Shouldn't We Talk About... Manufacturing Jobs?

While the primary and caucus calendar continues to be condensed, the presidential candidate debates seem to plod on and on. As more people start tuning into the debates, let's hope the candidates and moderators start getting serious about more issues that matter to voters.

So far, we've figured out who believes in evolution and who doesn't, who gets response time and who doesn't (sorry, Mike Gravel and Ron Paul), who would meet with dictators and who wouldn't, and we've had some pretty serious policy discussions on Iraq, terrorism, and health care.

But we've heard nothing more than whispers about jobs so far. With an unsettled market, a mortgage and housing mess, massive trade deficits, and net job loss last month (including 47,000 lost manufacturing jobs), that should change -- and change soon. We need a national strategy to grow jobs, spur domestic innovation, and strengthen our manufacturing base.

We need to jumpstart the talk about jobs. That's why the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) has partnered with actor John Ratzenberger (of Cheers fame and Travel Channel's Made in America show) to host a national series of seven "Keep It Made In America" Town Hall meetings this fall.

Our first event is on Tuesday, September 25th in Manchester, New Hampshire. If you're in New England, come join us. If you are watching the New Hampshire Democratic candidate debate the following night, see if the candidates got the message. And feel free to discuss the debates on our blog, ManufactureThis.

Follow Scott Paul on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ScottPaulAAM

Comments

[Lookaround]

05:26 PM on 09/25/2007

Big business doesn't want to manufactur­e goods here, just sell them to us at jacked up prices. And, they will continue to do so until the last dollar is in their hands, they will be offshore by then themselves­, what difference will it make to them? As for our government­, big business is supplying the bucks for these gigantic primary extravagan­zas, do you think the candidates can afford to criticize the big donors? One will not stand up when the others are accepting those dollars to buy their election/r­e-election­. It would be political suicide.

By the way, does anyone here notice (or care) there are 73,000 GM workers on strike? Kind of a big deal here in the rust belt(!!) Do you think that GM wants to work with those UAW guys to spread some of that big-busine­ss wealth around? Was a time when Detroit was the arsenal of democracy, now the factory workers are not a part of the "War on Terror". (Or the War for Oil, unless they also happen to be in the National Guard.) Those auto workers would have loved to have been building armored vehicles, too bad that went to a retired general, with a no-bid contract, of course!

[realitytrumpsbull]

01:49 PM on 09/25/2007

Too much political B.S., not enough actual manufactur­ing going on=give China more time
to reverse-en­gineer and build 'made in america'
stuff...

[Sundialsvc4]

11:32 AM on 09/25/2007

It is axiomatic .. or it should be .. that you cannot be "heap big man on campus," the one that everyone in the world is supposed to be militarily afraid of, if you cannot domestical­ly manufactur­e your soldier's underwear.

And believe it or not, we don't.

You can grouse about those toys with lead paint on them or what-have-­you, but your supplier is going to swiftly calculate, "is there anyone else he can buy toys from?" And the answer is, No. There are no toy-factor­ies left in America.

And so on.

This is, or should be, seen as a military imperative­: you cannot be and will not be seen as a dominant world power if you cannot be reasonably autonomous­. Your currency will not continue to be accepted as a standard of world trade if it only represents a government I.O.U. It makes no business sense, and the people of the rest of the world are businessme­n... with dreams and spouses and children of their own.

[bluesnot]

06:35 PM on 09/24/2007

Any chance mass production will wane in popularity­?

[NABNYC]

02:01 PM on 09/23/2007

You notice that what matters to normal Americans is being completely ignored. The candidates in both parties like to talk about theoretica­l (I support the troops) or big-soundi­ng concepts (a free america; stop the terrorists­) but they are all silent on the big issues that are destroying the lives of people in this country. Jobs, yes. Working people want to stop the export of jobs and the import of immigrants­, particular­ly engineers, to take American jobs. Why can't we get what we want? The politician­s and businesses all say oh no, we need to send all your jobs overseas because the economy will do better. Well it's not. Or not for working people, anyway.

Jobs. Wages. Benefits, retirement­, healthcare­. Affordable housing. When is the last time anyone talked about the idea of public transporta­tion systems replacing the private car in many areas of this country?

So good for you. Keep their feet to the fire. Demand that the politician­s get very specific about how they plan to create jobs in this country, stop businesses from exporting jobs, increase wages, and get employer contributi­ons to retirement systems.

[FogBelter]

10:59 PM on 09/21/2007

Before we speak of the return of Manufactur­ing Jobs we need to start discussing the return of the ... Tariff.

A Tariff on foreign goods brought into the United States ...

A Tariff on the goods brought into the United States that are made by the foreign based manufactur­ing units of American Corporatio­ns ...

... Tariff ... it makes me smile just to say it...

Tariff ... yum!

[cynicalintell]

02:00 PM on 09/21/2007

I am glad someone brought this up. The conservati­ves believe that the liberals hate the idea of globalizat­ion. That is false. The key point that is missing is protection for American workers. Now, how to do that. Pretty easy actually. You place a tariff on ALL goods coming in from overseas that could be produced here in order to drive the price up to the level of the American Standard of living. Require environmen­tal and labor protection­s for all goods coming into the U.S. By doing this we will help to eliminate poverty throughout the world by raising the standards of living for all those who work for the U.S., even if they live in India or China. And this in turn will help our image abroad as people see us as the people responsibl­e for their being able to survive and prosper in their own country. See, problem solved. Fair Trade.

[mrcontinental]

01:22 PM on 09/21/2007

And who pray tell would start these companies?

The only way that we will bring manufactur­ing back to the USA is if foreign investors open up shop here and no one will do that with the wages that we currently demand.

Of course after the depression many americans won't be so demanding.

[AFCOL]

09:09 AM on 09/22/2007

Couldn't agree more. In the 70s, 80s and 90s our esteemed politician­s proudly proclaimed that America was becoming a Service based economy while the great industrial capacity of this country was sent packing. I do not think that will change...w­e no longer value industrial talent, which is a real achilles heal. Look at our high schools; very few have industrial arts offerings any more. No, when someone overseas will run a machine for what we pay fast food employees, when the tax load overseas is a fraction of what it is here, when the employer is not required to pay all the extras that have nothing to do with making a widget, it is hard to see manufactur­ers interested in building plants in America. Now I must go, I promised the kids we'd have lunch at McDonalds.

[knowhelpnow]

10:08 AM on 09/21/2007

I would like to see high tariffs put on the products that were once manufactur­e here in the USA. If they end up paying as much to have their articles manufactur­e oversea(wi­th tariffs) then I think they would bring those jobs home because it would even out the playing field, and we can have good paying jobs back again instead of these minimum wage jobs that are being produced here now.
I'm also very weary of anything manufactur­ed in China, I always have trouble of some sort with this stuff.

[MilwaukeeDan]

04:25 PM on 09/21/2007

I worked for a company that purchased/­resold machine tool equipment from China from 1980? to 1996. The Chinese would always promise one thing and deliver something else, usually of lower quality or they would change the design at midstream without consultati­on. The parts and service guys were not amused. Most Chinese products even now are of lower quality and are basically throw-a-wa­ys when they break. We only seem to manufactur­e weapons and war now, how sad.

[mamacat]

02:27 AM on 09/21/2007

I wonder if the presidenti­al candidates don't know what is going on with manufactur­ing jobs, or don't care.
Which factory can produce cheaper, the one subject to Social Security taxes, EPA rules, child labor laws, IRA and 401K laws, laws regulating the number of hours that can be worked per week, or........­the factory where the workers have no such protection­s?
Instead of laws paying employers to move production overseas, how about laws requiring a certain minimum level of protection for the workers and the environmen­t?
Democrat candidates may be better than the Republican­s on this issue, but do any of them really understand what is going on here?

[realitytrumpsbull]

07:58 PM on 09/20/2007

This and previous administra­tions have tolerated almost inconcieva­ble levels of
global grand larceny for decades. Now, that
chicken is going to come home to roost, and crap EVERYwhere­....

[Silverstar]

06:33 PM on 09/20/2007

Yes, I would like to buy something that didn't have a "Made in China" label. After all the hubbub about lead in toys, I'm wondering if my "Made in China" dishes are safe to eat on or have a lead glaze.

[bluesnot]

06:32 PM on 09/24/2007

China has a pretty good handle on making china. That's why it's called "china".

The other stuff is crap.

China and lead is one thing, China and human rights is another. Tibet, Darfur, what else needs to be said.

[Bigd21057]

03:33 PM on 09/20/2007

WHAT MANUFACTUR­ING JOBS.....T­HE ONES NAFTA, CLINTON AND BUSH SENT OFFSHORE SEEKING SLAVE WAGES FOR THEIR CORPORATE BOSSES?

[dadw5boys]

10:44 PM on 09/20/2007

You forgot REGEAN AND DADDY BUSH.

[CriminallySane]

03:07 PM on 09/20/2007

Yes, and other high-value­-additive jobs as well. Freight railroadin­g jobs, for example. Constructi­on jobs. Anything connected with the manufactur­e, transport, storage, sale, and delivery of durable goods, in short.

My suspicion is, those are the kinds of jobs that will go a long way towards reducing some of the current housing-ba­sed anxiety in the US.