Calling on 1% Progressives

[Evasporque]

Time to put the job of creating jobs and caring for each other back into our inner cities.

I chalenge 1 wealthy 1%'ter to invest in a program of renewing a small potion of our lost industry of basic needs...

Clothing.

We have the cotton...we probably have idle textile machines in storage somewhere.
Put idle machines back to work in a inner rust belt city.
Coordinate training and hire people to work the machines.
Take the cotton fabric and then have more people make basic needs clothing.
Educate people and hire to build and open retail outlets and internet retail site.

From raw material
to production
to design
to marketing
and end user sales...using brick and mortar and internet based sales.

Nobody will get rich. But we will teach people to make the most basic of things simple useful clothing.

5-10 year program that will put probably a 1000 or more people to work across a variety of disciplines for not a large investment. And create a model for similar investments across the nation. It is not grand. It would be a lot of work and difficult...the rewards would be great on a small community scale...

The same can be done for shoes.

If we can't do this and make it work...then America is fucked.

1 Building, a few machines, 20-30 people to start with, coordinate with local tech school to create education program...

Imagine a ad hiring for paid training and job placement for 100 innercity Americans to start with in one city....

there would be a huge line at that door.

That is how you make effing jobs....

REBUILD America from the inside out. In little bits at a time.

[backtoblue]

1. But they don't want the people to be able to take care of themselves...

Ending the middle and lower class' dependency on corporations for the basic needs of life would be devestating to the ruling class.


(We can dream and hope, though, and I for one think that turning ourselves from consumers into producers would be the biggest step in the right direction) nt

[dmallind]

2. So your plan is to make basic clothing that will sell at a loss or cost far more than alternatives?

Even with very good automation - which is incredibly expensive - making shirts and pants is very labor intensive. If you pay people even mimnimum wage and basic benefits to make them you'll have to sell them for a huge premium unless somebody eats the ongoing loss. There's a market for that - the buy America at all costs market - but it's a small one especially in poor economies.

Would have more chance of success if you have them make high-cost niche items not really competing with people who make millions of them and ship by container from Bangladesh etc. The real wood handmade furniture market perhaps, or something along those lines.

[Evasporque]

4. I didn't say it would cost less...

It would teach us to turn this train wreck around. Eventually we have to retain this knowlege...because the day will come very soon when a cheapo t-shirt from China won't be on the ship..cause taking cotton from the south and sending across the ocean to china is no longer cost effective due to fuel costs....

We have to learn to take care of ourselves again in a post fossil fuel driven economoy.

[Evasporque]

3. Interesting chart at link and background for digestion...

http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/crs/RL32442.pdf

It shows the domestic use of cotton (mfg.) versus the export of cotton...we past the point where we export more cotton than we keep for domestic manufacturing in 2001.

Right now it is a buyers market for textile machinery.

Creating a smaller scale from ginned cotton bales to fabric and clothing operation could be feasible with a longterm investment in a community economic development program.

It actually could ultimately even be profitable...

http://www.cotton.org/pubs/cottoncounts/fieldtofabric/upload/Cotton-From-Field-to-Fabric-129k-PDF.pdf

http://www.allstatestextile.com/