Author Topic: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream  (Read 3721 times)

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Online corbe

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Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« on: June 11, 2017, 03:07:54 am »

Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
Michael Schuman

1 hr ago


During a phone call shortly after the November election, Apple Inc.’s chief executive officer, Tim Cook, got an earful from Donald Trump on the president-elect’s pet economic subject: factories. He prodded Cook to manufacture his iPhones and other gear at home rather than outsource them to China. “One of the things that will be a real achievement for me is when I get Apple to build a big plant in the United States, or many big plants,” Trump said he told Cook.

That sums up the economic vision of the Trump administration. The president and his advisers are convinced more factories can cure the trade deficits, lackluster growth, and (supposed) joblessness plaguing the U.S. economy. Trump has vowed to lure back plants that departed for cheaper locales such as China or Mexico and sanction companies that dare to leave. The result, he claims, will be investments that revitalize down-on-their-luck communities and American economic vitality. “We will bring back our jobs,” he pledged in his inauguration speech. “We will bring back our dreams.”

The president, though, is plain wrong. Factories won’t restore the American dream. That’s because they don’t contribute as much to the economy as they once did, despite all the fuss politicians make over them. Chasing them with pro-factory policies will not only fail to bring the benefits Trump has promised but could also hurt the very middle-class families they’re designed to help.

A die-hard conviction remains among many Americans that the more an economy manufactures, the stronger it is. Some workers feel that making steel or cars is more respectable than stacking shelves at a Gap, and the Trump administration readily agrees. Calling steel “critical to both our economy and our military,” the president signed an executive order in late April that in all likelihood will lead to curbs on imports to protect U.S. mills. Peter Navarro, one of Trump’s key economic advisers, argues that bringing factories back from foreign countries will shore up the nation’s growth and security. “One of the goals of the Trump administration is to reclaim all of the supply-chain and manufacturing capability that would otherwise exist if the playing field were level,” he recently said.



This strategy is based on flawed thinking. Manufacturing is certainly not as important to the U.S. economy as it once was, declining to less than 12 percent of gross domestic product in 2016 from 26 percent 50 years earlier. But the whole idea that “we don’t make anything,” as Trump himself has put it, is a fallacy. The U.S. remains a production powerhouse, accounting for almost 19 percent of global manufacturing, behind China’s 25 percent but bigger than Germany’s and Japan’s shares combined. U.S. manufacturers are still extremely competitive in high-tech and hard-to-duplicate products—think Boeing Co. aircraft. And even as some factory work has moved abroad, the U.S. economy remains remarkably strong. Home to many of the world’s most important and innovative companies, from Facebook Inc. to Tesla Inc., the U.S. boasts an unemployment rate of 4.3 percent, less than half the euro-area level.

What Trump fails to appreciate is that the true value in making something is no longer in making it. Companies figured out long ago that they can capture most of the value of a product by focusing on its design and research and development, its branding, and the services that support it after it’s been sold. Stan Shih, the founder of Taiwan’s Acer Inc., illuminated this phenomenon in the early 1990s with his “smile curve.” The middle of the smile—the lowest point of value—is where the fabrication takes place; the highest value is found at the corners—the R&D at the beginning and the customer service at the end.

<..snip..>

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/factories-won%E2%80%99t-bring-back-the-american-dream/ar-BBCh9t8?li=AA4Zjn&ocid=ientp
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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #1 on: June 11, 2017, 03:16:37 am »
Sshhh.  Don't tell Trump he's dead wrong.

Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #2 on: June 11, 2017, 09:45:12 am »
The real basis of the American Dream is small business. Obamacare shut down a lot of small business expansion, and will continue to do so as long as the ACA is in effect.
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Online IsailedawayfromFR

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #3 on: June 12, 2017, 02:03:11 am »
Quote
Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
Ok, who do you believe:  The author who is a liberal journalist living in Bejing just reporting on Asia for the past 16 years or Wilbur Ross, one of the most astute businessmen you can ever imagine?
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Offline endicom

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #4 on: June 12, 2017, 02:31:34 am »
Factories didn't make the American dream but were an important piece of the economic pie to a segment of the population. Reduce taxes and regulations and the entire pie will grow.

Offline Night Hides Not

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #5 on: June 13, 2017, 02:11:50 pm »
Factories didn't make the American dream but were an important piece of the economic pie to a segment of the population. Reduce taxes and regulations and the entire pie will grow.

Factories and small business go hand in hand, healthy communities spring from the synergies provided by these two.

Congress needs to get off its rear and get ACA repeal and tax reform done by the end of July.
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Offline endicom

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #6 on: June 13, 2017, 02:22:24 pm »
Factories and small business go hand in hand, healthy communities spring from the synergies provided by these two.


Pieces in a puzzle that was not planned but naturally evolved. And that's what works.

Online Weird Tolkienish Figure

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #7 on: June 13, 2017, 02:38:04 pm »
Trumpsters are just as economically ignorant as any leftist. They want it to be 1955.

Offline thackney

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #8 on: June 13, 2017, 02:43:39 pm »
Factories and small business go hand in hand, healthy communities spring from the synergies provided by these two.

Exactly.  My employers are an example of this.
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Online Weird Tolkienish Figure

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #9 on: June 13, 2017, 02:51:26 pm »
I worked 3 factory jobs in my life and they all sucked beyond belief.

Offline skeeter

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #10 on: June 13, 2017, 02:54:44 pm »
Factories didn't make the American dream but were an important piece of the economic pie to a segment of the population. Reduce taxes and regulations and the entire pie will grow.

While not denying the concept of competitive advantage there will never be a time when the ability to manufacture locally is not an integral part of any healthy economy.

Offline Cripplecreek

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #11 on: June 13, 2017, 02:59:18 pm »
Trumpsters are just as economically ignorant as any leftist. They want it to be 1955.

The world has changed.

I find myself doing something I never ever saw myself doing.

I hired in as a janitor at a medical specialist's building and within a month they're making me a porter. I run errands mostly within the building, increasingly run errands to other buildings, help patients find where they belong, walk doctors, techs and receptionists to their cars mostly after dark.

Offline thackney

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #12 on: June 13, 2017, 03:07:43 pm »
I worked 3 factory jobs in my life and they all sucked beyond belief.

My family worked in factories and my brother still does today.  If you are content to stay near the bottom rung of those companies, the job isn't great.  But the opportunities are.

My father was a coal-miner.  He cut a deal as the mine announced the closing; he would stay on as required to complete the close out (bulldozer operator) and they would pay for his night school to be an electrician.  He was the last person out the gate.  He finished his night-school and went to work at an industrial tire manufacture.  Years later, after worn down by the union and leading the department, he took over the maintenance at a much smaller factory making plastic film and bags.  He went on to become Vice-President, company of about 120 people which he helped grow from a couple dozen.

My brother, originally a tool-and-die journeyman, now runs the same maintenance department, working for the son of the man that hired my father. 

I worked there during high school then college summers, doing whatever needed done.  I swept floors, painted and mowed, cleaned toilets and fixed them and sinks leaks.  We got to do some minor construction and help install some major machinery.  I worked side-by-side the owners son who did the same work as I, now owning and running the company (who hired my brother).

There are some very tedious jobs there.  Running a bag machine that converts plastic film into plastic bags, is something I could not handle.  Way too tedious and requiring detailed attention to repetitive work for 8 hours.  It isn't a job for everyone.  But there are people who have worked that same job for decades, because it works for them and they are treated well and paid decently.
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Online Weird Tolkienish Figure

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #13 on: June 13, 2017, 03:15:53 pm »
My family worked in factories and my brother still does today.  If you are content to stay near the bottom rung of those companies, the job isn't great.  But the opportunities are.

My father was a coal-miner.  He cut a deal as the mine announced the closing; he would stay on as required to complete the close out (bulldozer operator) and they would pay for his night school to be an electrician.  He was the last person out the gate.  He finished his night-school and went to work at an industrial tire manufacture.  Years later, after worn down by the union and leading the department, he took over the maintenance at a much smaller factory making plastic film and bags.  He went on to become Vice-President, company of about 120 people which he helped grow from a couple dozen.

My brother, originally a tool-and-die journeyman, now runs the same maintenance department, working for the son of the man that hired my father. 

I worked there during high school then college summers, doing whatever needed done.  I swept floors, painted and mowed, cleaned toilets and fixed them and sinks leaks.  We got to do some minor construction and help install some major machinery.  I worked side-by-side the owners son who did the same work as I, now owning and running the company (who hired my brother).

There are some very tedious jobs there.  Running a bag machine that converts plastic film into plastic bags, is something I could not handle.  Way too tedious and requiring detailed attention to repetitive work for 8 hours.  It isn't a job for everyone.  But there are people who have worked that same job for decades, because it works for them and they are treated well and paid decently.

Interesting.

I worked at Quality Rolling and deburring in Thomaston CT, then Risdon AMS in Thomaston CT, then some plant I forget in Bethel CT.

At QR and D in Thomaston I was an electroplater's assistant, I would prepare baskets of lead parts that would be dipped in some vats of some acid-based solution to plate it. I was right next to the "deburring tumblers", which would tumble the metal with little stones and rocks to get them smooth.

At Risdon AMS, they made "atomizers" IOW, perfume sprayers and such.

At the third place, it was filling glass bottles with pure ethyl (drinking) alcohol. 200 proof.

I wouldn't trade my job now with any one of those for all the money in the world.

Offline thackney

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #14 on: June 13, 2017, 03:21:48 pm »
Interesting.

I worked at Quality Rolling and deburring in Thomaston CT, then Risdon AMS in Thomaston CT, then some plant I forget in Bethel CT.

At QR and D in Thomaston I was an electroplater's assistant, I would prepare baskets of lead parts that would be dipped in some vats of some acid-based solution to plate it. I was right next to the "deburring tumblers", which would tumble the metal with little stones and rocks to get them smooth.

At Risdon AMS, they made "atomizers" IOW, perfume sprayers and such.

At the third place, it was filling glass bottles with pure ethyl (drinking) alcohol. 200 proof.

I wouldn't trade my job now with any one of those for all the money in the world.

While neither of our experiences may be representative of the typical worker, I believe manufacturing jobs to be quite good, given that they have the lowest turnover rate of any major industry.

Quote
Within the private sector, workers in manufacturing had the highest tenure among major industries, at 5.3 years in January 2016. In contrast, workers in leisure and hospitality had the lowest median tenure (2.2 years).

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/tenure.pdf
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Offline thackney

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #15 on: June 13, 2017, 03:26:15 pm »
Older statistic for manufacturing tenure, not much change:



http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/26753/Employee-turnover-in-manufacturing
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Offline Cripplecreek

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #16 on: June 13, 2017, 03:28:46 pm »
Older statistic for manufacturing tenure, not much change:


http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/26753/Employee-turnover-in-manufacturing

Now if only we could get some kind of term limits on most public sector jobs.

Online IsailedawayfromFR

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #17 on: June 13, 2017, 09:38:27 pm »
Interesting.

I worked at Quality Rolling and deburring in Thomaston CT, then Risdon AMS in Thomaston CT, then some plant I forget in Bethel CT.

At QR and D in Thomaston I was an electroplater's assistant, I would prepare baskets of lead parts that would be dipped in some vats of some acid-based solution to plate it. I was right next to the "deburring tumblers", which would tumble the metal with little stones and rocks to get them smooth.

At Risdon AMS, they made "atomizers" IOW, perfume sprayers and such.

At the third place, it was filling glass bottles with pure ethyl (drinking) alcohol. 200 proof.

I wouldn't trade my job now with any one of those for all the money in the world.
Here's the third place.  http://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Bethel-building-steeped-in-history-and-vodka-5723001.php

Bethel is the birthplace of P.T. Barnum, so it fits.

Just so happens I lived there for 6 years as well, although I never managed to find that factory mentioned.
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« Last Edit: June 13, 2017, 09:43:17 pm by IsailedawayfromFR »
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Offline Free Vulcan

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #18 on: June 13, 2017, 09:42:27 pm »
While I agree we're not going get back the glory days of the 50's, it's still monumentally stupid to give away our jobs and production capacity because we are uncompetitive. We haven't been trying for at least the last 30 years.
« Last Edit: June 13, 2017, 11:09:24 pm by Free Vulcan »
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Offline dfwgator

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #19 on: June 13, 2017, 09:46:08 pm »
Factories didn't make the American dream but were an important piece of the economic pie to a segment of the population. Reduce taxes and regulations and the entire pie will grow.

Thank God in 1941 we had those car factories.

Offline endicom

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #20 on: June 13, 2017, 10:00:09 pm »
Thank God in 1941 we had those car factories.


And they came about due to consumer demand. So did the Singer and Champion and other factories that turned to manufacturing machine guns. The planned economies had nothing to compare.

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #21 on: June 13, 2017, 10:28:21 pm »
Here's the third place.  http://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Bethel-building-steeped-in-history-and-vodka-5723001.php

Bethel is the birthplace of P.T. Barnum, so it fits.

Just so happens I lived there for 6 years as well, although I never managed to find that factory mentioned.
@Weird Tolkienish Figure


Interesting. I wonder if that was it? All I remember was that it actually had a train pull into it's dock... a friggin' freight train! No joke!

I have never heard of that. But that wasn't enough to keep me there.  :tongue2:

Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #22 on: June 13, 2017, 10:33:53 pm »

And they came about due to consumer demand. So did the Singer and Champion and other factories that turned to manufacturing machine guns. The planned economies had nothing to compare.
We had more than factories, we had skilled workers. I still remember the ads in the back of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics "Build a bulldozer in your home workshop"--and people did!

Now, not so much.
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Online Weird Tolkienish Figure

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #23 on: June 13, 2017, 10:37:02 pm »
We had more than factories, we had skilled workers. I still remember the ads in the back of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics "Build a bulldozer in your home workshop"--and people did!

Now, not so much.

Different skills. Look into people building with Arduino's or Raspberry Pis, or people building their own computers, or people coding. Look at the DIY movement or the "maker space" people.

They don't represent all people, but this movement is huge.

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Re: Factories Won’t Bring Back the American Dream
« Reply #24 on: June 13, 2017, 10:56:22 pm »
Nothing will bring back the American dream until we get our own house in order. And there is much work to be done on that front to be sure!
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

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