Posted on 05/12/2016 4:35:21 AM PDT by expat_panama
One of the rallying cries of the Fight for $15 movement is that employers like McDonald’s (MCD) make billions in profits on the backs of taxpayers.
In the view of the political left, companies shouldn’t be credited for employing large numbers of workers with modest skills, but rather vilified for paying so little that workers need to rely on food stamps, Medicaid and earned income tax credits.
Now that same low-wage argument used against the fast-food industry and Wal-Mart (WMT) is being brought to bear against a surprising target: manufacturers. It seems that even as Donald Trump has vowed to bring factory jobs back to the U.S. — and get Apple (AAPL) to start making its Apple iPhone at home — by threatening to impose tariffs on imports, the reality of manufacturing employment is no longer quite what it used to be.
The Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California, Berkeley, found that the federal government and states spent $10.2 billion per year on safety net programs for factory production workers and their families from 2009 though 2013.
The families of 34% of production workers were enrolled in at least one public safety net program...
...factories are an unlikely target for nationwide minimum-wage protests, the Berkeley researchers suggest another course of action. Noting that many manufacturers receive significant tax subsidies as states and localities try to attract and retain them, they advise “conditioning subsidies on strong wage requirements across the workforce.”
That would provide further incentive for manufacturers to shift work out of state or out of the country.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
“Actually, it doesn’t. Because of US and Canadian unions, many factories in the US are not automated to the same degree as they are overseas.”
In 1995 I toured a Rover automobile assembly plant in Cowley, England. The company had just been bought by BMW, but the robotic technology in use was Honda’s, left over from an earlier joint venture. (Most of the cars being built were re-badged Civics, Accords, and Acura Legends.) All of the painting and almost all of the welding was done by robots. However, I noticed some workers were welding the trunk (”boot”) lids by hand, and I asked the tour guide why that wasn’t also being done by robots. He replied that it had to do with “staffing agreements” (i.e., featherbedding) with the local trade union. All but the Mini and Land Rover bits of Rover cars were out of business soon thereafter.
That means NEW jobs (see programmers, CAD-CAM, robotics, etc).
New jobs require new enterprises, innovation and the freedom to create.
Neither of the uniparties favor freedom.
Because the politicians have sent manufacturing jobs overseas, leaving no jobs except burger flipping. The way the liberals “solve” that is to demand that burger joints pay $15 per hour.
You mean neither WING of the Uniparty favors freedom. (grin)
Which means, outside of the Zombie Apocalypse, Killer Avian Bird Flu, or the S.M.O.D. . . . we’re screwed. . .
The people against the Keystone Pipeline claim that the oil will be converted to gasoline in the US and then sold to China. Even if true, doesn’t that mean that the pipeline increases manufacturing? We take raw materials from Canada and manufacture a finished product: gasoline. And if we sell it to China, isn’t that exporting? Manufacturing and exporting goods and paying taxes and providing jobs? It’s all good.
In the last two months, I’ve walked out of McDonalds three times because the service was so slow. I think they’re cutting back counter staff because of the rising minimum wage.
There is a good argument to be made against our trade policy, that our existing agreements keep us out of many foreign markets. We need to absolutely insist on real free trade rather than the faux free trade we have today.
But there is also a bad argument being made against our trade policy, the argument that Americans are somehow entitled by birthright to make 5x-10x the amount of money made by foreigners producing an equivalent product. Any attempt to force this result by government will lead to disaster.
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