Posted on 12/14/2002 10:22:42 AM PST by arete
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Charles Seitz remembers when Rochester was a bustling manufacturing town. Now, all the 58-year-old unemployed engineer sees is a landscape of empty buildings.
''There's nothing made here anymore,'' the former Eastman Kodak employee says, his eyes welling with tears as he talks about his struggle to find a new job. ''Wealth is really created by making things. I still adhere to that.''
It's a situation that's been playing out across the country for decades but has received increased attention in recent years.
Fifty years ago, a third of U.S. employees worked in factories, making everything from clothing to lipstick to cars. Today, a little more than one-tenth of the nation's 131 million workers are employed by manufacturing firms. Four-fifths are in services.
The decline in manufacturing jobs has swiftly accelerated since the beginning of 2000. Since then, more than 1.9 million factory jobs have been cut -- about 10% of the sector's workforce. During the same period, the number of jobs outside manufacturing has risen close to 2%.
Many of the factory jobs are being cut as companies respond to a sharp rise in global competition. Unable to raise prices -- and often forced to cut them -- companies must find any way they can to reduce costs and hang onto profits.
Jobs are increasingly being moved abroad as companies take advantage of lower labor costs and position themselves to sell products to a growing -- and promising -- market abroad. Economy.com, an economic consulting firm in West Chester, Pa., estimates 1.3 million manufacturing jobs have been moved abroad since the beginning of 1992 -- the bulk coming in the last three years. Most of those jobs have gone to Mexico and East Asia.
Last month, film giant Eastman Kodak -- the largest employer in Rochester and the central focus of the community since the company was founded by George Eastman in 1888 -- announced it was shutting down an area plant and laying off the 500 employees who make single-use, sometimes called ''throw-away,'' cameras. The work will now be done in China or Mexico, two countries where the company already has operations.
The movement of jobs to other countries angers Seitz the most.
''The United States got to where it is today by making things,'' he says. ''People are suffering, and communities are suffering.''
I think not. But I'll let folks judge for themselves. They can look at it here.
I note, once again, that you provide no evidence, not even pointing people to the supposed "refutation". Objective readers will take note of that, I'm sure.
True. They used to be good for tough work, but now are just for going to the movies. For hard work, get Carhart.
Where the hell are we gonna go? And even if I could, I ain't gonna let what we call "the leadership" in this country run me out.
These greedy bastards are pushing us toward the next internal shootin' war, but I ain't runnin. This is my home.
When it starts, there won't be enough targets to go around.
And what exactly is the difference between paper profits and real profits? They both seem to spend the same way.
How long will we continue to remain "the most powerful, most productive economy" when the work force will consist of government employees, trial attorneys and hamburger flippers?
I'm with you about the government employees and trial attorneys part. But that has nothing to do with global trade. As for hamburger flippers, that seems a bit of an oversimplification for the most complex economy on the planet, does it not?
You missed it. We lost.
Richard W.
Gloom, doom, and whining. That's all I hear from the anti-globalists.
So what exactly is wrong with a service-based economy? I don't need any more consumer junk to clutter up my house. And it's certainly cleaner to deliver services.
My earlier joking comment about the dangers of being cut off from single use cameras needs re-emphasizing. The whole premise of this "we have to have a big manufacturing base!" mantra seems to be that we need ever more "stuff" to power our economy. We don't! We already have more than we can use!
What I need to live a better life is services. Someone who can fix my plumbing, so that I don't have to do it. Someone to write software that will help me extract information from the web. etc. etc.
Go ahead, just try to take our country back from the ruling class. You will be called either a kook or a terrorist. Then some members of the new Homehand Security (dept of serf surpression) will come and visit you and you will be sent off to a "reeducation" camp. It's coming soon.
Richard W.
I suggest that everyone give at least the possibility of what you suggest some serious thought. Then, If you decide that your home is worth fighting for, prepare and train for what we all know is coming.
I also suggest that it is time that those of us who are willing, let our "leadership" know, in no uncertain terms, that we are willing to fight and not just figuratively. No sane person wants this, but they just keep pushing the boundaries, and so far they have just been emboldened.
The federal boys have had it real easy for the last couple of decades, and they don't seem to remember how it feels when your intended target starts shooting back.
Like I said, there won't be enough to go around.
If you get rid of your pipes and computer which are manufactured goods you won't need those services either.
I have yet to see you say anything remotely in support of capitalism. You seem to be trying to pound a socialist critique of free trade into an anti-socialist hole.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.