As I’ve been posting for a couple of years now, American companies are bringing back their manufacturing from China and elsewhere in droves. They’ve realized that improvements in American technology, dropping prices, and just good, old, U.S. of A. know-how have made off-shoring not only unnecessary but counter-productive. Now Google has joined the trend with their new Glass Internet glasses product.
The only question now is can America handle the work load? There are still 50,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs here because CNC-trained, programmers and operators are needed, not machinists operating obsolete equipment. Vo-techs, community colleges, and U.S. manufacturers themselves are trying to educate new workers as fast as they can. The Obama administration’s manufacturing initiative would help a lot but is getting blocked by the Republicans who insist on doing everything they can to keep America’s economy from improving in order to sway the coming election.
Just wondering where the proof is about your final statement. I’m all about bringing back manufacturing to the USA, but I’ve just seen Obama being SOOO buddy-buddy with China, our BIGGEST competition! Please show me more about this: “The Obama administration’s manufacturing initiative would help a lot ***but is getting blocked by the Republicans*** who insist on doing everything they can to keep America’s economy from improving in order to sway the coming election.”
Thanks – Kevin
It’s not that the Republicans haven’t come up with economic stimulus bills. They’ve produced no results http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/oct/25/facebook-posts/blog-post-says-gop-has-sponsored-zero-job-creation/ even though they could have. The Obama administration’s manufacturing aid program is consistent with what other countries’s governments, including China’s, are doing to stimulate job growth. But Republicans in Congress are blocking it http://www.governing.com/news/state/House-Republicans-Question-Costly-Manufacturing-Program-.html. If you can name one thing Republicans have done to help the American economy in the past ten years, I’d like to see it. What I remember is how the Republicans created the largest federal deficit in American history, created a large, new bureaucracy (Homeland Security), and mired us in two costly and arguably useless wars (though that could be considered economic stimulus if you’re Raytheon or Halliburton). If you believe the way to economic recovery is for government to do nothing, then you’ve nailed the Republican position and proved my point. As for China and Obama, remember how cozy Bush was with them. The fact that the private sector is deciding where they want to manufacture, not Obama, makes any attempt to connect Obama, China, and manufacturing dubious. As for the current status of America’s economy vs. China’s, we appear to be in much better shape, and China in much worse, than U.S. detractors, like the Republicans, would have us believe. Could it be election-year politics? Looking forward to your reply. Thanks, Kevin.
Ken – I no way am I taking sides. I just asked a question so I can be more informed. Thanks for passing along the info. I read the first article and you may want to reread it yourself. It actually is about a post someone wrote claiming the Republicans have submitted zero job creation bills and passed none either. They discuss in the article how it’s a false claim due to the search results in the library of congress. The person was searching for “job creation” and no results appeared. Well I may have hacked the summary, but I think that was a bad article to prove your point. The second article discusses the costly price of Obama’s manufacturing “stimulus”. Republicans are normally fiscally conservative at their core (although everyone claims they are greedy money whores), so I can understand them not wanting to pass this.
Either way, I think Obama is trying something which is worth crediting and I agree with you that both sides need to realize the lack of “skilled trade” workers available and do something about it. This is your blog so you obviously have every right to say what you will, but I don’t think it is so black and white. I’m from Detroit and I’ve seen mainly Democrats (notice I say mainly, I’m sure there was help from both sides) ruin a thriving industry.
As for the China comment; “the private sector is deciding where they want to manufacture, not Obama”, the private sector has its hand forced a lot by ridiculous taxes, tariffs and the fact that unions have jacked up costs of employment for so many large companies here in America…
… but, this is a discussion that could take years to finish. I’ve learned quite a bit from you about Obama’s manufacturing plans which I didn’t even know existed. Thank you for informing me. Keep up the blogging! :)
Thanks for the reply. I know the article was not as partisan as most which is why I chose it. The Republicans are discouraging economic ideas and progress of any type, except tax cuts, at the expense of their ideological obsessions. Both parties say the other is responsible for America’s economic stagnation but fundamentally disagree on whether the government should be responsible for helping. It’s clear the Republicans are against government involvement in anything other than abortions, immigration, gay marriage and stuff that has little or nothing to do with the economy except cutting taxes (how many pointless votes to repeal health care reform do we need?). If Bill Clinton was right- that government and politics are “about the economy, stupid”- then the Republicans who supported Clinton’s economic measures, producing the first government surpluses in modern history- have totally reversed their positions from twenty years ago, essentially saying “it’s everything except the economy, stupid”. Americans want government officials to work together to help the country if not produce tangible results. The Republicans have made it very clear they have little interest in what the majority of Americans think and will fight their ideological battles to the death- everyone’s.
http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/156321/5_ways_republicans_have_sabotaged_job_growth/