A Thought About Why Our Jobs Left

[ThomWV]

We produced things in the past, we still produce things. We used to produce more things than we consumed, now we consume more things that we produce. We were very efficient producers compared to other producers - we used mechanization to our advantage and expended large amounts of energy in production. The countries which now produce the things we no longer produce but which we continue to consume use less mechanization and less energy to produce then when we produced them. When we produced things in greater quantity than we consumed we had relatively short distances between the origin of the raw materials, the place of production, and the place of consumption. Today those distances are great, sometimes the origin of materials is half a world away from the final consumption of goods and sometimes, absurdly, materials are shipped from here and around the world for processing before being returned here for consumption. One presumes the energy cost to move materials, both raw and finished, is less than the energy costs of mechanized production, otherwise how could this be possible?

Is there anything to be learned by reviewing our situation? Was it cheap transoceanic shipping that killed the US workforce? I don't think so. Was it mechanization of the workplace and immense energy input that killed american industry? Doubt it. Could it be that we simply were not willing to pay the price of the very things we sweat to make but still insisted on having those things?

[sam sarrha]

1. Globalization is an evil plan for world domination, total slavery, subjugation of workers..

it is a contenuance of Milton freedmans "Shock Doctrine" naomi klein' book

[acmavm]

2. Yep. We all wanted cheap shit even i/although f it was at the expense of the

American worker. And the more cheap shit the better seemed to be the main line of thought.

[Warpy]

3. The strong dollar killed us most of all

because paying people decent wages in cheaper currencies and shipping the goods long distance was much more economical than producing things at their point of consumption.

This is changing. The dollar is worth a little less than half of what it used to be, so the labor savings are no longer that great. Shipping costs are increasing.

Unfortunately, when we shipped out the jobs, we also shipped out the machinery. Either it went to the new plants in Asia or Central America, or it got sold to Japan or Korea as scrap metal. Our industry will have to be rebuilt from the bottom up.

Our best bet will be to develop a new industrial base. I personally feel our best bet for this will be in the area of renewable energy and the gear that runs with far lower power needs. The research is maturing. What we're waiting for is a more enlightened government that will provide the seed money to develop what has been researched.

[Greyhound]

6. Still clinging to the idea that the omnipotent and mysterious "market forces"

control this economy?

"Give me control of a nation's money
and I care not who makes the laws." - Amschel Rothschild

[Greyhound]

4. Dupe

[Greyhound]

5. As a person that has observed the entire process since the 70s, I have to point

out that the foundation of your 'thought' is flawed.

The consortium of American based, trans-national, corporations proposed the abandonment of the US in the 60s. In that time of social unrest, the nation was changed for the worse (from their perspective). Large groups of people (the assets that enabled them to rise) were taking back their power and forcing the trans-nationals to accommodate their needs and grant a larger share of the proceeds than the corporations were willing to give.

You've heard the meme "only Nixon could go to China", but have you asked why Nixon went there in the first place? Did you ever wonder why IBM was one of the first trans-nationals to go to China and build the plants and design the instruction programs to create the work force to run them, when there was no profit in it? Did you ever wonder why a "Communist" nation like China allowed the establishment of a central bank connected to the "evil" capitalist nations to happen in the first place? Did you ask why your "representatives" sacrificed your livelihood and forced you to pay the bill for these companies to dismantle your factories and plants and ship them across the pacific to be installed in a nation that was/is our enemy, and lacked the personnel to run them?

Who benefited from this looting of our infrastructure? Did politicians find it easier to win re-election when their constituents were unemployed and desperate? Did you even notice that, while your federal taxes were raised, less and less of that money came back into the community while a greater share of the burdens of society were laid off on them?

Just like "Deep Throat" told Woodward and Bernstein, follow the money. Who has profited and who has paid over the last 40 years? Cost of labor is irrelevant today, we have far more people on the planet than are necessary to produce the goods required to maintain those lives, yet we cling to the belief that there is lack and that is why there is still so much suffering. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes. Nearly everything we're told and most of what we "know", are lies that serve to keep us from realizing that we do not need them at all, while they are utterly dependent on us.