Author Topic: How Do We Re-Industrialize America  (Read 2787 times)

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Offline AmericanPatriot

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How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« on: October 07, 2011, 11:46:57 AM »
I've been thinking about this since I read an article that we grew to become an industrial giant through protectionism
I am familiar that Smoot-Hawley has been blamed for the Great Depression of 1929.

I don't know that this is true.
But, different times and considerations may require differnt solutions


http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/41067

Quote
Manufacturing in America peaked in 1979 when 19.5 million Americans actually produced durable goods. In the last 30 years our manufacturing sector has declined by 40% losing almost 8 million jobs.

Nearly 6 million jobs have been lost since 2000 and since the Great Recession began we have lost an average 89,000 manufacturing jobs every month for the last two years. Due to this dramatic constriction America has fallen below 12 million workers employed in manufacturing for the first time since 1946 and is now below levels not seen since 1941. This dismal record portrays the stunning decline of America as a manufacturing superpower. And while a rise in productivity has helped America maintain a prominent position in the world this has not resulted in manufacturing continuing to be an avenue for upward mobility for Americans.

So how do we re-industrialize America? How do we get back all the jobs that have been exported in the last 30 years? What will be the consequences of taking the bold steps necessary to make America once again the engine that drives the world’s economy? What will be the result of failing to do so?

To set this discussion into its proper context first we must look at how America grew from a rustic agricultural nation on the edge of Western civilization into the greatest industrial superpower ever known.

In the interest of full disclosure I must confess that I am a life-long capitalist. I believe that capitalism is the only economic system ever devised by man that requires free choice as a necessary requirement. Every other system is either more or less a command economy. The defense and restoration of America’s capitalist economy is today a hallmark of the conservative movement. Many study the works of Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek. Those of us who want to see economic opportunity unshackled espouse the principles of both the Chicago and the Austrian Schools of economics as opposed to the theories of the Frankfurt School which have moved America in the direction of a centrally planned economy.

Flying in the face of this conventional wisdom for the purposes of this discussion we must ask the question, was it capitalism that provided the environment which set America on the road to material riches and industrial power? Culture to humans is like water to a fish. It is everywhere. It provides the medium through which we move. However, since it is ever present it is not something we constantly notice or concentrate on. Most of those who read these words were raised in a time or by people who taught American History as a positive, ever improving saga. We were taught that America never started a war and never lost one. We were taught that rugged individualism carved out an empire from a raw wilderness. We were taught that capitalism paved and paid the way.

At the hazard of being branded an apostate to conservatism I must continue to ask the question, was capitalism the catalyst for America’s industrial power or do we labor under the after-glow of a time when American History was taught in such a way as to magnify present circumstances by projecting them into the past? Are we looking to a myth of free enterprise to recreate what it didn’t create in the first place?
Was it capitalism that fostered the founding of the colonies which became the seedbed of the United States?

Mercantilism was the economic system that proceeded capitalism in western civilization. This was a system of economic nationalism which sought to build a strong country by maintaining a favorable balance of trade and by being self-sufficient. This was one of the primary reasons why the sea-going European powers sought to establish colonies. They wanted to secure sources of raw materials for their developing industrial sectors and to control external markets allowing them to produce and sell products all within their domestic economy, keeping all the gold at home.

The term mercantilism was coined by Adam Smith the philosophical father of capitalism, but it was not capitalism. Inherently Mercantilism necessitated a centrally planned and controlled economy. What benefitted the nation was permitted and encouraged. What didn’t was prohibited and discouraged. It was under this system that the English colonies were founded. The first viable English colony in the New World, Virginia was founded by the Virginia Company a joint stock company which was given a charter by James I. This charter, like subsequent charters given to the Massachusetts Bay Company and proprietary charters given to individuals such as William Penn and the Lords Baltimore gave these companies and individuals monopolies within specific geographic areas. Government imposed and enforced monopolies are a restraint of trade and by nature incompatible with a free capitalist system.

The colonies founded upon this restraint of trade followed suit giving monopolies to companies and individuals to do everything from making iron to importing. Government planning and control of the economy did not stop there. The colonial governments also granted subsidies, bounties, land grants, loans and money prizes to encourage the birth and prosperity of the industries and services desired. Through these actions the precursors of modern America were doing what is today reviled as inherently un-American, picking winners and losers.

If we fast forward to the founding of the United States do we find the unbridled free enterprise seen today to be the natural state of the Republic?
In 1791 Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton issued his third path-breaking report to Congress the Report on Manufactures. Of all his reports this one is considered the most innovative. It provided a stark revelation of Hamilton’s and his Federalist compatriots’ vision for America and its economy. So did this report outline an economy based upon capitalism and free enterprise? No it did not. This report envisions an America “independent of foreign nations for military and other essential supplies” this is the heart of a mercantilist program. Hamilton proposed subsidies to encourage industry.

Some of the mercantilist policies advocated by Hamilton encouraged the central government:
•   To constitute a fund for paying the bounties.
•   To constitute a fund for a board to promote arts, agriculture, manufactures, and commerce. Hamilton wanted the fund to:

1.   to defray the expenses of the emigration of artists, and manufacturers in particular branches of extraordinary.
2.   to induce the prosecution and introduction of useful discoveries, inventions, and improvements, by proportionate rewards. 
3.   to encourage by premiums, both honorable and lucrative, the exertions of individuals and of classes.

The historical evidence of America’s reliance upon protectionist and economic interventionist policies as tools in the building of our greatness can be found everywhere. The central government built, licensed, and encouraged roads and canals to foster interstate trade by providing monopolies, subsidies and grants. It fought wars to safeguard sea lanes and to expand territory and markets. And it birthed, regulated and controlled the financial industry from its very inception.

The incontrovertible evidence points to the fact that America was founded, launched, and nurtured as the successor to and the continuation of mercantilist not capitalist policies.

If these were the policies of economic nationalism which helped foster America’s rise to industrial greatness wouldn’t it seem appropriate for these policies to be the ones that would help it rise again? There is only one national figure who has consistently urged a return to economic nationalism, Patrick Buchanan. He has pointed out for years that our rush to embrace so-called free trade has put American workers at a decided disadvantage. The dissolution of tariff protection forced our workers to compete against people who will work for a small percentage of what Americans can afford to work for in societies with little or no regulation.

How do we get back all the jobs that have been exported in the last 30 years?
If we want to re-industrialize America we have to protect our markets and support our industry otherwise we will soon sink to a supplier of raw materials and a market to China and the other rapidly rising industrial powers of Asia.

What will be the consequences of taking the bold steps necessary to make America once again the engine that drives the world’s economy?
Such a policy calculated to re-build our industry and re-capture our domestic markets from China, Japan, and the four tigers of Asia will carry as many risks as it does benefits. Just as any predator will react to resistance on the part of its prey so to if we enact tariffs on Chinese goods it may well ignite a trade war. Then again anything worth having is worth fighting for. If we want to once again rise to the top of the industrial world to once again have a favorable balance of trade we need to look to what is best for America not what is best for the U. N. or what is best for the globalization lobby.

What will be the result of failing to rebuild our industrial sector?

Some may deride this proposed return to mercantilist policies as isolationism. However, just as a nation without borders will soon cease to be a nation any nation that fails to protect and encourage its industry will find itself an agricultural and raw material colony in all but name for those nations which do.

Offline Sectionhand

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Re: How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« Reply #1 on: October 07, 2011, 12:33:31 PM »
Abolish the EPA , sharply curtail the power of the Interior Dept. , eliminate unfair organizing practices of labor unions , open the continental U.S. to oil and natural gas exploration , increase coal and iron ore mining and you've got a good start .

Online IronDioPriest

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Re: How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2011, 12:50:21 PM »
We are a country that doesn't make things anymore. It could be said that we borrow and consume, but create little with our hands.

John Ratzenberger (Cliffy from "Cheers") has become very active on this front. He was on Hannity last night, and was decrying the fact that there are thousands of skilled labor jobs going unfilled because our schools and universities are not encouraging people to learn skilled trades. There is a deficit of engineers, for God's sake, let alone other well-paying, vital occupations in industries that are hurting as much from a lack of labor as they are a lack of demand.

Here is a link to the activist organization of which he is a senior fellow... http://www.centerforamerica.org/

In digging for this, I found some information suggesting that there is a push for Ratzenberger to run for the Connecticut senate in 2012, his home state.
"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."

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charlesoakwood

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Re: How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« Reply #3 on: October 07, 2011, 01:10:51 PM »

While he was talking something whispered unionista, unionista.

Abolish the EPA , sharply curtail the power of the Interior Dept. , eliminate unfair organizing practices of labor unions , open the continental U.S. to oil and natural gas exploration , increase coal and iron ore mining and you've got a good start .

 ::thumbsup::

Hamilton was very much pro big government, and the necessity of a federal bank, the antithesis of a free market.

We became a manufacturing and world dominating power during the period before regulation.
Eliminate regulation and it will be months not years.





Offline AmericanPatriot

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Re: How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2011, 01:20:32 PM »
I agree that Hamilton was a big gov guy.

I also agree that ending a lot of regulations would go a long way.

However, the article said that 1979 was the peak year.
That was way before all the alphabet agencies had really gotten their foot in the door

charlesoakwood

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Re: How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« Reply #5 on: October 07, 2011, 02:22:21 PM »

Seems like it makes the point.

If 1979 was before regulation heavy regulation and '79 was the apex the point is proved.
Eliminate regulation and it's Boom City.

The banks are full of money
There are plenty of people ready to work
Why isn't there work?
That's a fallacy, there is work but the gov is killing it.

Ask Boeing and the people of SC
Ask Gibson guitars
Ask Predator Don

That's the misdirection of this year's MSM election. 
"Mr. Candidate, what is your plan to create jobs?"
My plan is to take government out of your life
"Mr. Candidate, that's no plan, that's no 10 point program. 
Sir, you are an too ignorant for this high office."



Offline AmericanPatriot

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Re: How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« Reply #6 on: October 07, 2011, 04:50:07 PM »
It may make your point, too, Charles.
There is no doubt that regulations have been killing the economy

My point is that manufacturing was going away before the onslaught of regs which are a willing accomplice.
Add taxes into that,too

charlesoakwood

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Re: How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« Reply #7 on: October 07, 2011, 05:29:48 PM »
Yeah, I keyed to the industrial giant and industrial jobs in general.
Focusing to the part, manufacturing jobs, is different.  

During that period, 1941 to 1971 manufacturing labor (jobs) increasingly evolved, as technology evolved,  from a job requiring a skilled/craftsman to that of machine operator as robatization and mechanization accomplished the work previously requiring skilled hands and intellect.  At the same time we were losing those simple labor jobs we were increasing the numbers of college graduates, engineers, draftsmen, and spheres of technical jobs that previously did not exist.  This is where those skilled craftsmen went, they went into skilled technical or professional design jobs while the sh*t work was subbed to the third world.

Without American design and invention the world plummets into the early 20th century at best.

 

Offline Sectionhand

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Re: How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« Reply #8 on: October 08, 2011, 03:39:09 AM »
It should be remembered that during the period 1941 to 1971 we enjoyed , fairly or not , a huge advantage over the rest of the world in industrial output . Ours was the only industrialized country in the world to come out of WWII virtually unscathed . We became , as a result , complacent and were taken by surprise when countries like Japan recovered and through innovation and a strong , non-union work ethic , entered our market . Consequently our huge and bulky labor and management system was unable to respond in an agile manner . The decline began at that point and for that reason , with over-regulation from the government hastening the fall .

Offline warpmine

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Re: How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« Reply #9 on: October 08, 2011, 09:03:24 AM »
You're so correct! ::thumbsup::
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Offline AmericanPatriot

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Re: How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« Reply #10 on: October 08, 2011, 01:54:36 PM »
One thing that can be inferred from the article and something I read before.

This country became an industrial powerhouse in it's first 150 years.
Lots of reasons but a little protectionism was definitely a part.

By WWI, we were an industrial giant.

Offline Libertas

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Re: How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« Reply #11 on: October 09, 2011, 10:42:43 AM »
It should be remembered that during the period 1941 to 1971 we enjoyed , fairly or not , a huge advantage over the rest of the world in industrial output . Ours was the only industrialized country in the world to come out of WWII virtually unscathed . We became , as a result , complacent and were taken by surprise when countries like Japan recovered and through innovation and a strong , non-union work ethic , entered our market . Consequently our huge and bulky labor and management system was unable to respond in an agile manner . The decline began at that point and for that reason , with over-regulation from the government hastening the fall .

 ::thumbsup::

And remember, at the height of our industrial might, all American captains of industry sneered Deming's ideas.  He went to Japan and found a willing partner eager to exploit TQM & JIT and their lower labor costs and efficiencies kicked the living crap out of us, especially our bloated union-dominated auto industry.

Regulation, unions and taxation...if slashed, busted & flattened respectively...would jump start jobs and growth like nothing else!
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.

Offline Alphabet Soup

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Re: How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« Reply #12 on: October 09, 2011, 03:08:57 PM »
Abolish the EPA , sharply curtail the power of the Interior Dept. , eliminate unfair organizing practices of labor unions , open the continental U.S. to oil and natural gas exploration , increase coal and iron ore mining and you've got a good start .

Thanks Sectionhand. The posted article speaks glowingly about mercantilism but the simple fact is that we as a nation and a global economy outgrew mercantilism, much in the same way that we outgrew the gold standard. That's not the cause of the loss of industrial strength.

What killed American industry was the draconian rules mounted by eco-fascists. Making stuff is a messy business. Some industries got too sloppy and humans suffered for their toxic indifference. But the EPA's solution - shoving the pendulum to the far extreme of hyper-micromanagement came at the cost of millions upon millions of American jobs.

Unless and until we rein them in we will continue to see horrendous unemployment rates.

Offline jpatrickham

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Re: How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« Reply #13 on: October 10, 2011, 10:24:57 AM »
First, how do we re Industrialize the displaced American Worker? ::whatgives::

Daily Policy 
 
Economic Issues
October 10, 2011

Temporary Employment: The New Permanent?


Quote
"Uncertainties about future tax and health care costs could be inhibiting permanent job growth, shifting more of the labor force to temporary and part-time employment, say Pamela Villarreal, a senior fellow, and Peter Swanson, a Hatton W. Sumners Scholar, with the National Center for Policy Analysis.

In 1956 there were only 20,000 temporary employees.
By the early 1970s, there were 200,000 temporary employees, representing 0.3 percent of U.S. employment.
In 1990, there were about 1 million temps, about 1 percent of employees.
In 2000, 2.7 million temps accounted for 2 percent of employees.
Part-time employment has also grown in recent years:

From 2005 to 2010, part-time employment doubled, from 4.3 million to 8.9 million jobs.
Overall, since 2007 there has been a net loss of 9.8 million full-time jobs, but a gain of 2.3 million part-time jobs.
Beginning in 2014, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires employers with 50 or more employees to offer health insurance to employees who work 30 or more hours per week or pay a penalty.

Some employers will hire temporary or part-time workers to avoid the cost of providing health insurance.  However, the ACA limits the ability of employers to avoid paying penalties by hiring only part-time employees.  The ACA treats part-time employees as "full-time equivalents" by adding up the total number of hours per month worked by the part-timers and dividing by 120.  For example, if six part-time employees each work 25 hours per week, they would be the equivalent of five full-time employees.  Thus, these part-time employees would be counted toward determining whether or not the employer has 50 employees and is required to offer health insurance.   

If wages and salaries remain fairly constant, but the cost of health care and retirement benefits grows, employers will more likely use a temporary worker from a staffing agency, say Villarreal and Swanson.

Source: Pamela Villarreal and Peter Swanson, "Temporary Employment: The New Permanent?" National Center for Policy Analysis, October 7, 2011."


For text:

http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba754



For more on Economic Issues:

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=17


 

Offline Libertas

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Re: How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« Reply #14 on: October 10, 2011, 11:27:30 AM »
There are often hidden costs in temps...a company has to weigh regular wages and benefits in total to the expected compensation paid to the temp, the latter is almost always much greater than regular wages paid because the agency wants their cut and employees need enough to roughly equal a living wage after purchasing their own healthcare & retirement plans, since temp agencies often do not pay benefits.  The households which have one spouse with a benefits paying job can often come out ahead on this deal, but many of those may be working less hours in order to be more available for domestic duties.  Plus, companies may not hire a lot of temps, or do so only for limited periods, that and temp workers sometimes are know for walking off jobs if the work is lousy enough...even in the white collar world, I saw one temp who stayed for a grand total of 20 minutes.

Many companies, especially when you go lower in size, will opt to scale back operations and not hire anyone, temp or otherwise, if economic conditions warrant.

Bottom line - Temp help is often a short term patch, it is not a sustainable or relaible long-term solution and a declining economy will limit opportunities.
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.

Offline Alphabet Soup

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Re: How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« Reply #15 on: October 10, 2011, 01:09:16 PM »
Libertas - you reminded me of a time when a company I was working for hired extensive temp labor. We used to have pools where we would bet on who would be the first of a group of short-term laborers to slink out to their cars and drive off.

Some would last until lunch, a few would go AWOL at the first break.

I made a lot of money off the laziness of others  ;D

Online IronDioPriest

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Re: How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« Reply #16 on: October 10, 2011, 01:30:32 PM »
Libertas - you reminded me of a time when a company I was working for hired extensive temp labor. We used to have pools where we would bet on who would be the first of a group of short-term laborers to slink out to their cars and drive off.

Some would last until lunch, a few would go AWOL at the first break.

I made a lot of money off the laziness of others  ;D

Back in the 80s I used to work temp sometimes to fill in gaps between gigs. Sometimes I'd drive right from an after bar party to be at a temp gig at 6AM, hair all ratted out, stage makeup still applied. But I showed up and worked.

I only walked off the job two times, an the last time was the last time I ever worked temp.

The first time I walked off, I showed up at a new construction site to haul double-bound packs of 3/4" sheetrock from a flatbed into the building. There were supposed to be 3 other guys showing up to help me, and none of them came. I called the temp agency after about an hour of waiting, and they told me to go ahead and start working on my own. Having never hauled sheetrock before, I tried. I actually got one pack off the top of the stack, down off the flatbed to the ground, up the stairs, and into the building, without damaging it too much. But it took me a half hour. I took a look at the fully loaded flatbed and decided no way I could hope to do the job myself. I waited for about another half hour for someone else to show up. Finally, a Black kid showed up, took one look at the flatbed, asked me, "is it just me and you?" When I said yes, he said f*ck this", got in his car and drove off.

I called the temp agency and told them I was leaving. I never billed them, but of course, they failed a customer.

The second time I walked, I was working in a metal shop, just cleaning up scraps, putting plastic end-caps or O-rings on threaded pipes, that type of thing.

About the middle of the afternoon, they put me on a frikkin' band-saw, cutting pieces of scrap of all sizes down to roughly 12" pieces. As a guitarist, I was incredibly nervous. The supervisor kept harassing me to go faster, and faster WAS an option, because this band-saw was cutting through iron, steel, and aluminum scraps like butter. I picked up the pace, but one time, somehow the piece of metal got bound up, and it kicked my hand up against the blade. Barely a grazing wound, but still, it freaked the sh¡t out of me. All I could see was my fingers getting lopped off.

At the next break, I asked the supervisor if I could do something else, explained that the band-saw was freaking me out, and why. He just laughed at me, and he and a couple other guys rolled their eyes. He said that's what they had for me to do, and that's what they were paying the temp agency for. I told him I wouldn't work on the saw anymore, and he told me to leave, so I walked.

After those two experiences, which were pretty close together if I remember correctly, I never tried working for a temp agency again.
"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."

- Thomas Jefferson

charlesoakwood

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Re: How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« Reply #17 on: October 10, 2011, 04:20:57 PM »

What an asshole that company was.  The job was more dangerous than the shop wanted to be responsible for at the same
time running up the tempo to a failure rate.

Several of the guys at college, at summer break, instead of traditional job shopping would work temp and within a week
land a summertime job.  Yeah, it's against the rules but it happens.


Offline Libertas

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Re: How Do We Re-Industrialize America
« Reply #18 on: October 11, 2011, 06:48:01 AM »
Libertas - you reminded me of a time when a company I was working for hired extensive temp labor. We used to have pools where we would bet on who would be the first of a group of short-term laborers to slink out to their cars and drive off.

Some would last until lunch, a few would go AWOL at the first break.

I made a lot of money off the laziness of others  ;D

Profiting off the stupidity of others has always been one of my favorite passtimes too!

 ::thumbsup::

Sometimes events unfold so fast there isn't enough time to pull a pool together, quick side bets sometimes, but win enough of those and people stop making them even if you sweeten the odds.  But I discovered downsizing the bet size to lunch or a snack often drew some action in.

 ;D
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.