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Post by blueneck on Mar 29, 2007 7:23:23 GMT -6
Exactly - basically what this says is for every direct mfg job there are 2-3 more jobs in the mfg service, supply and support industries - tools and machinery, raw materials, transport and other services depend on strong mfg, as do whole communities for their tax base and infrastructure. Service sector jobs do not and will never have this kind of economic impact - they generally do not "produce" or "create" - but merely shift around wealth.
Another important fact - without a strong manufactuing base, the need for R&D is greatly dimished. The fact is manufacturing has been the great driver of technology innovations for at least the last two centuries.
Exactly, so then why aren't companies beating down the doors to take advantage of the most productive workers in the world, bar none? Instead we get put downs that we are somehow too stupid or lazy to perform the manufacturing functions of today
Easy to see why then it is a target for outsourcing and H1B workers to depress wages, and how mfg is the single biggest driver of middle class living stds
Indeed - abandoning our manufacturing base for some talking points pipe dreams of a service economy with shifting production offshore has serious negative ramifications for our economic and national security.
(Source: National Association of Manufacturers)
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Mar 30, 2007 18:58:42 GMT -6
Excellent points. It's a pity more people aren't seeing this, and that more people are publicizing this. Exactly, so then why aren't companies beating down the doors to take advantage of the most productive workers in the world, bar none? Instead we get put downs that we are somehow too stupid or lazy to perform the manufacturing functions of today The reason is that it's no longer productivity, or production quality, that guides American investors. It's production costs. A worker making $1/day doesn't have to be as productive as an American worker making $130/day in order to receive preference. American investors invest in the less productive, but much less costly foreign labor market. Worse still, the U.S. government aids and abets such investment through tax preferences and insuring loans to build foreign factories. Political decisions are made increasingly more by investors, and the politicians they own, instead of the people who vote. Big government is not the problem. The problem is a government that is controlled by big business and investors, and a government often indistinguishable from big business and investors. Just think "Halliburton."
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Post by blueneck on Mar 31, 2007 4:38:06 GMT -6
This is precisely what I call the breaking of the social contract that once existed in this country. If you worked hard, got a decent education and played by the rules you were pretty much guaranteed a comfortable life firmly in the middle class.
Nowadays - you can work as hard as you wish, get multiple college degrees etc, and it does little to nothing to raise your living standards. Government and special interests have torn up that contract.
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