Comments on: Putting Americans Back to Work
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- Remember when one by one steel, autos, textiles, furniture and many other industries were being shut down and given away, with nothing in return ? Pronouncements from Washington said we were better off, blaming high pension and medical costs, poor management, and citing the need to phase them out in favor of cheap imports. Optimists said don?t worry, dreaming loudly of the coming high tech information age, the magic bullet that will someday propel us from the abyss. Today of course those same voices are largely silent as the majority of advanced degrees in math, science and engineering are awarded to foreign students, and U.S. corporations routinely import thousands of H-1B engineering and software professionals from the vast pools of technical talent in India and China where the newest R&D centers have been built. And neither are they saying much about the billions of dollars flowing into the banking industry at a time high school teachers in math and science are lucky to have jobs, never mind the mediocre pay. . . . What?s clear is that fundamentals like these explain the growing ranks of jobless Americans and predict our demise far more accurately than the temporary effects of a recession. Job bills won?t make a dent. We can only hope American leaders soon realize that true superpower status will not be sustained much longer by a superficial debt ridden economy built on derivatives, strip malls, $10/hr jobs, and cheap imports at Walmart.
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- I do like this article, and it is true. A lot of companies have been shipping jobs overseas.
But there is a growing attitude in this country that most people are above doing lesser work.
I would actually like to see more manufacting jobs in this country, fo 2 reaons, 1) Bringing work back to this country and a end result of getting a better product, 2) Helping the health of people buy getting them out of a 8 hour a day desk job and up and moving around, loosing weight and being healthier.
As more jobs go overseas, the more over weight workers we get. - Reply to this comment
- Everyone in America could be working if it weren't for the companies shipping jobs overseas - Mexico; China, etc..I see it right here in my own small town! The GOP is supposed to be the partisan party for business, and what do they do, NOTHING!!!! Absolutely nothing, but say no to everything. They don't compromise, talk, discuss, offer, or anything. Don't blame unions, or lobbyists, or "the administration",,blame the company, the shareholders, the party of NO and greed.
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- Hats off to vesselspore
His whimsical, meaningless ramblings? make about as much sense and will probably have as much effect on how this evolves as any posts that have been made, including my own. - Reply to this comment
- For those who believe the problem is high wages in union jobs, we are competing with companies in other countries which pay their employees less than a dollar an hour with very long shifts, no overtime, no benefits (either medical or pension) and no safety laws.
If U.S. Manufacturers dropped their pay below minimum wages in sweathouse rules it would still be cheaper to off-shore manufacturing jobs. So, don't blame the unions or the workers! - Reply to this comment
- A Silicon Valley style startup culture for manufacturing
I have an idea that could greatly enhance employers' ability to find qualified engineering talent, and help the U.S economy in general.
This news item inspired me to revisit an idea that I've been thinking about for a long time.
My idea essentially is to create one of the conditions that exist in the American software industry: ease of market entry and innovation. Having low barriers to entry has worked reasonably well for the US in software. I'm guessing that it would also work well for small scale manufacturing.
My idea would reduce barriers to innovation and quality at your company and elsewhere.
We need a national program that walks mechanical and manufacturing engineering university graduates through design and manufacturing case studies, with hands-on experience with a variety of manufacturing processes.
I wish I could have participated in such a program when I graduated college. My mechanical engineering university education was way too theoretical.
Undergraduate engineering degrees are actually professional degrees in reality, if not officially. Other professional schools (e.g. law, business) use case studies, but engineers are expected to function without the benefit of a similar collection of experience.
Unlike software and maybe electrical engineering, mechanical engineering curricula typically offer inadequate chances for hands-on learning. I assume that's due to the cost of equipment, energy, and materials.
There is a TV show on the Discovery Channel called How It's Made. Have you seen it? If so, imagine actually visiting the factories they show, instead of watching it on TV. Imagine being coached and doing each step of the process, single-handedly manufacturing the product as much as possible. That's basically what I'm looking for, for the manufacturing part of the training anyway. A discussion of the history and evolution of that process would be a really helpful addition, to understand why the process is set up the way it is.
It seems unlikely that existing factory owners would permit students to actually handle their equipment. Also, I suspect that few, if any, universities could afford to maintain their own set of factories. If I'm right, then this makes it very difficult for people to get the broad experience that would make them highly effective employees.
We need one separate educational organization, funded by government and industry. That organization should purchase appropriate factories or equipment, and move them to suitable locations. It then would take American graduates and students from any U.S. university, and let students visit the factories that interest them.
Beyond that, the ideal institution I'm envisioning would also have physical specimens of various devices or parts, some being exceptionally well designed and some having flawed design. Each item would be accompanied by discussion of its history and the decisions that led to the design. Likewise, describing examples of exceptionally good and bad manufacturing processes would be very enlightening. Where applicable, students should also learn about the ability of end-users to maintain the finished product.
I don't believe anything like this exists. I've been searching, and I have not found anything close.
I believe that the U.S. Government would be willing to create a program like this. The Obama administration is under a lot of pressure to do something for private industry job growth.
Too bad I have no idea about how to really get the attention of the right people in government! - Reply to this comment
- Nelson is dead wrong when he says:
"Steelworker Brandon Nelson, says we have lost respect for the kind of work that once provided prosperity.
"It seems like nobody wants to do this work," Nelson said. "They want to be in an office, or work in front of a computer instead of building things."
We didn't have a choice the greedy owners, major stock holders and CEO's make sure they get their big pay by sacrificing American jobs that we did want, to cheap slave laboring china. - Reply to this comment
- Here is what the government needs to do.
Tax ALL businesses that outsource to other countries at 50% across the board.
If these clowns keep sending jobs overseas, there is no way we will ever get them back..
JPMorgan, Citibank, Mircosoft and many others are ALL guilty of outsourcing and they should PAY when they send jobs outside of America. - Reply to this comment
- Whant manufacturing jobs? Quit spending most of the stimulis money on construction work and college academics. Or to get to the point, get rid of Obama.
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- You want your jobs back. Stop the globalist economy. Lock down the borders. If they want to sell it here it has to be made here or be taxed. That works for all countries. Only buy from economies similar to our own. Don't buy from third world countries. Not that we have anything against them. We don't want neocons taking advantage of desperation.
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