.

30 posted on 08/10/2003 1:08:19 PM PDT by syriacus (It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness)
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To: cp124
I know....everyone can work for the government. Isn't that the real goal? The Peeon society. We can get our government checks and buy our government food nad watch out AOL/Time Warner/Disney TV.

...I never suggested working for the government.

But....Come to think of it...you have a good idea.

Being a dental hygienist in the Navy or a doctor in the army might not be a bad idea. Or how about being a librarian at the National Institutes of Health?

Hale to the Bush....Hale to the Bush

Nice of you to wish Bush good health.

We want a healthy president while we fight terrorism

31 posted on 08/10/2003 1:15:18 PM PDT by syriacus (It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness)
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To: Matchett-PI
But positions in computer and mathematical occupations are expected to increase 29% in the coming decade.

Gee, seems to fly in the face of the empirical data. This piece is based on seriously dated assumptions that no longer hold thanks to white-collar out-sourcing. Computer graduates are unemployed in droves. Mathematical graduates are unable to get work, and in either case when there are jobs...they go to the H1-b hirelings from India. [ Further discouraging U.S. students from going into technical fields ]

Wonder how they reconcile their macho-theory...with hard cold reality. Without manufacturing, the 'innovation' ...we call it Research & Development, goes with it. Witness Motorola. They are investing $10 billion in new super-state-of the art semiconductor plants in Red China, so they can avoid spending $50 billion here. And, oh, btw, they are building a bunch of R&D plants to go with the manufacturing plants. End of the U.S. R&D.

32 posted on 08/10/2003 1:24:56 PM PDT by Paul Ross (A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one!-A. Hamilton)
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To: syriacus
No thanks....I will live in a van down by the river and pay no taxes. You can support the corrupt government. Our founding fathers are rolling over in thier graves at what this country has become.
33 posted on 08/10/2003 1:31:23 PM PDT by cp124
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To: cp124
No thanks....I will live in a van down by the river and pay no taxes. You can support the corrupt government. Our founding fathers are rolling over in thier graves at what this country has become.

I like a simple life, too, but I have no objection to giving medical or dental care to people serving in the army or navy. And making information available to people through government libraries doesn't bother me either.

34 posted on 08/10/2003 1:44:15 PM PDT by syriacus (It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness)
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To: syriacus; PokeyJoe
You forgot lawyers.

Lawyers provide a vital service in an economy based on "division of inheiritance", as opposed to "creation of wealth".

35 posted on 08/10/2003 1:52:25 PM PDT by Lessismore
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To: Willie Green
The Globe is all the news "fit to print" for covering the bottom of a bird cage..tweet tweet!
36 posted on 08/10/2003 5:49:11 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
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To: A. Pole
I guess you think that the right standard for America is India or Congo. How many countries did you visit?

China, South Korea, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Bolivia… is that enough. I’ve been to Japan and Germany too if that counts for anything.

37 posted on 08/10/2003 6:20:34 PM PDT by Who dat?
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To: fight_truth_decay
Holy cripes, I forgot Mexico... Ha.
38 posted on 08/10/2003 6:22:15 PM PDT by Who dat?
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To: Who dat?
China, South Korea, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Bolivia… is that enough. I’ve been to Japan and Germany too if that counts for anything.

Sorry. Not enough countries for you to have an opinion on this :)

39 posted on 08/10/2003 6:28:08 PM PDT by Jorge
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To: fight_truth_decay
Actually, because of some degree of mental retardation, I sometimes reply to posts I don't intend to reply to. Sorry.
40 posted on 08/10/2003 6:34:28 PM PDT by Who dat?
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